We left Adelaide on Sunday for our 3 day trip through the Outback on the legendary train The Ghan, which would take us through Alice Springs right up to Darwin. We had bought a rail pass over Christmas, so we were in the cheapest seats right at the back of the train - basically airplane seats only with slightly more legroom. We spent 3 days and 2 nights on the train, but luckily the seats were more comfortable than expected and, along with our pillows and some blankets, we actually managed to sleep alright both nights! The first day we were crossing through South Australia, and as we left Adelaide the countryside got emptier and emptier and drier and drier, until it was basically just red earth and spinifex bushes by the time we were nearing the border with the Northern Territory. To even reach the border took us almost 24 hours on the train! It was really interesting to see the countryside though, as we would never have seen so much had we been driving, especially Joel who usually has to just focus on the road. When we woke up after our first nights sleep we saw a really beautiful sunrise over the Outback, hopefully we will see some more when we go on our trip to Uluru in a weeks time. Once we got to the border there was a tiny marker showing where one state left and another began, and a little further on we saw the Iron Man statue, which marked the 1 millionth sleeper laid on the railroad track. We also crossed over the Finke and Hugh rivers, although there really wasn't much water in them! Once we passed this there was nothing much to see until we got to Alice Springs, where the train stopped for a few hours to refuel. Most of the other passengers had booked to go on quick tours of the area, but we just stayed at the train terminal as we will be back in Alice for a week soon, so we didn't want to see everything at this point! Luckily the train station had air con, a tv and wifi, so we were fine for a few hours. Strangely, even though this part of Australia is called the Red Centre, it was remarkably green because apparently there has been a fair amount of rain recently. Once everyone returned it was back onto the train for our trip up to Darwin, and for the rest of that day there wasn't really much else to see, although there was a small rain shower which made a lovely rainbow. After another nights sleep on the train we stopped off in the little town of Katherine in the NT, and this time we had booked to go on a trip to Nitmiluk Gorge, about 30km outside of the town. We took a shuttle bus from the station to get there, and had a really interesting commentary from our guide as we were driven there - we also saw loads of wallabies at the side of the road! Once we got to the gorge we did a short 1km walk up to a lookout, which had some really great views of the gorge with the Katherine River running through it. There was a further walk that we could do, but even though it was only 10am it was super hot and humid so we headed back to the visitor centre for ice cream. On our way back to the train our tour guide gave us even more info on the local area, including lots of stories about Aboriginal bush tucker which was really interesting. Back on the train we had another 4 hours to go until we got to Darwin, and along the way we passed the town of Adelaide River, where some of the film Crocodile Dundee was filmed, and also crossed over the Elizabeth River Bridge. By this point the countryside was looking decidedly tropical, and as we crossed the bridge we finally got our first views of Darwin. Even though the seats were quite comfy and the food was good, we were pretty glad to finally get off the train and into our bed in the hostel, and it's good to now be able to take a shower without almost falling over every time the train moves! It was definitely worth the money though to take the train instead of flying or driving, we certainly wouldn't have been able to see all that we did otherwise.