2023 Canada – Rocky Mountaineer (1)

We had an early start this morning, as we had been given clear instructions from the Rocky Mountaineer desk that our luggage would be picked up at 6:15 and we were to be ready to get on a bus at 7:00 to take us to the train. We had a slight panic when at 6:30 the luggage was still in our room, but very soon after we called the hotel reception it was collected. The next order of business was to enact the normal coffee risk management plan of a triple-shot cappucino, just in case a good coffee was not to be had on the train. In fairness, the coffee on the train is acceptable.

We started our journey towards Lake Louise where they collect some additional passengers and then along the Yoho Valley. The train is arranged with passenger seating on the top level and formal dining on the lower level and there are two seatings in the dining level so everyone gets a comfortable meal. We were in the early seating today, so will be in the later seatings tomorrow. I chose Eggs Benedict and Deb had salmon and avocado toast. The dining area is a touch small for my size but the food was good. We were joined by a retired couple from Calgary for some pleasant breakfast conversation.

The hosts on the Rocky Mountaineer are very knowledgeable and provided some interesting historical context along the way. As we went through the the Yoho Valley a steep descent is required and this is achieved with a couple of spiral tunnels under Cathedral Mountain that were built in 1906 and only took 2 years and a lot of dynamite. We eventually climbed over the Rockies and then along a deep valley prior to taking on the Columbia ranges.

Soon enough it was time to back down to the dining area for some lunch. I chose an Alberta Beef Strip Loin and Deb had Dungeness Crab Ravioli. Again the standard was excellent and accompanied by a spectacular, but simple dessert, which Deb now has the recipe for. We shared our lunch table and some pleasant conversation with a different retired couple, this time from Illinois.

One of the challenges the Rocky Mountaineer has is that the line used is shared by a lot of freight trains, so there are times when we had to wait while the freight trains came through. In Canada, Freight trains are very long, similar to coal trains in Australia. This is where the hosts come into their own, ensuring they are providing up-to-date information on timing and keeping everyone engaged. They also state that they have a policy that food must be served every two hours, so a cheese platter was served next. There was also a good supply of snacks and drinks at any time.

As we forged further into British Columbia we went past some large lakes, but also came into some territory that had been damaged by the recent fires, many of which are still burning. There are also some track repairs in progress, so that slowed us down as well. We didn’t arrive into Kamloops until about 8:30 making it close to a 14 hour day with the time change back to Pacific Time.

The blogs will be a bit shorter for the next couple of days as we are doing a fair bit of travelling. It is a bit challenging to take good photos from the train, firstly because there are lots of trees at window height, making good shots difficult, but also hard to take photos when you’re constantly being fed and watered. A lot of the photos today and tomorrow particularly will be me using my iPhone through the train windows… Oh and food photos, of course.

Until tomorrow