Jean has just calculated that last night was Bed 13 on this trip!

Fitful sleep, but we didn’t have to get up until 6.45 a.m…..🙄 Luxury! Actually felt a bit livelier than the last couple of days.

We boarded the coach in glorious sunshine to take us to the train, driven by a genial bloke called Ron, who regaled us with bits of info about Kamloops. Apparently they hold over 1,000 sports competitions of all sorts here every year.

I made sure I had a pullover on before I boarded the train, as yesterday the aircon in the carriage made it distinctly chilly.

The train set off at around 8.25, and almost immediately the first sitting went down to breakfast, while we were served coffee and pastries by Jacques. Most welcome.

A newspaper called “Mile Post” is provided as part of the package, which I would highly recommend any traveller on this train to read. It contains a lot of very useful information about the area and history of this line.

Got down to breakfast at around 10 a.m. Suits my metabolism rather better than the 8 a.m. of yesterday. It also means we get lunch later, which suits me fine as well.

The initial part of the journey was, to be frank, a bit dull. Flat and millions of tall trees which made seeing anything of interest rather difficult. In fact, the tall trees made taking photos really difficult. Lots of moans about this, but let’s face it, better for the environment.

However, it became more scenic when we got to a place called Blue River. We were now entering the Columbia Mountains as a precursor to the Rockies proper.

We then began to get into the Rockies:

From there, it was less than an hour to Jasper station, with a good view of Mount Fitzwilliam on the way:

On first sightings, Jasper appears to be an attractive little town, surrounded by some great scenery.

Sad to leave it – it has been a great experience with really professional service.

We were then transferred by coach to our destination for the next three nights – the Fairmont Lodge, about 4 km out of central Jasper.

Chaotic. They didn’t seem to be expecting us, and after an interminable wait on the bus, we were allowed to exit and get our room keys on the pavement alongside the bus. We were then directed to our lodge, fortunately not too far from the main offices. However, we just had the feeling that we were being left to our own devices, and nobody really cared. Short staffing problem once again.

Nice aspect, big room, showing its age, no aircon. Sigh. It’s going to be 28 degrees tomorrow.

We were both hungry and it was now around 8 p.m.,the time having advanced one hour as we were now in Alberta. So we went looking for somewhere to eat, acutely aware that it was Saturday night and about 100 people had just arrived from the Rocky Mountaineer. No, I’m not kidding. Three coachloads!

Managed, despite this, to get into a buffet restaurant on site relatively easily. Good food and service, but very expensive.

End of another long day, and I don’t have to set an alarm, hooray!

Tomorrow will be quiet, but I hope I’ll have something interesting to report.