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On 18th May, we flew out from
Heathrow to Vancouver to begin what was to be a wonderful tour
by train and coach which would take us from Vancouver to Calgary
in eleven days, with lots of interesting stops along the way.
The first two days were spent in Vancouver with excursions to
see places of interest in the area, such as; Stanley Park with
its display of Totem Poles (or, more correctly, Story Poles as
they are now known), Grouse Mountain (which still had a covering
of deep snow with only the paths cleared to walk) where we had a
ride to the top by cable car and saw two Grizzly Bears in a
compound. They had been bred in captivity and had some nice
purpose built quarters from which they had just emerged after
their hibernation. Then on to Capilano Canyon with its rope
suspension bridge which we both walked across (and got
certificates to prove it), very bouncy. The weather was dry
except for the first morning and, as the holiday progressed, it
got steadily warmer and was often up in the 20’s! But the
winter was very cold right up until the previous week and all of
the lakes are still frozen over, just now beginning to thaw.
On the third day we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer train for the
journey through the Columbia Mountains to Jasper with a night’s
stop-over in Kamloops. Some super scenery on the way with
snow-capped mountains and deep river gorges spanned in places by
trestle bridges. All of a sudden there would be a shout of “bear
on the left!” or, “eagle on the right” and
everyone in the carriage would leap to the nearest window. |
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