Through the Rockies

27^th May

Spent today with Bernard having a look around Vancouver. He somehow got the number and called us just as we were finishing getting up so nicely timed. He had taken the day off to see us which was great. We were intending to hire some bicycles and cycle around Stanley Park, however the weather was still trying to clear up, so we thought we would go to the Aquarium first. The aquarium was pretty good and showed off the diverse array of marine life found around the shores of Vancouver, along with the Beluga Whales and sea otters. It is amazing that Vancouver had such a rich marine life in such a cold ocean, but there are plenty of sea anenomies, eels and fish. There were also tropical ocean display’s and even reptile and frog display’s. While having a bite to eat we watched the Beluga Whale show, fairly average compared to Orca’s and Dolphins, but interesting anyway. They have huge amounts of fat on them which bulges out of their sides in a strange way. They also have a very small tail for such a huge animal! By now the constant screaming and yelling of all the large school groups had gotten to us so it was time to leave. We headed through the park and over the Lions gate bridge, the one we went under on the Coral Princess. This took us to Horseshoe bay where Bernard’s yacht is moored. We had a look at it for a while and then enjoyed a drink at the local pub. On the way back to town to pick up Anita from her house we went half way up Cypress Hill for a view of the city. It is very spread out! Met Anita – lovely woman and we all headed over to a small island for dinner on the water. Time flew and with work tomorrow for Bernard and Anita, we called it a night around 10pm. Back at hotel checked emails etc, Sandy called Tanse then sleep J

28^th May

Today was a very lazy day, slept in to try and catch up on some sleep. Found a place to do our laundry and had dinner while waiting for it. Thai food yay! Missing the veges as most meals here are still light on them. Not much else really.

29^th May

Left Vancouver for the Rocky Mountaineer train ride. It is a nice looking train, even with the early start making our eyes a bit heavy. We are in the gold leaf section so there is a glass roof on the 2 level carriage. Each carriage holds around 66 people and we were full. Nearly 1000 people on the train in total. There are 21 carriages, 2 engines and a generator car. Each engine has 16 cylinders and generates 3000Hp weighing 120,204 kgs. Breakfast and lunch are included on the train. The food is nice, but after having so many restaurant meals we are a bit over them and only eat some of the amount offered up. There are lots of Australians on board! The train follows the Fraser river and continues climbing throughout the day. The river is very high at the moment due to lots of late snow and then a warm period melting a lot of it in a short period of time. We passed Hells Gate, the narrowest part of the river where 909 million litres pass each minute, at a width of only 33.5 meters. The height of the river can vary 24m throughout the year. At Hells gate the state built a special salmon gate to assist salmon spawning as the reason Hells Gate is so narrow is due to a man made mammoth avalanche while building the rail tracks. This narrower Hells Gate reduced the number of salmon from 3 million down to 1.8million. The salmon gates increased this up to 2 million, so a slight improvement only, however the increased water current has really reduced the number of salmon that can pass this section. The train passed through avalanche alley and saw the many structures protecting the rail lines. We continued past Jaws of Death gorge where they have a white water rapid tour at grade 4, passing over suicide rapids. It does not look too bad from where we were but I guess it would be fun nonetheless. We arrive in Kamloops around 5:30 and bussed to our hotel, arriving at the hotel around 6pm. A show is included in our trip so we had time to check our luggage was in our room, then go for a quick walk to supermarket – for nail polish remover, not food! The brisk walk was great after such a long day in the train. We made it back to the hotel to catch our bus at 7 for the show. Dinner was included so we figured we should go, and hoped the show was not too long. It was fairly humorous but with the both of us so tired we ate dinner and watched from the back. It was well done and filled in the evening, however as one person put it, the show was smothered with cheese. We got back to hotel around 10:30, so going to be another long day tomorrow.

30^th May

We left Kamloops for the train at 6:30 to board the same carriage as yesterday.

The train was much shorter today as there are not so many people in total. The scenery changed a lot today, and fairly quickly after we left the station, to more mountain forest surrounded by snow capped mountains. The weather was great. On the journey we passed through the 2 spiral tunnels. These were built after the original train lines had been completed having a gradient of 4.5. This was twice the recommended safe level, so after a few years it was necessary to change the lines. There is a total distance of 13km and took 20 months to complete. Approximately 557000 cubic meters of rock was moved using a huge amount of dynamite. The lowest spiral is through Mt Ogden, totalling 912.5m in length with a 230 degree turn. This increases the elevation by 17m. The upper spiral goes through Cathedral mountain and is 993m long and turns approx 250 degrees emerging 15.25m higher. With these two spirals now in place, the entire rail track now has no more than a 2.2% gradient rather than 4.5 as it was originally. During the day we saw more black bears, passed over the Tall Bridge crossing, saw an old stone bridge of historical significance and passed the highest point of 1626m at mile marker 122.2. This is on the continental divide which is the point that separates which way water flows, either to the Pacific or to the Atlantic. There are many, many trains using the tracks and we are often waiting for a train to pass in the opposite direction. The larger ones seem to be around 125 carriages with 4 engines, two in the front and 2 in the middle. The carriages are typically either coal, sulphur, containers (double stacked), otherwise lots of car carrying carriages, wood pallet carriages each having 40 pallets of a plywood type product and also a large number of liquid container carriages. Roughly calculating things, a train can be up to 10,000 Tonnes, being pulled by a combined engine weight of 800 Tonnes. It is great to see such a large amount of products being transported by rail. One of the rail yards apparently has 10,000 carriages passing through it each day. There are very few trucks on the roads from the bit we have seen. Our train journey ended in Banff with a coach transfer to the Rimrock Hotel. This is the first hotel where you get in the elevators on the lobby level and have to go down to you room. The hotel is built on the side of a cliff so there are excellent views out over the valley and town below. We were actually a little hungry as lunch was earlier today due to the early start. Shops in town were open until 9, so we grabbed the free shuttle into town, only 5 mins away, but far enough to deter the idea of walking. Went to the supermarket and grabbed a chicken dinner and chips for $3, some salad for $2 and a drink each. This is more like it, normal food without all the added salt and flavour! Back to the hotel on the shuttle and then a 5 min walk up the hill to some natural hot springs. The pools are a bit different than we are used to. There is only 1 pool that looks like a large swimming pool and no real indication that it is natural hot springs at all. This was quickly forgotten once we were relaxing in the water.

