DESTINATIONS ROCKY MOUNTAINEER | CANADA
ABOVE: Customers will be wowed by the scenery they’ll see from the Rocky Mountaineer, as it travels from the mountains to the coast
Salmon Arm, leaving me far too full to consider another bite that evening when we stop in Kamloops for the night.
WILD TERRAIN
Still no bear sighting, though, I think the following morning over coffee and lemon and cranberry loaf (a pre-breakfast snack before the hearty main event of British Columbian farmer sausage, roasted red pepper, eggs and smashed potatoes).
A bear sighting looks less and less likely as we pull
out of Kamloops into somewhat different surroundings. The dramatic desert backdrop of Painted Bluffs Provincial Park was a filming location for The X Files and Star Trek, with its red terrain that appears almost martian. It’s a million miles from the landscape I was expecting; eagles and osprey soar high at Rainbow Canyon, where the colour intensity is dialled up a notch with its iron, copper and sulphur deposits creating reds, yellows and greens, mixing in with burnt oranges and rusty browns. Its surreal, otherworldly charm is far from those classic mountain vistas, but a welcome change of scene. But we’re soon back to those classic, epic British Columbian views of pristine tree-clad peaks, with no signs of civilisation aside from the train and tracks. With Vancouver mere hours away, we have our final lunch of Canadian Arctic char with herb-infused rice and a tarragon bearnaise sauce, topped off with macarons
travelweekly.co.uk top tip op tip
Suggest clients spend a few extra nights in Vancouver before or after their Rocky
Mountaineer journey. There’s much to
impress food lovers: from nine Michelin- starred restaurants to
street food at Granville Island’s Public Market.
from Vancouver’s Granville Island for dessert – a taster of what’s to come when we arrive in this foodie city. I take myself outside on to the viewing platform for one last windswept look at those ancient, majestic tree- carpeted peaks that give way to canyons, where olive-
green waters flow. Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World is playing through the speakers. It truly feels like one of those travel moments I’ll remember for life. But one last taste of Canada is calling, so I head back up to my seat for some BC craft beer – a pale ale from Vancouver brewery Steamworks – while I watch the peaks turn into fields and open wilderness that gradually build into a sprawling metropolis. I may not have spotted a bear this time, but I did have a wonderful time taking in these humbling vistas, the mountains they call home – and eating at a rate that could match a grizzly getting ready for hibernation.
BOOK IT
A two-day Rocky Mountaineer First Passage to the West package from Banff to Vancouver in GoldLeaf Service starts at £1,900 per person, departing in October. The price includes two days on board the Rocky Mountaineer, two breakfasts and two lunches on the train, overnight accommodation and transfers in Kamloops.
rockymountaineer.com
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