The Rocky Mountaineer Day 1

It was a quiet day yesterday, as we gathered ourselves for the next stage of our journey.
We were up this morning as dawn broke and the sun came up over the mountains framing the harbour. It was a fitting final sight of the beautiful city of Vancouver. Queen Elizabeth had docked overnight at the cruise ship terminal and we paused to look at her as we passed on our way to meet our transportation to the Rocky Mountaineer Railway Station.
The train itself is pretty impressive as you will see. Drinks are served in the massive station foyer and after a short welcoming ceremony a piper serenades passengers as they make their way to their carriages. These are state of art as you might imagine and the seating area is ‘upstairs’ giving one an enhanced view of the scenery. The dining car being downstairs. This will be our home for the next two days.
Initially, like all train journeys, we are gently making our way out of the city, through huge rail yards and the general detritus that seems to make up the outskirts of all such cities. We crossed the wide Fraser River for the first time on something resembling the Forth Bridge and were able to see some of the state of the art bridges that have been built to span the river. The latest is a cable supported version, with heated cabling to prevent ice forming in the winter, costing over 2.5 billion Canadian dollars to construct.
Once clear of the environs of the city we find ourselves in a wide fertile mixed farming community, with the coastal mountains forever lurking in the background. It is breakfast time and meals are taken in two sittings. Today we are 2nd sitting, but tea/coffee and a delicious lemon and cranberry bread is served with a lemon drizzle to keep us alive! Breakfast is equally delicious and on arriving back at our seats it is cocktail hour! So here I sit, tapping away and keeping an eye on the passing scenery, with a margarita at my elbow. What can I say?
Gradually the terrain changes as the train climbs. Agriculture disappears and the temperate rainforest, lakes and rivers appear. The mountains close in and we start to hit long tunnels. As the river valley narrows, you can see the churning waters below and the forest clothed sheer slopes rise above us until they fill your vision. The sun glints through the trees and on to the rapidly flowing river. It is majestic and glorious. The narrowest part of the gorge is Hells Gate; named by explorer Simon Fraser when he first encountered the canyon in 1808. He and his team were dangling off the precarious walls on rope ladders made by the indigenous guides and he called this section “…a place where no human should venture, for surely these are the Gates of Hell”. The amount of water forcing its way through here in the spring is greater than that of Niagara, which takes some believing. Our track continues to follow the Fraser and then Thompson Rivers for many miles through fantastic country that slowly becomes more and more arid. The trees are phased out and tussock scrub starts to appear. Suddenly we are in desert country, with bleak rocky crags and mountainsides. This section of British Columbia has the lowest rainfall in Canada.
We descend to the dining car for a gourmet lunch, dashing out to the open viewing car every now and then to take photos when they can’t be resisted. The viewing car is a bit of a shock to our air- conditioned system. It’s rather like standing in a 90 degree hair dryer!
If you are lucky you catch sight of bald eagles and their nests perched high above the river and I’m told there are big horned sheep in ‘them there hills’, but haven’t spotted any as yet. The engineering required to make this part of the country habitable is seriously impressive. The bridges, railways and roads require enormous effort to construct and massive hydroelectric power plants are evident everywhere, noticeable by their pylons dotted about the landscape.
The Thompson River widens quite suddenly into a long narrow glaciated lake. This is Kamloops Lake and anglers come from all round the world to catch the high jumping Kamloops Trout - apparently - whatever floats your boat! The train follows it’s shoreline and we realise we are approaching our stop for the night - Kamloops.
This is the half way point in our journey and we will resume tomorrow!Read more