Latest / GowayPro Travel Tales / Big Skies, Bigger Stories, The Ghan Rail Journey

Transcript

Big Skies, Bigger Stories, The Ghan Rail Journey · GowayPro Travel Tales

0:05
you uh
0:12
you
0:17
Hello everyone.
0:18
Welcome to the Go Way Pro Travel Tales podcast.
0:22
First of all, please excuse my voice.
0:25
It's very, very rough.
0:27
As I just said to Susie, our guest today, I've been keeping, keeping quiet the last two days, saving my voice for today's podcast.
0:35
So again, my apologies for that.
0:37
So I'm going to let Susie do the, do the heavy lifting in this one today.
0:41
And who is Susie?
0:42
You may ask.
0:44
Well, Susie Cousins is actually
0:47
I'm going to make a general statement here and I'll let Susie correct me.
0:51
She's a guide or a hostess or host, depending on how you uh word it, on the Ghan train, which is the train that runs from Adelaide up to Darwin or vice versa.
1:02
And you can have stops or you can go from Adelaide to Alice Springs and then Alice Springs to Darwin and vice versa as well.
1:10
Again, I'll let Susie expand on all that and exactly what her role is.
1:15
um Though for those who may want some detailed information on the train itself and the Indian Pacific, which runs Sydney to Perth, Perth to Sydney, we have a webinar we did with
1:26
Josh.
1:27
And that's where we get into all the details about the train itself, different cabin types, all that type of thing.
1:32
But today, as I say, we're going to formally welcome Susie Cousins.
1:37
Susie, I gather you're speaking to us from Adelaide as well.
1:42
Yes, yes I am.
1:43
Yep.
1:43
I say as well, because that's where Josh is based.
1:46
also, um do you work for Journey Beyond or the GAN Railway itself?
1:54
is it one and the same?
1:56
Yeah, one on the same.
1:57
Yeah, Journey Beyond.
1:59
Okay, so they're headquartered in Adelaide.
2:01
Now I did a little bit of background research, I mean a little, because I didn't want to give too much away.
2:06
But I did discover this Susie about yourself.
2:09
It says that you were a, where was it?
2:12
You were a former footwear executive.
2:14
Is that true?
2:16
Yes, it was.
2:17
Yes.
2:17
I worked in a wholesale footwear business with my family grew up in that industry Worked as a national sales manager.
2:25
So did lots of travel, but sadly the footwear industry is not what it used to be in Australia.
2:31
So Yeah, I got into something completely different
2:35
Okay, so this will lead into my question of, tell us about yourself, where you came from, how you got into tourism, how you got onto the GARN itself.
2:43
um You're based, or you're in Adelaide at the moment.
2:47
Are you from Adelaide originally?
2:50
Yes, born and bred in Adelaide.
2:52
I'm actually living up in the Adelaide hills now.
2:55
My husband and I did a tree change about 18 months ago that we're able to do because I work week on week off.
3:05
So I spend a week on the train with a busy, hectic life, lots of noise, lots of guests and excitement.
3:12
And then I come home to 130 acres of peace and quiet.
3:16
wow, that sounds really pretty.
3:18
So for those who may not have been to Australia, I'm envisaging um Rolling Hills because for those who don't know, again, you can pick this up from our webinar with Josh about the
3:28
train or a webinar we did about South Australia itself.
3:32
have Adelaide, which is quite lush and beautiful city, the churches it's known as.
3:37
But you get out of Adelaide North and you can hit the outback in the desert quite quickly.
3:44
So I'm going to assume that your property is still within the lush area of the greater Adelaide region.
3:51
I'm on the back of the Adelaide Hills, so we have reasonable rainfall in winter and really really dry in summer.
4:00
Okay, do you have the ubiquitous kangaroos bouncing around your property?
4:05
Absolutely, and I love them apart from the fact that they eat all my garden
4:10
Yes, for those who may not know, they are very cute animals.
4:13
They're on our national coat of arms, ours, because I'm an Australian as well.
4:17
But by a lot of people in Australia, particularly rural, they're considered a pest.
4:20
And there's lots of them out there.
4:22
Cute pests, but pests nonetheless.
4:25
OK, so born in Adelaide, grew up in Adelaide.
4:29
You mentioned a family business in the shoe industry that faded away for reasons.
4:35
um So what got you into tourism and particularly literally onto the train going Adelaide to Darwin?
4:43
grew up in a family that always loved trains.
4:45
My dad and my grandfather loved trains and train travel.
4:49
I had traveled on the GAN many years ago as a tourist and also on the Indian Pacific.
4:57
uh My parents were actually on a holiday on the GAN and mum sent me a message saying, we're having such an amazing time.
5:07
I sent back, yeah, wish I was there.
5:09
And I was going through it.
5:11
time where I was doing some admin work, working in retail and really not happy.
5:17
It was just as we were coming out of COVID and a job came up uh for the GAN and I thought I'm missing travel, I'm missing the busyness of life.
5:30
uh Applied, didn't actually have any hospitality background.
