Videos of the Longreach Trip Nov 2011

With the photos of the Longreach trip I compiled these 4 short Videos of Longreach, the 2 Museums and the Train trip back to Cairns 

The Trains from Longreach to Cairns Nov 2011

Thursday 17 Nov 2011

The train home.

I woke at 4.50am to get ready for the trip home on the train. After a short walk of 300 metres I arrived at the Longreach Railway Station at 6.45am. There didn’t seem to be many folk getting on the train and when I got on board I found there were only 9 people in my carriage that can carry 45 passengers so there was heaps of room to spread out. This is one of the advantages of travelling in the non tourist season. I wonder how many will join the train along the way on the 13 hour trip to Rockhampton.

At 7.30 am I was in the first seating for Brekkie and what a fun filled Brekkie it was, the staff was great and the openness combined with humour of the country folk on board provided a great experience. I had a full Shearers Breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato, sausages with toast, coffee and juice.

The countryside was so brown and flat as the train snaked its way over the plains heading east towards Rockhampton. I have an economy class seat and to my surprise it would be as good as Business class seats on Amtrak. The folk on board were very interesting and entertaining. One lady was a shearers cook on sheep stations (ranches), boy, could she tell some yarns and this helped the 13 hours pass by very quickly. There was another bloke who was 45 but going on 18 and was going out between the carriages to smoke pot and thought we old folk didn’t know what he was up to.

I also went to the dining car for lunch and dinner, the meals were very good and the red wine to my surprise was from a Queensland Winery at Mt Cotton (South East of Brisbane). I didn’t know there was a winery there however the wine was very good.

We arrived in Rockhampton on time at 8.15pm and the train was to go on to Brisbane after a 20 minute stop over. The train developed a problem and was stuck at the platform for 2 hours longer than its scheduled stop. I along with an old lady are the only 2 waiting in the customer lounge for the North bound Queenslander to arrive in about 3 hours. I hope it will be on time.

The Queenslander was about 30 minutes late so it was nearly 1am by the time I got on and the first thing I did was have a shower and get ready for bed.

Friday 18 November 2011.

I sure had a good nights sleep and woke very refreshed about 6am. I wend down to the lounge car and made myself a cup of green tea. I went to Brekkie at 7.30am and had a great feed of bacon eggs and all the trimmings. After that it was reading the papers catching up on emails and then down to the Club Lounge for the entertainment. The crew are excellent and the passengers are ok also so there were heaps of laughs. Lunchtime was a seafood delight with prawns, oysters, bugs and crab. 

Wow, what a feed washed down with champers and followed by a decadent pudding. I had  a nanna nap after all this and then packed as there is only 4 more hours on the train before arriving in Cairns. 

Longreach Queensland Nov 2011

The Longreach Trip

Sun 13 Nov 2011

It was an early morning start with the alarm going off at 4am waking me into action. Anyway after a cuppa green tea, shower, shave and final packing the taxi arrived to take me to the Airport. I had a quick brekkie at the Qantas Club. I got on a Dash 8 for the flight to Townsville where I waited to connect to another flight to Brisbane. As I was using points and I left the booking too late I couldn’t get on one of the direct flights. Dash 8 and that was 1B. So they always called me ‘Pat One Bravo’ from Cairns.

After about an hour there it was on to the jet to Brisbane where I had another 2 hours in the Qantas Club before catching another Dash 8 to Longreach. I took this opportunity in Brissie to have some lunch and start on this blog.

The Dash 8 flight to Longreach was full and every one cramped in and I had a very overweight man spilling over from his seat to mine so I thought the best thing to do was put on the earphones and try to get some sleep for the 2 hour flight. Thank goodness I slept for over half the trip. The temp in Longreach on arrival was a very hot and dry 39C.

I was met by my friend Les (who worked with me for some of the time in the Cyclone Larry recovery). Les took me on a tour of the town and took me home to his family for a BBQ. After an early night he drove me to my Hotel about 9.30pm. 
Les and his wife are leaving to drive to Cairns in the morning so it was very kind of them to look after me on my arrival and first night.

After a long day it was good to get to bed about 10pm.

Monday 14 November 2011

I awoke about 6.30am, made a quick coffee and set off for a walk around the town. It is always a joy to watch a small country town wake up and come alive. The outside temp had cooled down a bit over night and was a very pleasant low 20’s. I got some Brekkie in a little but very busy café in the main street.

After visiting the Tourist Information Office, I decided to spend the day in the town and spent a few hours at the Station Store. There were so many relics of the days long gone by. I then had lunch at the Pub I’m staying in. I had a steak sandwich that was so big I could only eat half of it. By now the temp was up to a very hot and dry 40C so I took shelter in my room and had a short nap. I can see why it is not the tourist season here in the heat of summer.

