WONDERFUL WILDERNESS RAILWAY

Our Beautiful Shiny Locomotive

What an amazing experience! While we were in Strahan we took the opportunity to take a ride on the iconic Wilderness Railway that runs from Strahan to Queenstown. They offer two levels of enjoyment – general and deluxe – we decided to treat ourselves and went Deluxe! We had to wait for 5 days to actually get a berth as they were just so busy. The Wilderness Railway is at risk of becoming defunct as it appears it is not making sufficient money for the current operators to continue. The Government has indicated it may be prepared to assist, but that avenue is rather tenuous at the best. The trains will stop running at the end of April and then the business will be up for tender etc. I have to tell you, if it ceases it will be a travesty – it is a very special piece of history and a brilliant experience. We count ourselves fortunate indeed to have taken this train ride.

Luxuriously Appointed

The way the rail operates, is to either take a coach to Queenstown and the train back to Strahan or vice versa – we opted to take the coach to Queenstown and ride the train back – that worked well for us. We left Strahan by coach at 8.30am and headed along the steep and windy road to Queenstown – happy to have the coach driver do the driving for a change. The weather that day was not the best, light rain and heavy mists clung to the roads and mountains. We had heard many bad things about Queenstown and so were pleasantly surprised when we arrived there. I will tell you all about Queenstown in the next blog however.

When we arrived at the Queenstown Train Station we were greeted by the sight of our beautiful train – bright red shiny carriages set behind an incredibly well maintained gleaming black and red Puffing Billy – the setting was perfect, clouds, mist, soft rain and pure white steam chuffing softly from the engine as it sat warming in the cool morning air.

Our Deluxe carriage was just stupendous – all beautifully polished warm timbers, antique style fittings (as per the era) and luxurious leather seating. As we boarded we were greeted by our charming young hostess and handed a glass of sparkling white of excellent quality. Hmm, the day was looking ‘real good’! We were fortunate to have the last seats in that carriage which was at the rear of the train and looked ‘backwards’ thru’ huge windows to the beautifully appointed little platform at the rear of the train. I was actually able to shoot (photos) thru’ the rear windows they were so large and clear. We were able to walk out to the platform for more comprehensive photo-taking as well. We had no sooner left the station with a big hisssss of steam and a vigorous blowing of the whistle than our lovely hostess came around with a plentiful supply of tiny hot Bree and Chicken pies – these kept coming for some time along with as many beverages of choice one wished to partake of. I have to say that I had no repeat of the boat trip problems and was able to consume a few of those delicious glasses of bubbly.

Goodbye Queenstown Station

Exiting Queenstown Station

The train threaded its way along narrow ferny passes, up steep inclines, over skinny bridges spanning gorges over swiftly flowing rivers and down almost vertical declines. The commentary along the way was good and very informative. We were provided with beautifully produced complimentary books telling us all about the railway, the region and the Abt System of Rail which the train utilises for the super steep track. Abt is a Rack & Pinion System of rail developed by Swiss Engineer Dr Roman Abt – “this system utilises a third rail of solid bars with vertical teeth. Small Cogwheels under the loco engage with the teeth on the middle rail”. Without this system it is doubtful the historical locomotive would have ever been established in that region.

Abt Rack & Pinon Rail System

The purpose of the original trains was to haul copper from the mines in Queenstown to the harbour at Strahan. The line construction was also a major event incorporating some 60 bridges over incredibly tough terrain in a decidedly inclement climate. It is a disturbing thought wondering how many lives were lost in the endeavour. Eventually use of the trains was discontinued as alternative means of transporting ore became available and as mining in the town diminished dramatically. The trains were left to ruin and the wilderness started to reclaim the track. In the early 21st century the track was restored and the trains lovingly restored. Carriages were purpose built along the lines of the original My Lyell carriages and the Wilderness Railway was born. The railway was first opened in 1899, closed in 1963 and reopened in 2000.

The Rail Followed a Winding

And Often Narrow Track

We travelled alongside both the Queen and King Rivers and were told that the rivers were technically ‘dead’! It seems that the early mining settlement, not knowing better, dumped much of the town waste into the Queen River – this included waste from the mines – sulphuric acid being just one of the chemicals poured into the unfortunate river. The Queen runs into the King and so both rivers were contaminated. Certainly the Queen looks dead – the rocks and banks of the river are all an unhealthy and un-natural yellow colour and there are no plants close to the waters’ edge. The King on the other hand looks just fine, but we are told there is no life in the river. Both rivers are in repair mode and they say that it will take around 100 years for them to regenerate and harbour life once again.

