Gismo Queen and her King

Maryborough - Saturday 3rd June 2023

The highlight of the day was our VIP trip on the Mary River Rattler steam train out of Gympie! A wonderful three hour experience that we would highly recommend to anyone when they are visiting this part of the world.

So we were up early to drive down to Gympie (bit over an hour) in time to check in, meet our guest experience officer (ours was Ralph) and board. It was a busy train, with more carriages than I thought to count, but we were in the Club Car just behind the steam engine - because we are VIPs.

On board we settled into our very comfortable seats with only 6 other VIPs. Our cheese platter was ready on our table and once we were underway, our wine was served. Some might say 10am was a little early for wine but we figured it was 5pm somewhere in the world! The commentary was very informative and the scenery became quite attractive once we were out of Gympie. We actually stopped at two former stations along the route more for sentimental reasons than any other purpose. This train line wasn't built until 1911 but was completed reasonably quickly and transported people in time for the gold rush in Gympie and beyond.

The steam train was beautifully restored, and emitted steam as the fires burned, especially when the train had to go a bit uphill (especially with all those carriages!). We arrived into Amamoor at about 11am and we were all encouraged to disembark to watch the engine disconnect and be turned around on the turntable. There was also a small market and a cafe - not that we needed the latter after our cheese and wine.

I do have a great video of the train turning but apparently it's too big for here! It was such a beautiful day and lovely to watch all the excited people. I observed one little boy telling anyone who would listen everything he knew about the train and that it was his birthday and then he'd show off his train cupcakes - he didn't offer us one though!! Eventually, the engine hooked back up at the other end and we were called to board again. It was amazing how different the return journey was now that we were the last carriage - without any weight behind us we did bump along, some might even say rattle..... However, it did mean we could stand at the back verandah although I sure hung on tightly.

We arrived back into Gympie just after 1pm, ready for our reserved table in the Rusty Rails cafe in the beautifully restored station building. We were served a lovely lunch (which I had ordered months ago when we booked the trip so not necessarily what I would have chosen today!) but it was very tasty and very filling, and finished off with dessert. Before we knew it, we were the last ones in the cafe so we thought we'd better head off. Our drive home was via Tin Can Bay for something different, as a slight rain shower fell on my freshly cleaned windscreen! After dropping Greg and Janne home, I headed to Coles for a quick grocery shop for the next few days by ourselves and we had a relaxing afternoon with a very light dinner after our big lunch. The train trip is really worthwhile and we would highly recommend it to anyone.

posted by Tracey @ 9:11 pm