Qantas Museum and on to Winton

Well, this morning, I got up at about 6am and then had to watch silly tv until 9am to be able to go to the QANTAS museum.

Lets just say firstly that its fantastic.

I’ve been to a few museums in my time and this one is done really well. Theres lots of models, replicas and original parts. There are video and audio areas and lots of things to read. They also made, in the cafe, the best coffee I’ve had on this trip so far.

They offer 3 tours, the 747 tour, 707 tour, and the 747 detailed tour with wing walk. of course, I did all 3. That with the museum was $115 so its not cheap but its worth it.

These were from the wing walk tour

This part is in the avionics bay. In the floor of the cabin, there’s a hatch and when opened, it reveals a ladder going down. This is where you see in all the movies where people have to go and wind down the landing gear manually. It also leads back to access the cargo area. This was probably the most fun parts of the tour.

This was the Flight deck of the 747 and would make a great base for a simulator…

After the tours, I had to leave (about 2:30) to get to winton. It started raining on the way and although it was not heavy, it slowed me down a little. My back and neck was also getting sore. I’m not really looking forward to the trip tomorrow and may have to cut it short.

In winton, I went to the wasltzing matilda museum. It was a series of ups and downs. The down first as I thought it was going to be crappy, then the realsation that it was $19 so should be pretty good (that was the up). Then I passed through the doors still on a high to a audio visual presentation that was quite interesting. There was another down when I realised that that was the best thing in there and the rest was a smaller version of ‘Kevs tracter museum’ (see previous posts) but not as good. Oh well, its only $19.

Then it was onto a supermarket as I had a craving for some chocolate. That solved, I also got some tennis balls to roll on to try to fix my back. It helped but not that well and I’ll get onto the voltarin tonight I think.

Tomorrow is the 650k ish to Townsville (or maybe one of the towns along the way if I’m too sore) and maybe some decent internet speed and hopefully a chiropractor.

I’ll have a few days there and hope to do lots of the local attractrions. The diving place called me and theres not much available but they hope to get me on the yongala.

I also was finally annoyed yesterday with the chin fur and decided to remove it. This will upset Libby as she wanted me to do it weeks ago and I wanted to continue the expiriment. Oh well, at least she may like me again when I get home.