The Ghan is a train that travels around Australia from Adelaide to Darwin, the construction of the railway began in 1878 and ended in ... 2003. Indeed, the line has suffered numerous setbacks in the beginning of its construction: the floods destroyed the track following the introduction of several hundreds of kilometers of track. The construction of the line began at the time of Darwin and Adelaide, the aim being to reach the middle of the path. The line was practically finished in 1936 but the many floods have waived the engineers to continue the commissioning of the line. The Rivers that are normally dry desert can prove devastating in the event of rare but heavy rains. Thousands of laborers worked under the scorching heat of the desert to make this famous association of 2 979km we traveled by train 47h.
Another route had to be studied, taking into account all these natural phenomena. Is that of the currently used line.
On the road of the Old Ghan.
Is The Ghan train travels That over-the mainland, from
Another way that takes the rain parameter has been studied in order to lead to the current railway.
Lundi 14 janvier 2008 , ensoleillé
Nous sommes allés towards the supermarket that is outside of Adelaide, certainly the last before Alice Springs which is located 1000km from here. In my learning about South Australia, I noticed that we must depart slightly from the main road to go in the Flinders Range National Park which is north of South Australia. But before you have to fill up with water and gasoline as gas stations are very rare as one moves away from the major Australian cities. We go to Port Augusta, the last city of more than 200 people for the next 1000kms we'll go.
It is here we are in the outback, the real thing. In big outback would result in a word by the hinterland. This is the part of Australia which is uninhabited. But in Australia when we say we live in the outback, it's not like in France when we say we live in a hole. The outback is a place where children (when there) can not go to school which is located more than 1000km, but attend classes on the radio. It is a place where people have a field that does not count in m² or hectares but hundreds or even thousands km ². A place where you do not go to the supermarket by car every week but in a helicopter or plane every 2 months!
Roads are really true straight lines. It crosses the road trains. The Road trains are trucks that are not normal: a road train has at least 3 trailers. Some passages are closed to road trains more than 53.5 feet long! This is not the trouble to specify what kind of thing in France.
A small road train ...
aside ...
Another road train ...
On the panels it is appropriate to provide visibility 1km before doubling. Do not worry about it very often.
All right, we can double!
Here we are on the road that leads nowhere, we pass through Quorn, Hawker, Wilpena villages of a handful of people who are shown on my map of Australia 1 / 4500 000th.
We pass the salt lakes ...
We stop in a mountain in the middle of the Flinders Range, where the temperature is pleasant. The roads are not paved ...
Two kangaroos ...
I take this opportunity to show you the Southern Cross. It is a combination of 4 stars that are present on the Australian flag, the center of the cross formed by these stars shows the South, like the North Star we have in the northern hemisphere.
Proof
1)
2)
3)
La grosse étoile au dessous de l'Union Jack rapelle que l'Australie fait partie du Commonwelth et les 7 branches de cette étoile représentent les principaux états de l'Australie.
Ca y est vous savez tout maintenant.
We went toward the supermarket that stand in the outskirts of Adelaide, it is probably the last one before Alice Springs, I noticed that we need to stray away from the main road to go to the Flinders Range which is a National Park situated at the North of South Australia. But before we need to fill our water and car tank because the gas station are pretty rare when we are distant from the big cities. We went to Port Augusta, last city of more than 200 people for the next 1000km.
That’s it, we are in the outback, the real one. What you have to know is that in Australia, when somebody says that he lives in the outback, it is not like in France when we says that he lives in the middle of nowhere. The outback is a place where the very few kids can not go to the school which is at more that at 1000km away and so instead they have their lectures at the radio. It is also a place where people have a property that you do not count in m² or in acres but in thousand of km²,a place where people do not take their car to go to the supermarket every weeks but in helicopter or by plane every two months.
The road are really straits, we cross some road trains, a road train is as the word means: a truck with at least 3 trailers. Some places are forbidden for road trains of more than 53.5m long!! It is impossible to see a sign like this in
On some signs it is written that we need to have 1km of visibility before overtaking..
We are on the road that leads to nowhere, we went through some town (I should say “amount of houses”) such as Quorn, Hawker, Wilpena which are indicated in my map of
The lakes are in fact salt lakes
We stopped in the
Tuesday, January 15, 2008, snow
We get up at 6am with the sun. A day promises to be the next hot elsewhere.
The air conditioning in the car no longer works, we aim Coober Pedy.
The van has a range narrower than the Falcon already need gas. We drive to Blinmann on dusty roads. The gas station is closed, it is too early. There is another village not too far away (so to speak). The BP station
Blinmann
We have 400km of track and 2 villages before joining Coober Pedy.
We roll the windows open and it is 47 ° C in the glovebox of the car. We put on gallons of hot water as fast as it evaporates from our skin.
a dry lake ...
A mini tornado of sand ...
No water here ...
We stop at Marree, a village of 80 residents to put gasoline in the van. Each village is separated by approximately 200km which forbids us to say "I'll see at the next station where gasoline is cheaper."
