Tha Abt Railway

This was the view fron out little cottage at breakfast time!  I'm so pleased that we did the boat cruise the day before.  That is hail coming in horizontally!

It rained on and off all day.

This was our carrage for the big climb up over the mountain from Queenstown to Strahan.  It is known as the Abt railway.  The climb 1:12 slope.  That means for every 12 meters we travelled on the rails we went up 1 meter.  That slope meant that the normal rails and wheels would not work so a cog and gear system was engineered in the late 1800's to solve the problem  Hence "The Abt" was born.

 This was a trip into my family history.  My Grandmother waas born in 1895 in Queenstown and she and hundreds of others used to do the trip we did last week, once a year for the Mount Lyall family picnic at Regatta Point in Strahan.

Nan is no more.  She passed away in 1985 ( we had no idea she had turned 90 because she had lied about her age when she got married (she took off 7 years!)  so she that she was younger than  her husband.  Records were a bit different in those days!  It was the 1920s and yes - she was a Flapper!

I wish I could have told her all about our trip!



This is the steam engine that pulled us all the way!  She is a strong little engine!  

 More of that amazing rainforest.  The photos I've taken really don't do it justice. 

This photo is a very rare sight!  The two trees cuddled up together are a male and a female huon pine!  They usually don't get quite that close!

In the middle of nowhere I spotted these!  Beehives!



Very special honey - leatherwood honey.  Once you have tasted that other honey just doesn't stack up!

This is what we call a Man fern or a Tree fern.  Their botanical name is  Dicksonia antarctica.  It is a left over from Gondwana land.  This specimen was at least 6 meters tall.  I took the photo from one of the trainstation platforms (the station right at the top of the mountain).

I do hope you have enjoyed alittle peek at the beautiful place I live in!

Hugz