5:35
Applied, got the job and
5:38
When I was on my first trip mum sent me a copy of the message saying wish I was there and she said seems it you are.
5:44
It seems you are.
5:45
So your stint with the uh journey is only, well shouldn't say only because it's been a little bit of time now, but from COVID onwards is when you started, correct?
5:56
Yes, yep, four years I've been on the train.
5:59
So prior to that, did you do much traveling, be it domestically or internationally?
6:04
uh A lot of travel.
6:06
um We as a family did lots of camping, particularly around central Australia.
6:11
I love the outback.
6:14
That red dust is just in my heart.
6:17
That's my happy place.
6:19
um certainly what I now see outside of the window, I've camped in and spend a lot of time in.
6:28
Okay, So I mentioned in the introduction, I can't remember the word I use, actually, I think um a guide or a hostess, what is your exact role or not your exact role, we'll talk
6:41
about the role itself.
6:42
What's your title on
6:43
Yep, experience.
6:45
My title is guest experience manager.
6:47
Okay, so what does that entail?
6:51
So a guest experience manager is in charge of a full section.
6:55
So I look after a team of staff and if we have, so I run a gold or a gold premium section.
7:07
ah If we have a platinum section, it's alongside and I'm actually in charge of that as well.
7:13
uh But
7:14
It's about making sure that the guests have the best experience they possibly can running the restaurant, doing the staff rosters.
7:25
Yeah, everything really.
7:26
So when you say a section, I assume you mean a carriage, platinum, et cetera, being a level of service or a level of accommodation or birth on the train.
7:37
Is that right?
7:39
Yeah, so a section on the train incorporates a restaurant, uh a lounge and four carriages of guest accommodation.
7:50
So how many sections make up the game?
7:55
So depends on the consist, consist change all the time.
8:00
The one I'm currently working on, we have a gold section and a gold premium.
8:07
So both of those have four carriages of accommodation, a lounge and a kitchen area and both are attached to a platinum and a platinum has a lounge restaurant all in one.
8:22
And then also has
8:24
three carriages of combination.
8:31
That's actually a baby train.
8:32
That's one of us.
8:33
Yeah.
8:36
It's only about 600 meters long.
8:38
go up to near 900 meters by the time we get, we call it a kilometer, but it's not quite.
8:45
Wow, that's so kilometers, well, point six of a mile, I think for American listeners.
8:50
Well, that's huge.
8:51
This is a real geek question.
8:54
And I know we had to some train fans out there.
8:57
How many locomotives pull these trains?
8:59
Just one?
8:59
Or you got a couple?
9:01
We have two that pull the GAN, but the interesting fun fact is we are just pulling a spare.
9:08
There's not a lot of other trains that we pass, so if something happens to a loco, we need that back up.
9:16
On the Indian Pacific, for example, going to Sydney, we'd have two locos because we need it to get up through the Blue Mountains, up through the hills, but it's pretty flat from
9:26
Adelaide to...
9:27
Well that's what I was going to say too, from my memory of geography there as you say out of Adelaide all the way to Darwin it's pretty much flat so there's not a lot of chug chug
9:37
chug up a hill or breaking down a hill correct?
9:42
Yeah, very, very flat from head to toe.
9:45
OK, then.
9:46
So what's the average?
9:48
I think just said it's is it three nights, two days or four nights, three days journey?
9:54
Yeah, on the way up it's three days, two nights and it's longer on the way back.
10:02
On the way back it's what we call our expedition.
10:05
We have an extra night on the train.
10:07
So with the length of time being three or four nights, depending on which way you'll go, where do you and the other staff stay?
10:14
you, because we just discussed the length of the train, is there like a carriage for the staff, so to speak, like a staff accommodation?
10:23
Yeah, there is.
10:24
So we have staff accommodation usually on the consist it's right at the both ends.
10:31
So you'll have um two lots of staff accommodation at one end on the GAN.
10:38
We have drivers that sleep with us as well through the Northern Territory and then at the other end another lot of staff accommodation.
10:45
So the staff accommodation is a single room.
10:48
We shared showers and toilets.
10:51
So again, this is a uh large unit moving north and south all the time.
10:56
I didn't realize it was so big.
10:59
Yeah, it is really big.
11:04
we're on, like the staff, we're on the train for a week.
11:08
So we spend more time with each other than we do our families at home, really.
11:12
I bet.
11:13
So I guess a shift on is Adelaide to Darwin and then back down again.
11:21
Right.
11:21
Yes.
11:21
Right.
11:22
And then you have a change of crew and everything else to do the next week because they say week on, week off.
11:29
Yeah, so our train leaves Adelaide on a Wednesday.
11:34
And so we go up to Darwin, turn around, come back down, and then we hand over to another crew.
11:41
They do the same and then they hand back to us.
11:44
What's your turnaround time in Darwin?
11:45
Is it like in in the morning out that night or is it an overnight stop?
11:50
It's an overnight on as we get into Darwin about nine o'clock at night and then we're on a bus back out to the train at quarter to six in the morning.