The Queen is Dead















The Dead King From on High







We made four stops along the way at old sidings and stations. At Rinadeena, one of these stops the organisers of the trip arranged for willing passengers to do a little gold panning. Now, I feel a little guilty here, I should really have told the other passengers to forget it, as if DD was going to do any panning, he would inevitably be the one to ‘’strike it rich’ – indeed, eureka was the word for the day as when I came back from photographing our beautiful loco, there was DD pleased as punch, holding up a little plastic bag which held his lucky strike. What can I say? DD claims he is going to have a ring made from the gold – all kidding aside, the tiny piece of metal is probably worth around $30 on today’s market – the lad is happy!

Eureka

The 'Workings' of our Loco

The goodies on the train kept coming with slices of a choclatey fudgey sort of thingamabob – either milk chocolate and coconut or white chocolate and berries – served with coffee etc – just delicious. After all that, they fed us! Lunch was at another little siding and comprised of fresh salmon and ham buns, chocolate bars and fresh fruit. After lunch we changed trains – the steam engine was replaced with an equally shiny diesel engine which pulled the carriages the remaining distance to Strahan. For some reason, they reversed the carriages and we were now in the front carriage looking at the back of the diesel.

Our Nice Shiny Diesel for the Homeward Stretch

Tiny Sidings Along the Way

One of the Many Bridges

Once we were back on board, we were again able to avail ourselves of tea, coffee and alcohol as desired. We continued to cross rivers and gorges until we finally arrived on the comparative flat land at the mouth of the King River. We finally arrived back at the Strahan station at around 3ish in the afternoon. The day was wonderful and will always be a cherished memory of Tasmania.

Until next time when we meet in Queenstown, stay on track – Steph.

The King meets Macquarie Harbour

THE GAY GORDON

Our Lift For the Day

Beautifully Appointed Inside

As I mentioned in the previous blog, one of the ‘must do’ things in Strahan is to cruise the glorious Gordon River; not a hardship I can assure you. ‘Doing the Cruise’ involves selecting which of the large luxuriously appointed catamarans you wish to travel on. Our advice is to take the one which leaves earliest in the day – I will explain why a little later.

The cruise offers 3 levels of comfort – Captains Table, Window Seats, or Centre Aisle. The Cats are decked out a little like an aircraft with window seats and raised centre seats and then on the fly deck they have the Captain‘s section for those who wish to truly indulge themselves.

Coming Back in From the Mouth

We opted for the Window Seats, priced between the other two levels. Frankly, were we to do it again, we would opt for the cheapest seats, in the centre. The Window Seats are fine, but the drop down aeroplane style tables leave something to be desired, especially if you are not built like Twiggy (look it up if you’re too young to know!). The raised seats in the middle of the cat provided very good visibility over the heads of the window seaters plus very good stable tables – everything else was the same. Both the lower levels provided an ample buffet lunch with more fresh smoked salmon than anyone could possible wish for. The Captain’s deck provided a hot meal and wine and nibbles throughout the cruise. All levels enabled movement about the craft out onto the observation decks for photo shots and fresh air. The whole production was extremely professional.

On leaving the wharf early in the morning, the cat first took us out thru’ the heads, explaining as they went about the extremely tight and shallow mouth of the harbour, named aptly enough Devil’s Gate. Due to the shallow draft through the entrance, the early settlers, constructed what amounts to a submerged groin which protects the depth of the channel into the harbour. This rock wall was made by hand – all the rocks carried out in row-boats and painstakingly placed along the rock wall. Only traces of this wall are visible above the water. Prior to the construction of this rock wall entrance into the harbour was very treacherous and more than one ship foundered there.


Submerged Rock Wall



From the mouth of the river we then backtracked thru’ the picturesque harbour and headed inland up the Gordon. One of the main attractions here is the supremely photogenic river – on a calm day the reflections here are just amazing, due largely to the same heavy tannin levels as previously explained in the Arthur River blog. We were lucky (as usual) and whilst there was light rain and mist that day there was very little wind – we managed to get some fantastic photo shots. This is why you need to get on the earlier boat – it takes (they say) around 1 hour for the river to settle down after the passing of one of these cats and so the second boat doesn’t get quite the same photo opportunities as the first one.


