25 March

Dawn came at about 5:40 and so I was up and in for a shower. The shower in these trains is a commodious affair, with a dressing room and the actual shower cubicle (stall) separated by a glazed door. The shower is the usual rotary temperature setting and a time button for the water (press it and you get a minute of water flow). After that I went to the observation car and had a conversation with Jim, who had altered his watch before the train staff (and so was ready for breakfast at 6:30 Central Time, while the train was still on Mountain time). At 6:30 we went down for breakfast and I ended up on a table with the lady from Toronto (and Vancouver Island), another lady returning to Vancouver (from Jasper) and a young girl who chose to sit away from the family. We discoursed about school and how it has changed, Australia, current life and the life some people choose to live as anachronisms in current society. I had my Vegemite on toast, but couldn’t convince anyone else to try it.
After that it was down to the Observation car and another attempt to see if I could get the SatNav to pick up satellites (no-one else could from upstairs, so we are trying downstairs). It did, and I wonder if the reason why it couldn’t yesterday is because we were so far north.
At 9:36, Rivers MB, we are at 50°01’45” N, 100°14’26” W. The train has been doing between 120 and 130 km/hr on the straights and about 100 km/hr on the bends to make up time (we’re currently around an hour behind time). I took the opportunity to catch up on letter and postcard writing.
It was generally looking at scenery and a few individual chats before we arrived in Winnipeg, just before lunch and with a crew change. Here the young girl from breakfast (who was the daughter of one of the dining car crew) left and was met by the father (as mum was still busy with finalising the details from the trip). I found a post box and posted a postcard to Kerry and a letter to Elizabeth before looking around the station and then doing a quick email check on an Internet computer set up in the lounge. Then it was back onto the train and lunch. This was with Wayne and ?.
During the afternoon we travelled past many lakes, the typical feature of the beginning of the Canadian shield, which we would traverse until reaching Toronto.
I spent some of the time with a family – mum, a Grade 6 daughter and Grade 5 and 3 sons. They were from Jasper and had a fortnight off, because it was a quiet season for tourism in Jasper and the locals went off for their holidays. I showed them photos of Australia, and crocodiles, and they showed me photos they had taken of alligators in the Everglades.
Dinner was with a lady (Sandi) from remote BC who lived on a trapline and a young man from Athens Ohio who is an environmental activist (Chad Kister) who has written three books (published in Ausutralia also). We spoke about the environment, logging, parks and politics, and extended the conversation until we were nearly again ushered from the car (but there are not many in sleepers, so the dining car was sufficient for everyone, even on one sitting.
I spoke with the lounge car attendant about the Ghan and the Indian Pacific and he showed me through the different accommodation classes in the train. Then it was off to bed and to sleep.