We left our room at Ryan's Rest at 7:15am and still did not see any staff. We left our key in the letterbox where we had found it and presumed they had taken our payment on the credit card. We only had to walk 200 meters to the train and boarded it at 7:45 for a departure at 8:15. The tilt train was excellent in every way. All carriages were business class, with plenty of leg space and only three seats across the train.
Good food service and clean toilets. Plenty of luggage storage. Movies and music at your seat. Malcolm watched two movies about Paris: The Three Musketeers (Monty Python style) and Midnight in Paris. That was from the ridiculous to the sublime. It would be a long trip to Brisbane without a sleeper though. The Sunlander is a better proposition for that distance, even though it is slower. The trip took 7 hours when it could be done in 4 if the track was set up for this type of fast train. We passed the Pyramid at Gordonvale and remembered climbing it 900 meters in 1998 in training for the Bibbulmun Walk.
As we got off the train at Townsville we noticed the striking decoration on all the carriages. Trains in Austria and Switzerland are often decorated like this. This is a great train.
We followed the directions in Google Maps to our Classique B & B. Malcolm's wrist compass told us we were heading north east, and Google said go south west, so we thought we were OK because the compass reversed polarity in Norway. However, the compass was still misleading and we ended up doing 500 meters extra. Must find a new compass. First impression of the B & B were of a Victorian era Queenslander. Same style as the Forsayth one.
Russell and Iva are the owners, and they receive glowing reports in their visitors book. They are very anxious to do everything for us and have set up a trip to the reef on Tuesday for us. The room is well arranged with a nice ensuite, but TV is in the common lounge. Two other rooms are occupied by guests. We walked into town and had dinner at the Seafood Bar in Palmer St. A relaxing day.
Good food service and clean toilets. Plenty of luggage storage. Movies and music at your seat. Malcolm watched two movies about Paris: The Three Musketeers (Monty Python style) and Midnight in Paris. That was from the ridiculous to the sublime. It would be a long trip to Brisbane without a sleeper though. The Sunlander is a better proposition for that distance, even though it is slower. The trip took 7 hours when it could be done in 4 if the track was set up for this type of fast train. We passed the Pyramid at Gordonvale and remembered climbing it 900 meters in 1998 in training for the Bibbulmun Walk.
As we got off the train at Townsville we noticed the striking decoration on all the carriages. Trains in Austria and Switzerland are often decorated like this. This is a great train.
We followed the directions in Google Maps to our Classique B & B. Malcolm's wrist compass told us we were heading north east, and Google said go south west, so we thought we were OK because the compass reversed polarity in Norway. However, the compass was still misleading and we ended up doing 500 meters extra. Must find a new compass. First impression of the B & B were of a Victorian era Queenslander. Same style as the Forsayth one.
Russell and Iva are the owners, and they receive glowing reports in their visitors book. They are very anxious to do everything for us and have set up a trip to the reef on Tuesday for us. The room is well arranged with a nice ensuite, but TV is in the common lounge. Two other rooms are occupied by guests. We walked into town and had dinner at the Seafood Bar in Palmer St. A relaxing day.
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