QANTAS Founders Museum, Longreach

The main reason for our road trip to Longreach was this. A visit to the QANTAS FOunders Museum where we could walk on the wing of a 747.

THe 747 is an imposing sight as you drive into Longreach. That distinctive red tail really stands out.

We were booked to do the whole package of tours at the museum, so got there at 9am to begin our plane-filled day.

We did a tour of the 747, a tour of the 707, watched a film, sat in the cockpit of the 747, climbed down into the computer bank under the floor of the 747, and finally did our wing walk.

You may think that if you have been on a plane, there is no reason to do a tour of one, but it really did show you a lot of things you wouldn't see, as well as letting you get very close to the plane.

One suggestion - they should take a photo of the people on the wing walk. They could then sell it to you and make more money! We were suprised that we had to take our own photo while we were up there. A photo from a platform near the plane would work better!

THe 747

One of the old planes in the museum

Its a big plane!

Flying the plane?

Janet & Ali on the Wing

Janet on the Wing

Janet under the floor

Janet in the cockpit

side of the plane

Tail of the 707

One of the 747 engines

Janet under the 747

Janet walking down from inspecting the luggage compartment

Hall of Fame in the background

THE 707

Logan to Longreach - pit stop - McDonalds Dalby

The tv adds made us do it. You kow the one where the little girl unscrolls her caramel scroll? We made a pitstop at the McCafe in Dalby to try the "freshly baked" delicacies for ourselves.








A chocolate Croissant. mmmmmmmm. Massive thumbs up for this one from Janet.

And a mini caramel scroll. They only had mini ones. Which made it less satisfying to unscroll. But it tasted delicious all the same!

Accompanied by a mug of tea and a coke zero. And then back on the road!

Logan to Longreach - Road Trip May 2009

We left on Sunday and drove the first leg of 485 Km's to Roma where we stayed at the Starlight Motor Inn. This was a nice clean and neat motel. Thumbs up!

We entertained ourselves in Roma for the afternoon (Roma post to follow). The next day it was back on the road and off to Longreach

We paused in Tambo to fill up with petrol at the slowest petrol pump in the universe, and to have a brief look at the Tambo Teddy shop. Which they really need to do a bit of an upgrade on.

A long drive later and we were in Longreach.

Whilst in Longreach, we stayed at the Longreach Motel, in Eagle St. Not as neat and clean as Roma, but not too bad.

After a few days in Longreach (posts to follow), we reversed the process and travelled home! Stopping once more in Roma at the Starlight Motor Inn.

In total, we travelled 2417km's, bought 148.12L of petrol, saw some great sunsets, walked on the wing of a 747, ate way too much food, and had a lovely time!

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure April 2008 Day 9 - Quebec!

How else to start the day, but with warm croissants? Yum! We had a big hotel brekky to help us avoid buying lunch. Brilliant plan!



We spent the day walking around Quebec....it was easy to find our way around, and a good city for walking.



We visited Parliament House, the Museaum of Civillisation, went to the waterfront where we were amazed at the ice floating down the river. THere is snow everywhere, so the streets were a bit soggy. Its a really old city, with lots of lovely old buildings, surrounded by a great big wall. A lot different to anywhere else we have been. The coolest thing about the museum (once we found it - we kind of walked right past it the first time)...was that we saw a video of an igloo being built. Amazing! There was also an exhibit about leisure, and they had cool places to lie and view videos on the ceiling. We almost fell asleep!



We shares McDonalds fries for lunch - dipped in ketchup. (did I mention how cool it is that everywhere has free sauce??)

So tomorrow we brave the train and head back to Montreal...

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure April 2008 Day 8 - to Quebec!

A day of travelling. We flew from Vancouver to Montreal & then onto a 37 seat plane to Quebec. Montral & Quebec are both covered in snow Amazing!!

Our hotel is very nice - large room. We had a bit of an issue with getting the shower working, but 2 staff members lately and we have learnt how to turn the tap on. We went out for dinner - we tried to do it cheaply by going to McDonalds, but had a language problem and couldn't understand the menu oops. So we ended up in an Italian restaurant - our italian is better than our french :-) Tomorrow should be an interestin day!!

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure Day 7 - Time to do the Laundry.

Yes, it was time to find the laundromat. We walked up here and spent an hour or so doing the washing. Then we walked back to the hotel in the cold, pouring rain. Then it was back out in the rain to do some shopping. We bought a warm jacket for me, which has successfully kept me warm and dry for the rest of today. We basically spent the rest of the day wandering around Vancouver and trying to stay out of the rain. An early start tomorrow as we head to Quebec.



Oh, and i had my first ever hot chocolate today - so I got to walk down the street drinking from a Starbucks cup, just like everyone else around here!

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure Day 6 - SNOW!!

We got back on the trolley bus today and stayed on for almost a full circuit. It was the drivers first day, so he kind of went a different way to the others we had yesterday. We got off at the Seabus terminal and caught the boat across to north Vancouver where we caught the 236 bus to Grouse Mountain. (we just followed the snowboard & ski carrying people). We rode in a crowded gondola up to the mountain top. As we went up, the pouring rain became falling snow and the green trees became white and snow covered.




At the top, we stepped out into a winter wonderland! Snow everywhere and I got to stand in falling snow, pick up freshly fallen snow and walk through it!!! Amazing!!!! It was much softer and lighter than I had imagined.

