On the final episode of this podcast series, we meet a man who has been working on the railways for 50 years and hear some of his stories from the tracks.

I bump into Dougie in the lounge on the train on the final evening on board. He works on the Ghan and, as it turns out, he’s pretty much the most-experienced employee. He tells me that he started working on the railways in Australia 50 years ago.

Dougie has quite a few stories from his time on the tracks and in this episode he shares some of them with us.

Listen to the episode here:

I hope you’ve enjoyed coming along for the ride, hearing about how the train works and visiting the stops we’ve had each day in the centre of this incredible country.

If you have liked the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could review it online and share it with anyone you think might enjoy listening to the episodes.

I’ll be back with another series about another adventure soon. But for now,  I’m Michael Turtle from the travel blog Time Travel Turtle…. and this has been Journey on The Ghan.

The post Episode 7: Coober Pedy to Adelaide appeared first on Time Travel Turtle.

We are in the middle of the desert in South Australia and we’re heading to a town where the population lives underground. In this episode, I’m going to take you to Coober Pedy.

The town is famous for its opal mining. Opals are interesting because it’s one of the few mining industries that you can do by yourself, without needing a huge investment or a big company. Miners rent a small patch of land and dig down to see if they can find any opals. If not, they just rent the next one and try again, and so on.

We’ll meet George Aslamatzis who has been mining here for decades and has had his fair share of fortune and famine.

And we’ll also meet some of the other locals who live in the houses underground.

Come along for the excursion to one of Australia’s strangest places.

Listen to the episode here:

Next episode… it’s the last leg of the journey and I’ve got someone special to introduce you to.

Meet a man who has been working on the railways for 50 years!

To see my full story about travelling on The Ghan, click here.

In the meantime, please subscribe to ‘Journey on The Ghan’ on your podcast app and leave a comment as well.

The post Episode 6: Coober Pedy appeared first on Time Travel Turtle.

In this episode, we go into the kitchen on board The Ghan to find out how you feed 300 people for four days while travelling through the Australian outback.

Over the course of the journey, all of us will eat nine meals. Not only do most of them need to be cooked in very small work spaces on board, all the ingredients need to be there from the start because there aren’t many shops along the way.

We’ll chat with one of the chefs, Chris Haywood, about how the meals and put together and the challenges of cooking on a moving train.

And we’ll also meet one of the restaurant managers, who has the job of keeping everything working and putting guests together for meals.

It’s a fascinating operation and there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that you would never imagine.

Listen to the episode here:

Next episode… we’ll be stopping at the mining town in the middle of the desert where people escape the heat by living beneath the surface.

Find out what it’s like for the residents of Coober Pedy.

To see my full story about travelling on The Ghan, click here.

In the meantime, please subscribe to ‘Journey on The Ghan’ on your podcast app and leave a comment as well.

The post Episode 5: Alice Springs to Coober Pedy appeared first on Time Travel Turtle.

The stops each day on The Ghan take you to some of the most iconic Australian landmarks in the outback. In this episode, I’ll take you up close to Uluru.

To get there, we’ll take a scenic flight for about an hour from Alice Springs over some stunning red desert.

Once we reach the rock, our guide will show us a side of Uluru that you don’t expect – and we’ll hear about the local indigenous heritage.

It’s a very special place and getting up close to it is something you don’t forget quickly.

Listen to the episode here:

Next episode… how do feed 300 people on a train for four days?

I’ll take you into the kitchen and behind the scenes of the food service on the train.

To see my full story about travelling on The Ghan, click here.

In the meantime, please subscribe to ‘Journey on The Ghan’ on your podcast app and leave a comment as well.

The post Episode 4: Uluru appeared first on Time Travel Turtle.

In this episode, I’ll introduce you to some of the people who keep The Ghan running for four days as it makes its way through the harsh Australian terrain.

There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly so passengers like me can sit back and enjoy the experience.

We’ll meet John Brinkley, the train manager who likes to call himself ‘the mayor of the train’ and he’ll talk about some of the strange things he’s seen and whether he’s ever left anybody behind

And we’ll chat with the train’s technician, Wayne Lehmann, who has the very busy task of fixing any technical problems that pop up during the journey.

It’s an insight into a side of The Ghan that passengers don’t normally see.

Listen to the episode here:

Next episode, a very special side trip.

I’ll take you on a scenic plane ride from Alice Springs to Uluru – and we’ll get to explore on the ground, around the rock, and feel why this is the spiritual heart of Australia.

To see my full story about travelling on The Ghan, click here.

In the meantime, please subscribe to ‘Journey on The Ghan’ on your podcast app and leave a comment as well.

The post Episode 3: Katherine to Alice Springs appeared first on Time Travel Turtle.

The 3000 kilometre trip from Darwin to Adelaide on board the luxury train, The Ghan, is one of the most iconic Australian journeys. In this episode, you’ll come with me on one of the stops – to Nitmiluk Gorge near Katherine in the Northern Territory.

This is a very special place for the local indigenous people, called the Jawoyn people. Although, it’s hard to know for sure – it’s claimed that the Jawoyn are the oldest living culture in the world – that they’ve been around for about 50-thousand years.

They have their own stories about Nitmiluk Gorge and they’ve been passed down for countless generations.

Tyrus, our guide, is indigenous and is Jawoyn through his grandfather’s side. He leads us through the gorge on two boat trips.

Where I see a rock escarpment, Tyrus sees a wall of history. Where I see a gum, he sees a family tree. Where I see a sight, he sees his story.

We’re lucky that he’s happy to share it – and it’s really interesting when he points out things and explains them as we cruise along.

Listen to the episode here:

Next episode, I’ll introduce you to some of the people who keep the train running the whole way through the desert. Your look at the inner workings is coming up then.

To see my full story about travelling on The Ghan, click here.

In the meantime, please subscribe to ‘Journey on The Ghan’ on your podcast app and feel free leave a comment as well.

The post Episode 2: Nitmiluk Gorge appeared first on Time Travel Turtle.

This is the first episode of a 7-part series taking you on one of the most iconic Australian journeys. Come with me on the 3000 kilometre trip from Darwin to Adelaide on board the luxury train, The Ghan.

It’s a journey amongst some of the harshest terrain on the planet, from the north to the south of Australia. This was the vast desert inland that tested colonial explorers for decades… many of them never made it back.

Today, the landscapes haven’t changed but the expeditions have. We’ll be travelling in style on board a luxury train.

Along the way, though: the unique culture that’s lasted for tens of thousands of years, the town where the residents live underground and the spiritual heart of the country.

Plus we’ll meet the people who make this whole trip possible and live their lives on the track.

This is the story of… The Ghan.

Listen to the first episode here:

Next episode, we’ll visit an Australian natural wonder – Nitmiluk Gorge in Katherine.

It’s not just about the scenery, though. There’s a strong connection with the indigenous culture, as the locals will tell us.

To see my full story about travelling on The Ghan, click here.

In the meantime, please subscribe to ‘Journey on The Ghan’ on your podcast app and leave a comment as well.

The post Episode 1: Darwin to Katherine appeared first on Time Travel Turtle.