I went out about 5.30pm and the temp was down to 37C and after 40 minutes of walking around and getting some photos I was soaking wet with sweat so I went into the air-conditioned RSL Club for a drink. The first drink didn’t even wet the sides of my throat so I had to have another. I had a whiting and Calamari with salad dinner there, it also which went down very well.  I have now retreated to my hotel room as the temp outside is 36.5C and it is 8.45pm. Thank God for air-conditioning.

I will have an early night as it is going to be a big day tomorrow with the Qantas Museum and the Stockman’s Hall of Fame to be visited.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

I set off from the Hotel for the 30 minute walk to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame at 8.30am. Already the temp was 34C so it was a very sweaty walk and I had to drink heaps of water on the way. What a great Museum it was of early life of the Pioneers that came from many other countries to made this great nation what it is today. It had 5 Galleries that covered the

(1) Discovery of Australia before the British.

(2) The Pioneers

(3) Outback Properties

(4) Life in the Outback

(5) Stock Workers and Library

I spent about 4 hours there and will go back tomorrow.

After I had some lunch I went over to the Qantas Founders Museum and arrived just in time to do the 747 and the 707 tours. Also on display were the DC3, a Catalina and other various old aircraft that Qantas flew. I was very lucky as there were only 3 of us for the tour and as the other 2 were pilots we were taken to areas that it would not be possible to take larger groups.

 I will go back again tomorrow to look at the exhibits inside the hangers. So today was a full day and tomorrow looks like it will be much the same. As both the museums have so much to look at, it would be a waste of time to only spend a few hours in each.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

After brekkie I set off for the 30 minute walk out to the Airport to revisit the Qantas Museum and view exhibits that could not fit in yesterday. Boy it was another hot dry day and to spend another 4 hours in the air-conditioning was a bonus. What a fantastic museum it is and well worth the visit. After a late lunch I decided not to go back to the Stockman’s Hall of fame and head back to the hotel to have a cold shower and have a Fourex Gold to welcome President Obama on his arrival to Australia.

I have enjoyed the Longreach visit and leave tomorrow morning on the train for Rockhampton, so it will be an early night tonight. I will have all Thursday and Friday on trains on the return to Cairns.

Thursday 17 Nov 2011

The train home.

I woke at 4.50am to get ready for the trip home on the train. After a short walk of 300 metres I arrived at the Longreach Railway Station at 6.45am. There didn’t seem to be many folk getting on the train and when I got on board I found there were only 9 people in my carriage that can carry 45 passengers so there was heaps of room to spread out. This is one of the advantages of travelling in the non tourist season. I wonder how many will join the train along the way on the 13 hour trip to Rockhampton.

At 7.30 am I was in the first seating for Brekkie and what a fun filled Brekkie it was, the staff was great and the openness combined with humour of the country folk on board provided a great experience. I had a full Shearers Breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato, sausages with toast, coffee and juice.

The countryside was so brown and flat as the train snaked its way over the plains heading east towards Rockhampton. I have an economy class seat and to my surprise it would be as good as Business class seats on Amtrak. The folk on board were very interesting and entertaining. One lady was a shearers cook on sheep stations (ranches), boy, could she tell some yarns and this helped the 13 hours pass by very quickly. There was another bloke who was 45 but going on 18 and was going out between the carriages to smoke pot and thought we old folk didn’t know what he was up to.

I also went to the dining car for lunch and dinner, the meals were very good and the red wine to my surprise was from a Queensland Winery at Mt Cotton (South East of Brisbane). I didn’t know there was a winery there however the wine was very good.

We arrived in Rockhampton on time at 8.15pm and the train was to go on to Brisbane after a 20 minute stop over. The train developed a problem and was stuck at the platform for 2 hours longer than its scheduled stop. I along with an old lady are the only 2 waiting in the customer lounge for the North bound Queenslander to arrive in about 3 hours. I hope it will be on time.

The Queenslander was about 30 minutes late so it was nearly 1am by the time I got on and the first thing I did was have a shower and get ready for bed.

Friday 18 November 2011.

I sure had a good nights sleep and woke very refreshed about 6am. I wend down to the lounge car and made myself a cup of green tea. I went to Brekkie at 7.30am and had a great feed of bacon eggs and all the trimmings. After that it was reading the papers catching up on emails and then dowan to the Club Lounge for the entertainment. The crew are excellent and the passengers are ok also so there were heaps of laughs. Lunchtime was a seafood delight with prawns, oysters, bugs and crab. Wow, what a feed washed down with champers and followed by a decadent pudding. I had  a nanna nap after all this and then packed as there is only 4 more hours on the train.