Around The World Without Flying: Day 2 on the Rocky Mountaineer

As we departed from the station at Kamloops the next morning, we saw a distant chimney stack pouring out smoke and assumed that it was associated with one of the mines. Perhaps it was part of a plant for extracting a metal from its ore close by the mine so that all the waste rock could be placed back around the mine site, and not transported elsewhere. It was not often that in the parts of Canada that smoke or steam was seen pouring into the atmosphere. However, I have been told by numerous sources that the particulates and other pollutants that poured into the atmosphere from the extensive wildfires that lasted for so long in British Columbia made many people ill. Some regions had to be evacuated because of it.

In one area of the township, a little distant from its centre, there was an area where people of the First Nation lived. It was beautifully kept by them, with lovely lawns, great play equipment for children in both private yards and playgrounds, and a big youth centre. We were told the relationship between the First Nation people and the other residents in Kamloops is really good. A great model for what can be achieved.

Once we passed out of the town and its outlying areas the landscape was utterly different to anything we had seen before. It was almost surreal - instead of mountains there were fascinating geological formations made from all kinds of rocks, including what looked like mud rock that looked like it had been sculptured. Trees were quite rare. I was not surprised to learn that some spots along here had been used for sci-fi movie scenes, the formations were so strange.

Apart from the absence of our Australian native eucalypts, some of it even reminded me of parts of remote Australia with little ‘pom-poms’ of bushes that looked like spinifex and salt bush scattered across dry land, except here the land was grey while ours is brilliant red and so has more stark colour contrasts. (When I have completed this journey I will continue my blog and show you that country.)

All the while we followed a long, usually quite narrow gorge through which a river flowed quite rapidly. Every now and then we saw spots where a small number of men were at work, and quite often, on the opposite bank, we saw one freight train after another - possibly 2-3 kilometres long.

At one point we were excited to see a small group of mountain sheep with their curled horns standing up on an embankment! Of course we passed them so quickly we did not have a chance to photograph them.

After some hours, we came to a spot where the landscape changed completely over just a few hundred metres. Suddenly there were trees where there had barely been any. It was quite dramatic and unbelievable. I will show photos of that section in my next post.

Opposite our hotel in Kamloops.

Boarding at the station at Kamloops. Notice the welcome wave and red carpet.

A rare shot showing what it was like at the front of our carriage, looking at the parts of the train ahead of us. You can just see the chimney stack I spoke of in the distance.

Crossing over the river at Kamloops. The chimney stack is now in the centre of the photo.

A bit like Australia, but much less colourful. I think the little disc was a reflection from inside our cabin.

Some of this area was used for farming, though we only saw a few cattle. The farmer here had a reputation for shooting at the train for a while, because he reckoned its whistle was affecting the quality of the milk his cows produced.