12:02
So we're not there for very long.
12:03
That's quick.
12:04
Do you do a resupply in Darwin or was the train supplied for both trips out of Adelaide?
12:10
No, it's supplied for the whole way from Adelaide.
12:13
So we have lots of fridges and freezers in the kitchens and we also have backup fridges and freezers as well.
12:20
But that one's pretty handy if you do run out of something.
12:23
Yeah, yeah.
12:25
Again, for those listening, Darwin, for me growing up, Darwin was this little town at the top of Australia, which almost no one went to when I was growing up.
12:33
It's changed a lot since then, but it's a very, very large city and it's all the mod cons.
12:38
It's a modern city.
12:40
So outside of a train being resupplied when you're in Darwin, you can get pretty much everything you need.
12:46
So it sounds like it's literally a moving city with everything on board.
12:53
for you, for the staff and obviously for the travelling clients.
13:00
Yeah, absolutely.
13:01
Yeah, it's like a motel or a guest house, I suppose even more so.
13:07
I think it's got more of a, I don't know, an Airbnb feel than a motel.
13:13
It's really family.
13:15
The guests have their own rooms, but they can come down to a lounge area.
13:20
I always really encourage the guests right from the start to look around the lounge.
13:26
This is your family for the next few days.
13:28
um
13:29
because they have dinner together, they sit around in the lounge and the bar together, they might be playing cards, they'll go out on tours together, and a lot of really good
13:40
friendships are formed.
13:41
By the end of the trip, people are offering, you know, they're gonna catch up for a dinner in Darwin or do a same tour in Darwin or catch up in Adelaide.
13:49
It's fabulous.
13:52
Josh mentioned something and I'm not sure if I'm recalling it properly or correctly I should say.
13:58
If you're in the platinum or the gold on the train you stay within that section for want of a better term.
14:05
When you're off the train obviously you co-mingle with everyone but when traveling on the train you stay within your designated or book section, is that right?
14:14
Yeah, theoretically, platinum guests can go anywhere and the gold guests can't go into platinum.
14:21
Okay, so platinum has its privileges.
14:25
It does have its privileges,
14:26
Okay.
14:27
But I would also guess, particularly on Josh's description of the cabin types that you mentioned, it has a feeling of Airbnb, which I guess is from the communal side of things,
14:37
but from an actual appointment side of things, when you're in the platinum or the gold, you're in a very, comfortable environment when on the train.
14:45
Yeah, absolutely.
14:46
And I'd say probably platinum is more like a hotel situation.
14:53
They've got the lovely lounge, which you know, a hotel would have as well.
14:57
And the bigger room, bigger space.
15:00
So a lot of the platinum guests spend more time in their room.
15:04
got they can actually see both sides of the train from in their room.
15:10
Whereas gold seem to be
15:13
a little bit more where they come down to the lounge and socialise a little bit more.
15:19
So talk me through from the moment you get to Adelaide Station to either prep for your journey, to your trip all the way up to Darwin, what's your daily life like on the train?
15:36
Yep, so as a guest experience manager, we call it a gem because we're Australian and we make everything simple.
15:47
So I get down on a Wednesday morning, we'll have already received a manifest, a list of all of the guests that are traveling in my section.
16:01
I will have worked through what their dining times will be.
16:05
Get down, we have a crew room where we all sign on together, go through anything unusual for the trip, if there's any special requests or any special needs for guests.
16:17
We have that conversation as a management team first, and then the rest of the crew get there.
16:23
We jump on the train, make sure the rooms are all perfect for our guests.
16:29
And then meanwhile, the guests are starting to come through, check in at the terminal.
16:35
ah And then we go in as a management team.
16:38
So the boss of the train is our journey manager.
16:41
So she and the management team will go in, we'll welcome all of the guests.
16:46
ah And from there on, it's all aboard and the guests all come through.
16:52
We take them through to their individual rooms.
16:55
Every carriage has a person who is responsible for that carriage.
17:00
They'll welcome them in, come.
17:03
Give them a bit of a rundown on the room and then it's not very long and they come down for lunch So they tend to meet in the lounge.
17:11
I'll do a big welcome to them That's where I always say look around.
17:15
This is your family for the next few days And then start bringing them through for lunch and the first day it's pretty much Get on board of lunch go back to the lounge or back to
17:28
your rooms.
17:28
Most people it's a it's quite a
17:31
big day they tend to go back and sit in their room and just relax and look out the window, they have dinner on board and then that's day one.
17:41
The next morning is a really early start at a place called Marla which by that stage you're sort of out in the middle of the desert and we have a sunrise breakfast out at
17:51
Marla so they get up nice and early to watch those beautiful colours coming up over the desert.
17:58
That's a pretty special event.
18:00
sorry to interrupt so uh that breakfast is off the train itself.
18:05
Yeah, it's off the train.
18:06
it's, we just have tea and coffee and juice and just pass around some bacon and egg sort of slider things as people are out there watching the colors come up in what's normally
18:19
the red dirt.
