Our view, and ride, this morning strolling along Canada Place

It’s fairly quiet this morning as she’s a small ship, compared to the 2500 block of floating flats……..as usual there’s a disclaimer on my blog posts due to interrupted wifi onboard. As we are boarding early I’ll try and get some interior shots whilst still in port.

Quick Update

All checked in and luggage sorted. It’s a lovely ship, cabin 7037 looks good.

Setting out this morning we were unsure what to expect, having already covered this route a couple of days ago, but in reverse direction. However not only were we going in the opposite direction, but on a different track on the other side of the river for quite some time.

The arid nature of the land around Kamloops is in direct contrast to the amount of water flowing in the Thompson Rivers, with hoodoos in stark contrast along the cliff edges.

Having joined the Jasper and Banff trains together again at Kamloops it was fun to watch our train snaking along the riverbank.

Lots of freight trains today, with 50-70 carriages they were LONG !

Our train had a few issues yesterday, so we used the washrooms on an older Goldleaf car. This entailed a walk across the 2 adjoining vestibules, usually swinging wildly, as the old ones had spring suspension whilst the new ones are on air bags. The older cars have a certain charm to them with a lounge downstairs and lots of wood panelling.

Wildlife today was limited to Bald Eagles and Big Horn Sheep, though everybody did look when somebody shouted “Cows right !”

Soon the Thompson joined the Fraser River, with much increased flow and rapids. The 2 rivers are different colours and remain so for a few miles before finally mixing.

After a particularly fine lunch, and a couple more stops for freight trains, we eventually rolled into Vancouver by 7pm.

Like our first leg it’s been a great trip, made even more so by the hosting crew and passengers. We made contact with another Tasmania couple who live a couple of kilometres away in Legana ! It’s a small world sometimes.

Greetings from sunny, downtown Kamloops. It’s been a long day today, up at 5:30 for luggage pickup by 6 and on the train for a 7:30 departure. We got into Kamloops by 8pm, the data is a bit slow and the coffee is lousy so we’ve resorted to Chai and a short blog !

It was a quick run to Lake Louise, enough to start the first sitting of brekkie, where we picked up a few passengers. It’s a short train at the moment, but will pick up a lot of carriages tomorrow from Jasper.

Our breakfast was delayed as we progressed the spiral tunnels, literally tunnels in mountains to reduce the grade enough as we descend from the Rockies. It can be quite confusing with the same mountain in front of you, popping up behind you ! The scenery is MAGNIFICENT

They are an amazing piece of engineering, but we were all summoned inside because of excessive diesel fumes when outside on the vestibule. It was our turn for food, with an amazing view of the Kicking Horse River passing thru it’s canyon. I white water rafted down this in 1986 with a group of Citroen enthusiasts (when I drove from Montreal to Vancouver to LA), I’m considerably older and wiser for such things now, but it remains as white knuckle memory…

The scenery opened up into Vistas of endless mountains and valleys, with more tunnels and bridges.

During lunch, notice a theme here ? we descended out of a valley into lush rolling farmlands, transitioning into a mighty lake and Canada’s house boat Capital.

Everybody waves at the train, including Doris featured on the Mighty Trains TV program, she got a free ride one year for waving at every train over many years. Using a walker now, she still waved to us from the front door.

Finally we joined up with the Highway to roll into Kamloops, I’m always interested in wheels, but most of them have 16 !

Just a quick post today. A lovely morning for lake reflections made a photographers dream ! We then had a quick jaunt around town, finding a few souvenirs and some 120 film for the Voightlander camera. Knitting for Hazel then, biking for Mark, both with amazing views !

A quick few words about our train first. The Gold Leaf Class is an entirely self contained double decker carriage, with approx 45 passengers on out trip. The top half is for seating, with plenty of space around the seats, and a work station for the hosts at the rear. Underneath are the bathroom facilities, an open area or vestibule for photography, a dining area for half the passengers at a time, and a kitchen galley. So you are in your own area with no contact to the 350 other passengers.

Straight after leaving Kamloops the Thompson River Valley greened up, and the hills turned into mountains. The weather also improved, with little bits of blue appearing.

By now we’d had brekkie, and with lunch looming there was time to photograph Pyramid Falls from the vestibule. Well worth the wait, despite an abundance of fresh, and cold air.

Unfortunately Mount Robson had its head in the clouds, but still looked massive and cold, as well as being the highest peak in Canada. The mountains and lakes got more impressive the closer we got to Jasper.

Also lurking in the woods was our first bear, rather more difficult to photograph at speed, but at least we saw one, well two in fact. Finally a photograph of our great 4 hosts, a fantastic crew who made a great trip even better.

There was a beautiful sunset last night, and we’ve loved over looking the bay with all its activity, but it was time to move onto the main event.

An ultra early morning start saw us ready to roll on the first leg of our Rocky Mountaineer trip. First impressions were great, with a super smart and modern coach, and an excellent crew. Leaving Vancouver was very slow, numerous stops for freight trains, which have priority, along with the trackside industry and urban sprawl. However the countryside soon appeared as we entered the Fraser Valley and its varied agriculture, which seemed mainly blueberries by their acreage.

