An early start this morning as we were off on a 9 hour railway journey.
It ran from the coast at Strahan where we are staying up to Queenstown and was originally built to bring copper down from Queenstown to the coast. The terrain was a rainforest and quite impenetrable but these pioneers managed to get a railway through. It was a steam train built in Glasgow and not a huge engine compared to some I’ve seen. Part of the way was so steep it was assisted by a rack and pinion track in between the normal track to help it up and down the incline.
We traveled first class and we had a newly renovated carriage which was all beautiful wood inside. I kept stroking this wood it was so nice and smooth.
We were greeted at 8.30 in the morning with a glass of champagne and a smoked salmon canapé then later a scone with jam and cream then lunch at the station in Queenstown then a plate of fruit on the train then cheese and biscuits. Non stop grazing.
Really good trip. We had a short time to walk round Queenstown but really there was nothing to see it was a sort of ghost town. It had had its hey day and was now a shell which I guess was helped by the railway bringing tourists in.
This was the town where in 1954 our friend Sue came from Coventry with her family as £10 Pommes. Also her husband Bill had lived there but not at the same time.
When we leave here on Sunday we have to drive through Queenstown to get to Hobart and we are going to see if either of their houses still exist.
All very interesting.