18:20
But at the moment we've had a lot of rain, so it's quite green out there.
18:23
Yeah, I noticed that.
18:24
um I'm glad you brought that up, because I saw on one of my social feeds um a satellite sort of sweeping across from what it was to what it is.
18:33
And it goes from that famous red center, literally, to this hazy green.
18:38
So that that must be a sight for you who've been up and down the middle so many times to now see it in the green.
18:47
Yes, we have guests at the moment asking us what's that lake over there and we're jokingly calling it Lake Marla.
18:55
It's not normally a lake, it's just water that's still sitting there.
18:58
So it is really unusually green but you still see that red dirt but it's a darker red at the moment because it's holding a bit of moisture, it's not sand.
19:08
Yeah, I hear you because for those who know me, I was a travel guide myself and I drive down the coast of Peru out of Ecuador all the way down.
19:18
And that's all for those who don't know, it's desert as well.
19:22
And on one of my last trips, think it was El Nino came through and dropped a lot of rain in the desert and the whole desert was in flower.
19:30
It was just a stunning different view.
19:33
getting used to just this sandy barren look, which I love actually.
19:37
And then one day, we just covered all these beautiful little wildflowers.
19:41
Didn't last long, week, 10 days, and they all died.
19:44
But it was just beautiful seeing what the desert can turn into.
19:49
Yes, at the moment the biggest uh attraction I guess at Marla is the flies.
19:57
The flies are terrible out there at the moment.
19:59
We need some good frost to kill them off.
20:02
really.
20:02
Yeah.
20:02
So for those who can, who don't know Australia is famous for its flies and the abundance of them.
20:08
um Okay, so that's one of the stops.
20:13
So on the journey north, there are off train experiences, which Josh highlighted for us in our webinar conversation.
20:21
Do you partake with the with the clients in that?
20:24
Or do they go off and do their thing and you're then doing what?
20:28
staff normally do behind the scenes just getting everything ready for the next leg of the trip.
20:34
Yeah, it's a bit of both.
20:36
when we go off on tour, there's always one of our teams.
20:39
So one of our hospitality attendants goes out with every coach load of guests.
20:44
ah And then the rest of the team are back on board getting ready for their return.
20:50
And that's also when we have a bit of a rest.
20:52
Because our days, most of our days we start at probably six o'clock in the morning and go to bed about 11 o'clock at night.
21:02
So really long day.
21:03
So
21:03
When the guests are off, that's when we have a rest.
21:06
Fair enough.
21:06
can relate to that as well.
21:08
So as I mentioned, I was a travel guide and my trips, my journeys would be anywhere from four weeks to maybe six months going through countries or continents.
21:20
I've always admired.
21:21
um
21:23
All the local guides that we would utilize in, again, I'll talk Latin America where I spent most of my time.
21:28
Say in Peru, we'd have an Inca Trail guide and he or she would guide the trail like yourself.
21:34
They walk the trail day off, do it again, do it again, do it again.
21:38
And I've always been amazed and fascinated and respectful of guides who do, I don't say the same thing, but the same circuit with quick repetition.
21:49
Like I'd go through Cusco and I wouldn't be back for three or four weeks, if not three or four months.
21:53
So it remains somewhat fresh.
21:56
My point is you do a week on, you do a week off.
22:00
You've been doing it for four years.
22:01
um Do you get bored?
22:05
What do you find different in each trip?
22:07
it what is it?
22:09
What you see outside the windows?
22:10
Is it what you see and who you meet inside the train is a combination of both?
22:15
Like how do you keep motivated?
22:17
um
22:20
to to motivate this to.
22:25
Yes, sorry, it's my voice.
22:26
No, that's all right.
22:27
That's all right.
22:29
Yeah, look, absolutely.
22:30
It is 100%.
22:33
It is all about the guests.
22:37
We have on average 60 to 68 guests in a gold section.
22:45
So every single journey, it's a completely different dynamic.
22:50
So
22:51
Sometimes we'll have a tour group and they might be 20 people who have this is just part of a greater tour so they already know each other so they've got a dynamic.
23:03
We'll have Australian guests, we'll have international guests, uh families traveling together and it's all about the stories that they bring, listening to them, having a chat,
23:15
finding out where they're from.
23:18
It's great when we have groups traveling together because they're more interactive.
23:24
They also tend to stay in the lounge a lot more and they will often incorporate other people.
23:31
So as much as it changes out of the window all the time, uh it's the guests themselves that make it fresh and different.
23:38
And it doesn't matter what
23:41
sort of day you had, know, or the week you had off, the minute you get to that train, it changes.
23:48
And then the guests come on board and it's, it's, it's different.
23:52
no two trips are ever the same.
23:55
new journey.
23:56
You mentioned you have some international guests.
23:58
What's on average the mix of domestic travelers, Aussies or Kiwis as well, versus international guests?
24:07
It does depend on the time of the year.
24:10
So at the moment we have a higher rate of international guests, just because it's, you know, when they're around to travel and particularly early in the season, you don't get as
24:21
many Australians traveling cause it's hot and flies and they're avoiding that in the middle of the year.
