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Published: November 14th 2013
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Our new luggage
Save us buying a new case for the gifts home eh? So today we were up at 5.45am for our first train journey. As part of my investigation of what to do on this trip, the Sunlander train journey from Cairns to Brisbane seemed to come up high on the list of must do activities. Everyone talked about the scenery, the fun of the long distance trip and the luxury of the Queenslander service. Also it is being replaced in 2014, so there was also an air of 'do it now before you can't do it' So when we started to plan I said that I wanted to try and fit it in (Ian has a similar train activity later in the trip when we go from Auckland to Wellington by train)
So in the end we could only manage Cairns to Prosperine (Airlie Beach). This was still an 11 hour trip! However as it was during the day we had no need of the overnight sleeping so no Queenslander service for us. We were just in a seating carriage.
So get to station at 6.45 to check in our luggage. Interestingly even though it is just going in a baggage car there is a weight limit of 20kg per
bag. So when our first bag was 21.5kg (and our other was only 18kg) we had 2 options given to us, we could take it with us into the seating compartment (!) or we could offload the excess weight into another bag provided to us? So 5 mins later we were proud owners of a natty checkered laundry type bag provided free of charge! I am still puzzling why?????! I assume it must be something to do with health and safety of the baggage handler although they looked far more substantial than most ground staff or the female taxi driver who dropped us off at the station and managed to get both of our bags from the boot without any assistance.
Anyway luggage stored and off to our seats. We were a bit early, or so we thought. But once we sat down we realised we were actually 20 years too early! We had assumed that it would be full of tourists and maybe the Queenslander service is. However it appears that the senior concessions on this train are amazing. So that's what our other travelling companions were. Interestingly very few people in our carriage at cairns but by
the time we had passed through a couple of 'towns' on the way it had filled up.
Speed........ Now here's an interesting fact that we didn't consider till we were sitting there. The journey took just over 11 hours and it's 597km to be precise. Which having now done the sums equates to 33mph. Which is why we were overtaken by cars, lorries and even quick cyclists! Now that was fine on the basis that we were travelling on one of the top 25 railway journeys in the world according to the website. Following the amazing Queensland coastline according to the website.
So scenery......... I can honestly say that apart from the taxi journey we did not see one iota of coast the whole 11 hours. The scenery was dramatic. It was flat plains of sugar cane with tree covered mountains framing the view? Unfortunately it was also pretty consistent for the whole journey, interspersed with the old small town and it ran parallel to the main road. What it did bring into sharp relief is the size of this vast country and how much of it is uninhabited. Roads were empty and you could go at least
The view
Sugar cane and mountains 10 minutes without seeing another car - I spy must be really boring for small children traveling in Australia!
So do we wish we had flown? Not really - interestingly even though we could have travelled back to Dubai in this time, it didn't really drag. We met some real Australians and we had a cooked breakfast (toast) and a cooked lunch (steak burger) which we eat in the buffet car like real old fashioned travellers. And we did begin to see how big Australia is. Also for the first day of our travels it rained. And I mean rained!!! So glad to be inside!
Just can't see how it makes in to the top 25 but maybe as this was voted for by some railway association maybe I'm just not nerdy enough for the finer details.
When we got to Proserpine we were ushered onto the transfer coach to Airlie beach and our hotel, Peppers. The hotel was up a hill behind the resort as many of the hotels are. And when I say hill I mean HILL! Too steep for the buses- the hotel runs a buggy to the bottom to meet you and your
cases. So steep they have handrails on the pavements to help you up and down. But consequently the views are amazing.
So definite not up for the walk to town so we ate in the hotel restaurant.
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