A new career in the offing?

Well, probably not, I don't think I could drive a train all day. But I can at least claim that I have sat in the driver's seat of "The Ghan" which is the train that runs from Darwin to Adelaide (it takes 2 days). Randomly I ended up sitting next to one of the drivers when we were on a tour of Katherine Gorge and so got a trip to the engine. Unsurprisingly the train wasn't moving when they let us in...
So anyway I'd headed back over to the 'Top End' to catch the train and after about 4 hours you get to Katherine. I hadn't had the chance to get there before so decided to splash the cash and use the 4 hour wait at the station productively. Katherine Gorge is pretty impressive. I wanted to go canoeing but the water levels were still high after the wet season which meant that there could be some saltwater crocodiles in there so they won't let you go yet. We didn't see any salties on the boat cruise I could take but there were 5 freshwater crocs at the side of the river that I'd not have wanted to canoe into either!
Back on the train and luckily it wasn't busy so I got 4 seats facing each other to myself. Unfortunatley whilst this meant I had lots of space I still didn't sleep well the 1st night. By the second night I'd realised that my backpack was so full that it didn't give way if I put weight on it so I used it as a support between the seats and slept a lot better.
Anyway there were some cool sunsets on the way south and I spent a few hours in Alice Springs where I would have gone quad biking but it was really expensive so I just went to town. If you've ever been to Alice Springs you'll know that there's not a lot to do there so I was glad when the train headed off again.
When i got to Adelaide I managed to go on a trip to the Barossa Valley which is the home of Jacobs Creek and many other wineries. They gave us 10 wines to try which we downed in about 30 mins so everyone was a bit merry right from the start. We hit 3 more tastings as well as seeing the world's largest rocking horse (the aussies have a bit of an obsession with big things) and had my first taste of kangaroo, which I think was nice though I can't really remember what it tasted like. That night I wanted to go to an AFL match but it was sold out and on the other side of the city and I couldn't be bothered to leg it over there and get a ticket off a tout. I guess I'll have to save the aussie rules match for another trip.