Woke up @ 7.00 am and it was rainy again. My friend prepared breakfast for us and we all loaded our stuffs to the car after breakfast. We drove to the village office and did the check-out. Then we drove down to Strahan, another small town. It was a 2 hour long journey, we passed by Roseberry town and Zeehan town which were labelled as historic towns. It was very quiet too, maybe it was because of Good Friday. We reached the apartment early and we don't see any check-in office around too. So i got off the car and asked the cleaner in one of the apartments. She told me that we just see the name written in front of the parking lot to know which apartment is our and the key will be placed on the table.
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| Lunch |
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| Engine 1 |
The guide told us that he is not going to tell us to look out on our left or right for the sights we passed, instead he is telling us a story. So along the way, he used stories to tell us how the railway tracks were built by the people from the older times by pure hands and axes. There was a spot where the workers had slept and ate in that area and they did not have any warm clothes or shoes when it rained. It was still rainy too and the train cut through the rainforest and along King's River. The 2nd station we stopped was called Lower Landing Station. The guide went down and let us try the local honeys, which there was a small shop for selling the honeys. At the same time, the train engineers were filling the stream engine with water using a water tank at the station.
And we were off again. On the train, the guide told us that the train engine that we were on was a 120 years old and it was the very first engine. It was assembled with no instructions and it was still running well till this day. We arrived at the last station, Dobbil Barril station. The guide told us that there were 3 version on how the station got its name. And he left it to us to believe in which of the stories. At this station, the engineers manually turned the train engine in the opposite direction using the rotation table. Then the guide allowed us to go walk a short rainforest trail, and the rain started to pour again. On our way back, the guide continued the story, he told us that the west coast pioneers had built a bridge to get across King's river as there was always flooding. He told us that there were some workers who would tie themselves to the bridge during the construction . And if they were to fall off, they can swing themselves back up. The guide said they were called the swayers. The parts of the bridge were brought back from UK, each part weighed 110 tonnes.
Then the guide told us that there were actually 5 stream engines, however, only 3 were running now. The engines were just namely 1 to 5, engine 4, he told us it was the most problematic engine. It was always giving troubles to the engineers, so it was kept in the storage now. He also said engine 2 was currently exhibited in Hobart Museum. The maximum speed for the trains is at 30km/hr. He told us that the engine 3 was once used to help fight a very big fire in one of the mining caves. He said witnesses from that fateful day told that the engine was boiling red. But many people still died in that fire as there was not enough manpower to keep the fire under control. We were also very lucky that we can go for the railway, as the guide told us the railway was just opened again in 2002. It was closed 39 years ago and it ended with engine number 1 as the last train running on the tracks. Then the guide told us that the people from west coast fought to get their railway back online. And they made it. We reached back to the starting station and the story ended. We gave applause and thanked the guide before we alighted.
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| View from the living room |
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| Dinner |
Hotel Stayed:
Wheelhouse Apartment
Places Visited:
Wildness Railway Tour
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