We were then called to breakfast (each GoldLeaf coach having 2 sittings), which also saw our transition into a canyon, and the impressive Hells Gate. This is an extremely narrow part, with water forced thru, especially with all the snowmelt at the moment. I’ll get some pictures on the way back, as we travel this section twice and it was hard to get up and down from the table seating. The weather closed in for a while, with the clouds swirling amongst the peaks.

After Skuzzy creek and Cisco crossing the landscape dried out with numerous rock falls evident, tunnels and rock shelters protect the tracks either side of the river. It was also time for lunch….I don’t think we’re going to starve this trip ! Half the fun is meeting people and it was good to share our table with a newly married couple from the Eastern Seaboard of the States, and an English couple for breakfast.

By now we were following the Thompson River with its lunar look of different coloured rocks in the cuttings, and numerous twists and turns revealing different portions of the train, road or rail track on the other side of the river. Some of the freight trains were enormous, with diesel engines either end and the middle.

We’ve started seeing some wildlife, mainly Eagles and Ospreys, with their nests perched on power poles or bridges. After some more wine and cheese, “ just a snack” we started rolling into Kamloops, our first nightly stop. We’ve had an excellent first day, living up to all expectations, and some more.

On the way to brekkie this morning we found another cruise ship moored, more on Mickey later….

Onto the hop on / hop off bus, much quieter today, with an excellent guide. First stop Granville Island, a favourite when previously visiting.

Most of the craft shops were still closed, but the markets were extremely colourful with fruit piled high.

So we decided to use our false creek ferry tickets, and head upstream, as the wind was too strong for the Maritime Museum line. These little boats only carry about 10 passengers, but offer a number of stops along each route , first for us was the end of the line, Village (Science World)

As Science World looked full of excitable kids it was back to Yaletown for a browse with a coffee and pastry lunch. By the time we caught the next ferry the wind had dropped enough for the Maritime Museum run to commence. Even better news was that as it’s Victoria Day today, entry was free.

Perhaps the most interesting display was of the ship St. Roch. Built for the Royal Canadian Mountain Police in 1928. It was a patrol and supply ship in the Western Artic, and operated more than 20 years. In 1940 it was sent to establish Canadian sovereignty in the Artic. The trip from Vancouver to Halifax took 8 months, spending 2 winters frozen in ice.

Finally the last word must go to Mickey…..we missed the amazing, all should attend, SAIL-A-WA party onboard. The average age must have been 70 plus, I hope they weren’t too energetic…….I think this is my vision of hell, going cruising…..tomorrow it’s the Rocky Mountainer, I hope we don’t have a depart-a-station party, probably not at 6.30am !

Looking out our hotel window this morning we were greeted by a New Holland cruise ship, there were 2 more berthed by the time we were ready to roll.

They moor up close together as well, it will be interesting to see how they depart later on.

Because of the 3 ships the hop on / hop off bus was busy, but we eventually got onboard and did a lap. Stanley Park and the Aquarium looked best, so we got off there next time round. It was too early for roses, but the Rhododendrons and Dogwoods were fully out, it is Spring after all….

then onto the aquarium with 1000 others who’d had the same idea !

Apart from the Jellyfish, poisonous frogs and seals most time was spent watching the Sea Otters. Their a lot bigger than I was expecting, but writhe around in the water so elegantly…..beautiful. Of course some Sea Otter merchandise was purchased for our Sea Otter boat……

We decided to walk back to the hotel along the Sea Wall along with hundreds of people out on all manor of bikes, boards and skates of varying ability.

The “trek” took 3 hours with a few stops for Sea Plane spotting, we enjoyed our flight in one when last here.

We finished up finalising details with the Rocky Mountainer Rep, posting a blog and having an afternoon nap…..but not necessarily in that order ! I blame the jet lag 😁

It’s a very mild, people are still in the pool ! and light Vancouver this evening at 8pm. We’ve just had a snack evening meal, after breakfast on the plane a couple of hours ago….As usual Qantas looked after us well, with plenty of snow capped mountains flying in, and an easy transit thru the airport.

We’ve had a stroll down Canada place to stretch our legs, and visited the tourist bureau for ideas. We now know where all the “nice” places are ! Looks like the hop on , hop off bus for us tomorrow, till then good night or morning,. 😁

Our first leg is done and we are sitting in the Sydney Qantas Club lounge resting prior to our evening flight to Vancouver. Theresa settled in well, and the dogs didn’t even bark at her this morning ! So it all bodes well 👍 Thanks to Paula for the lift to the airport (best of luck JB), filled with the inevitable delayed Jetstar passengers …..including the Launceston Tornadoes Basketball Team, a formidable group of young ladies….

It was a smooth flight, just no entertainment and we’re out of curry sir, luckily it’s a short flight ! Hazel is amusing herself with a newly purchased Apple Watch, after all the drama of trying to sync her music from old iPod to phone, I’m keeping right out of it! See you in CANADA