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DAY 4: Friday 16th April 2010 - EDMONTON / JASPER (by Darryl)
We were up late last night packing and finishing arrangements, finally hitting the hay around 1:30 and had to rise at 5:15 to be ready for the taxi - so only had 3.5 hours sleep!
It was a beautiful clear day but quite cold - still, quite refreshing though as I couldn’t seem to get the temperature down to a comfortable level in the hotel room!
Got chatting to an interesting Negro guy in the train station - who came from Montreal and looked curious with his great height, graying dreadlocks & long beard, with large round dark rimmed glasses.
Travelling by train was brilliant, with lots of space and the gentle rocking motion - after a few photos of typical Edmonton rural scenery (flat brown fields, thickets of Silver birches, broken down tractors, the occaisional power station, long straight dusty roads, some lakes still iced over, rows of cottages near the lakes, the odd oil rocking thingy? ) I managed to snooze for half an hour and felt a bit better.
Although the scenery wasn’t picturesque, it was interesting and full of character. The region
seems strong in farming and industry, and is brown and dusty now probably due to the long snowy winter, but I guess it soon greens up for the summer.
We all made the most of our MP3 players, as a soundtrack to the slowly changing landscape passing us by, and so the time seemed to disappear quite quickly. The observation deck was a hit, and when we got closer to the mountains the view (and photos) from there was fantastic.
A lady passenger made a comment about the boys freckles, as her kids were staring at Callum & Lachie (don’t they have freckles here???) It may also have had something to do with their ginger hair as that seems to be a novelty too.
The scenery changed dramatically when we neared Jasper, as we were suddenly surrounded by steep mountains and rugged peaks with a dressing of snow, and a nice trouty looking river with snow along the edges. The only wildlife I spotted was a herd of mountain sheep (large with grey/brown coats).
Jasper town is beautiful and looks a bit like Queenstown in NZ. The buildings are generally in mountain chalet style with good use
of stone and timber, but not very old? You can stand in the town centre and turn 360 degrees to see steep snowy mountains all around. Talking to the shuttle driver - the property here is really pricey, as it is limited as to the extent that is available for development.
The Marmot lodge is pretty cool, nice modern but earthy (Indian?) styles, views of the mountains and a great pool & spa. First we walked back into town to pickup some food supplies and look for ideas for our day here tomorrow. We were keen to do the gondola trip up the mountain or white water rafting - but both were just out of season. Tramping the trails around town looked like the only option.
Although the unit doesn’t have any cooking facilities, we bought some groceries to save money, and ate Subway style for dinner. A swim and steaming hot spa that evening rounded the day off nicely, and the lack of sleep hit me at about 9pm when I just had to rest my eyes.
DAY 5: Saturday 17th April 2010 - JASPER
We all slept heavily last night, and I first woke at
7am - drifting off again to rise at 9am (12 hours sleep!)
Breakfast ‘on the cheap’ today consisted of 2 options of cereal and milk in plastic cups. When they say ‘cream’ over here - it is really full cream milk, so I am enjoying that again on my cereal.
We busied ourselves with emails, washing clothes and booking accommodation for Vancouver and still looking for an activity for the day. Sarah found out from the front desk staff that the last shuttle up to the skifield was leaving in 30 mins so we raced around, dressed for the snow and just caught it.
The bus ride gave us more specatacular views as we climbed in altitude, and saw more snowy streams, fir trees, and views of the slopes - and I could see lots of places to start hiking trails which looked quite appealing, so I am looking forward to the independence of our own vehicle soon.
The Marmot basin Skifield seemed a bit quiet, but this is almost the end of the season. The ski runs are bordered with lines of Fir trees which breaks it up and makes it interesting.
We walked up the access
road to the next carpark above the main buildings, to find a quiet place in the snow and trees away from skiers. The boys were pretty excited about the snow, and as soon as we found some fresh stuff all hell broke loose with lots of carnage in the Mills family snowball battle!
In places we would sink up to a metre deep when we broke through the snow crust. The next job was to build a snowman - which we named Jeff (from BroTown) complete with fir tree hair (and the boys added other appendages) unfortunately Jeff was the victim of a hard-hitting Kiwi rugby tackle from four sides! Me, Callum and Lachie took some running jumps down the piste and slid some of the way back on our butts, then it was into the café for hot chips and hot chocolates all round.
After requesting a local skier to take our photo, it dawned on me that all those we had met and spoken to so far had impeccable manners. People seem to have a lot of time for you, and speak well - in fact I am really enjoying the Canadian/ American twang. Its clear and
rich, as well as being loud!
We saw a herd of some kind of Deer on the roadside during the trip back to Jasper - large, grey/brown with dark shaggy manes, but none with antlers so probably all hinds/young. Lachie thought he saw a squirrel also, but not much other wildlife yet. Not much birdlife yet too, except for Crows which have a cool Caaaw Caaaw sound - makes you feel like you’re in a horror movie!
Back at the Lodge for another swim and spa, followed by homemade Subway for dinner, movie, kids journals and packing ready for the next leg of our train journey tomorrow.
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