A beautiful - but longer than planned- train ride back to Vancouver

  Since we arrived late (ish) last evening, and left by 7:00am, we did not see much of Kamploops, but  I don’t think there is much to see.  It is however a growing city of over 100,000, with many parks and many outdoors activities (for instance, Sun Peaks resort, where we stayed on our way up is only about 30 minutes away).  It also has a large and beautiful lake, where there are many little lake communities - again, everyone who is around waves and smiles at us as we pass, it’s very joyful!  The picture is of the Mountaineer local crew waving us goodbye.  

 The lake empties in the Thompson river, and we followed it for a long time, including its impressive gorge.  The landscape is very dry - we are in a desert (the same desert that extends to Wyoming).  But it is striking, particularly along the river.  Note the inverted tree line - where trees start at higher altitude (instead of of “normal” mountains, where trees stop when you get high enough).  That’s because there is not enough humidity farther down to sustain them.  

 There were many eagles along the river - and there are a lot of Brit’s on the train.  The Brits got REALLY excited by the eagle - i did too to a point, but we do have many of them in the Hudson valley…..  there were also many ospreys and some long horn sheep.  This Opsprey nest has been used every season by generations of the same Osprey family since 1958!

I spent a lot of the time on the outside platform since the weather was so nice.  It is a better place to take pictures, and very pleasant, if a touch windy…..

The Thompson river looks like a fun river to raft down.  Indeed, we saw some people doing it - one of them clearly had been ejected out of the raft…… but he was safely rescued!

The river eventually meets the Fraser, which flows all the way to Vancouver.  The Thompson river is much clearer, because it flows through several lakes where sediment can settle.  When they meet, the difference is striking- the First Nation people called the Thompson the “clear river” and the Fraser the “muddy river”0.  As we crossed the Fraser, we went from the arid semi-desert to the much lusher coastal forest.  

We continued along the Fraser river all the way to Vancouver. The river narrows to “Hell’s Gate” - name by Fraser himself who was trying to find a route through, and found it very challenging.   The rapids looked indeed impressive.  

The train slowed down for a bit (see details below) and the skies had clouded up and it started to rain - also, the landscape was not as dramatic.  So I took a nap……

When I re-opened my eyes, we were in farm country, and the sky was brightening up.    

As we approached Vancouver (very slowly because we had been delayed by some other train, we passed under Portman Bridge across the Fraser river, which was the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America for about 3 days when the Bay Bridge (in San Francisco) was finished.  

The problem with this train ride, is that it uses the same tracks as the freight trains.  And, apparently, freight trains have a lot of problems, and just stop a lot.   So we do end up stopped a lot behind them.  It’s not particularly unpleasant, but it ends up taking a lot of time.   So today, we were supposed to arrive in Vancouver around 6:00pm, and instead, and first it looked like it would be 9:30pm….  But see below…..  as things got messier….

The good thing about being delayed is that they served us dinner (which was not in the original plan).   Food has been exceptional on this trip - not just “good for a train ride” - Really good for anywhere!  This was desert at lunch time.  

Also, the crew is truly spectacular!  By the time we arrive in Vancouver, they had been on the feet, working, and smiling and being friendly for over 18 hours!  They never even expressed frustration, or showed that they had a hard days.  Here is one of them making jokes to keep us entertained…

 Just as we were about to reach the Station at Vancouver, we were told that the swing bridge we were to go on was opened and stuck!  So we could not go anywhere…….   So the time estimate to get to the station went from 9:30 to 10 and then 10:30pm…..  They were worried that we would have to disembark wherever we were (which was very near Vancouver, but not an easy exit) and bring buses to take us to the station…..but the bridge at last opened up and we pulled in at 10:0pm….  Short ride to the airport hotel and we got a few hours of sleep before our flight…..  Sitting in the Maple lounge now…..