Prince Rupert and the Skeena Train

Having arrived by ferry on Monday evening, we headed to our hotel in Prince Rupert and caught up with the blogs and enjoyed the harbourside views.

We had a first hand cultural experience at the local laundromat to catch up on the washing and got some great advice on the Museum of Northern BC which we visited later in the afternoon.

We took a stroll to Cow Bay, where visiting cruise ships dock (the costs of fuel have significantly reduced the numbers of cruise ships this year). The renowned Cow Bay cafe served delicious homemade ginger and lime sparkle and we shared spinach and quinoa cakes with homemade hummus.

The bay is full of artisan shops and studios and we bought a few souvenirs before heading to the museum. The guide, the chief of the local First Nations village, gave a fascinating interpretative talk and his knowledge about the artifacts and local history left us hanging on his every word.

A short shopping fix later (for me, of course) and we then had dinner at the Crest overlooking the harbour and sampling the delicacies of sockeye salmon, halibut and Dungeness crab.

Another early start, and we took a taxi to the Via Rail station ready to catch the Skeena Train to Smithers. Diane, our train conductor, impressed us immediately with her enthusiasm and efficiency and we boarded the touring car. Amazingly there were only 4 of us travelling in the observation car so we had two carriages to ourselves! Later, an Australian couple touring Canada for three months decided to take the upgrade and joined us so we were a happy party of only six with more than enough space to spread out. Marilyn, our hostess, brought us breakfast and set up the observation car with tea, coffee and snacks for the rest of the journey.

The journey was punctuated with Diane's anecdotes and points of information where she instructed the train driver to slow down and opened the back door (!!!) of our car to let us take photographs of the stunning scenery. She took on another passenger named Steve near Terrace who is an expert on the local landscape and he told us more about the Kermode White bears and blue glacier bears that can be found further north.

At Terrace, everyone was able to get off the train and visit the local shop alongside railway line to buy postcards or purchase freshly made popcorn. At Diane's instruction of 'All Aboard', we boarded the train again to finish our journey.

We look forward to seeing them again on Sunday for the second leg of our train journey to Prince George.

Smithers is a small town midway between Prince Rupert and Prince George and is a local ski resort in winter. We collected the hire car - a lovely Chevrolet Impala similar to the one we had on our honeymoon - and drove the 70km to New Hazelton to the Triple Creek bed and breakfast where our hosts greeted us with their two horses, two labradors and two cats on their amazing estate framed by the mountains.

After dinner, we retired early for the journey north to Stewart tomorrow.