<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hello Bob,<div><div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype'; ">Hey, I been to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Adelaide</st1:place></st1:city>! Loved it! From there we took the Ghan to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alice</st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to see Halley's Comet (in the previous Millennium). We camped in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">MacDonnell</st1:placename><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placetype w:st="on">Range</st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>where the Chamberlains camped the night before the dingo etc.! When Ozzies in the Ghan bar car realized we were Yanks, they played and sang "Waltzing Matilda" 300 times for us on the tinny little piano! Sure made the time fly!</span></font><o:p></o:p></div></div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span></blockquote><br></div><div>My wife and I did the Ghan, Darwin to Adelaide, a few years ago. As we left Darwin, the train shuddered to a halt and a nice man came to tell us that our carriage had faulty air-conditioning and we would have to move up front to the spare one, which meant tramping through private carriages (on the Ghan you can hitch up your private carriage, at a cost, and bring along your own chefs, champagne, guests, bands, etc -- millionaires only, I should think). On no account were we allowed to tramp through the private carriages again. When we got to the spare carriage we found that it had its own Ghan-staff chefs and barmen and because we were isolated from the rest of the train (which is about 2 miles long when they have a full load), we didn't have to worry about regulation eating-times, and the bars stayed open all night. We could also order special dishes, if the chefs had the ingredients. It was one of the best train trips we have ever done.</div><div><br></div><div>I wonder if GG would have joined such a trip, isolated for 36 hours from the world except for about 40 passengers, and be cajoled into playing a few bars of this and that, maybe give a lecture or two, complain about the ambient noise of the train but perhaps ad lib a bit of Villa-Lobos [sp?] and those other guys who emulated trains in their compositions (Honneger?). I doubt it, but who knows?</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>-- Tim</div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div>_______________________</div><div><br></div><div>Tim Conway</div></span></div><div>Geraldton, Western Australia</div><div><br></div></div></body></html>