In Brisbane, at 7:45 am we wheeled our luggage down Queen Street Mall from our hotel, walking seven blocks to historic ‘Customs House’ for our check in to a four-day train trip across southern Australia. The check-in included a small plate breakfast with a live acoustic guitar interlude. Our train ride went from Brisbane to Adelaide, with 214 passengers in 30 train car carriages which formed a length of 711 meters, weighing 1,626 tons. This “Southern Southern” train trip is almost 2,000 miles of travel.
On Day 1 we boarded at 11:00, luggage already checked and placed into our rooms. Our accommodations included our own small bathroom and a room with a pleasant sofa which morphed into bunk beds. The large window allowed us to easily observe the passing scenery. All food, wine, excursions, and fun are included in the price of the trip. Lunch was served as we began six hours of travel from Brisbane past the Gold Coast, heading south.
Around 5:30 pm we arrived at Coffs Habour, where we disembarked and traveled by bus to a sandy beach to enjoy cocktails on the beach followed by a formal sit-down dinner. We are in a group of eleven people, traveling with California friends Mike and Joanie, along with relatives and friends of theirs who live in Australia. Our friendly and fun-loving group takes up most of one full train car, using six of the eight rooms. Each club car is designated to serve four sleeping cars, as is the dining car.
Our group of eleven enjoyed becoming friends and getting to know an additional four-dozen other people. The four of us were the few non-Australians on the train, which was fun at another level altogether!
After a scrumptious dinner with entertainment and dancing, we boarded the train for night caps in the club car, and a rockin’ train ride as we slept in our new environment.
PS: This post is about Dec 30, and just published after we arrived in Adelaide and now have a wifi connection. We passed through a lot of bush fire smoke but we were not near any fire, and are safe.
