The first step that always makes a trip such as this feel real, is when you start actually booking things.  Putting that first chunk of money down which says, “There’s no backing down now”.

Up until this point, any time any one asked about the trip, I always felt a little like a fraud – saying things like “Yeah – Bali is going to be amazing, we are just going to camp and gypsy around,” when really, I had made no plans whatsoever to actually make that a reality.  There was always a part of me that could have backed out and just stayed living in one place and doing the same thing everyday (see: comfort- zone).

Now, however, on this most insignificant of days otherwise, with just a few clicks through the Great Southern Rail site, we have now purchased our tickets for The Ghan train which will take us from Adelaide to Darwin at the beginning of April 2016!!

We have split the journey into two legs, and have arranged a stop in Alice Springs for one week, so we have a chance to check out Ayers Rock, plus a bunch of other amazing sights in the outback (I’ve looked into it- and there’s loads of amazing walks and watering holes you can visit).  Great Southern Rail have loads of options for different budgets – ranging from the fancy Gold Service right down to a backpacker fare.  Given that this will be the start of our journey, we are going as budget-friendly as possible!  The backpacker fares on the train are currently $AU279 each for each leg of the journey (Adelaide to Alice Springs, Alice Springs to Darwin).  All you have to do is show a valid membership card from a Backpacker Association (I’ll do a post on this soon!) when you hop on board.  Considering the train covers over 3,000km, and we will get to see so much of Australia – I think this is pretty reasonable!

So there it is – an actual locked-in plan!  I won’t feel like a fraud discussing the trip any longer!