That's the old Ghan sale, notice to interested ...
The road is a bit chaotic at times, there are plenty of black currant excavated by rivers that are now dry.
We continue to William Creek: 10 inhabitants. Marree, where the nearest house is at 202 Km from here!
One resident said last week the thermometer indicated 48 ° C, it is only 44 ° C today! We stop to eat.
William Creek has a small museum, a resident found a rocket in the desert and the shell of a rocket that has peeled off in 1974 ...
At William Creek is the largest cattle property in the world with 23 777Km ² the size of Israel. Previously the property was owned by Sidney Kidman had a property of 340 000km ² (recall that France has an area of 550 000km ²). In fact the properties of large sizes are needed. In France there are one hectare per head in France because there is enough vegetation to feed a cow on 0.01 square kilometers. Here, a plane is not too much to watch the 16 000 heads. William Creek is on average 2 days of rain per year.
can even play golf, you surely be considerate person ...
A burial at the William Creek ...
On the way we spend about fifty kilometers (well obviously increased from view) of a salt lake located at an altitude of 15m below sea level in 1998 a daughter died due to the hostile environment. She left with her boyfriend, they broke down near the lake. After 7 days of waiting, she decided William Creek to reach on foot, but lasted only two days.
We continue our journey to Coober Pedy, a megalopolis of 2600 inhabitants located in the desert. It is very hot, the temperature is 50 ° C in the car, the sun is hot. and water.
Before arriving in Coober Pedy, we cross the Dog Fence (Fence anti-dingo), which is closing most of the world: 5300Km. It is used to prevent dingoes from entering the sheep pen. We arrive at Coober Pedy on the reservation to our gasoline and tire seems deflated. There is virtually no shade in the city. More than one in two people lives in a house wren.
There are many Aborigines in the city. They are mostly very poor. We traveled 700 km of track, the car is filled with dust. Water is very scarce, you have to pay 20c to use the tap for 20 seconds. We fill our water tanks.
Coober Pedy is the opal capital of the world, 80% of the world's opals come from 200,000 wells around town. A Coober Pedy there is also a golf course (without grass course) where you can only play at night because of the heat, the balls are fluorescent;
Our tire deflates slowly, I change the spare wheel under heavy sun is unbearable.
We are really on another planet ...
Besides Coober Pedy and the region have been very popular for film shoots, including films chronicling the end of the world such as Mad Max, Mission to Mars ...
We buy Soda costs, it should be noted that the report price is 2.5 between a drink and even comes out of the fridge. We trying to remove dust from the car before eating near the city.
No, we do not roll with the trunk open ...
Flies invade us as soon as the sun sets, it's really unbearable.
Suddenly, not a single fly to the horizon you can see a sort of fog and a few minutes later we are invaded by a sandstorm. We take refuge in the van, trying to eat. We must close the windows, it is very hot.
That storm in the distance ...
The storm will not calm down, each team joined his vehicle to sleep with the windows closed ...
Wednesday, January 16, 2008, sunny (may not raining)
We get up at sunrise. We return to Coober Pedy to refuel gas, the atmosphere of the city is very strange, it looks like a science fiction film, dust, heat and the desert around are responsible for this atmosphere. We decide to visit an opal mine ...
The house of a former miner ...
Cinema outdoor (drive-in) Coober Pedy ...
For the record, I learned afterwards that this theater was closed for 2 years by the owner who protested against the miners who came with their pickup truck crammed with explosives.
A strange city ...
A resident (sorry an artist) Coober Pedy which was decorating her home with what he found (computers, printers, electronic components, crashed cars, the old Ghan rail ...)
We fill our water tanks before leaving Coober Pedy and we are on the A87 famous, the Stuart Highway that connects Adelaide and Darwin. The end of the building is new. The A87 in Australia is like the Road 66 to U.S.
230km later, we are at Marla, still a cluster of houses (I hesitate to put an "s") that Australians call "city" and that could translate into French by resting. It is actually a gas station on the Highway. I was intrigued by this person (pictured below) who sold a bunch of objects, ranging from wood cutting machine to a TV. In fact it is a person who broke the hub of its wheel last week he left Darwin and was to join his family in New South Wales. He looks the part for several days during which time he sold what he had in his trunk. Better to go with a reliable car well before embarking on the journey across Australia ...
I also met the driver of a road train that had broken his fan belt and a new waiting ...
You can see your narrator (in small print) in the cabin of this monster 700hp ...
Believe me a good engine cooling is essential here. The van (with a tonnage of engine temperature is almost constantly on the edge of the red zone) confirms this.
After refueling the van, we are back on the A87 due north ...
We stop at the border of South Australia and Northern Territory (which is not a state but a territory) to take some photos then we are back on the huge straight bitumen.
A desert rose
Schedule Change ... -1h30 compared to Sydney (but it is realized it was much later).
Be careful because the road is limited to 130km / h now is a 2x1 track separated by dots and the cows are not fenced ...
