Wow, the wind sure howled last night! It also rained the entire night. I looked at the weather this morning. For Strahan, and surrounding areas it was 100% rain and winds up to 29mph (yes, miles per hour). It was a good day to not ride!
So...what to do? I took the 1km path into town and stopped in at the Visitor’s Center. I saw there was a steam train ride up into the rain forest. I asked about it, and there was one at 2:15. I booked it, then hung around in town until it was time to walk out to Regatta Point where I would catch the train. I killed time at Banjo’s Cafe and Bakery having hot chocolate and chocolate hot crossed buns. I also bought a chicken and avocado pita to have on the train.
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| Yum |
I did the 25 minute walk to the Point, and waited to get on the train. At about 1:30, the train pulled into the station. The people who had done the morning train got off, and those of us doing the afternoon train got on. The train was supposed to pull out at 2:15. Everyone was on the train, but we still weren’t leaving. The train people kept counting people, then looking at their list, and counting again. Finally, Tom, our commentator, got on the train and came to me to ask if I was Colleen. Apparently, I was supposed to have exchanged my booking paperwork for a ticket...oops. He gave me my ticket, and then we were off.
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| The West Coast Wilderness Train |
The railway was built to bring copper from the mine. At the time, there was no way to get to Queenstown (now 41km away from Strahan by road). An enterprising man wanted to build a railway from the King River over the mountain to Queenstown, thus providing a way to get goods and the copper to the port in Strahan on Macquarie Harbor.
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| The King River (orange from all the rain) |
It took 2 1/2 years to build the railway. In 1963, the last steam train pulled out of the station. The road had been built, and the train was too costly to operate and maintain. Then, with the help of the federal government, and state government, they were able to rebuild the rail line, and make it a tourist adventure.
Today, the train ride was 4 hours. We went up into the rain forest stopping at two stations along the way. The first was Lower Landing. We had 15 minutes to look around, and get snacks from the bistro car if we wanted. The steam engine took on water.
The second stop was the turn around point. It was called Dubbil Barill. There we had time to do a 10 minute forest walk, after watching the engineers turn the engine around by hand on the turntable.
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| Engine coming onto the turntable |
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| Rainforest Walk |
Back on the train, we switched sides so everyone got to see everything. We stopped again at Lower Landing, this time getting to sample some of the Leatherwood Honey that is produced in that area. At the time the Leatherwood Trees are blooming, the apiary people bring the bees up on the train to pollinate and make the honey. It has a strong taste and a different texture. It’s good. I bought a small jar.
We returned to the station at 6:15. I walked back to the caravan park. The weather is much better this evening.
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| A nice view of the harbor |
It was a good day to not ride. In fact, I think it would have been dangerous to ride.
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