Dreams...: The Ghan, the Alice, the Rock, the flies...

Once we had checked in Cicco for his looooooong and dusty journey to Alice Springs, we boarded the iconic and legendary Ghan. It's name derived from the fact that until the completion of the railway in 1929, the train only ran half way between Adelaide and Alice Springs. The rest of the way between the end of the tracks and Alice Springs was covered by Afghan cameleers and their camels. AfGHAN, hence the name of the train and its logo, a cameleer on his animal.

We were greeted by the very friendly staff on board and shown our cabin. It had its own bathroom with retractable toilet and sink. The seets were made into beds at night.

We left Adelaide at 12:30 and were asked which food ticket we wanted: red for the earlier sitting, blue for the later sitting. We chose the blue. After about half an hour, the train manager came to see us and told us of her problem. And old and grumpy couple were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and travelled with 3 other couples. After having been really unfriendly with the manager, she was now looking for people willing to change their sitting. We were happy to do that, and as a sign of gratitude, she told us to pick free drinks and a bottle of wine. :) All the food was served in an old-style restaurant waggon. White tablecloth, silverware and of course the views on the outback were stunning. The food was excellent.

After many hours of looking out of the window and playing Rummykub and another nice meal, we had no trouble sleeping.

The next morning, thinking it was 6:00am, Pat got up as breakfast was scheduled for 6:30. Strangley though, our wake up call didn't come and when we walked to the restaurant, no one was there and the tables were only half set. We asked one of the passing staff and were told told that, yes, Northern Territory was the same time zone as South Australia, but that they don't do daylight saving...so instead of it being 6:00 am it was 5:00 am. :) Aaaahhh...but then again, we managed to see a beautiful sunrise from the train. Definately worth it getting up an hour early :)