I am writing this as I sit in the Tilt Train travelling south back to the Sunshine Coast. I am about two hours into a twenty two hour journey so I thought that I would tell everybody about my holiday.
It started last Tuesday evening when S my next door neighbour gave me a 12km lift to the Cooroy Railway Station at about 7.45 to catch the 8.27 Tilt Train to Cairns. The train arrived on time and I was soon settled in Seat 3 of Car C my resting place for the next twenty two hours. The train has three seats each row with two together on the left hand side of the aisle and a single on the right. I had the single. The seats at supposedly aircraft style Business Class but while they recline they don't have built in leg rests.
As I had not had any dinner I popped down to the Galley Car (Car E) for a meat pie and a beer. Car C was only half full and when they put the lights out I got the pillow and blanket provided and settled down for the night listening to an Audio Book which I had transferred to my MP3 player. Before going to sleep I ordered breakfast from the Galley.
A few hours into the trip we stopped at Bundaberg and a young couple with four children settled themselves in the three rows to the left of me and I groaned at the thought of the disturbance this would cause. I need not have worried the mother, a young Aboriginal woman, and her partner a white long haired guy were terrific parents. After the normal fuss of settling the kids down they soon went to sleep and stayed that way all night. The oldest, a black girl, about nine years old cuddled the youngest, a fair haired white girl, abut three years old all night. The two boys were coffee coloured and slept curled up together in one seat just next to me. They would have been about five and eight years old and were just a tangle of arms and legs with their heads sticking out from under the blankets. As I said they slept all night which is more than I did as my geriatric bladder plus the beer necessitated a couple of trips to the loo!
I dozed on and off all night but was a bit cold with the single blanket provided and I had packed my jumper at the bottom of my backpack. In between dozing I checked the trains progress on the TV display provided to each seat. At one time its speed exceeded one hundred and eighty kilometres an hour. Unfortunately later in the journey this would be limited to a low as 50 KPH due to the recent floods. The train is exceptionally silent and smooth and as the name suggests tilts into the curves. It does bounce a bit which makes my typing a bit hit and miss and using the laptop's touch pad is a little funny so I switch if off until I need it.
At about 5.00am dawn broke - the kids slept on and I was wide awake. I finished listening to my first audio book which was actually a recording of Gervais Phinn Live which Sue had sent for Margaret to listen to. I found his quirky sense of humour superb and his sunny outlook on life and in particular children great. He would have loved the four kids next to me.
Breakfast was served at 7.15am and I had cornflakes, followed by sausages, bacon and potato frittata which is much more than my normal two slices of toast. The family next to me had brought on their own food as I expect that the cost of train food would be too much for them.
Throughout the morning I either listened to my MP3 player, now I was on to Arnold Bennett's Tales From The Five Towns which is a LibreVox recording, or watched the entertainment and train progress on the TV. I, obviously, had my laptop with me but was much too tense to get it out and use it. The train has power points for each seat and while in range wireless broadband is available from my modem.
Lunch was also offered but I just has a sandwich from the galley car and a cup of tea. In the afternoon the kids got a bit fractious and Mum and Dad cuddled the younger ones and the older ones played with electronic games. Mum was getting very excited as well because they were going home to visit her Mum. As our long journey ended she kept getting up to check the scenery just before Cairns. She pointed out to the kids where she used to jump off a bridge into the creek as a child and then there was her Mother's house beside the railway. She was a really nice young woman who wanted her kids to share her excitement.
Finally we arrived in Cairns at 6.50pm about half an hour late. The family went looking for the Mum's brother who was picking then up and taking them 20km back down the track to Grannies. I went looking for my hotel which was only 850 metres away.
Because of all the booking problems on Monday I was now booked into the Breakfree Royal Harbour apartments with an address on the Esplanade. I could not find it. After walking up and down the Esplanade for about fifteen minutes I asked somebody if they knew where it was. They said that there was a small door on the the Esplanade but the main entrance was on one street back which was about a 400 metre walk. I was totally worn out. It was over 30C and I was in long trousers, carrying a backpack and wheeling and airline bag filled with toiletries and my laptop. I found the small entrance which, as it was now after 7.00pm, was locked. The after hours call system would not work and I must have looked desperate as a couple who were staying there let met in, escorted me to reception and phoned the Manager. His name is Matthew and he was great. he showed me the after hours box at the main entrance, retrieved my keys and took me to my apartment. He gave me the location of the nearest supermarket for supplies. All I had to do was get changed into shorts and sandles, find the supermarket, buy some breakfast and beer. Finally I found a restaurant to have a light dinner before finally getting to bed at 9.30pm, 26 hours after leaving home.
End of Part One.
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