Day 27 Thursday 13th July

We’ve had a very entertaining and busy day and evening. I wish I could write all the details but I’m sure I’ve forgotten heaps and it may bore the readers! We were booked into the QANTAS Founders Museum again for the Boeing 747 and 707 tour. This tour started at 9.30am. Our tour guide was an entertaining Scottish bloke who did a fantastic job. We were taken around and then on the 747 which was first used by QANTAS in 1979 and last operated as a passenger flight in 2002. It was delivered to Longreach (flown in) for the museum in late 2002. It was left just as it was when it was used back in 2002. Later, we were taken on the 707. This jet was first used by QANTAS in the late 1950’s for several years. It had an interesting history, later being fitted out with beautiful, gold taps and expensive suites etc. It was meant to be sold to an Arabian sheik but had pig-skin seats so it was not wanted. Michael Jackson once owned it and finally it was stripped of all the gold and left to decay. The plane was flown to Longreach from the UK in many short hops. It was still quite luxurious with many beautiful fittings. Inside there were photos of what it once looked like and photos of Michael Jackson and John Tavolta (who helped fly the plane part of the way back to Australia as a promotion for QANTAS). We certainly enjoyed this tour and it went for nearly 2 hours. We spent another couple of hours checking out more of the museum and the heritage listed QANTAS hangar.

In the afternoon we met up with Rick and Kerry and some other friends. We had all booked into a sunset cruise with the same group that we’d done the Cobb and Co coach tour with. We were picked up from the caravan park in a large coach around 4.30pm and taken out to the river and then boarded an old paddlewheel boat. Our coach-driver and boat captain was one of the brothers who had driven the Cobb and Co coach and entertained us yesterday. (The other coach and boat was driven by the other brother!) The sunset cruise was beautiful and we had nibbles and drinks on the boat. When we arrived back we were given a beautiful beef stew and dessert for dinner. This was followed by some great poetry and entertainment from an interesting old man. From here we walked down to a grandstand area in front of a large screen. The river area was beautifully lit with coloured lights. We watched a movie about a famous cattle thief from Longreach and then headed back to the area where we had had dinner, for tea and damper. It was a wonderful night and we arrived back at the caravan park around 9pm.


























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