24:28
Yeah.
24:29
Comes out of June, July, August, every
24:31
body from the south is escaping to the north to try and get some warm weather.
24:36
So we get a higher rate of Australians and Kiwis then.
24:40
uh We get a lot from the UK.
24:44
We get a lot from sort of Germany and Denmark, that sort of area.
24:51
And this year I've noticed a massive influx of Canadian that we haven't noticed before.
25:05
We do get guests from the US as well.
25:07
Yeah, I know.
25:08
And again, we love our American neighbors, but there's probably some reason more Canadians are traveling way south at the moment than into the States for reasons we won't go into.
25:20
And that does get mentioned.
25:22
I just get rich.
25:23
OK.
25:23
Do you find when you have the Aussies on board?
25:28
Because let me start that question again.
25:32
Most people from North America when they're traveling to Australia, particularly if they pick the Ghan Railway or a journey like that, they're expecting to see the famous Red
25:40
Centre, as you mentioned, the Red Sands, Uluru, Katachuta, obviously, if they spend time pre.
25:46
um
25:47
train ride or post if they're coming the other way in Adelaide, the wineries, type of thing.
25:50
So all the classic, famous, iconic sites that the Northern Territory offers.
25:56
Do you see the same level of amazement, wonderment, appreciation from the domestic travelers, the Aussies who are traveling on the GAN?
26:05
Yeah, absolutely.
26:06
um Not every, for a lot of the Australian travellers, it's their first time to the territory too.
26:15
um so for example, you go out to Catherine Gorge, if you are not touched deep into your soul, then I don't know what is ever gonna get through to you.
26:31
It's a spiritual journey, like you can't not
26:35
be affected by just the awe, the grandeur, the power of water, and it just has a really strong spiritual feeling.
26:44
Prior to your working on the game, ah had you traveled through the center yourself, you and your family prior to all this?
26:53
Yes.
26:53
Alright, okay, so you knew it already.
26:55
then.
26:55
um
26:57
From the spiritual aspect of it and I meant to ask this question of Jospeh last the same thing of you um Another iconic thing that a lot of North American travelers or
27:06
international travelers for that matter will want to experience when they go to the center of the Northern Territory is the um Indigenous First Nations as they're called in Canada
27:15
or the Aboriginal peoples um Culture and views on everything so
27:22
Does the Gann Railway journey offer that exposure to the Aboriginal culture?
27:28
Yes, so couple of our off-train tours are actually run by uh Indigenous people.
27:34
So Nipuluk Gorge, which is Catherine Gorge, that whole uh facility is run by the Jawan people, so the local Indigenous people there.
27:45
um The tour guides, some are Jawan themselves, but the stories they tell while you're out there are the local Jawan stories.
27:55
And then on the Stanley Chasm and Simpsons Gap tours out from Alice Springs out into the uh West MacDonald Ranges, uh we have an indigenous guides that tell you their stories uh
28:09
while you're in their country as well.
28:11
Okay then.
28:12
Does again include a, I'm assuming it would be a post or brief if you're coming into Darwin Post, if you're leaving from Darwin Pre, a trip into Kakadu National Park?
28:26
We don't get out, the gang doesn't go to Kakadu.
28:30
uh But we do have, when the guests board in Darwin in the morning, we have a local indigenous singer uh and he does, he actually does a farewell to country because they've
28:44
already been in Darwin and they're leaving.
28:47
And he does explain uh a lot about Lichfield National Park, which we do actually travel through on the train.
28:54
Excellent.
28:55
Okay then.
28:57
So you've spent four years on the train, on and off the train, week on and week off.
29:02
In all that time, you must have one or two, if not more, probably more, either favorite memories, funny stories.
29:11
Do uh you want to regale us with a couple of those?
29:14
Be it funny, um memorable, embarrassing even, I don't know.
29:21
Hahaha
29:26
Most of the best stories are the ones where you just connect with guests.
29:33
And it's amazing how quickly you can connect with people.
29:38
I always come home, one of the first things my husband says to me is, how many people did you adopt this trip?
29:45
Or how many new boyfriends have you got?
29:47
um But we have...
29:51
In the gold section we have single births.
29:54
So one of the carriages is all singles.
29:56
And when guests said to me, oh, I'm traveling on my own.
29:59
I always say, no, you're not traveling on your own for long in my section.
30:04
And it's when people, had a family that were traveling once and then I had a single gentleman that was traveling and I introduced them to each other and he came back.
30:20
uh and sat them together at a meal.
30:23
He came to me afterwards and said, oh, this is actually my first time I've been on holiday since my wife passed away.
30:31
And I was really, really nervous and thought, well, train travels good.
30:36
can just sit in my room.
30:37
I don't have to be around people, but you pushed me as I tend to do.
30:43
You pushed me with this family and it was...
30:46
I was a little bit nervous at first, but they were so welcoming and so loving.
30:51
ah And then by the end of the trip, they were calling the kids in the family were calling him grandpa.
