Sunday August 13 – Banff to Kamloops on the Rocky Mountaineer

Stuart is still coughing, and neither of us are getting the sleep we should be getting. It is getting better, but is a nuisance all the same.

Today we joined the Rocky Mountaineer, getting up at 5.15am to have the bags ready to be collected. On the way to the train we saw three deer (2 males and a female) on the footpath trying to get into the Cascade Gardens that we visited yesterday. They’d have made short work of the flowers had they succeeded!

We set off just after 7am and boarded the train just after 8am, after some waiting around. We are in Gold Class, the one with the curved glass roof. The carriage (CB07) is double-decker, with seating upstairs and dining, toilets (called ‘washrooms’ over here) and kitchen downstairs. We have two chefs to prepare our meals, two wait staff in the dining area, and two hostesses upstairs with us. So spoiled! We boarded over a red carpet flanked by flags and two lovely hostesses to welcome us.

Breakfast was on the train. Our group had the second sitting (the dining area not big enough to cater for all at once), so we had breakfast mid-morning, with a drink and scone and jam to tide us over in the meantime!

The train stopped at Lake Louise to pick up some more passengers. [Lake Louise is the Lake of the Little Fishes, to the First Nation people of the area.] We went through the spiral tunnels that we had looked at from the road a few days ago. These took two years to build, two teams doing it – one for the top and one from the bottom. They met in the middle, only 2 inches out. Remarkable! We travelled beside the Kicking Horse River – in fact we travelled beside seven rivers in total (Bow River, Kicking Horse River, Columbia River, Beaver River, Illecillewaet River, Eagle River and Thompson River. Only the Bow River flows to the Atlantic Ocean – the others all flow to the Pacific Ocean.

We had to put our watches back an hour because we were entering ‘mountain time’. Snacks and drinks were brought around. All alcohol was complementary, so some made ‘good’ use of it. Lunch was also second sitting so we had that mid-afternoon. 

Lunch - passing a freight train

The train travelled around the shore of Lake Shuswap for about 30km. It is not widely populated, but does seem popular in places with boaties. All waterways and lake bear the same signature glacial flour sediment. The colours differ depending on depth, amount of silt and the weather. Some gorgeous teal blues and greens though. The smoke haze has gone and we have blue skies.

While having lunch we saw and photographed a bald eagle (not really bald, but with white feathers on its head). However, no bears or deer!

The countryside is changing, from mountainous slopes thick with fir trees of many varieties, to more rolling hills and different types of conifers here and there. Now into farming land and ranches for cattle. Vineyards too.

The closer we got to Kamloops the more we could see a vague smoky haze, and rain. The area needs to rain, to clear the air and safeguard the area from more fires.

snow plows

The train had to wait outside the station for another Rocky Mountaineer to unload. This train will be tacked on to the end of ours, and become one long train to go to Vancouver tomorrow.

We arrived in Kamloops in time to partake of their ribfest with free music concerts. Tonight’s was a rockabilly band, not really our thing. We had a snack-sized chips with gravy followed by an ice cream, not exactly healthy but nice none-the-less! Neither of us wanted to eat huge servings of ribs, even though they smelled good.