We were picked up from the motel at 07.00 as the train left at 07.45. It took a few minutes to check in my case and I went looking for my cabin. When I booked the holiday I was told that I had to have a twin berth cabin as all the singles had gone but that I was assured of having the lower bunk. If not I wouldn't have gone. To my surprise there was a real old stockman in the cabin and he definitely had a ticket for seat 13 which was allocated to the lower bunk and my ticket said seat 14 which was allocated the upper bunk. The old chap wasn't too pleased to see me either a he had been assured that he had the cabin to himself. He was going to Brisbane to have knee replacement could not get out of his bunk and toddle of down the corridor for a pee so he intended to use a pee bottle.
I knew that I couldn't get up to the upper bunk so we both set of to find the conductor. On the way a lady who I had sat next to at dinner on the way up waylaid me. She remembered that I was worried about sharing a twin berth cabin. In a certain irony of fate she and her husband were told when they booked that there were no twin berths available and they were happy either. She wondered If I was still on my own in the twin berth and would I swap. John, that's the stockman, was just behind me and overheard the conversation and called out, "yes!". We traced down a conductor to make it legal. We all hurried back to our cabins to collect our overnight luggage and managed the swap just before the train left.
John was a wild looking fellow with long straggerly grey hair. He always wore a bushman's hat and working boots. He spoke with a quiet Australian drawl. We got on very well and I sat next to him at lunch and dinner and found out quite lot about his life. He had spent many years as a stockman in Australia and a cowboy in the USA. He had married and had three kids, two whom live near me on the Sunshine Coast. He and his wife ran museum in Birdsville for 20 years. This the most remote area in Australia but two years ago the sold up and moved nearer to civilisation about 100km from Longreach. The following link shows John and his museum:
Johns Museum
One ofmy tour companions was concerned that I was being collared by a wild man but I explained that although he was a bit of a character he was a lovely person. I wouldn't have met him but for the booking mix up.
After settling in we had breakfast and afterwards I updated Day 4 of this blog and managed to upload it later when in Internet range. We stopped briefly at Barcaldine where I took some picture or the train.
I had lunch sitting and talking with John. Afterwards I wrote up Day 5 of this blog but had to wait until getting home to paste it. Later I sat in what I had previously thought was the Club Lounge. I was told that First Class passengers like me sat in The Stockmans Lounge and the Club Lounge was back in the lower class area! I took one more photo from the train just before nightfall.
John and I sat with a South African father and son for dinner. The son was a mining executive with Xstrata, a big coal mining company in Brisbane. He had flown Dad out from SA for a holiday daughter in law and the grand kids.
After dinner we had a couple of drinks together before I went to bed early as I had to be up and dressed by 05.00 to get of the train at 05.00. The train was late and I was dropped of at Cooroy at 06.15. My other do walking friend picked me up and drove me home.
After a shower, shave and breakfast I did some shopping and picked Louis up from kennels.
It had been a brief, busy and very nice adventure.
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