Pippi

Well, we are back home at last - safe and sound on Burlo Island. In case you are wondering, this entry is really just an excuse to include some more photos of fall foliage I took in Port Alberni. You know about my strange obsession - humour me :-).... read more

Os-o-yoo-yoo-yoo-yoo-yoo-yoos! In a fit of confusion as to how to pronounce Osoyoos's name, we've resorted to a version which sounds like a cross between a yodel and a rattlesnake. Osoyoos is a bizarre little place - a pocket desert totally unlike anything else in Canada, complete with tumbleweeds, cacti, desert landscapes, rattlesnakes and bunny rabbits! In fact, we were lucky enough to see a cute, little, cottontail bunny hopping amongst the bushes. Before you Aussies back home start thinking murderous anti-rabbit thoughts, I should explain that here, these little guys are totally natural and very much endangered. Not to mention, adorable (if you don't believe me, look at the photo). Osoyoos is in a hot, arid microclimate and it hardly ever rains. But when we arrived, not only was it cold, but it started raining! ... read more

Today's journey took us out of the Rockies and into the Kootenays, a lesser known but no less spectacular set of mountain ranges. We were prepared for everything on the way back home to be somewhat of an anti-climax after the Rockies, but the Kootenays region turned out to be quite a discovery in its own right. Most of our day was spent driving southwest towards the hippy centre of Nelson, but we did make time to stop off for a quick walk in the East Kootenays to see the 'Paint Pots'. These giant, opaque, ochre and red ponds, and the surrounding muds, were used in times past to make - you guessed it - paint. I can testify to the effectiveness of the mud at fulfilling this purpose, as I somehow managed to get ... read more

After dealing with a minor crisis brought on by Rufous's leaky gut syndrome (he's still running out of oil pretty quickly - the new seals mustn't have fixed the problem), we went back to Maligne Lake and, this time, hiked the steep Bald Hills trail. It was quite a hair-raising climb to the summit - there were ominous storm clouds approaching at an alarming rate and crazily strong gusts whipping up snow and blasting our faces with ice as we clawed our way to the peak. It was so incredibly windy up the top we could barely stand up. We all but ran back down the mountainside to beat the impending storm. The view was spectacular, though - we could see most of the huge Maligne Lake, Moose Lake, Mona Lake and the surrounding mountains. ... read more

Our campground is cool. It has been taken over by elk in rut who have free reign of the grounds and emit their screeching bellows all night long, trying to woo females but, in reality, just keeping everyone awake :-). I've strapped up Quin's ankle so he able to hobble short distances now, mainly lured on by the promise of food. More trips to the bakery, haha. After checking out the job and housing scene in Jasper (which seems more promising than Banff), I went for a short walk called the Valley of Five Lakes, largely because the Lonely Planet promised beavers and evidence thereof. Well, the beavers were nowhere to be seen, nor was the evidence, unless you count bark missing from some of the trees (which we tried to convince ourselves was indeed caused ... read more