Norman and Mary's road trip: Kamloops to Banff

As we arrived at the Coast Hotel in Kamloops — after almost 12 hours of clickety clack from Vancouver —we were informed that the bus would leave our hotel for the train station the next day at at 6am! That meant we would have to be up at 5am. We did it. By 7am they gave us coffee, tea and cranberry lemon loaf to keep us happy. And then breakfast on board the moving Rocky Mountaineer train.

Scrabbled eggs for Norm and smoked salmon on avocado toast for Mary.

The day started a little grey. This is Shuswap Lake.

Then it started to rain as we headed into a tunnel.

Yellow Bunny was not impressed with the coal train passing by.

We kept warm with hot chocolate.

Next came 3 Mile Gap. It apparently started just serving coffee for a nickel in the early 1950s and now it has antique cars, a ghost town, and a 200-room hotel.

The Kicking Horse river was amazing. Fast moving and beautiful.

The Stoney Creek Bridge is 90 metres above ground. And the story goes that Lady Agnes, wife of PMJohn A Macdonald walked across with the menfolk VIPs but wearing ladies dainty boots and a billowing bustled dress that kept her from seeing her feet and the railroad ties.

A long way down!

Sometimes the action is a bit slow on a train….

Two snoozing passengers know it is definitely time for lunch. Our appetizer was prosciutto and pickled vegetables.

I had a steak, so good. I can’t remember the last time I had steak.

Norm had crab ravioli, or “crabioli ” as our table mate dubbed the dish.

A late afternoon highlight were the spiral tunnels that take trains through both Cathedral Mountain and Mt Ogden. The railway doubles back upon itself twice, something like the cursive writing capital L in Lucille Ball’s name, our guide told us. It tunnels under mountains and crosses the river twice in order to cut down the grade.

No photos since we were mostly in the dark.

But more Kicking Horse River rapids and rafters on the white — and pale green — churning water.