Holy cow! I woke up before the 4:30 am alarm clock! Wow! Needless to say it is EARLY! We are almost packed except for our items in the fridge (snack food and beverages) and we left the hotel after checking out on time, before 5 am. Me and being on time in the morning do not normally go together!
We had a very nice drive down the Great Barrier Reef Drive along the coast to Cairns. We saw the sun rise and Andrew even stopped the car so I could take a picture at a beach! We were actually running early (but not speeding) – Google Maps said it would take 1 hour and 2 minutes and it took about 45 minutes including the photo stop. Perhaps it is because there were 3 construction stops that were controlled by lights again, however the waits were very short, where during the day they might have been longer. Here are our morning drive pictures!
Needless to say, we picked a gas station to fill up and funny enough it was around the corner from where the car drop off location was! At that point I called an Uber (it was about 6:10 am now and we were DEFINITELY running really early) to take us to the Cairns Train Station. The lady driving the Uber was in the neighborhood and picked us up almost immediately! We had a very quick drive to the Cairns Railway Station – we chatted about taking the train to Brisbane and she thought we were crazy for not flying as it is only an hour’s flight! It was rather interesting though after that discussion that she dropped us off at the entrance to the Tourist Train to Kuranda – we needed to be on the other side of the tracks! Good thing the elevator was working and there was an elevated walkway to get to the other side of the tracks to where the Queensland Train would pull into the station a few minutes later.
At 6:40 am (we got there just before 6:30 am) the baggage drop opened up and we then sat and sweated, just like we used to do in the evenings in North Carolina, however it was frigging 6:30 am and I was soaked with humidity! The train was in front of us but we could see them servicing/cleaning it. About 30 minutes later, after losing about a litre of water and Andrew NOT being able to find any coffee (not a good situation) they allowed us to board the train. They had a nice little ramp for me to use – not the huge thing that I was sitting next to pictured below! We were booked into Rail Beds on the train – this train had reserved regular seating (2×2 seats) or Rail Beds which were in a 2×1 configuration. Now this is where it gets REALLY stupid! My Rail Bed was number 2 – it was a single rail bed. In front of me was Rail Bed 5. Next to me was Rail Bed 1 which was also an accessible rail bed as it had extra space for a guide dog to lay down. The carer’s bed for Rail Bed 1 was Rail Bed 5 which was in front of me. Andrew’s Rail Bed, which he was traveling as my carer, was Rail Bed number 4 which was on the aisle next to the other Rail Bed number 3 which was at the window. An unknown lady was in Rail Bed number 3 and would be there for the majority of the trip. This is a VERY stupid setup. A carer needs to be able to HELP someone so sitting forward and diagonally from me is no use. Also, as the Rail Beds come with in seat videos, as soon as Andrew put his ear phones on (this did happen) I could not get his attention for assistance.
I was dreaming up what items I could start throwing at him when the car attendant came by with tea and coffee and biscuits as we had just left the station. She actually told me that the way these beds are set up is stupid as the people who need assistance (I am thinking more like if I was traveling with Karen) cannot get it! She offered to tap Andrew on the shoulder for me however I just smiled and said I would figure things out. Once the morning tea service was completed and they had verified everyone who was on the train, the car attendant actually came back and told me that there was another disabled person going to join the train overnight with a carer and they have an extra single seat up front in the car and she was going to see if the lady next to Andrew would like to move. Of course the lady next to Andrew wanted to move as she could see that we were together and she also suggested that I move into her Rail Bed. So I did! It worked out wonderfully as then later that afternoon, an elderly lady who was visually impaired got on the train with her daughter as the carer and some other family members who had Rail Beds more to the front of the car, and the two ladies could be across the aisle from each other which helped them out too! Now we were in business on our 24+ hour trip to Brisbane!
With our Rail Bed purchase came meals too – we were fed lunch, which I had a mango chicken with peas and rice and a gluten free toffee cake with custard! I had to ask a couple of times if it was REALLY gluten free as it was pretty good! We then settled in for a nice SMOOTH ride down the east cost of Australia! It was interesting as each day Andrew looks up the weather where we are going and we were aware that rain had been forecasted – sure enough it happened when we were on the train! That said, the landscapes we passed by were very beautiful despite the black clouds above and the occasional watering of the windows!
Andrew spent most of his time watching movies and listening to music – I do not know what ones Andrew he watched however I typed up what to say on my website (no online access unless at a train station) and watched 1 movie and several really funny Aussie TV shows! The movie that I watched was the “Making of Crocodile Dundee” which I did not know the background of and how big an impact it had on Australia! It was very interesting and timely considering we are in Australia! The TV shows were a bunch of game shows – however one made me laugh so hard that I actually passed out and Andrew wondered what happened to me! That was a bit of a bizarre moment for me!
Dinner was then served and Andrew had pork and my meal was some very well cooked Barramundi fish with veggies and squash. The best part of the meal though was in the little tinfoil package which had a GF label underneath – it was a garlic cheese biscuit! Mmm good! I actually consumed it without needing butter! The chocolate cake with chocolate sauce was good too – however after not doing anything all day having two desserts was a bit much!
After dinner we could select to have our beds turned down at 8 pm or 9 pm. I was ready to go at 8 pm as I was starting to find the Rail Bed seat a bit uncomfortable and wanted to recline a bit more. The seat did recline, and the foot rest did go up a little bit however not much and the seat bench pictured above worked wonders for Andrew as his legs are long, however my legs could barely hold it down. In fact when I passed out laughing my feet fell off and the seat went up with a bang which was loud Andrew said – that is how he noticed that I was in la la land.
The Rail Bed seats actually fold down into nice flat, firm beds. The back of the seat folds onto the seat and then another portion folds out which extends into a bed. It was all done electronically – you could not do it yourself – the carriage attendant had to do it with a remote that plugged into the seat. The bed had a mattress cover on it and they gave you a duvet to cover you for the night which was nice and warm! I was as snug as a bug in my little Rail Bed! The one funny thing we learned, which if we had known better we might change for next time, is that the window seat bed is longer than the aisle seat bed so that the window seat person has about 8 inches to pass by at the end of the bed from the aisle person to get out if they need to use the toilet or whatever on the train in the middle of the night!
At this point in time, the train was actually running about 2.5 hours late – no idea how it got to run that late – we seemed to be stopping and starting fairly fast at the various train stations – there were not a lot of them. When we stopped in Townsville where the crew changed and the train took on more water and possibly fuel (not sure about this) I tried to call my parents as I knew my sister was visiting them that evening and the train left the station sooner than planned so our conversation got cut off as I lost my data connection!
I must admit though I enjoyed this train ride WAY better than the Indian Pacific one in terms of rocking and rolling. These cars are meant for travel and are built for sleeping too where the Indian Pacific Railway, while a very beautiful and historic system, does not have the more modern technology that keeps the train cars from rattling and swaying through the night.
Lets see what tomorrow brings us while on the train!