Look at this, I said to the Golfer.
There’s a rerun of part of our big 1992 trip on SBS
Oh yes, he said. 25 yrs ago, that was the year of your ‘big birthday’, when we went up ‘The Track’. Remember we took the train from Adelaide to Alice Springs with the car trailing behind on the motorail carriage, then drove 1500 kms on up the middle of The Territory to Darwin, stayed a while and then made our way home slowly over the next four weeks.
So this past Sunday evening I settled down to have a look at ‘The Ghan’ a programme about the train that now runs all the way from Adelaide past Alice Springs to Darwin.
Slow TV on Australian television screens for the first time. Tell you what, it was slow alright. 3hrs with no commercial breaks, no dialogue, 90% of the time the only sound was of wheels going along train tracks.
I’d watch a bit, turn over to sport (cricket or tennis) turn back again, then back to something else, turn back again, do a bit of channel surfing, then back again.
I wanted to see more but it was so slow and uninteresting.
And we still hadn’t arrived at Alice Springs!
Did anyone else watch it. What were your thoughts?
Has anyone had other experiences with ‘slow tv’?
Good….Bad….or Indifferent?
It seems some viewers liked it:-
And some didn’t:-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5248429/Is-SBS-Ghan-boring-TV-ever.html
Me – lets just say I was glad when the train finally pulled into Darwin 😊
~ ~ ~ ~
I have great memories of our time on The Ghan. I know we had fun – we couldn’t afford a sleeper so sat up all night and ate the food we carried onboard with us. Coach passengers only had access to a little kiosk, not the dining room. The passenger mix was just that – a mix of oldies and young ones and families with littlies. One young man in our carriage had a guitar and there was music and singing. Left Adelaide one morning – arrived in Alice Springs the next.
Yes, we have looked at doing it again…..don’t think so. It’s now run by a private company and for a journey of 4 days/3nights is priced well out of reach. Best just have our memories eh?
Still Waters 
Yes we gave up watching that show. Did turn back to it a few times but certainly gave up on it long before it reached Darwin. The Ghan is expensive these days and I never thought we would ever do it, but we did last Easter. My DH still raves about it and I enjoyed the pampering.
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I find your reference to The Ghan interesting, I didn’t know such a thing existed in the past or present, a bit like travelling the world to hear about it. Your memory of it piqued my interest, and I briefly thought how interesting it would be if I could travel to Australia and experience such an adventure. Reading further I realized that in the modern world many of these opportunities have disappeared, become unreachable, and not because I have aged, but because the world has.
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I saw a similar show about a trip over in Europe. It was interesting for a while, but like you, would have enjoyed the actual trip a lot more. Oh, where does the time fly?
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I think I would have rather read or just relaxed. My thought only.
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I didn’t watch it. I meant to, but it didn’t happen. And I would love to travel on the Ghan. Not going to be a happening thing though.
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It sounds like a great trip, Cathy.
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I’ve browsed the links including the Ghan modern detailing…it’s great that authorities haven’t abandoned the trains, so many places in the world have done that…and it looks quite modern in it’s range of accommodations etc.
as for the “slow TV” that’s not something I would like to watch unless it really informed you rather than the view from the drivers cab window – which most travellers don’t see anyway. I would rather have had a couple of travellers viewing what they saw, along with commentary on the whole shebang…
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Mother tells me that it will be on the BBC shortly…she intends to watch it. I will await her verdict.
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