30:57
They all lived in Melbourne coincidentally, and they were going to actually catch up with each other afterwards.
31:03
And he said to me, you just change, you know, it's life changing.
31:08
And often it is.
31:08
uh I had a guest only recently who had um
31:16
intellectual disabilities, was traveling with his mum and dad.
31:20
He would have probably been in his 30s.
31:22
uh And he was telling me that his job, works in campsites ah with people with varying disabilities and he washes dishes.
31:37
And he was asking me about how we wash the dishes on the train.
31:40
So I took him into our pantry, showed him around.
31:44
We had
31:44
some fabulous guests on that trip and the barman was making fantastic cocktails ah and he had a ball like we had some music going we were singing Grease he and I were doing the
32:01
John Travolta and living in John Duets together having a ball when we got to Adelaide and we got off ah his mum was saying you know you'll never forget us and I said oh no no
32:13
absolutely I won't
32:14
And he came up and gave me a hug.
32:16
And as he was giving me a hug, he just burst into tears and just started shaking and said, that just changed my life.
32:24
I have so, I could go on for hours of so many incredible stories.
32:32
I always say the train is like a woman.
32:35
And I refer to her as she, and it never ceases to amaze me how
32:40
she puts the right guests in the right places.
32:44
I'll bring guests in and I'll pair them up.
32:46
have booths of four and then they'll come to me afterwards and say, thank you for putting me with that person.
32:52
That was amazing.
32:53
We realized we both know the same person or we're from the same place and it's the power of the train.
32:59
Yeah, it's amazing how small world it is.
33:03
And when people get together in a travel environment that they're so much in common or from the same town, etc.
33:10
And that's one thing I always kept in mind as a guide, which I'm sure you do as well.
33:17
And more so for you, because your experiences are much shorter than I had in that, you're doing three or four days, was doing four weeks.
33:27
But you get that microcosm of these
33:29
together and everything that would happen in the real world over months happens over minutes or hours.
33:36
always remember, yeah, you know, the group had come together on day one by day two, people lending each other money and borrowing money back through.
33:44
You wouldn't do that with a stranger.
33:45
You do that.
33:46
um You have relationships that are cemented and they might only be that travel relationship or friendship or quite often their lifelong friendships.
33:56
um As a perfect example,
33:59
the owner of Go Way, Bruce Hodge, one of his passengers is now his wife.
34:05
My wife was a passenger on my trip to have very good friends who live in Sydney.
34:10
She was my co-driver.
34:12
Her husband was a passenger as well.
34:15
So to your point, um definitely seeing your clients experience wherever they may be is joy unto itself because like.
34:27
Hopefully Goi has done a good job and we've sold the experience of the GaN to someone here in Canada or the US.
34:34
But it's when they hit that train station in Adelaide or Darwin, it's up to you and your team then to make that reality, make it something that is one, as advertised, but two,
34:47
beyond that, that it becomes this spiritual um encounter, an emotional encounter with what they see out the windows.
34:56
or with the people they meet.
34:58
And I think that's a big responsibility that a guide has because they can make or break a trip.
35:04
And it sounds like um you're very good at your job and you are making, you're making people, you know, basically making their dreams come true as they go.
35:12
Darwin to Adelaide or Adelaide to Darwin.
35:14
um Is there any, or actually I'm going to come back to that question.
35:18
You mentioned you had a who had a disability.
35:23
I think was more on the mental side of things.
35:26
But on that point, if someone has, or in a wheelchair or on crutches, is the Gart or the Indian Pacific for that matter accessible for them and the off-train experience is
35:37
accessible?
35:38
Look Yes, and no, it's it's a little bit tricky We do have access rooms which are wheelchair friendly But the coaches aren't as as much so we have like a Cherry picker
35:56
type, you know, this is that we can get people on and off the train But it's in and out of the buses.
36:03
That is the real challenge.
36:05
So
36:05
um We often have people that are in a wheelchair but not confined to a wheelchair.
36:12
So, you know, with a bit of assistance, they can get up and down the stairs in a coach.
36:19
We can get them on and off the train on a scissor lift in most locations, but not all of them.
36:24
um And then we do have, we have an on-chair wheelchair that's smaller, because obviously the passengers
36:34
They're a little bit narrow.
36:36
We have a lot of guests that use that on chair wheelchair as a bit of a walker because the average walker is a little bit wide for our passages.
36:47
But also the passages not being terribly wide, they can use the walls for a bit of extra support.
36:52
Okay, so if any of our travel professionals are listening there and you do have a client with a disability of any description, give go away, call first and we can ascertain um
37:03
through our destination specialist or speaking directly to Journey Beyond about whether that disability will work or not work on the train itself and by extension the off-train
37:13
experiences.
37:14
um So off-train experiences, uh okay.
37:19
Back up, on-train experiences and memories for you seem to be the clients, which I totally get and totally understand.
37:26
Though, for you, what has been one or more amazing memories outside of the clients?
37:33
Is there sort of like a sunset you've seen or?
