i30 Owners Club
GENERAL STUFF => CLUB MEETINGS & MEMBERS TRIPS => Topic started by: i30premy on April 17, 2017, 07:37:44
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Been traveling around the country lately - 6 states in 4 weeks! So it's nice to come home & not worry about getting to airports on time.
Started in early March with a business trip to Adelaide, dinner at the National Wine Centre Firday evening with guest speaker John Bowe & an invite to the Clipsal 500 on the Sat in a corporate pavilion - going to be hard going back to general admission stands after this.
Invite included a tour though the Erubus team pits & a pit walk prior to the main race.
Departed Adelaide on the Sunday & as wife wanted to do the Ghan train trip, we boarded for Darwin. Left @ midday (Gold Class) & arrived in Darwin 5pm Tues - 3 days 2 nights. Trip includes all food, drinks & off train excursions.
1st stop on Mon was Marla (Rail siding NW SA) for a 6am light breaky watching an outback sunrise. Next was Alice Springs in the arvo, we took the "Alice Explorer" tour of the town - not that impressed with the town & many high steel fences (some with barb wire) surrounding properties.
Tues AM saw us in Katherine, our tour there was the Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge boat trip
A few bits of info that I wasn't aware of:
In ADL we stayed at the Intercontinental which is next door to station - great, get up have breaky & wander next door to board. Nup, GSR have their own station complex @ Parklands, a $15 taxi ride from CBD. Ghan is too long for a normal station & needs to be split up into 2/3 to fit. Our train was 860mtrs long, for a full load it goes out to over 1km.
The Ghan is made up of 4 sectors & each has it's own dining/galley, lounge & 5 pax cars (each has 9 double cabins). We left ADL with 60? in our sector, but 40? left in Alice, a couple got on, so between Alice & Darwin we had 16 - plenty of room to party :-)
Coming back would have been a different situation, they were 100% full as there was a cruise ship unload for a rail trip south. Overall a very enjoyable trip (but $$$$), probably only do the trip once, although we were discussing driving to Perth & bring the car back to SYD by the Indian Pacific - again nup, GSR don't transport cars between ADL & SYD any longer. Stupid NSW have hit GSR with a massive increase in fees to handle cars in SYD & GSR aren't prepared to pass this cost onto customers.
The crew are fantastic & very willing to assist in any way possible.
In Darwin we stayed at the waterfront precinct for 3 nights & had a room overlooking the bay, maybe 1/2 km from CBD but pleasant walk. Unfortunatley our trip was in the wet season so the humidity was uncomfortable. Did the touristy stuff, inc the Hop-on Hop Off bus but later in day got caught in a rainstorm & bus wasn't very rain proof - even driver had plastic over his dash to stop getting wet & it was an old double decker!!
2 weeks later an emergency trip to Tassie for relo's funeral, caught up with Daz for an enjoyable coffee on his balcony overlooking valley, week later busn trip to Brisbane & Gold Coast - yep during the floods although we were lucky & didn't get affected by any road closures.
John Bowe & DW at dinner - both come from Devonport TAS
(http://i.imgur.com/joHmP7E.jpg)
Doing it tought in corporate pavillion :-)
(http://i.imgur.com/GQEwlvK.jpg)
Erebus team pit tour
(http://i.imgur.com/s2sdOC9.jpg)
Hotwheels tent - guess the girls are there to get the dads in?
(http://i.imgur.com/qOkhqVm.jpg)
Testing video from my Google Drive
Super trucks @ Clipsal
:link: ClipsalTrucks2.mp4 - Google Drive (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-hujgUCtNd8SUw2TWFFSlltSG8)
Vimeo - pit tour
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/213482724" (https://player.vimeo.com/video/213482724"); width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/213482724">ClipsalPits</a> (https://vimeo.com/213482724">ClipsalPits</a>); from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user786837">Neville (https://vimeo.com/user786837">Neville) W</a> on <a
:link: ClipsalPits on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/213482724)
GSR lounge waiting to board Ghan after checking in - very relaxed with our pre-departure drinks!!
(http://i.imgur.com/7Ws8Ddq.jpg)
All loaded & waiting to go - was planning to drop bags in cabin & get off & take some pics but as all pax were onboard our car lass had locked to doors. Cabin is about size of double bed, 3 seater lougne by day & upper & lower bunks for sleeping
(http://i.imgur.com/ck4kY3O.jpg)
Sunrise in the outback in Marla
(http://i.imgur.com/O0wgcAz.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/PDhQ59q.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/UC1kNyg.jpg)
Middle of train looking toward rear.
(http://i.imgur.com/Htc4DLb.jpg)
Lounge enjoying an arvo drink (or more)
(http://i.imgur.com/k8iFkc6.jpg)
Loco's - interesting that in all the promo pics you see people next to loco, this was as close as pax can normally get!
(http://i.imgur.com/2FtArbg.jpg)
Dining car - ask the crew to take a pic & Jessie insists getting in on the selfie!!
(http://i.imgur.com/PpO7fS2.jpg)
Nitmiluk Gorge
(http://i.imgur.com/ggbo5Wv.jpg)
Just trying to imbed video from Vimeo - give you some idea of length of train
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/213473630" (https://player.vimeo.com/video/213473630"); width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/213473630">GhanMarla</a> (https://vimeo.com/213473630">GhanMarla</a>); from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user786837">Neville (https://vimeo.com/user786837">Neville) W</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> (https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>);
:link: GhanMarla on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/213473630)
Darwin Hotel in the waterfront district
(http://i.imgur.com/sDSi2BG.jpg)
View from hotel room overlooking bay
(http://i.imgur.com/84rVlVs.jpg)
Dinner in one of the many alfresco restaurants surrounding our hotel
(http://i.imgur.com/rswjpru.jpg)
Ordered ribs, managed to get through 2 of the 3 before they beat me.
(http://i.imgur.com/a9k0n1t.jpg)
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Nice photos :goodjob2:
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The two Vimeo links work if you click on the very last part of them. Great post Neville (very interesting) :goodjob:
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The two Vimeo links work if you click on the very last part of them.
Yeah I worked that out in the end :goodjob2:
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Hi Daz, tried to embed the video into post but obviously didn't work
I included link as a second backup.
Although I'm now looking at a Youtube option which according to options should work - just takes ages to u/l these files!!
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No probs Neville,
Shambles or one of the Moderators may know how to embed the Vimeo Vids..
Anyway, a link is fine.