The Ghan
Three nights in Coober Pedy was enough. Uluru is calling. North ... ever north, leaving the mullock heaps, and rusting machinery of the opal miners behind we head for Marla, at the western end of the Oodnadatta Track. Lunch beside the (new) Ghan railway line, hoping to see a train ... no such luck.
On we go, another 60km until the Ghan line sweeps under the road and heads away to the east. It's getting late so we decide to set up camp on a bush track beside the railway. Another magnificent sunset, and we heard the eerie howl of a dingo in the dusk.
It was Sunday night (27th May). By now we had established that the Ghan leaves Adelaide at 12:20pm on Sunday, and arrives in Alice Springs at 1:30pm the following day. We estimated that the earliest it would arrive was 7am, no problem we thought.
Unusually I was still sleeping at 7:45 when I was roused by Judy saying "the train". I leapt out of bed and opened the front curtains to see most of the train as it rattled past on an embankment only 15m from the caravan.
Observant passengers near the rear of the train may have been suprised to see a very scantily clad elderly gentleman emerge from the caravan to take a photo of the train.