With sore heads we embark on the Rocky Mountaineer, heading for Vancouver. It proved to be a deliciously slow journey owing to an immense bush fire that had reached the track in places overnight. Though these areas were under control, the train causes such air disturbance that it must crawl along.
Shino explained that loggers stored logs in the river, to save on storage costs. How intelligent. We saw this again in Howe Sound Fjord, along from Vancouver. We travelled alongside rivers, woods, and prairies until finally we arrived, after Shino had saved the day with an evening meal as we were still trundling along, 4 hours after we should have arrived. Small beer, when you think of the firemen still battling to save the forests and towns.
In the morning we were captivated by the modernity of Vancouver. For a while we thought the reflection of the building in this glass windowed skyscraper was actually imprinted on the glass.
We were taken by a friend, Barbara, to the Anthropological Museum containing First Nation culture. It was full of totem poles, and their crafts. Bill Reid a First Nation sculptor (died 1998), created this out of over 100 yellow maple planks bonded together.
Horseshoe Bay for lunch, in glorious sunshine yet again (for once we had brought sun wherever we went).
Then Barbara drove us to a First Nations gondola.
The views were magnificent, as always and we tootled across the skywalk and explored the woods on the summit. Down in Howe sound were the stored logs.
The next day, before heading for the airport, we tore around Vancouver, seeing a small cruise ship waiting for its passengers to arrive. Some of our fellow passengers on the Rocky Mountaineer were embarking on a 2000 person cruise ship bound for Alaska. It sounded amazing, though somehow I think I’d rather see Alaska when covered in snow.
There were trolley buses, many shopping centres below ground, and just a few indications of the early buildings, with the ‘emblems’ of Canada, salmon and Canadian geese.
I have to say that I never knew there were so many different varieties of salmon, and we probably tried them all. They are so fresh that they taste quite different to ours.
Then, onto the airport.
Did we enjoy our Canadian adventure? You bet. It was the holiday of a lifetime. We’re looking up train journeys for next year, but this time ALL THE WAY. We are determined to set off from St. Pancras, heading for Florence, and this time, Dick will be on board too. Then the Ghan in Australia perhaps in the autumn, from Adelaide to Perth. Better get on with the next novel then.
The Rocky Mountaineer has started something… A few more odysseys coming up.
www.greatrail.com