Today Tuesday 31 Jan 2006

 Today is a trip on the ABT Wilderness Railway Day
   Another lazy full day in Strahan again today, its Wilderness Train journey from here to Queenstown and its another look forward to thing for us. We rang the agents last night to find that departure time was 9-30am which enabled us to have a late rise and breakfast in our suite first.
    The Train stop was a short drive through town so we had to arrive about 30 minutes prior, so off we went with plenty of time to spare and watch the rail engineers prepare the engine for the journey.   This train is only one of maybe 3 or 4 in the world because of what they call a rack & pinion rail line to drag it up the very steep inclines up in the mountains
    Take a trip back in time to where men slaved through mud, rain and treacherous landscapes to forge a link between the mining town of Queenstown and the port of Strahan. The West Coast Wilderness Railway forms a gateway for visitors to explore Tasmania's unique rail heritage, discovering the inspiring story of the pioneers who built the original west coast railway more than 100 years ago.
    Along the 35km journey you will stop at stations of the past - Lower Landing, Dubbil Barril, Rinadeena - where your trained guides will bring to life the stories of these historic points on the railway. Marvel at the tenacity of the West Coast Wilderness Railway and its pioneers as it passes over bridges towering above the rivers below, through massive hand-hewed rock cuttings, under the protective canopies of ancient rainforests and along the edge of plunging gorges.
     Amazing feats of engineering and the human spirit of the pioneers who built the original west coast railway are seen in lasting tributes along the journey. All rock cuttings along the railway were completed by the pioneers using only hand tools, the largest having more than 80,000
barrow loads of rock removed. A rock wall holds up the banks of the King River as the train passes teeteringly close, built one piece at a time by early engineers with local rocks, using barges on the river as their "scaffolding".
   Stopping at Lower Landing, passengers have the unusual treat of tasting Tasmania's leatherwood honey, from the Tasmanian Honey Company, while listening to our guides explain the honey-making process going on above at Teepookana Plateau.
     By far the most amazing sight along the journey is the King River Gorge, which plunges spectacularly from the railway tracks straight down to the river below. Huge native trees cling to the gorge's sides like resolute soldiers - an indication of how those workers 100 years ago must have felt. You can almost reach out and touch native rainforests of this area - myrtle, blackwood, sassafras and the high-demand Huon Pine, found only in Tasmania and a protected species in
this State. No-one is allowed to fell this majestic beauty, which takes hundreds of years to grow to maturity.
 After that little story, what we saw along the way and what our tour guide told us, well we cannot put our words out to you about it , it was an pioneer engineering feat in its own right firstly trying to find a route through the rugged mountainous region, then to lay the tracks in very horrendous wet,cold conditions up the very steep incline and down the deepest valley. As it said before the train did stop at little stops to allow us to see various things and at one place the changed the engine and we had our lunch that was provided in price.
   As we climbed higher and higher the weather closed in and became wet and cold and that was when everybody was give a poncho rain coat to stay dry. All the way the scenery was tremendous and changing at every turn or around every bend, especially the gorge views and closer to Queenstown to all 's surprise the River and its banks turned yellow and very dirty looking due to the leeching of copper oxides escaping from the mines and allowed to flow into the river and that in turn destroys all vegetation in it path. All in all we thought it was a sad way to end such a delightful journey to see all sided.... the good , the bad and the ugly.
  After arriving into Queenstown we had about an hour to take a look at the town before boarding our coach for return to Strahan thus ending a great day of exploring the harshness of this part of Tasmania. The last two day we have spent in the area has really been many thing to us, but the thing that will remain mostly in my mind is that we were priveleged to see and stand in Rainforest amid trees etc that were hundreds if not thousands of years old and also that the areas are untouched by human intervention and will remain that way.
   It has come for me to say that sadly our stay here in this lovely rugged wilderness area has come to and end after two days and tomorrow we must leave on our next leg and drive up to Stanley on the Bass Strait coast.