West Coast Wilderness

Anyone who has been following thus far might remember that we were disappointed about having to forgo a trip we had booked on the West Coast Wilderness Railway.

Well we have been very lucky so far on this trip and our luck did not desert us this time either.
When we went to get a refund for the trip we were told that there were two available seats for Saturday, we were due to leave Strahan on Saturday morning, but did not have anything booked for Saturday night. It turned out the train was operating from Queenstown, 45 minutes away, instead of Strahan. So, we got up early on Saturday morning to drive to Queenstown to pick up the train, which would now do a round trip and end up where it began.

There was some astounding scenery along the way, but again it was quite dull and cloudy.......

Queenstown was and is a mining town. It certainly had the look of a "frontier town" - there was a pretty much a pub on every corner. Apparently in the early 1900s it had 14 pubs!!

This one was called the Empire and looked particularly grand.

We booked into one of the pubs with plenty of time to catch the train.

There was a photo of the train inserted here, but I lost it.........

Just picture Gordon from Thomas the Tank Engine OK?

First stop was for a bit of prospecting....... Here's Ray having a go........... Our luck wasn't THAT good!

The country that the train line ran through really had to be seen to be believed. I know full well that my photos are completely inadequate. I don't really think that I can explain. The rain forest here in Tasmania is very magical. It made me think that I would see a dinosaur coming out from the tree ferns and taller trees any second.... There is lots of moss and lichen and bush orchids and ferns and trees - and apparently the only place in the world that you will find that particular combination of trees.

Tassie has a tree called Leatherwood which only exists here. They produce Leatherwood Honey here. Actually they are very proud of their food and wines.

Rightly so!

We have chosen the premier service on these two trips and that has treated us to local salmon, ocean trout, wallaby, emu, apples, chocolates, truffles, fudges, cheeses, wines and beers

 

We had a short walk at one of the water stations and Ray found some blackberries.



Now the train tracks, in part, were something called a 'rack and pinion' and Ray knows all about that and I don't so you are either gonna have to look it up or wait for Ray to get home and explain it!