37:36
something you've seen off the train or on the off train excursion, something that sort of sticks with you.
37:43
It doesn't have to be something romantic per se, it could be an interaction with a local person, I don't know, just something that sticks with you that you tell a story about at
37:54
the pub.
37:56
um I do the Coober Pee Dee lunch quite often and I love getting to know the staff that work there, have become really family.
38:13
Gosh, I'm very family orientated, aren't I?
38:15
um
38:18
Catherine Gorge, every time you do that is amazing.
38:22
um The water levels change, you'll see crocodiles sometimes.
38:28
um I intentionally get up early so that I can sit and have a coffee before the guests get up and watch the sunrise.
38:39
Sometimes some of the guests sneak down and I'll make them a coffee and we sit and it's a...
38:44
Chance that I can talk to guests where I'm not trying to get meals together and other things done and just To sit in the lounge and have a coffee with a guest before the day
38:54
starts and watch the sunrise out the window is always a really amazing thing um I've sat with guests when we've been out on tours that have had Heatstroke or you know not feeling
39:10
all that flash
39:12
ah that it's a little bit overwhelming and I can sit and just have a chat to them.
39:17
I had a lovely lady in Simpson's Gap once at the walk was getting a bit much for her and we just sat down and talked while the rest of the group did their walk and came back.
39:27
ah And yeah, that was a really special moment.
39:31
Just being out there with guests and people and the outback.
39:37
I don't think
39:39
You can aptly describe the Outback.
39:41
I think you have to experience it.
39:43
Yeah, it was interesting here you try to come up with a visual memory because I can sort of feel that like what you see every day is one of those memories.
39:55
It's it's day after day, which I mean that in a positive way.
39:59
But it's also interesting how you keep coming back to and understandably so it's the guess interaction that you find the most fulfilling, well not the most fulfilling, the memories
40:09
that sort of rise to the surface.
40:11
the easiest is dealing and speaking with and working with people as they experience these once in a lifetime vistas out their window.
40:21
um In your four years or so on the train, have you rubbed shoulders or had guests of note on board, any celebrities or people that might be...
40:32
Any name drops?
40:36
Any name drops?
40:37
uh No, not really.
40:43
That's interesting.
40:46
So, okay, so let's get away from the celebrity aspect of it.
40:49
Who would be one of the most interesting people that you've had on the train, be it their profession, be it their life story, because as we said, like you will often hear a life
41:00
story from someone you've just met the day before.
41:02
is there, like an example I have, which I often use is on one of my trips in South America, it was an Australian lady actually, and she was a teacher.
41:12
in the outback, can't remember which outback, but New South Wales, Victoria or Adelaide, sorry, South Australia.
41:18
And she taught in and around Aboriginal communities.
41:22
And her stories of her experiences and stuff were fascinating.
41:26
It was a different side of education and the Australian Aboriginal culture that most people would never hear about.
41:34
So that was one interesting person I met.
41:36
Do you have any sort of anything like that, people you've met?
41:41
uh I have one that sort of comes to mind and it's it was sort of it's a bit of a chain really I was on a Indian Pacific and we had a medical emergency which unfortunately we do
41:57
have occasionally and we always put a call out you know is there anyone with medical experience on the train and this lady was a nurse so I
42:09
took her down to where the emergency was happening.
42:12
The team and everybody else had it all under control.
42:16
And I went back and I was sitting talking to her husband and they were actually traveling because I think it was his birthday was the reason they were traveling.
42:28
So we sort of sat up and chatted and uh I was saying we just bought our property at the time and they were looking at doing a similar thing.
42:39
Eventually she came back and we all went to bed.
42:42
And then I was on a Great Southern, which is our Adelaide to Brisbane train, 18 months later.
42:50
And the same guests came up to me and said, Oh, gee, I remember us.
42:55
We're actually here because we were given a voucher from Journey Beyond because we helped with a medical situation.
43:02
And so we sort of rebonded and talked again and,
43:06
become Facebook friends as you do.
43:08
Yeah, and yeah, that was one that's really special.
43:14
um We have a couple of guests that travel on the train all the time.
43:20
ah One of them, her name's Sylvia.
43:23
um I think she's up to, I don't know, her 50s as in the number of train travel she's done.
43:33
Whenever we get Sylvia, we get really, really excited.
43:36
um And yeah, she's a really special friend.
43:39
We know what she likes to drink.
43:43
She often doesn't go off and do all of the off-train experiences because she's done so many of them.
43:48
So yeah, sometimes I'll be on a break and I can just go and hang out with Sylvia.
43:53
She's an incredible woman.
43:55
She...
43:56
um
43:58
Yeah, she'd be in her 70s, I suppose.
44:02
But yeah, her life story is quite incredible.
44:05
have another gentleman, Wayne, who travels on the train so often.
44:09
He's got a red suit that he had made and a blue suit that he had made, depending on whether he's on the GAN or the Indian Pacific.
44:16
ah And, yeah, Wayne always walks through the train and says hello to everybody, just considers the train family as his family.
