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2017-01-25 01:01
in Australia, Ntrips, Tasmania2017, Trips
We did the steam train ride between Strahan and Queenstown except since we were driving out anyway, and the rack and pinion train ride left from Queenstown, we did an early drive there, which despite the very curvy road, we arrived there in 30mn instead of the recommended 1h drive :)
Since we had time to burn, we drove to a viewing point before finally going to the train, which left by 09:00:
those steam trains were mostly used to move mining product to Strahan to get to ships
rack and pinion to go uphill and downhill steep grades
this is how it works
a few places allow an oncoming train to cross
the little engine is thirsty uphill
we had a few stops while the engine was getting more water
we crossed paths with the strahan to queenstown train
a tree fell on the tracks, but the engineers had a chainsaw to take care of that :)
If you like steam trains, here is a video summary:
When we got back to Queenstown, we got to pan for gold and went to visit the local historical museum:
On the drive out, we went to iron blow lookout, of one of the mining areas:
Then, we had the long drive back to Strahan, which we were able to do at very good pace though :)
I stopped for a quick hike
After that we got to the famous "The Wall" art gallery, a huge wood carving:
And back to Hobart for our very early flight home the next morning:
We had a good time and definitely got to see a lot more of Tasmania than last time.