Onward to Cairns

No we didn't sleep in and miss the train. We managed to get up at 4:25am shower, dress, finish packing and join our colleagues for 5am. The bus to the station didn't turn up so taxis to take us to the railway station in Proserpine were hastily arranged and we still managed to get to the station half an hour before the train was due to arrive.

We were met on the platform by the station manager who was clearly surprised to see us. "You haven't been advised!?" he said in Australian. Apparently, we should have been told that some idiot truck driver had struck a railway bridge further down the line and there would be no trains heading north that day. Instead coaches would turn up at 10am and we should be in Cairns by 10pm. Stuart, the CEO, was spitting nails - the. Railway hadn't informed him, his boss hadn't told him and another G Adventures guide using the train hadn't called him either.

Proserpine is a little sugar cane town in the middle of nowhere. There is a little airport that we had flown into the previous day and the railway station. Then there are miles and miles of sugar cane fields. With nothing else to do at 6am we wandered into town. When you come to the main road you look left - it is dead straight for 5 miles, you look right - dead straight for 4 miles. There was nothing coming so we crossed. Astonishingly, Harry Gow's was open so we all went in for coffee and toasted fruit bread. "Didn't you know the trains were off?", said the waitress helpfully.

After coffee we wandered up and down the street until the sun came up and we got too hot. Bizarrely, there is a relationships counselling office on the Main Street with their huge window open onto the street. The main architectural feature on the street was the Cane Cutters Hotel. A 1940's building - brown, no windows, huge verandas. It must surely have seen a few fights in its day.

Both sides of the street were provided with shade by the buildings and there was a generous provision of benches on both sides. We sat down to watch the town come to life. Two Kuckaburras landed on the telephone wire and laughed at us. We all sang "Kuckaburra sits in the old gum tree" loudly. A Whistling Kite whistled past. Some tumbleweed tumbled up the middle of the street.

At around 8:30 some good old boys (GOBs) wandered into town and took the bench across the street. They looked at us, we looked at them. We sang Kuckaburra again. They GOBs looked away. Tourists 1 -Australia 0. I think that's what passes for entertainment in Proserpine - at least until the Cane Cutters opens.

Another visit to Harry Gow's passed the time until the busses came. Stuart said he would add 4 hours in Proserpine to the itinerary for future tours.

The day went downhill after that but we did arrive in Cairns at 9pm and went out to visit the night market before bedtime. The night market was crap.