In the night it had been absolutely chucking it down and unfortunately as we went to breakfast it was still raining, however we were not going to be put off we have the right clothes so off we went into the rain. Our first stop was a walk to Hogarth Falls which at least should be running quite well with all the rain we have had. This is in the People Park which is 70 acres of land that was donated in 1900 to provide somewhere for locals to come on their day off. Apparently for the first 20 years come rain or shine each Sunday everyone would come for a picnic in the park and a brass band would play in the bandstand. Sadly this doesn’t seem to happen anymore but the park is still a public space and a very well maintained walkway takes you up to the falls. This is about a 20 minute walk though pine trees and alongside the river which is a really dark brown colour, possibly even darker than the river yesterday, eventually you get to the waterfalls which wee quite spectacular although a little difficult to see through the undergrowth and just as we arrived it started raining again which was a bit of a shame. We stood watching the falls for a while hoping that the rain would ease off, then started walking back. We didn’t realise how sheltered it was on the walk until we got to the end and were out in the open again where the wind blowing off the sea made it a bit unpleasant. Our next activity today was to do the Strahan walk this started at the other end of town at West Strahan Beach which is apparently where the locals go swimming but today there were only a couple of hardy soles walking their dogs. We walked past the old Post office and customs house which was built in 1897 and still opens as a post office today but the customs house has been taking over by the Parks and wildlife service. Then we walked back past the Sawmill we went in yesterday and to the Union Steamship company building which was built in 1901 and operated until the company closed in 1970, for a while it was also the Council offices but now seems to be apartments. As we walked along the bay we realised that what we though were the remains of pontoons were actually shipwrecks which have just been left to rot in the water although they do still look like pontoons to me. Our final stop was the railway station which is almost exactly opposite where we started. We had booked onto the West Coast Wilderness Railway journey this afternoon, a present from Mum and Dad for my birthday. The train didn’t leave until 2.15 so we went across the road to the pub for some lunch then went and picked up our tickets for the train. They had obviously been stoking up the engine in the shed rather than on the platform as it suddenly emerged from the shed and came and took its place at the front of the train. We had booked the Wilderness Experience which basically means we were in a carriage that gave you a Tasmania platter or afternoon tea as we like to call it and we were really lucky with our seating as we were right at the back of the carriage so we had a fantastic view. The railway line was built in the 1800s, surveyors of the day said it couldn’t be built, the country was too steep and the weather too extreme but the working west coasters were determined to provide them wrong. Because we could only do the half day journey we went out for two hours then turned round and came back but this was still a great experience. The journey took us through rainforest and along tracks that had been cut into the rock by hand, they couldn’t use dynamite as it would have caused a landslide or risked the whole side of the mountain caving in on them, we also crossed rivers on bridges that were about 50 foot above the waterline as the river can rise by as much as the size of a house in a could of hours. We stopped at two stations on the way the first Lower Landing provided an opportunity to go for a walk in the rain forest but we decided to stay and look around the train. We were really grateful that we had upgraded our carriage as the queue for coffee at this stop was quite long! After this our next stop was Dabbil Barril or Double Barrel as it is pronounced which is where our train turned round. This was where the original train from Queenstown stopped and goods used to be put onto barges on the river. The railway ran until 1963 when the road from the north finally reached Queenstown and Strahan and transporting goods by road became more economical and today it is hard to believe that at one time there were five trains a day running seven days a week. It was a great trip and we got back to Strahan about 6pm so we decided we would walk down to the other end of town to get something to eat before heading back to the hotel to update the website and have a relax.
