Sandie's Memories Revisited: TRAIN TRIPS WINNIPEG TO VANCOUVER

WINNIPEG to JASPER

After the dramas with the flight to Minneapolis last week, my flights to Winnipeg were both on time and relatively smooth. The plane from Chicago to Winnipeg was quite a small one, but still a jet. For those aviation people, it was an Embraer and when full I think it might have carried 50 pax approx., but there were several empty seats, including the one next to me.

The train left around lunchtime on Thursday and thankfully I had upgraded my ticket to a Sleeper Class so I had a tiny cabin for myself and the bed pulled down from the wall. But I spent most of the two days on the train up in the Dome where you had a fabulous view of the countryside.

Manitoba was as people had told me – pretty flat and endless fields of grain or corn. There were very few settlements along this section but it was still very interesting to see the wide open spaces. After the confines of the UK and Europe, I relished the vastness of the countryside. Once we crossed the border into Saskatchewan the landscape changed a bit, and became slightly undulating and much prettier and softer somehow than Manitoba. Still endless fields of crops which the farmers were all working well into the darkness of the night to harvest it on their huge combine harvesters. But some herds of beef cattle were glimpsed here and there. There were also small settlements all along the way so it didn’t seem as remote as Manitoba did.

Dinner on the train was a very classy affair (as was lunch also) but I was in the third group to be called for dinner (all the early spots were taken up by the majority of the passengers who boarded the train in Toronto on Tuesday evening) so it was about 8.45 before we went into the dining car.

Surprisingly, I managed to sleep reasonably well, in between waking when the train stopped, or goods trains passed us (noisily). Dawn broke just as we arrived in Edmonton. I was amazed how large this city is: about 250,000 people live there.

Last night everyone was trying to get a photo of what promised to be a spectacular sunset but the train stopped for about 20 minutes right in the middle of a forest, just at the time the sun was setting! And this morning the tall buildings around the railway station at Edmonton also hid the sunrise – so no photos of Sunset (or Sunrise) on the Prairie!!

By now we were in Alberta of course and the scenery once again had changed and now there were lots of forests, with the autumn colours all coming into full force. There don’t appear to be many Maple trees in this region – mostly silver birches and varying types of conifers – but the birches turn the most vibrant shades of gold and photos don’t do them justice at all. In between the forests you get tantalizing glimpses of rich farmlands and small settlements.

One of the things that amazed all the other travellers and myself was the almost continual stream of massively long freight trains. As the railway line for most of the way is only a single track, we kept going off into sidings and having to wait while these enormous freight trains passed us.

Soon the Canadian Rockies could be seen on the horizon and we were travelling through the very pretty foothills. Lakes and rivers began to appear and pretty soon we were into the Rockies – this created almost a frenzy of photo taking and everyone was scrambling to get the best position!! I was surprised to see the pale colour of the mountains and found out later that this part of the Rockies is from Limestone which gives it the pale colour. From a distance it looks like snow! They are very impressive and the lakes and rivers are beautiful, and although the Rockies reach great heights, the Swiss Alps are still much higher. I think the highest peak in this area is just over 3,500 metres, and in the Alps it is around 4,500.

Arriving in Jasper brought this train trip to an end and it was with a tinge of regret that we all said goodbye to each other. Over the last two days the small group who were in our dome car came to know each other quite well.

JASPER

My hotel was within walking distance from the railway station and only took less than ten minutes but by the time I got there I was wishing I had cooler clothes on. Everyone had warned me it could well be quite chilly in Jasper – but the opposite was the case!! Cloudless blue sky and 23 degrees. I deposited my suitcase and bag and then explored the very small tourist town of Jasper. It is a beautiful town and in some strange way, although not really like it at all, it reminds me of Thredbo. Perhaps it is the atmosphere here, with all the tourists and hotels, and the ever-present mountains, not that Kosciusko can be compared to the Rockies. There are tourists from all over the world here and among the many different accents – there are Australians!!! Even some here in the Amethyst Lodge, where I am staying.

