Travel Ask the Leyland Brothers

[Crimson Azure]

Inspired by Proper Gander doing the Bourke & Wills sojourn and love for Darwin, I would love to hear about your trips to random parts of Australia.

White Cliffs NSW will be my first.

 

[Proper Gander]

This isn’t exactly thread related, I just want to say it out loud.

I’m flying from Darwin to Melbourne leaving 12:35 AM tomorrow and arriving at 5 something AM. Not really looking forward to it.

 

[Crimson Azure]

This isn’t exactly thread related, I just want to say it out loud.

I’m flying from Darwin to Melbourne leaving 12:35 AM tomorrow and arriving at 5 something AM. Not really looking forward to it.

Travel safe.

By the time I wake up tomorrow you’ll likely be home and probably having a nap.

 

[Crimson Azure]

How was the Ghan Proper Gander?

 

[Proper Gander]

How was the Ghan Proper Gander?

It’s great. Really good journey and wonderful staff. The stop off at Alice Springs was particularly good - I went on a visit to Simpson’s Gap with an Aboriginal tour guide (Ricky Mentha’s uncle) that was just incredible.

I paid for the top range platinum cabin which means you get to have a little apartment where the couch turns into a proper bed, which is surprisingly comfortable. The only thing with that is you use the platinum lounge and dining car and discover that it is entirely populated by the elderly nomads who are getting too creaky to climb into a bunk. Mind you, a couple of them were pretty cool.

If you wanted a less ancient group of companion travellers, skip the platinum and just get a gold cabin which is smaller and with bunks. The lounge car is quite sociable and I met some okay people in there.

Why have I never been to Darwin before? It’s great this time of year and a really laid back town with live music at half the pubs - a couple of them it was really good too. And it’s a great spot for a museum junkie and NT history is fascinating.

Unfortunately the Art exhibitions at the NT Museum and Art Gallery were changing exhibitions and closed so only the museum rooms were open to public - still a fantastic museum though. I did want to see indigenous art and visited half a dozen great galleries but these are selling works so you have to keep up a pretence of being a browsing investor. I’d definitely go back - dry season only though.