Amazing Reflections


After providing some wonderful photo opportunities the boat stopped to let us off for a short but quite informative Rain Forest walk along a constructed boardwalk. We learned quite a lot about the Huon Pine (one of the reasons for the original settlement) and the other flora and fauna in the region.

Still Reflective

Once back on board, they provided us with lunch – nobody could have complained about either the quantity or the quality. We elected to purchase a nice bottle of red with our lunch. Sadly either the wine or the sample of Leatherwood Honey provided ‘did me in’ and I was rather unwell after the honey and half a glass of the red and so poor old DD had to drink the bottle all on his own – life is tough sometimes!

Interesting Fungi (Not DD)

Once lunch was over we cruised back to the harbour and over to Sarah Island – the once penal island. We went ashore there and a very talented lady took us for a tour of the island. She took on a very theatrical role as she portrayed the dreadful life experienced by the poor souls imprisoned there. The ruins were interesting and strangely I didn’t feel a pall of misery there as I once noticed at Port Arthur many years ago. The place has a beauty all of its own and I think perhaps that and the sheer unreality of that life to those of us fortunate enough not to have experienced it, made the whole thing seem quite surreal. I’m not saying that you don’t feel any vibes there; just that they didn’t linger. There are many historical stories regarding the penal colony and the officers who ran the place – really worthy of investigation if you are interested in human nature and all its dark foibles.

Once An Oven for The Daily Bread On Sarah Island

Poignant Memories

From the island we were taken in leisurely fashion back to the wharf. The whole cruise took 6 hours, commencing at 8.30 and docking at 2.30 – on the whole a pleasant experience and well worth the money spent. The odd thing is that my peasant blood must be showing through as I actually preferred the Arthur River experience – perhaps it was the simplicity of it or perhaps the fact that you were a little closer to nature on that little boat, but whatever it was if I had to choose, I would choose the Arthur River cruise – it all depends on what you are looking for I guess.

Until next time when we will take a Train Trip, keep an even keel – Steph.

Magical!

STEAMY STRAHAN

Macquary Harbour

I’m sorry to say time has once again run away from me and I am still in catch up mode. I write this not from Steamy Strahan but from a distinctly chilly and wet St Claire. We are almost without internet and so I am taking the opportunity to catch up on writing my blogs in the knowledge that I will be unable to post them for at least another 3 days if not longer. We are currently in ‘The Central Highlands’ and will be for at least another 6 or so days, no internet (for my laptop at least) and no TV – I think this will test DD somewhat but I am fine with it, although would have liked to warn friends and family first that we would be out of range. A......oh wait a minute, DD has now managed to get some internet service on his laptop, but guess what folks, that will not extend to mine. Long story – so I will leave it out.

To add to my own woes I have either developed an allergy to these highlands/rain forests or I have picked up some weird adult version of measles. I am covered in some sort of rash and have become rather ‘sniffy’ all over again. I have hit the anti-histamines and they have helped somewhat but that almost overwhelming urge to scratch is hard to resist.

Beautiful Gardens



Quaint Old Houses


Anyway, enough of that! Since my last entry we seem to have been around the world and back. We stayed in Strahan for 8 days (a strange but fortuitous mix up with the CP) and from there headed off to Queenstown where we stayed for yet another 3 nights. While in Strahan we ‘did’ the Wilderness Railway and the Gordon River Cruise. Rather than drive you nuts with a great long winded blog I will split these wondrous events into 4 separate blogs, Strahan, Railway, Cruise and Queenstown. By the time I get to publish these blogs there will probably also be Lake St Claire. So folks, bear with me as we go back to Strahan.

The drive from Somerset to Strahan was absolutely amazing. We pulled Jezzy thru’ some incredible country. Unbelievably steep and winding roads surrounded by lush rain-forest clung to the edges of sheer rock walls; the tree-ferns and gums dropping away hundreds of feet on the off side of the road. I thought I was exercising those clenching muscles when we drove the Gt Ocean Road but friends you have no idea! The saving grace of the drive, aside from the extreme beauty, was the lack of traffic. DD did us proud, having determined beforehand that this particular road was fairly quiet. It used to be the main drag through the region but a later straighter road has since been built for the first part of the trip and that now carries the bulk of the traffic including all the big trucks.

