Judy & Brian Tour Oz

Ok folks, get yourself a cup of tea and a sticky bun, this might take a while. Day 2 - Morning Early start at the Normanton Railway Station for our ride on the historic Gulflander train. This is a classic railway:It was supposed to go between Normanton to Cloncurry to service the proposed mines, but change of government and discovery of gold in Croydon saw the line diverted after the first 15 miles to go to Croydon instead. It is run by Queensland Rail and, apart from a weekly mail run that goes all the way and takes passengers as well, it takes tourists on an demand basis on short rides out to the 20 mile, Critters Camp. It seems that some of the tour operators call up and charter the train, then it gets scheduled for the run and takes any other passengers that can be found. The train today comprises two old Rail Motors that were converted to carriages, towed by a 1950s rail motor designed and built in Ipswich in 1950. The rails are laid on steel sleepers just sitting on ...

Normanton is 198km north of the roadhouse and we were on good road still, our first excitement was a 'roo that nearly took its last hop, and that was before we hit the outskirts of town. And then there was the emu, which we hadn’t seen for months. This one was on the other side of the road looking away out into the bush. We slowed and then slowed some more. True to form, at the last possible second it turned and took two skitterish emu steps right in front of us. Note: Two tonnes of caravan pulled by two tonnes of metal doesn’t actual stop all that quick even from 40kph. We missed the damn thing luckily but it’s a bit unnerving. At the 50km mark we hit our first taste of developmental road, just on the approach to a crest. Oh joy, no road and no view of oncoming traffic. The moment passed and we got used to the game and the new rules, which in practice are more like a game of chicken: last on on the road holds the tar. Unless the oncoming is a road-train, in which case you get...