rhon

Lovely photos and report, KayF. I enjoy reading how other people travel and seeing things from their perspective. We camp, so a bit different. You are right that prices are rising. One park we stay at in NSW has put the prices up $10 a night since we were there about five weeks ago. There are so many travellers on the road I suppose they can.

I frequent the France forum where I have several trip reports, but never really came to this one until Covid and I started putting up an occasional trip report about our travels. I find it difficult giving advice for Australia. The distances are so great and more time is needed to compensate. Often when we are driving through great expanses of bush I think visitors from the UK, for example, must just be over whelmed if they venture off the coast.

I am a bit over this weather though. Every time we think we might go away, it turns very cold or rainy.

sartoric

Great report and photos KayF !

northie

love your report KayF and your photos

KayF

Hi rhon, I saw your recent post on the Europe forum, about your trip to France. Great that you can start researching and booking again. I think half the fun is in the planning stages, though usually I feel overwhelmed at first, until the trip starts to come together. I know what you mean about distances in Australia, I think a trip here needs a lot of planning to take into account how spread out places are. We've been away a few times this year, in Australia, and have had rainy, cool weather a lot of the time. It's unusual and very annoying

Sartoric and northie - thanks for reading, much appreciated.

KayF

The train trip from Cairns to Brisbane is a 25 hour journey (yes, 25 hours) but was a different option and thought we'd give it a go, having flown and driven that route. The trip is slow but comfortable with views of banana plantations and sugarcane for miles. Much easier and less stressful than plane travel. Also, much like train travel in Europe, the train departs and arrives in the middle of town. If anyone is interested, search for the Spirit of Queensland.

Sitting up all night on the train had zero appeal, so we paid for railbeds which are converted from seats at night by staff and come with pillows, doona and sheet. It was good to lie flat after sitting all day but it was still hard to sleep. There aren't cabins, the whole carriage is a long row of railbeds, all very public and close together. There is seat-back entertainment, like on the planes, with movies, TV shows etc.

We could get off for five minutes of fresh air and a quick walk up the platform at a few stops where there was enough time. Luggage check in closes 30 mins prior to departure and there was a bag weight limit. Alternatively, you can take bags on yourself and store in racks onboard (no limit as far as we could see, as long as you can man-handle them yourself). Having travelled on the high-speed TGV trains in France, I felt a bit embarrassed by the lack of money put into infrastructure.

KayF

The train seats (taken from the platform, through the window).


Our railbeds, converted in the evening by rail staff and put back into seats first thing in the morning.

sartoric

Oh my gosh, we (boyfriend at the time and I) did the train from Cairns to Cooroy for Sunshine Coast in 1980. 42 years ago ! Pretty sure it was much longer than 25 hours. We were poor students and couldn’t spring for flat beds, if they even existed. I remember our carriages were sex segregated, so to spend time together we sat cross legged on the floor in the corridor and had to stand every time someone walked by.

Enjoying your report !

Edit : I remember now it was 38 hours !

KayF

sartoric, that's hilarious that carriages were sex segregated! Fancy forcing the two of you into the corridor to be together, it's seems crazy but no crazier I guess than other things that have disappeared over time. The last long train trip we did, before the Cairns to Brisbane one, was a TGV in France and my husband took a photo of the electronic display in the carriage - the train reached 320km/hr. We were gobsmacked, it was racing past the cars on the highway. The train in Queensland often felt like it was doing about two miles an hour, they desperately need to spend on better trains, tracks and stations.

KayF

These wallabies were actually in someone's yard, near Cairns. We noticed them as we drove by and did that 'was that..? No, surely not' double take thing. I think they must have been feeding them, to attract so many.


Lipstick palm, taken in Port Douglas. They are amazing looking plants.


We have these plants in Brisbane too but they were more lush and the colour more vibrant in Cairns.

Diamantina

Love the Townville murals.

Coral beaches on Fitzroy Island---ouch!

That's a pity about many Queensland island resorts closing, but, from your descriptions and photos of Magnetic Island, it seems like great options remain.

The train looks really nice. The leg room for the seats is ample to say the least and bed conversions look comfy enough. Still, I get how it would be hard to sleep in a compartment shared with many others (especially for light sleepers such as me). It looks like your seats faced forward during the day, then, as beds, faced in the opposite direction at night? Was there a dining car? If so, how was the food?

Charley's Cocoa Farm/Chocolate Factory looks well-worth doing if in the vicinity of Mission Beach. Seeing produce go from "farm to table" is interesting. On our first trip to Far North Queensland many years ago, we enjoyed a tour and tasting at an exotic fruit farm. The variety of produce grown up there is astounding. I again noticed this at Rusty's Market in Cairns, where I found fruits, flowers and vegetables native to Southeast Asia and Latin America (like cocoa, for example). I googled Lipstick Palm. It, too, is native to Southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia).

Loving your report!

KayF

Hi Diamantina, thanks for your kind words. The leg room on the train was amazing. My husband is about 6 feet 2 inches and on a plane, he always has his knees wedged into the back of the seat in front. On the train, he could put his long legs right out in front of him, he was a happy chappy. The seats faced forward and when they convert into beds, they face the same way, so you never face backwards. There were two seats on one side of the aisle, and one seat on the other. I thought I wouldn't be all that comfortable travelling and sleeping so close to a stranger so if anyone is on their own, try and book the single seat on the aisle for a bit of space.

If you book railbed seats, then all meals and drinks are included and they bring a tray to your seat. There was a menu (I think a copy is on their website) with two choices at breakfast, lunch and dinner. There were very limited wines and beer available, I think one red and one white. You could also go to the buffet car where they had a larger range of meals, drinks, tea, coffee, sandwiches etc. Obviously you paid in the buffet. I thought the meals were OK, not great. A bit like most airline food. All the staff onboard were friendly, efficient and helpful.

I would have liked to visit Rusty's market but it was only open 3 days a week and not when we were in Cairns. We found lots of places only open part of the week, like a great restaurant in Yungaburra where we went our first night and would have returned, but then it was closed the rest of the time we were staying. It seems particularly on Sunday night and Mondays it can be hard to find somewhere open to eat, not in the cities of course, but in rural areas.

Diamantina

Thanks for sharing more details, Kay.

So, apart from its more leisurely pace as compared to the world's fastest trains, the Queensland train seems, overall, comfortable and pleasant, and might be an option for those who aren't in hurry and prefer not to drive, or who hate flying or dealing with airports, or might want to make stops along the way without dealing with airports--or, like you, want to explore a different transportation option. The fact that the train leaves you in the city center is a big plus, too.

I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to visit Rusty's. I'm pretty sure you would have enjoyed it. Maybe now that travel is picking up, it'll be open more days.