Windy and Steep Roads Along the way to Strahan

The drive was a fairly long one by Tasmanian standards and took us the prescribed 3 ½ hours. Down here, rather than tell you how many ks to go, they tell you how long it will take. It works rather well, particularly from a tourist viewpoint. We are still trying to get used to the road-signs here, some of which we are still to figure out.

Strahan itself is very pretty, sitting on the banks of Macquarie Harbour – the second largest natural harbour in Australia, second only to Port Phillip Bay in Victoria. Strahan has plenty of history, having been discovered in 1815. A convict settlement was established in 1822. Abysmally harsh conditions and treatment of those poor souls sent there has been recorded. One of the worst areas was at Sarah Island, where the so called worst of the ‘offenders’ were sent. We visited Sarah Island as part of the Gordon River Cruise and heard and saw for ourselves how life was for those sent to that dreaded place.

Mountains Watching Over the Harbour

Strahan is a place of unusual beauty. The lush temperate rain forest rambles right down to the waterfront and thus almost every garden sports a plethora of giant tree ferns. Wherever you look there are mountains watching over and protecting the tiny village. Once again the theme is designed to capture the tourist dollar, but I have to say they do it well. We only had one meal out whilst we were there, choosing what looked to be the locals pub and having a simple seafood meal looking out over the harbour. The price seemed to be on a par with most other places. A local IGA proved to be sufficient for our meagre shopping needs and the town sports a good post office.

The place was just full of tourists and many people were turned away as the CP was full to the point of overflowing. It seems that March is the main tourist month here and as there are strong indications that the Wilderness Railway is about to become defunct, even Taswegians are flocking to Strahan to take a ride on the iconic train. Many folk had to either free-park or try their luck in Queenstown (another story!). It seems that the Golf Club here allows camping and from what we hear it is quite a good spot.

It seems that the main purpose of Strahan is to act as a huge booking office for both the cruise and the railway. There is also a sea-plane there which does tours of the Gordon River and surrounds. We didn’t fancy this, but were told by someone who took t he tour that it was excellent, albeit rather expensive at around $200 per head (give or take $50).

Mud Flats along the Mouth of the King River

Between cruises and trains we took a drive out to the little town of Zeehan, once a thriving metropolis (Silver Mining) and to the Ocean Beach at Strahan – around 25ks gravel road. We also found a little dirt road which meanders alongside the mouth of the King River. We were fascinated with the dry mud beds surrounding the River. So fascinated in fact that we drove all around these dry mud flats. We have since been told that the mud or rather lack of plants is due partly at least to the rubbish that has made its way down the river from Queenstown. Amongst the other pollutants was a high amount of Sulphuric Acid and copper. We were told that there are still unusually high levels of some unwanted chemicals in that water.

Old Buildings in Zeehan

Trial Port Just outside of Zeehan

One of the more unusual facts about Macquarie Harbour is that the surface water is fresh and the lower level of water is salt. This means that only certain types of fish that are both fresh and salt water tolerant are able to thrive in those waters. That leads me to a strange thing we have both noticed and that is the apparent lack of bird life in this part of the world. We were told, whilst on board the cruise, that there is very little of value fodder wise for many birds in the rain-forests and so they are not called to live there. It feels quite odd, all that verdant green and so few birds. It seems that much of the fauna there is of such ancient origins it doesn’t utilise a solely seed propagation method – thus the lack of food for birds.

Water Skiers at Sundown

You may be wondering at my use of the word Steamy in conjunction with a town on the west coast of Tasmania – well, the whole time we were there, it was hot and humid and I do mean humid. The nights were uncomfortable indeed – not at all what we expected. It did start raining finally, on our last day there – not that the humidity abated any at the onset of rain.

The caravan park there is OK – there used to be two but they have now amalgamated into one park, albeit split into two sections on opposite sides of the road. The amenities were functional and the park was reasonable but expensive at $40 per night. The sites were not particularly spacious and we didn’t see one pooch whilst there so presume that it was not dog friendly. The big bonus was that it was strolling distance from the water and we had a lovely little beach almost to ourselves.

It seems that we (translate I) took around a million photos whilst in Strahan, I have been practising with DD’s awesome lenses which very conveniently fit my camera as well as his. I now seem to have become mildly addicted to photo taking. I will try to pick the eyes out of them for the blog.

In the meantime, share like there is no tomorrow – Steph.

Great Life for a Dog

Don't Think He Was Watching the Dog!



Goodnight From Me