Adelaide was bigger, more vibrant and multi-cultural than I had expected. The weather was gorgeous and I had a good time looking around the Art Gallery, South Australian Museum, and the State Parliament. I walked around the Botanic Gardens and people-watched on Rundle Street. I was staying at a hostel called Shakespeare's with a German girl, two Dutch girls and Irish guys who I'd met on the tour and we went out to various bars on Hindley Street in the evenings.

On Friday, Bettina - the German girl - and I took the train up to Alice. The Ghan has been running for many years but used to be an epic journey that could last weeks (one trip took three months) depending on whether the tracks had washed away in flash floods. They've now re-laid the tracks along a better route and the train takes 18 hours or so, leaving Adelaide in the early evening and arriving in 'the Alice' at midday. We had a chat with one of the two drivers - while we were taking naff photos and watching the locomotive attach itself to the carriages - and he told us it was a 1500 km trip and the train itself could be up to 1 km long. We'd bought $105 "red kangaroo class" (i.e. cheapo) seats but it was pretty comfortable, with lots of leg room and a lounge and dining car. It was all very exciting, like being aboard the Orient Express or something (albeit slumming it a bit) and it was interesting watching the scenery change as we travelled through the desert.