44:25
ah Yeah, which is really incredible.
44:28
There we are, back to the family theme once again.
44:32
Yeah, sorry.
44:33
Don't apologize.
44:34
It's fantastic.
44:35
think this is other than, as I say, all the iconic sites that a North American traveler wants to see.
44:42
I think it's not encouraging.
44:44
It's nice to know that they'll not only see those sites, that the journey within the train itself will be if they.
44:52
you know, choose to be that.
44:54
Yes.
44:55
It'll be intimate, friendly, that Airbnb, that family community vibe, is fantastic.
45:02
That's again why a lot of people travel.
45:05
um I had this question down and you mentioned one of your memories was a medical emergency on the Indian Pacific, the GAN itself.
45:14
um Do you travel with a doctor?
45:17
No, we don't have a doctor on board.
45:20
All of the crew have their first aid uh and our operations managers have a higher level of first aid.
45:29
me.
45:31
Coughs contagious.
45:32
um That's all right.
45:36
But we have access to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
45:40
We have a Royal Flying Doctor Service um sealed.
45:45
kit that travels with us on the train under lock and key that we can administer certain um things under their supervision.
45:54
So we can do that all through sat phones and radios and things.
45:58
Okay, for those who don't know, the Royal Flying Doctors is, it's a medical service that came into being for the outback because people live so far away from big towns and medical
46:10
aid that...
46:11
This service is literally, know, the flight doctors and medical teams in for emergency services.
46:17
So basically what Susie's saying is that should someone have a serious medical issue on board the train, there will be medical assistance very, very close at hand.
46:27
um that's not, sorry, Susie's got me going now.
46:34
So that won't be an issue again.
46:35
That's more for the travel professionals out there if they're dealing with clients who may be elderly or have
46:41
A condition.
46:43
And most, most troops you've got the doctors and nurses traveling anyway.
46:48
yeah, they'll, usually somebody with experience on hand.
46:52
oh
46:53
are a doctor on the train and they put their hand up.
46:56
Okay then.
46:58
Okay then.
46:58
Well, thank you very much, Susie.
47:00
It seems where I'm passing on my cold across the world because I'm sitting here in Toronto.
47:05
Susie's in Adelaide, so it's going through the web to her.
47:11
I apologize again for my cough.
47:14
It hasn't been the nicest to listen to, but I hope you've liked the answers that Susie has given about her life.
47:21
on the Ghan train which runs, I know we said a few times, but just to re-emphasize, runs from Adelaide to Darwin or Darwin to Adelaide.
47:27
And you can, as I spoke to Josh, do it in sections, so to speak.
47:31
Adelaide to Alice, get off, spend some extended time, hop back on the train, head to Darwin, all the same thing in reverse.
47:37
One thing I did know coming into this interview is that Susie also does, obviously, I think you mentioned, Susie, you work on the Indian Pacific, which is Perth to Sydney,
47:45
Sydney to Perth.
47:46
The Great Southern, which is Adelaide to Brisbane, you mentioned?
47:50
Yep.
47:51
And that runs in the oh GAN off season, correct?
47:55
Correct, yeah, so December, January, February.
47:58
Yeah, because there's too much.
48:00
We're talking about deserts, but way up north in Darwin, there's very, very heavy rains in those periods of time.
48:05
So the train doesn't run there.
48:06
um So again, if anyone wants to get the more meat and potatoes about the train itself, the different cabin types, all the things you can do, all that type of stuff, please listen to
48:17
our webinar with Josh, also from Journey Beyond.
48:20
goes into all those more, into the more logistical details of the train itself.
48:25
I think you can hear through Susie's comments today that not only will the train give you an amazing visual, emotional, spiritual insight into what Australians call the centre,
48:37
which is primarily the Northern Territory, also in this instance, South Australia and Adelaide.
48:43
But it will be a journey of family.
48:47
think that's the easiest way putting it, based on Susie's comments, that it all comes down to the people she gets to work with and meet.
48:55
by extension to our travel professionals out there, sending your clients on the train journey, they will get that as well as the beautiful sights of the Northern Territory and
49:06
South Australia.
49:07
So on that note, Suzie, is there anything you'd like to leave our travel professionals with or our listening audience with about the journey on the Gann Railway?
49:18
Just come and visit me.
49:21
I'd love to have you as part of my on-train family.
49:25
And there you go.
49:25
So you've all met Suzy virtually through the podcast.
49:30
You've met Suzy orally.
49:32
If you're listening to our podcast, you've met Suzy virtually.
49:35
If you're watching our podcast, and she's just extended the invitation to meet her in person or in Adelaide and traveling up to Darwin or Darwin heading down to Adelaide.
49:45
So on that note, I'd like to thank Suzy for her time this morning where she is.
49:50
And for everyone out there listening in, as always, thank you for carving out an hour of your time.
49:55
We know how busy you are.
49:57
until next time.
50:00
See you later.
50:01
I'll buy you a beer.
50:04
There's not a more Aussie way of signing off than that.
50:06
Perfect.