R is for Railway

 Today I finally got to experience the great Australian railway system, or at least part of it. 

14 hrs 35 mins of travelling by train - what could be better?

The catch is that the train leaves at 5:45pm and you are supposed to check luggage at least 30mins before departure. So I waddled out of my apartment at 5am glad I only had a short 5 min walk to the platform. And then I waited... The train finally arrived at ~5:20am. It had to be fully cleaned after it's 15hr journey up from Sydney. We finally departed around 6:15am. 

It is quite hard to take photos from a moving vehicle but I did my best. We cut through lots of fields (mainly cows the whole way) and woods dominated by eucalyptus. 

First class was quite busy because it does not cost that much more. The trains are >40 years old, so the main benefits are extra leg room, and a seat with a better recline. There are sleepers but they do not use them on the day trains. I was originally sat next to a lady across the aisle from her parents. Then the guard asked if I'd like to move, so I got to sit at the front of the carriage with a table and even more space. It turned out that the journey wasn't so quiet after all as the guy opposite me was keeping himself sane by telling anyone who would listen his life story. In general Aussies are a bit more chatty, especially on a long journey. It helped the day go quicker but also made it feel longer with the constant noise. 

About an hour and a half in we cut through the Mountains, the divide between Queensland and New South Wales. At this point we were back in more lush forests closer to the Rainforest,  I saw a waterfall and lots of beautiful valleys. All very quick for photos. 

This is the Clarence River, around Grafton. 

A little snapshot of suburb along the way.

On the very right of this shot you can just about make out bananas as we approached the coast around Coff's Harbour

We were running behind and therefore the other trains had the priority and we had to stop for signals twice. Here we are at Telegraph Point.

The food was very reasonable on the train. I had a butter chicken meal (airline style) with a roll for around £6.40. I was also able to have some fresh fruit and hummus and carrot sticks, which nicely supplemented my food bag. We also got a free hot drink because the train was running late. 

An opportunity to zoom in on some of the flowers in the 'hedgerows'.

Some of the best views were as we hurtled along the valley next to the Manning River

Still mountains in the background. 

This was around Gloucester and taken on my phone captures the late afternoon sun colours. 

I saw a three Kangaroos/Wallabies early in the journey in some shrub but then none all day till sunset, then I saw about a dozen all at once hopping around, and shortly after another six or so. In the low light you could make out the light/dark colour much easier and spot them. I also very briefly saw a couple of Kookaburra sat together. 

Then it was dusk, and we still had a three more hours of travel. 

The staff were excellent. They came through the carriage for the meal times to get any orders for the food that had to be prepared. Morning 'Devonshire Tea and Scones', lunch, Afternoon 'Tea and Scones', dinner. They were also up and down every so often to collect rubbish and check everything was okay. 

We ended up being over an hour and a half late in the end; I arrived in Sydney around 9:45 instead of 8:10pm as planned. But I got here and that is the main thing. 

Q is for Quality

Today I had a trip postponed from last Saturday (due to low numbers). Today is also Anzac day, when Australia remembers their armed forces. So I had to walk past the parade set up to the hotel that the tour could actually pick us up from. At points they were using wheeled armoured vehicles to block the streets.

The tour was by 13 seater mini-van but there were 10 of us, so had a bit of space. Funnily enough three people from the conference were on the tour too, all from Colorado.

We had an hour drive south-west of Brisbane to the Tambourine Mountains. The tour was a hop-on-hop-off but this really meant the driver suggested a few places and left us for 1-2hrs with a pick-up time. This worked well with a relatively small group. Although we definitely had some limits because of Anzac day, a lot of places were closed till mid-day.

Our first proper stop was a waterfall walk, it started raining part way along the ~20min trail. We were told that we might see glow worms behind the falls and platypuses in the creek. We didn’t see them but it was a beautiful waterfall, Curtis Creek. The walk back was a bit treacherous because we hit a tour bus group heading to the creek, all with umbrellas.

  

 

Next stop was the Gallery Walk, this was in Eagle Heights. Unfortunately the actual Art galleries were closed for Anzac day, but I had a nice tea and fried chicken lunch with the group from Colorado. We had a wonder around the little craft and homeware shops. Got some fudge 😊

 

Once the afternoon rolled around we headed to our glow worm booking. We were at Cedar Creek Winery. This was an avocado farm but ~20-30 years ago it was bought and rewilded. They built an artificial cave and got permission to take 300 glow worms from local sites. They now have 5-10,000 (depending on the season). Apparently glow worms are quite regional so these are found in South East Queensland, they act as a glow worm Noah’s ark in case damage to the wild population, and to provide a safe and organised way for tourists to see them without damaging them. In the cave you are not allowed to take photos or have any white light. They have red torches because white light makes the glow worms think it’s day-time. There were handrails with glow in the dark strips on and we had to where a glow in the dark necklace so you don’t bump into each other. It was a bit surreal like someone had poked holes in the ceiling with green LEDs behind it.  

See more: Glow Worm Caves Tamborine Mountain, Gold Coast

The glow worms let down sticky threads, a bit like a spider’s web, insects think the light is holes to the outside world and get caught in the threads. The older, hungry, females are the brightest, with the younger, fuller, males being the least bright. The guide shone a light on one glow worm so we could see how they look. Anyway, it was fascinating!

Our final stop for the day was the Skywalk a metal platform walk above the rain forest. It was a bit wobbly and as soon as I stepped onto the platform. The rainforest definitely felt a bit different to up in Cairns, with more palms. The platform took you to a creek, and then you walked back the different way on the ground.

  

I saw my second Kookaburra of the holiday on the opposite side of the creek. Isn't he lovely! 

On the way back we were lower under the trees. Next to the very spiky creeping vines. Our guide in Daintree said this is what usually stopped people within 5m going into the Rainforest. 

 

We got back to Brisbane about 4:30pm and I had a little wonder around the shops, found myself some takeaway pizza to take my way back to the apartment.

P is for Passage (updated 27th April)

Okay, as with many other days P is a little tenuous. Passage on a river cruise? Is that a Plausible use of English? If I was feeling lazy I'd just use presentation, but where is the fun in that? 

Conference Day 5: last day today. 

The day started a little later at 8:50am, helpful to give me time to check-out of my conference hotel..

Our first presentation was a Plenary (oh another P) which was excellent. Loads of interesting science today about islet transplants, including some clinical work and some logistical work making donated islets and lab grown beta cells available for research. I wasn't 100% sure I was going to stay for the whole day but some many of the talks were interesting I did. 

Then I had time to check out of hotel 2 and into hotel 3 which I am paying for myself and is 5 mins walk from the station (departing Sunday by train to Sydney). 

Apartment in building 1 was Friday night, building 2 was from Saturday to Friday, building 3 is Friday and Saturday night 😂

By 5pm it was time to leave for my river cruise. 

It started with a rainbow

It turned out the sunset river cruise was more of a nighttime river cruise. But it did come with snacks :0) We headed down river from Southbank.

The headlights of the cars over the bridges were twinkling in the dark.

The river twists so much that you keep changing direction relative to the sun in the west.The river winds around the central business district of Brisbane so your see different sides of it.

 Down river there are waterfront properties, with their own docks.

Then we were heading back again

We finished the tour about 7pm, it did get a little cold on the water with the wind. Nice to know you can feel cold in Australia!