On Saturday I was up bright and early to go on a “Wild Life Tour”. The driver (and owner of the company) arrived promptly at 8.00 to collect myself and a young Brisbane couple from this hotel. Already on board his 4x4 vehicle was a middle aged couple from Canberra – so we were a car load of Aussies. Joe, the driver, was quite a character and a fount of knowledge about all the animals and also the geology and ecology of the area. Sadly we saw no bears or Moose, but right on the outskirts of the town there were two different groups of Elk. This is the rutting season and we can vouch for that! The animals don’t appear to be nervous of people and the “boss bull” (or “alpha male” as Joe called him!) was quite prepared to take on several of the cars of tourists who were all parked, taking the inevitable photographs. This caused quite a scuttle for safety as he came galloping right up to the side of the cars.

Leaving this area to the other photographers, we saw a coyote trotting down the road.

All the way up to Lake Maligne we kept our eyes skinned for Bears or Moose but the closest we came to finding any were the (fairly recent) droppings on the road!! We did see some long horned sheep however (which didn’t look like any sheep I have ever seen! More like fallow deer), and varying birdlife. The majestic and beautiful scenery however completely made up for the lack of wildlife. Although the morning was quite fresh, by lunchtime when our tour concluded, it was another glorious warm day. Being too late for any of the other tours I enquired about, I spent the afternoon browsing in the many gift and souvenier shops.

Next morning, in a crisp early hour with the sun just starting to rise behind the massive mountains which make a theatrical type backdrop to Jasper, I trundled my case the short distance to the railway station where the Rocky Mountaineer train was standing waiting. Today’s leg is between Jasper and Kam Loops and there were about 8 carriages on the train. Only the Gold Leaf service had the dome cars but in Red Leaf (i.e. economy! ) we were all assigned to a particular seat and the windows were huge thus allowing everyone an opportunity to take lots of photos.

The trip began with a champagne & orange juice cocktail to toast our journey, followed by a lovely breakfast with smoked salmon etc. Each carriage had a hostess only for the one carriage and ours was a lovely Chinese student from Singapore, called Priscilla. Not only did she serve all our meals and snacks on the two day trip, but every time there was any point of interest en route she expertly quoted the facts and figures and stories of them all.

The huge limestone mountains around Jasper gave way to equally huge glazier type mountains. Mountain lakes and waterfalls; forests with lots of golden hued birches; torquise coloured rivers flowing sometimes deep down in caverns, and others almost on the same level as the train, changing from smooth flowing rivers, to chuckling mountain streams, and yet again to foaming white water rapids.

By lunchtime we had left the main part of the Rockies behind but were still in mountainous countryside, which gave way to forests and as the afternoon progressed, to scattered small farms with cattle and occasionally sheep, and some crops. As we came closer to the large town of Kam Loops the countryside became rockier and less fertile.

Two members of the RCMP complete with red uniforms and mounted on their horses stood at the entrance to the station to welcome the train to Kam Loops. We were all quite glad to be able to stretch our legs and buses soon whipped us off to the various hotels we were to stay in that night. Having made friends with two couples from Florida (a brother and sister and their respective spouses), we joined up to walk down into the main street to have dinner in a restaurant which specialised in beer of any different types and flavours. They even had “Beeramisu” for dessert! I tasted a teaspoon of one of the two desserts ordered by our table, but I still prefer the normal Tiramasu!!!

A much longer train left Kam Loops, as the train from Calgary via Lake Louise had now joined us. Originally our train had about 190 passengers but now we were over 600 and the train was about 23 carriages long!!!

We passed through the quite arid and rocky countryside around Kam Loops and this lasted for a few hours, but by this time we were following the Thompson River which is a wonderfully scenic and versatile river. Once again the scenery changed as we were back into another high mountain range, with forests lining the railway track, and peaks soaring into the sky.

In our carriage we had a fairly large group from the French part of Switzerland, most of whom didn’t speak any English. One of their group played the most wonderful selection of tunes on the mouth organ and whenever the scenery was that of thick forests and we couldn’t see much past the windows of the train, he would bring out the harmonica and treat us to impromptu concerts.

As we came closer to Vancouver the countryside flattened out into farmlands, with quite a number of dairy farms lining the railway lines. The weather over the past two days has been sunny and clear and warm. The Thompson River had by now joined up with the Fraser River, which flows into the sea at Vancouver. We pulled in to Vancouver station about 6.45 pm having waited for the best part of an hour for goods trains to be shunted to sidings to allow us access. A fleet of buses waited to take everyone off to the hotels they had nominated – and we were there! In Vancouver!!! The last leg of my amazing journey is about to begin.