The Northern Territory is a state which is 3 times the size of France and has only 192,000 inhabitants whose capital city is Darwin, which has 105,000 inhabitants. Both say that the state density is 0.2 inhabitants per km ² if we remove Darwin ...
We stop at the pub kulges "the first and last pub of Northern Territory. We take a beer and a good burger.
Another road train refueling ...
sun on a water tank ...
We continue the road and we settle on a rest area and spend the night.
Thursday, January 17, sunny
The red earth of the outback ....
Northern Territory of Australia, the red heart ...
An emu who, with the kangaroo, are the emblems of Australia. Two animals who can not go back.
Directorate the horizon ...
We have to pay to enter the park of Uluru: $ 25 per person. It's really incredible, the rock is well attended and there is even a station a few miles of the park, where you can find hotels, an information center ... there's even an airport that flies from Sydney !
monolith Uluru is a huge (perhaps the largest in the world, I do not know, tour guides are contradictory) placed in the middle of the desert, the rock is sacred to the Aborigines. In some cavities of the rock, we find little water, rock paintings ...
I heard many things like what it is forbidden to climb Uluru, to take a picture and put the pictures on its website in short truth is this:
is allowed to climb Uluru but it is not recommended because the rock is sacred to the Aborigines and the climb is dangerous (the slope varies between 30 and 60 °, 35 identified dead), there were many deaths. A chain was installed for the ride. However it is strictly forbidden to climb if the temperature exceeds 36 ° C. Regarding photos, is quite entitled to take and do what we want, except for some parts of the rock it is forbidden to photograph or film. Pick up a piece of Uluru is banned it supposedly brought bad luck to people. In this regard there is a workbook to the tourist office where many letters from people apologizing for having taken a stone at the foot of Uluru and return it by mail. 
The dimensions of this mass: 348m high and the summit is 863m above sea level. Attention, the most impressive: 350 000 visitors go to the desert every year to see Uluru. Tourism began in the 50s. The station was built in 1983 and Uluru was returned to the Aborigines in 1985, it is they who manage the park.
Legend aboriginal Uluru was built in the time of Tjukurpa, an aboriginal word meaning dream (the stories often revolve around aborigines time of dreams). That would be two children who played with legendary mud that would have created Uluru.
These channels flow like water when it rains
chain to climb Uluru, it appears that top the view is breathtaking. You can see some mountains to 157km, there are also lots of wind.
can understand how the Aborigines as Uluru took sacred site, its mass in the middle of nothing attracts the lightning.
Today it is 40 ° C, some trails are closed, we walked around Uluru in making small steps, heat and flies are painful. Then we moved away from Uluru to take pictures of the sunset and then checking if the myth of the change of color at sunset over Uluru is true.
Impressive no?
Then we went to the station to eat and we sleep in the car park.
Friday, January 18, sunny
Then with the pass for the National Park Uluru-Kata Tjuta, the Olgas we can visit that are at 46km from Uluru.
The Olgas Uluru since ...
We take the car towards Kings Canyon, located a few hundred kilometers from here. Before leaving the station we fill our jerry cans and water are full of gasoline very expensive (anyway we have no choice, it's the same everywhere in the desert). Indeed in this respect from Yulara, the "village" located near Uluru, if you continue to roll in the West, do not forget to refuel here because the next gas station is located 815Km!
We arrive at the station for Kings Canyon where we meet a girl Kooloobong Liz who works here, unbelievable!. After a meal and a game of cards, we depart from the station to go near Kings Canyon.
Saturday, January 19, sunny
We undertake a 6km walk along the Canyon is really beautiful.
A ring tailed dragon ...
Then we hit the road by choosing to take a shortcut along a 80km 100km trail. We almost lost at times plusoeurs the bumper of the Falcon because there is a minimum speed to keep. You drive at least 80km / h to avoid the vibrations generated by the trail of corrugated iron.
The earth is really red ...
Was put at the entrance to the track ...
That's it we're back on the Stuart Highway. FYI, John McDouall Stuart was the first person to have reached Darwin from Adelaide and through the land in 1862. The state offered the first £ 2,000 that would be able to reach Darwin by land and find a way to get the telegraph line. It took 6 expeditions to Stuart to make this crossing, 71 horses and 10 men, none died, it was a feat for the time. Stuart still almost went blind because light of the desert.
few kilometers later we arrived in Alice Springs, a town of 30,000 inhabitants in the heart of Australia, located in the middle of the McDonnell Ranges, a very old mountain range with peaks peaked, long ago , 10 000m above sea level! We go to the supermarket (the first since 2500km) to replenish our stock of food.
Sunday, January 20, sunny
Today is rest day. We stayed in Alice Springs, each made his visit to the city, I strolled in the mall. I bought an iced coffee, Australian beverage according to Paul the very brother of Jane. In the evening we meet in Spain doing the same trip as us. We make a McDonalds in the evening.
The Saloon in Alice Springs ...
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