We arrived at the Mackay train station at noon, our train departure time was 11:50pm. 11 hours to kill was nothing compared to the thought of riding through weeks of rain. The train station workers could not have been nicer, letting us set up shop on one of the benches to cook and giving us access to hot water for tea and coffee. I know I keep saying this, but a fantastic lesson I keep learning through life means of travel is how little gestures and instances make the biggest differences in life.
A few hours into our 11 hour wait, the weather intensified and caused the tracks north of us to completely flood. Our train was not going anywhere anytime soon.
Time to set up camp in the waiting area, we would be spending the night. We definitely had the comfiest spot in the place; sleeping pads, sleeping bag and eye shades. It was actually a decent nights sleep.
The next morning, a train heading north pulled into our station. They too could not move because of the flooded tracks up north. Having bikes with panniers causes many looks and often brings conversations. We passed a few hours talking to the travellers, exchanging stories of where we were going and where they had been or were headed. Australian's are such friendly and outgoing people. Always concerned with the way they are perceived, we often got asked the same questions; "How are you liking Australia?" "Are the drivers being courteous?" "Have you had any trouble?" Great people. Great outlook on life. They truly embrace the "no worries, mate" mentality.
To our surprise, we boarded a train at 10pm that evening and were on our way to Brisbane. I would like to go into our experience on the train, but I honestly do not even know where to begin. We bought the cheapest tickets, which meant our seats were in the last car. The people had already been on board for something close to 35 hours, so taking that into consideration, we ended up in a pretty good situation. Coming from Queensland, the train was filled with what Australian's refer to as "bogans." This is similar to what people in the US refer to as rednecks. Nicest people, but maybe just not the most proper. Our train was full of them. And about 15 of them were kids between the ages of newborn-4 who were overtaking the car. A guy in the front row played the guitar, a girl behind us in her early 20's talked about breaking a classmates neck by karate chopping her, a woman kept trying to coax her 3 year old daughter back to the front of the bus by raising her voice rather than actually getting up and physically picking her up. It was a trip.
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