Choo Choos

Sunday, 3 June 2012


The sun eventually rose to a clear, sunny and very crisp morning. We were a little later leaving Wilpena Pound as neighbours, as usual, suddenly decide to become very friendly and chat as one is packing up.

As we had to back track to Peterborough, we decided to take the longer route and travel via Quorn, which turned out to be a nice little outback/country town. We discovered a coffee shop in a old emporium which still contained all the old shelves and display cases on the walls, as well as the overhead wire pulley system for payment. I even found a mink collar wrap – definitely genuine as it consisted of four minks complete with ears, noses, tails and toenails! We decided on a Devonshire coffee for morning tea and then realised it was nearly lunchtime, so ordered an extra scone each. They had been freshly made that morning and came with home made apricot jam and VERY thick cream.

We filled up with fuel (much cheaper than at Wilpena) and continued across the immense plain towards Peterborough. By now, the saltbush desert had given way to wheat and sheep farms. The caravan park at Peterborough is very nice, and we were greeted by a very friendly cat of some Scottish breed. Needless to say, one of our party was a little jealous!

We discovered the town was an important rail crossroads (the Indian Pacific goes through here) and has a large steam rail museum. Tours were very well organised and continuous and we had a very passionate lady start us off. She quickly became friends with Cat and he was allowed drive the turntable and get into carriages we weren’t allowed in. He was a bit worried that he might get left behind in the sheep wagon, though. It was at this time that another couple joined our party of two – Lloyd and Rosie from Sassafras. Their son was best man at our daughter’s wedding – such a small world! The tour continued with a new guide who showed us through all the old carriages, as well as the child health carriage and the track workers’ carriage. Some of these had fuel heaters and stoves. The lounge car did create a bit of excitement when the photographer( me) decided to take a photo of Himself lounging in luxury and sat down on the couch which suddenly wasn’t there anymore! A couple of bruised hands, bottom and dignity resulted. Cat did cause a bit of bother when he jumped into the dog box in the guard’s wagon (I think it was to make up for the cat at the caravan park!).

This was a great tour and well worth a visit.