By the numbers
1 coach tour
Billy can lunch
The day started early again and I was hopeful that we would be doing the tours that we could not do the day before. There had been no rain the night before and everything looked promising. We went into town for the first part of the tour, which was the Cobb and Co coach tour that included the horses pulling us. The tour was going ahead and that was the good news I wanted to hear as there were other plans for the last day in Longreach. The day would start with a tour on the horses, morning tea and then discussion about carriages and then a movie.
While waiting for the first part of our tour to start we had the town crier who was in his 90s and still doing a great job as part of the tour group. He was telling stories from when life was different and a lot tougher especially when there were many more pubs in town. He told the story of Jackie Howe a sheep sheerer who actually lived in the area or close to it. We went on to be the first group to take a ride on the stage coach, although we would not go into the town commons as it was too boggy, but we instead went around town except for a few muddy side streets where we could let the horses go faster. There were two carriages being led around town and we followed the first one. The man who started Cobb and Co was an American who stayed for a while as the company grew in Australia. They not only carried people, but also the mail to towns along the route too.
When we got back we could have a look in the shop before we were let back outside to hear a chat about the different sorts of carriages that were used in the days of horse and cart, which would be replaced by motorised vehicles. We ended up watching an Australian movie about a kid called Smiley who got into loads of trouble and tried to be good. After that there was a billy can lunch that included an apple, sandwich, a drink and a cake of sorts. We then had several hours before we would be picked up by a coach and go out to the next part of the tour.
We had a river cruise planned with the same outfit. They picked us up from where we were staying and took us out to where they did the river cruise and then fed us. They had gotten a paddleboat from down in Victoria and bought it up to Queensland by land. It ended up sinking partially because the local turtles seemed to have a liking for the calking in the boat, and nature did the rest. The paddle boat cruise was nice as we got nibblies even though it didn’t seem to be that long. When we got back another bus load of people turned up. Then we got the story of the paddleboat that sank. By this time the other boat had returned and there were campfire stories and poems before being served up food. They were a great bunch and we hopped on the bus again to head back into town even if the driver forgot our stop and then realised.
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