21-22 June
A cold morning, but with clearer sky than we had ever seen in Banff. We were waiting at our Banff hotel entrance for the Rocky Mountaineer bus to pick us up. We need not have worried- we were picked up on cue, bussed to Banff railway station to join the twelve carriage train.
The train has two classes – Gold Leaf and Silver Leaf. Gold has two storey carriages, with observation seats on top and dining below, with an additional small open platform. Our carriage, Silver, was one level only, with dining at our seats, but the huge side and domed windows gave us fantastic views of the unfolding landscapes.
On boarding, there were large numbers of Rocky Mountaineer uniformed staff with clipboards and walkie talkies – all happy, smiley, cheery, waving and helping passengers to find their carriage and seats. Managed extremely professionally. This was not to be just a train journey – it was to be (quote:) ‘An experience of your lifetime’.
Seats were comfortable, with generous space and clever reclining that did not intrude on the guest behind. Two essential power sockets, but no WiFi. Cool music greeted us, like lobby music in very trendy hotels; it got a bit wearing towards the end.
Our carriage had three dedicated staff – Brian and Chris as hosts, and Beatrice for the catering. Our hosts gave us safety briefings and ongoing fascinating and engaging stories about the surrounding landscapes, villages, history and railway engineering.
Breakfast saw our catering lady, Beatrice, introduce herself to Lynne to liaise about allergies. We had completed an important form, before we left London. We confirmed – no garlic, no fennel. Breakfast, lunch starter, lunch main, lunch dessert – and way after, cheese, spanned the entire day, before a cookie to finish off!
For lunch main, Lynne and Beatrice agreed on the salmon choice – without garlic and fennel. It arrived. ‘Looked lovely – ‘except what exactly IS that…? It tasted like fennel; turned out it was! Beatrice, whose badge told us she was from Patagonia, Chile, hadn’t quite grasped what fennel was.
Predictably, Lynne became quite ill shortly after. The senior carriage host, the train Client Services Manager and Beatrice herself came up to sincerely apologise and would make EXTRA sure allergies would be heeded in future. Which sort of blew up, on finding that the cheese was, as the senior train host explained, Boursin- a well known garlic cream cheese.
After a few confused discussions, and Lynne getting an alternative cheese from the posher Gold Leaf carriage, the Client Services Manager produced a list of ingredients – and it wasn’t Boursin at all.
As the train tunnelled through dense forests, we had ‘heads-up’ messages from the front of the train – ‘Bear to the right’, ‘Elk to the left’! Cue for a rush to stand up and hold up photographic mobile phones….
The train was so long, and so slow, there was plenty of time for us, at the rear of the train, to catch a passing glimpse of the animal and enough time,also, for the beast to disappear!
One railway engineering feat was the ‘Spiral Tunnels’. In the construction of the Pacific Railway, there was a section with an inclination of 4.1% – twice the maximum recommended. Innumerable derailments and deaths, resulted in all passengers having to get off the train before and be transported past the incline before re-boarding, while the train was coaxed up or down gingerly with rope restraints.
A solution was adopted, based on a Swiss design (where else..?). A series of two long circular mountain tunnels were constructed at great expense and huge effort, reducing the inclination to 2%.
Our first day saw us complete 497km from Banff to Kamloops in 14 hours – not forgetting to adjust our watches to Pacific time. Train speed was mostly a modest 55 km per hour – partly to allow passengers to see and take photographs, partly due to track limitations. At times, we stopped on side tracks to allow enormously long freight trains to pass. Occasionally we speeded up to a maximum of 100 km per hour. Not often though!
Shortly before 8pm, the train arrived at Kamloops, where a bus whisked us off to our hotel for the night, where we couldn’t even rustle up a glass of wine, since we abstained from imbibing during the day. Our hostess on the bus was a bright and fun young Indian woman, studying at Kamloops University, loving it here, but missing food from home!
On the morning of the second day we assembled early outside the hotel, to be coached to the train. While not exhibiting the spectacular mountain heights, there was plenty of drama, wildlife and spectacular sights, following awesome full-flowing rivers and dramatic gorges. Our wildlife sightings consisted of Bighorn sheep, osprey and bald eagles.
Our hosts were kept busy with serving drinks (cocktails, Bloody Marys, wine, scotch, etc.), starting at 10.30. Then laying of napkins and cutlery. Then the trolley again. Lunch starter. Trolley. Main course. Trolley. Clear away. Trolley. At this point, the background noise levels increased markedly, as the passengers became as jolly as the trolley. Time for a dessert. Take Baileys in your coffee! Or in tea! Or on its own…! Soon it became quiet, with some gentle snoring.
Ongoing for the whole journey, during both trolley sessions and not, Brian and Chris held fascinating discourse on the passing landscape. Obviously scripted by the company, but regardless, it was relevant and felt personal.
Memorable was the infamous ‘Hells Gates’, coined by early explorer Simon Fraser, where the gorge tightened so much that the rushing river became impassable, prompting the gorge name from the tired and downbeaten Fraser.
A big reward was offered to anybody to get a steamboat, The Skuzzy, to the upper river. The first captain appointed quit in his first day of being given the task, the second failed. The third finally succeeded by employing 125 Chinese labourers to physically pull the boat up using ropes and steel bolts anchored in the gorge walls.
The river, developing into a mighty flow, was named Fraser, exiting into the Pacific, just South of Vancouver. Peter was in particular taken with the power and force of the many rivers. Clean, clear, cold, very cold water, streaming, whirling, eddying over rocky beds.
The landscape changed, softened and opened up. More roads were seen, some more buildings, fields, fertile land, the result of draining a lake, conurbations. Soon enough, we slowly trundled through the Vancouver suburbs, fresh, with new high-rises sprouting up, and SkyTrain tracks winding through.
The train disgorged its passengers, who were all allotted a bus, to take them to their drop-off hotel. We were relieved, as we got off our bus that both our rucksacks were present.
The Rocky Mountaineer was a fantastic experience, despite its exorbitant price and overhyped PR. In no other way would we have seen so much of the wild and rugged nature, nor learned about the landscapes, history, fauna, and people who formed, only quite recently, this fascinating part of Canada.
