THE GHAN Early start on 5th July. Checked out of our hotel (OK, hostel) with backpacks, tucker etc. for long journey ahead. Shuttle bus from centre of Darwin to train terminal out of town. There we met our new home for 48 hours - a large train called the Ghan. If ever 'train spotting' started to make sense, it was now. Good piece of kit the Ghan is. Big shiny loco with plenty of smart carriages, buffets, restaurants etc. Three classes of travel: Gold Class Sleeper; Standard Class Sleeper; and Ordinary Class. No prizes for guessing our choice. Oh yes - 48 hours in an airline style seat. To be fair, seats were fine. Clearly designed for Americans so plent of lateral room and legroom too. We also had use of lounge car & restauant car / bar which served for most of day & night. Train set off around 10:00 and chugged slowly south until it reached cruising speed (a little faster than a lame camel). However, this meant that we would see the views properly. Interestingly, there IS something to see between Darwin & Adelaide, other than Alice of course. Bush was great and saw a few hills, emus & much more. Simply the SCALE of what we saw was great. It soon all became too much and we had to retire to the bar. Food was extraordinary cheap but wine was not. Shame. After 4 or so hours we pulled into Katherine. Nice small town famous for its river & gorge. Train is scheduled to stop here for 5 hours so we were all encouraged to get off and spend some more money. They had organised a number of mini tours one of which was canoeing - yes please. In minibus out to a trailer park in the bush, oh dear. Met a 'Crocodile Dundee' character who, quite clearly had no clue how to put a bunch of tourists safely into canoes, send them down a river and expect to see them again. This was much to the alarm of a German family who had joined us: small girl would not fit in canoe so 'Dundee' removed buoyancy aids from boat to fit her in - nice work! Dad could not put life-jacket on so Dundee tried one himself, gave up and told Dad to work it out himself. Mum enquired about crocodiles in the river; Dundee is not sure 'I think they are freshwater crocs and they don't bite'. This prompted discussion amongst tourists regarding how do you tell the difference between saltwater & freshwater crocs. Well, I'll tell you - one you run from twice as fast as the other. Which way round I forget.... I digress... we (M & J, not Germans) got into a 2 man boat and paddled off upstream (as we're clever). After much debate between us as to 'how do we make it go straight', there was a small mutiny in which Michelle was instructed to sit in the back and 'YOU try it!!'. MORE meandering up a relatively straight river, through small rapids, past fishermen etc. Great birdlife of all types seen on the way. After one final push we arrived at a weir which marked the furthest we could go. The germans were left far behind in our wake. The rapid below the weir looked like serious fun so we 'swam' it first to check if there were any submerged sharp objects. This was a silly idea as I think the human anatomy is significantly softer than the bottom of a canoe. After our saftey check we dragged the canoe along the bank up past the rapid and prepared for launch. Team of 4 retired Australian tourists had gathered at this point, hoping for the best phot of their holiday. We paddled out to centre of river, pointed downstream and powered into rapid. Such was our velocity that the front of boat nose-dived and 50% of the river landed in Michelle's lap and filled the canoe (we were not issued with spray-decks in the hope that this would discourage us from fooling around like this). Our semi-floating boat arrived (with us) at the bottom of the rapid the right way up. Hurrah. Our skill, courage and determination won the day again. Round of applause from admiring audience on bank. After emptying river out of canoe back into the rest of the river (where it belonged) we proceeded to freewheel back to base, much easier but somehow less satisfying. On arrival back at base a croc was pointed out to us on edge of river. We paddled to it, took its picture, the we got too close, scared it and it fell off branch into river - oooops! It was only small but small things usually have parents......... Quickly ended canoe trip. Packed up, tried to dry etc and waited for bus back to train. All of German family made it back which was reassuring. Much grumbling though. Back on train. A few hours of relaxing, photos, watching sunset etc. Had packed lunch sttle supper in our seats before watching poor film then lights off for bed. I forgot to mention, our carriage was almost empty for most of the first day so by the evening we each took over 4 seats to make almost flat beds - most satisfying. Reasonably good night of sleep. Next morning ventured to restauant for cooked breakfast. What better start to the day that tucker on train, watching Australian Outback slowly pass by outside at runrise. Fantastic. Met an Aussie couple over breakfast who were en-roue to Alice, Ronda & John. Hope to catch up with them in Sydney. Arrived in Alice by lunchtime. Again, train stopped for circa 4 hours to allow us off for excursions. As a belated birthday pressie, J had booked a helicopter flight, M's first time. Our pilot (Peter) met us off train and tok us to airport. Our machine (Augusta Bell 47) was an ex. Italian Air Force chopper (good or bad thing?!). Look at our phot-albums for pics. Great fun. A small machine so two passeners it sit next to pilot on a long bench upfront. Canopy is a huge perspex bubble giving all round views. For extra 'effect' we asked to fly with doors removed. Windchill at several thousand fet when you are wearing shorts is interesting, I can tell you. Nevertheless, fantastic flight over the Ranges, Outback and Alice etc. Huge excitement all round. Words & photos cannot do it justice. After filght, back to town, bought a few Aboriginal prints then back to train. Afternoon of relax then dinner in restaurant. Shared table with two retired ladies who were returning from the 'World Beanie Champoinships' in Alice. THis is an annual meeting of Beanie (wooly hats) fans from around the world. One of our new friends won the prize as the fastest 'Beanie' knitter in the world. She set a new world record of 9 minutes! You will NOT believe how interesting dinner conversation was and how much we learned (SERIOUSLY!) Next morning we awoke to see another superb sunrise ad then started to notice that we were entering civilisation again after 40 or so hours of Australian Outback. Sad really. Roads, farming, houses, towns etc. all taking up the lansdscape which was one ALL Outback. Arrived into Adelaide at breakfast time and said goodbye to the Ghan. We both agree, that after a very hectic first 8 weeks of our holiday, 48 hours on a train pottering from one end of a continent to another, was exactly what we needed. It forces you to slow down (even if we did get off twice to go canoeing and flying!!). After this we stayed in Adelaide for a couple of days to catch up on admin etc. Good chance to look around the small city before heading off for Great Ocean Road.