The Ghan at Manguri, South Australia
If you ride The Ghan the 2,977km (1,850 miles) from Darwin to Adelaide, as a friend and I did in August 2016, you will stop at Manguri in South Australia. There is nothing in Manguri. There isn’t even a train station. This enormous train, which on average is 774m (2,540ft) long but can be up to 1,096m (3,595ft), slowly — very slowly — sighs to a halt in the desert. Manguri is, however, the gateway to Coober Pedy, aka the opal capital of the world. And when passengers return from touring the mines, the underground houses, the underground church, and the desert golf course, they gather beside the train for drinks and nibbles as the sun sets (feature photo at top). Quite marvellous.
This stop also gives an unprecedented opportunity to get up close to the train without stations or fences or people getting in the way, although a rather belligerent guard did prevent me from walking across the track to take a photo that included the entire train stretching away into the distance around the bend. (It’s the middle of a desert, I hardly think that another train would have taken me unawares!!) So although The Ghan’s vanishing point is not quite as impressive as it should be, the train itself most assuredly is.
The Ghan at Manguri, South Australia
I love the last shot, what a fabulous looking train. I saw the underground houses at Coober Pedy on Billy Connolly’s programme, they look fascinating and I’d love to see them for myself.
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Coober Pedy is quite an unusual place, no doubt! And the train is incredible.
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Just watched the Ghan on TV from Adelaide to Darwin (though it appears to end quite a distance from the city which surprised me). I thought I would be bored, but it was actually fascinating. They did speed through the night. Now I no longer have the urge to do it for real!
PS It is an extraordinarily long train.
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Was that the ”slow tv’ program that’s hours long and is just footage of or from the train? I tried to watch that, totally bored!
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It was the slow programme and I have tried to watch some before, but lost interest. For some reason the Ghan held my attention the whole way through. Wasn’t too long, a couple of hours I think.
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There’s also a much longer Ghan version, 17 hours. The mind boggles. As it happens, last evening I watched a slow tv program following a canal boat along the Kennet and Avon, which I found quite engrossing! Probably because things ‘we’ passed changed so often — walkers, cyclists, people working on the boats, town vs country. And truly astonishing bird song.
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Golly, I couldn’t have watched it for 17 hours! It wasn’t that interesting!! Following a canal boat would be nice though.
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Oh, yes the Ghan station is miles from Darwin. They bus you in and out.
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You might know, I’d prefer a canal boat, but this does look like an adventure. Do they serve cake? 🙂 🙂
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Well there is certainly dessert, so I think some of that might just be cake. Though you might have to smuggle some aboard. 😉
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