"Leaving on a jet Train!" Alice Springs comes to an end...

Heyyyy!!

Ok, so the story continues…. On the 18th May, Gem got back to Alice Springs after being away for 2 weeks, the weather was getting cold and so it was time to make the decision to leave Alice!!
Darwin was are next stop and I really wanted to go up on the Ghan (a famous train that runs from the top to the bottom of Australia) so we decided to leave the following Monday, that gave me a week to finish up work and organise my goodbyes!!

On Tuesday night, Gem, Trent, Taylor and myself all went out for a meal. We went to the “Overlanders Steakhouse” and got given flags of our country for our table! The menu was awesome, I had Crocodile volauvents, gem had Emu and Trent had a T-Rex T-bone, I was worried that it may be slightly off as it must have been sitting around in the kitchen for a few million years… but never fear, it was fine, and the biggest piece of steak I have ever seen!!!
We had a good night, and several crafts of red wine later we found ourselves playing pool, where me and gem proceeded to thrash the boys 2 games to 1!!

I had my last shift in the Diplomat on the Friday and was sent to work in Uncles (the hotel tavern). As soon as I walked in Nes (one of the girls i worked with) was outside telling a group of Aboriginals that one lady was too drunk and had too leave. well, she proceeded to take all her clothes off (the aboriginal this is, not Nes!!!) So I went outside to help out. The lady left (still naked) and walked across the street. I turned to the group and told them she wasn't allowed back in when she started running back, accusing me of chatting up her man!!! (as if!) She practically jumped on my back (yes, still naked) and tried to punch me!! one of the regulars, got her off me and the rest came out to help....it turned into a bit of a rugby scrum and we called the police! they came pretty quickly and dragged her off kicking and screaming!!! It was all very exciting, I mean not many people can say they got hit on the head by a naked abo!! (well, actually living in Alice Springs, they probably can!!!!) ;-)

On Saturday, I had a leaving party! It was awesome, me and Gem stared quite early and by 10 o clock there were about 20 of us were in our garden, we played a few drinking games and then went to the Juicy Rump. It was great to see everyone one last time but sad as well as ive made some awesome mates here.

So on Monday afternoon Trent and Taylor took us to the train station, and carried our bags to the check in!! After removing half my luggage as, of course, it was too heavy, we boarded the train!!

The Ghan is massive, the carriages stretch as far as the eye can see (that is, if you have really bad eyesight) but it was pretty long!!
We were in ‘R’ the very back carriage (cheap tickets!!) there was a couple of aboriginals in there which made the place smell quite a lot, but by the end of the two days, we all smelt pretty bad so it didn’t make too much difference!! ;-)

Well, the train broke down pretty much as soon as we left (smashing start!) so we sat for ages and by the time we stared to move, it was pitch black! Me and gem had some food in the “dining cart” which was cool and then as there was nothing much going on, pretty much fell asleep!!

And after a very disturbed nights sleep, and a very cricked neck, we went for a little explore. The cart we were in was pretty big, probably about 40 seats in it, and then there was 2 carts with chairs and tables in. the next one was the ‘dining cart’ and then the canteen. So all those carts were for the people in our one carriage.
That was as far as we were allowed as then it went into the posh peoples bit!!
But of course we sneaked through to have a look, there were a lot of doors leading into the corridor, each leading into a tiny room with two seats, (bit rubbish if you decided you don’t like the person your traveling with hey!!?) and then it moved on to a carriage with slightly bigger rooms and comfier looking seats, and then the same in the next carriage. After that we reached their dining cart which was pretty much the same as ours but it had tablecloths, oh, and it was a lot more crowded (because these people could actually afford food!!)

We unsuspiciously sneaked through (hard to do when the walkway is a bout 2cm’s wide and the trains rocking all over the shop) but we made it, and found ourselves in a nice bar! We couldn’t go any further because by then we had about 5 staff chasing us (although we did steal a bar mat each, I cant think why, it didn’t do us any good… just for good measure I guess!!!)

There were a few young people on the train, we made friend with 2 lads, Will and Carl and when we stopped in Katherine for a few hours we all got off together for a little explore. Our exploration began and ended with us sitting in the first café we came to, drinking coffee, but it was fun!

Properly awake now, we just had 4 hours train ride before reaching Darwin, so me and Will proceeded to look out the window and point at everything we saw, there wasn’t much so a tree was quite a big event!!!

We arrived in Darwin at about 6pm and all jumped onto a shuttle bus to take us into town.

First impressions of Darwin is awesome!!!!!
Even though we arrived at night, It was boiling hot and the place has got such an holiday atmosphere to it!!!

Our hostel is on the main street which is full of bars and clubs….....

.............I think we’re going to have some fun here!!!

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