My first impressions (Sue) of the splendid looking silvered train, with 23 carriages, once we had got on were that it was slightly smelly in a damp mouldering kind of way. We cheapskates had elected to bypass the bed option and purchased the sit up all night seats in the Red zone. These seats were not uncomfortable, and there was plenty of leg room, which was just as well since we would be in them for the next 21 hours.
We got going at 10 am, clocking up kilometre after kilometre of the rather boring to look at semi arid landscape, with regular patches of burned scrub.
In the afternoon at 14.10 we were obliged to get off the train for the enforced stop in the town of Katherine for the next four hours. We had already been warned that there was little to do in this town, and had been advised to go on a trip to ease the monotony.
We hired a double canoe for a couple of hours from Sunnyvale Homestead. This attractive building is apparently the oldest in the Northern Territory, having been built in 1879.
Our concerns about saltwater crocodiles weren’t entirely answered by the woman hiring the canoes. She said they had a trap out and hadn’t caught any so there probably were none around – but she couldn’t guarantee it!(Phil)
The boats were stable, and fairly easy to paddle, though from the state of me, you might not get that impression! The river was reasonably lazy, no white water, which made for a leisurely trip upstream and a slow drift back.
The last time we did anything like this was with Phil and Angie on the river Wye near Hay a few years ago. The wildlife was a little different then.(Phil)
It was a lot cooler on the water. Lovely flocks of cockatoos screeched as we passed. I thought that we had disturbed them, but they are I think generally raucous. There were lots of birds.
Back on the train it soon got dark and even the unchanging view of scrub disappeared from view. We settled down for the duration and despite the outside temp being above 30C, the a/c was so efficient that a good 50% of the passengers were cold during the night.
