It was as if we all had stepped back in time as we took a trip on the Gympie rattler. The station was like something out of a western movie with beautiful gardens and quaint tearooms setting the atmosphere for the night. Even the local Gympie paper turned up to take photos of a the group who could only be described as excitable.

As the certain few rode into the station on their noble steeds aka trusty hobbyhorses, the amazing effort put into the costumes became clear. Even though for most those sights would not be clear for long. There was every usual shady character you could think among the group with Cowboys and girls, the oh so respectable salon girls, a flirty school madam and even the Sheriff was there.

Although maybe we should look into having him fired, as there was some unruly behaviour on the train after the group had managed to drink the bar dry. To our credit though we were obliged to lip, sip and suck our way through the tequila shots of course.

As we raced along the track with the good old train being true to its name, rattling along it soon became an effort to say upright while at the gambling tables let alone making it to the loo and back which was a whole other adventure on its own, We all tried our luck with black jack, highs and lows, and roulette with real life chips provided by the organizers. Although Andy and Don seem to be big winners of the night there was definitely a lot more losers amongst us.

We stopped at Imbil station and headed to the Imbil pub for a smorgasbord dinner where we were entertained by a great soloist who sang all the old favourites and got us up on feet dancing. Then we stumbled back onto the train to gamble our way back to Gympie the weather was damp outside but didn’t manage to dampen our spirits although for many of us I don’t think we really noticed or cared about the weather all that much. Back at the station the chips were counted and we didn’t have the biggest winner but Daryl won the raffle by default as a younger cowboy misplaced his ticket. He seems to be lucky as he wins raffles on meeting nights.

I’m sure that all that went would agree it was a very entertaining night with great company that will be remembered for as long as those photos will haunt us. Finally I’d like to give a special mention and thank you to Susanne the social coordinator for her amazing job of the fantastic night.