MONDAY, MAY 20th:

 I slept well as the train trundled through the night towards the Rockies. It was not, therefore, difficult to get up at about 5.00am and watch the dawn break over the mountains - a beautiful sight as we followed the valley of the Fraser River. Soon after 5.30am we stopped at Kamloops, about half an hour ahead of schedule, it seems. At 6.30am the doors to the dining car were opened and breakfast began. Quite a number  of our party had also decided to be early risers and were up in the dome car. After a very adequate breakfast we divided time in the dome car and the observation car to continue to admire the spectacular scenery. Our ongoing route took us up the Thompson River valley and through the Columbia Mountains that became ever more snow-capped. Their sides were covered in fir and pine trees and the lower slopes had mile upon mile of aspen trees. We stopped for quite a long time at Blue River and were able to walk at the side of the train and even patronise the one store in the small township. The two of us had offered to have lunch on the early, 11.00am sitting, as Peter, our leader could not get enough reservations for the whole group for the 12.30pm sitting. Since breakfast was pretty early for us an 11.00am lunch was no great problem. We enjoyed chatting with our two fellow lunchers on our table who were from Queensland, the lady,in  fact, had worked in Saudi Arabia for three years. She was from near Brisbane and her brother who was travelling  with her lives on the Gold Coast. As the afternoon progressed we were greatly regaled by Walter who was our coach attendant. He was a real wit and when he was around there was never a dull moment!

      When we left British Columbia and crossed the provincial boundary into Alberta we moved from Pacific time to Mountain time, thereby gaining an hour. Along the way we had past the spectacular Pyramid Falls that cascaded some three hundred feet down the mountainside; we had skirted past Mount Robson, the highest point in the Canadian Rockies at almost 13,000 feet, and we had seen a black bear sauntering into the forest from a cleaning near the railway line. 

      At about 4.20pm our long train pulled into Jasper Station having travelled over 500 miles since leaving Vancouver. Situated at the confluence of the Miette and Athabasca Rivers, its core centres around just two main streets. The bus that met us at the station took us to the Sawridge Inn on the outskirts of the town and we were soon in our rooms. Soon we walked into town and looked at the shops and decided to eat at L&Ws Restaurant which was apparently owned by Greeks. There we enjoyed a lovely meal of lamb souvlaki before wending our weary way back to the hotel. We had seen breathtaking scenery along our journey today.