31^st May

This morning we left the Rimrock hotel on a coach and headed up to Lake Louise to drop off the bags and pick up some more people for the Helicopter tour. Our room was not yet ready, but this didn’t matter, we just had to pick up the swipe cards when we get back. The bus took us out to Glacier Icefields Flight Seeing where we were then divided into 2 groups. Being at the back of the bus we ended up in the 2^nd group which meant we went to McKenzie’s ranch for lunch. The time by now was about1pm so we were ready to eat, and the barbeque steak with salad went down well. The ranch was only for horses and they did a lot of tours out in the back country. There was a large dog, which looked like St Bernard but was not, cannot remember the type but was a large dog! We then went back for the helicopter flight and took the last flight of our group. Sandy got the front seat so had an excellent view. We flew up the Cline river and climbed up to cline glacier, then Ruth and Wilson glacier. The furthest point we reached was Wilson’s Icefields where there was a nice view of the mountain range and valleys. We did not see any wildlife. On the bus ride back, we saw black bears, elk and mule deer. Some of the bears were very close to the road, however with no opening windows it was not the best to see (and take photos). We picked up our keys and went to our room. Our room turned out to be on the 8^th floor with a window overlooking Lake Louise and the glaciers behind it in the mountains! As it was still light, we decided to go for a walk along the lake for some fresh air and exercise. We took the cameras in the hope of seeing the bears that were rumoured to be in the area. We didn’t see any, but we got 3hrs of exercise and some lovely photos of the landscape and hotel. Most of the lake is still frozen which is a little shame as the reflection on the whole lake would be breath taking. We had time to eat in one of the 5 restaurants – the bar restaurant which didn’t require a reservation – and had chicken wings and a salad.

1^st June

Left the Lake Louise hotel and joined our bus tour on our way to Calgary. Sandy saw a Coyote and a mule deer on the way back to Banff. The driver took us on a different road back so we got to see some different countryside. In Banff it was decided that we go to the Gondola first as the weather is deteriorating. The Gondola takes you up to the top of the hill where there is a great vantage point to see the surrounding area and look down on the Rimrock Hotel and the city below. We had an hour to go up, have a look around and come back down. There was enough time at the top to go for a walk along a boarded walkway to where an observatory hut was built. There was a mountain goat resting beside the walkway so it was being well photographed by everyone. Back to the bottom and as usual, we have to exit the building through a gift shop. Some chocolate fudge caught Chris’s attention and was quickly bought. Chris couldn’t finish it, however Sandy found it tasty also and shortly after it was no more. Next on the agenda was an hour and a half lunch in Banff. We ate on a rooftop patio at a bar. It was very pleasant sitting up there looking at the surrounding mountains. A bit of time to waste so walked the main street before getting back on the bus. Our next stop was at Bow Falls, a set of rapids on the Bow river more than a waterfall, but nice anyway. After that we did a drive-by of the Banff Hotel, a huge and very historic hotel building made of stone. Apparently no expense was spared when it was built and it is extraordinary inside. The rooms however are small relatively compared to modern rooms as it was all about being seen during the time. Following this we stopped at Surprise Corner, a hairpin corner that is dangerous in the winter, however has a great view of Bow river and the Banff hotel. Our last stop was a hoodoo rock formation on the edge of town, similar to Moon Valley in Bolivia, however much, much smaller and only a couple of rock spires can be seen from a distance. The drive to Calgary was fairly uneventful as we passed by a couple of cement factories and then farmland. We were the only 2 people going to our hotel, the Marriot, and turns out it is right next to the Calgary Tower. We had a free pass to go up the tower, so we checked our email first – have to let Pat and John know what our plans are –then headed over. The tower is a little deteriorated but they are upgrading things. As expected there is a fairly good view from the top, however the tower is not the tallest in the city now and is actually dwarfed by a number of the new hotels and commercial buildings. We did not wish to eat up the top so back down to find a place to eat. There is not much open, in fact Calgary on a Sunday evening is a pretty dead town, even the Vietnamese food places shut! We finally found an Irish pub serving food so ate there. Unfortunately the service was slow despite appearing rather empty, so it was a little later than planned when we returned to the hotel. Sandy went for a spa to ease the pain in her back while Chris replied to John and Pat after finding out what the details for tomorrow are.