TravelManagers agents due to ride from Darwin to Adelaide recently on The Ghan tourist train were caught up in Red Centre flooding. Read about how train operator Great Southern Rail handled the situation.

Matt Halloran prepares for a helicopter flight over Alice Springs with Nicole Edgar (TravelManagers Melbourne) and Lisa Metzl (TravelManagers NSW Central Coast).

One of the group, Matt Halloran, talks here about a fam trip with a difference.

I Went Because I was part of a TravelManagers team invited to experience the two-night journey from Darwin to Adelaide.

The trip proved to be a little out of the ordinary because heavy rain had caused a track washout. This held up the train coming north from Adelaide, leading to a 24-hour delay in our departure.

But what really impressed me was the way Great Southern Rail recovered the situation.

We were coached down to Katherine to wait for The Ghan there. In the interim, we were given a free lunch and a tour of Katherine Gorge.

The degree of organisation and efficiency which GSR displayed in feeding hundreds of hungry passengers and moving them on sightseeing excursions was just astounding.

It was certainly a good lesson in customer service and recovery from what could quite easily have been a public relations disaster!

Don’t Miss the chance to get away from the train and experience the Outback. There are short excursions available during stops in Katherine and Alice Springs. I took a Katherine Gorge cruise and it’s well worth doing. We were there late in the wet season and there was a lot of water around. Quite spectacular.

There are plenty of optional tours in Alice Springs, including a Simpsons Gap helicopter flight. It offers breath-taking views of the area, and it was interesting to see how the rains had turned the famous Red Centre into a vast expanse of green.

My Favourite Meal: All of the food seemed to be good quality, with plenty of variety - from the exotic (kangaroo or crocodile) to more traditional fare. Table service was of good standard and friendly. Perhaps the most memorable feature for me was sitting in a fine-dining restaurant watching the Outback drifting by.

Best Shopping Experience: There isn’t much time for shopping, unless you extend your stopovers (in Darwin, Alice Springs and/or Adelaide). I’d recommend such a move. Most people have travelled a fair distance just to get to The Ghan, so for the relatively little extra that it costs, an extended stopover is a value-for-money proposition.

Coolest Souvenir: For me, it’s the camera images that I captured. Like the majesty of an advancing tropical storm in Darwin, the stark contrasts in Katherine Gorge and the vast expanse of green I saw from the air around Alice Springs. Not to mention marvellous Outback sunrises and sunsets. These are the real treasures on a trip like this.

Oh yeah, I did get a ‘Ghan’ baseball cap at the Great Southern Rail shop in Adelaide.

Worth A Splurge:

An upgrade to The Ghan’s Platinum class. Gold class is fine and offers pretty well everything you need. But Platinum has those extra touches of luxury. Cabins are much bigger, beds can be either twin or double (Gold Class has upper and lower bunks), and bathroom facilities are far superior. Many travel agents are not aware of the differences, so it’s well worth researching the product.

Matt Halloran on the engine of The Ghan.

I Wish I’d Packed with The Ghan’s space limits in mind. You can take only hand-luggage into the cabin. Suitcases are stowed in a baggage car and not accessible till the end of your trip. So one relatively small bag has to accommodate daytime clothing, sleepwear and toiletries, though cabins have amenity packs containing shampoo, conditioner, soaps and facecloths.

I’d Also Warn My Clients not to mess with stink bugs. I found out the hard way. I thought they were such cute little creatures until I touched one at Alice Springs while waiting for our helicopter tour.

An overall impression: Travelling on The Ghan is not necessarily family friendly. There are no three or four-share cabins, and the facilities on board are definitely not designed with children in mind. However, private carriages are available, accommodating up to 10 people.

I’d recommend Platinum class for people with mobility problems. Gold class is great, but it has space limitations, and the ladder leading to the upper sleeping berth is quite narrow and steep. Platinum has much bigger bathrooms and beds are on the same level.

Finally, travellers need to have insurance cover, even on what is a fairly straightforward domestic holiday. Because of GSR’s quick footwork, we had few problems with the flooding. But had the train not been able to get through to Darwin, we would have been stranded there, looking for additional accommodation. The right insurance policy will cover this sort of eventuality.