We had lunch up here and also watched a couple of Imax films before spending a little more time standing out in the snow. Then it was back on the gondola and back down to the rain. It really is amazing how close to the city the snowy mountain is - so quick and easy to get to.

We caught the Seabus back to downtown and then the trolley bus to Robson St to check out the giant HMV, then we walked back to our hotel for a rest before heading out in search of Pizza-free dinner :-) We ended up at a thai place for a delicious vegtabley meal in a warm, fire side spot.

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure April 2008 Day 4 - off to vancouver -

We had to get up early to catch the scarily driven shuttle bus to the airport. An uneventful flight - it went quickly - we had a healthy inflight breakfast of Cadbury Dairy Milk (you had to buy food, so it was chips, chocolate or a beef sandwich).


We arrived in Vancouver to a grey rainy day. We got directions at the airport and caught 2 busses downtown to our hotel - The Comfort Inn. We had to walk a few blocks in the rain. (We love this hotel, it has alovely shower!). We left our bags at the fron desk and wandered around for about 4 hours till our room was ready - we found an underground shopping mall, which kept us out of the rain for a while. We also discovered that every second store seemed to be selling pizza by the slice. So this was lunch. $1.43 a slice. And DELICIOUS!


When our room was ready we went to it and had a warm dry rest. We headed off to the foodcourt in the underground mall for some chinese food for dinner. I am impressed witrh the number of vegetarian options at all the food places - I have a fantastic range of choices!!.

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure April 2008 Day 3 - a good day for a stroll up a hill -

Yes, we've got the busses sorted. We caught the Bus to Lombard St to check out the Crookedest St in the world. We would like to add steepest street in the world to that title. To get to the crooked part, you have to walk up the steepest part of street you can imagine. Wow.

After that, we walked down to the water and headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge, which we admired from a distance before heading back to Fisherman's Warf.

We basically spent the rest of the day walking around here...very touristy...we bought a few bargains (and more mini donuts (donut count #3) and were harassed to eat in various restaurants, we opted for Burger King however.(vegie burger yum!)

We were booked on the 5.25pm "night" tour of Alcatraz, so we hopped on the boat, which goes around the island, then did the walking tour, which is really cool - guards and prisoners take you on a tour through your headphones.

After this, we decided that rather than freeze to death, we'd get the first boat back and hopefully see the sunset behind the bridge, which we did, although freezing was still an option and almost occured. Farout it was cold.

We went in search of dinner and ended up back at Burger King, since it was WARM and we could find it quickly!. Then onto the 49 bus and back to the hotel. Off to the Airport at 5.15am tomorrow and heading for Vancouver!!!

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure - April 2008 - Day 2 - where's that bus???

I think we have conquered the public transport system here.....as long as we don't have to catch bus#2, 3 or 4, because we can't seem to find that one. We ended up on the 37 thanks to the nice policeman. And the 37 took us right where we wanted to be. We started off downtown & checked out some shops like Old Navy (where we could have bought up big, but didn't), GAP and a giant Virgin Mega Store. All the escalators seem to go up about 3 times the distance we are used to, LOTS of room between floors.

After a long wander around in some stores we caught the F-line down to the Cazstro and wandered around there. (oooh first we had a donut (donut count #1) from a shop on the way.

We explored the Castro ands took lots of photos of the rainbow flags. We went in search of a toilet and found a self cleaning talking loo, which was bizzarre and scary.

Lunch was Subway. Subway stores smell exactle the same. yum. Then it was back on the F-line to FIsherman's Warf and Pier 39 where we picked up some souveniers (2 T-shorts for $15) and photographed the seals. And ate some fresh cooked mini donuts (donut count#2) Far out they were good.

We then had to get back on the F-line before our transfers ran out ($1.50 buys you 90 minutes in any direction). We had to get to the BART so we could catch it over to Easy Bay to visit Monti. She picked us up at El Cerito Plaxa and we went back to her place for a home cooked meal. Delicious! It was great to catch up with Monti again and to meet her partner & the kids. Then it was back to the BART into Civic, then 2 blocks west to Van Ness to catch the 49 bus back to Sutter St, just like the first day, only easier because we had no luggage. Now its almost 11pm...we've done well, but definitely time for sleep!

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure - April 2008 - Day 1 - the longest day.

Ok so we stayed awake for over 24 hours. And this was the day AFTER the Celine concert, so we had only 3 hours of snooze the night before. This explains why I am all showered and snuggly in bed at 6pm.

We arrived in San Francisco at about 11 am (half an hour befor we left Brisbane). We braved the Hotel's public transport instructions and caiught the BART (train) from the airport to downtown. From here we had to work out wich way was west and walk a few blocks to the bus. (fortunately for us directionally challenged, the roads all had south, west etc. signs). So we caught the correct bus and then hiked up one of the many hills around here to our hotel (wouldn't have been so bad without luggage!).

They let us check in early, so we popped our bags inthe room and headed out to explore a little and to find some food.

We walked through Japan Town with its lovely cherry blossums snowing down around us. Then we saw a Denny's restaurant so in we went. once inside we realised we would have to work out how to tip on our own. Our meals were served with the best chips we ever tasted. Yummmmm. (So much for eating healthily!!)