Canada blog

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Canada road trip 8th September-4th October 2008



Monday 8th September 2008

After an overnight flight we arrive at Calgary Airport and it’s still about 7pm. The wonders of the lunar cycle! We take an effortless journey from the airport to the hostel: it only cost CAD $2.50 (about £1.25) for the bus and train - an absolute bargain.

I wasn’t at all impressed with Hi-Calgary international hostel. Though the staff was helpful (for the most part), we weren’t given towels when we arrived; we had to ask for them. The reception area was welcoming and felt very buzzy, the dormitory itself though was dismal and dingy. It was very sparse, with not enough locker space. Also, the sheet and blanket I was given were poor quality. They were too small and the blanket was really thin. I couldn’t stay warm. Also, some mad woman decided, at 2am, to pack her stuff away into her locker space, very noisily. I could have killed her. Surely if you arrive late at a shared dormitory, you’d just sort out your ablutions in the bathroom and quietly sink into bed? So I didn’t have the best night’s sleep! Though the hostel did go some way towards redeeming itself in the morning with free coffee in a friendly, shared kitchen, I was glad to leave to go to the airport. We were accompanied to the airport by a lovely co-traveller called Penny who was possibly older than Pam and I. Her husband had died the previous year: they had planned to travel when they retired and Penny was determined that she was now going to do the travelling on her own. She was en route to London prior to travelling to Europe.

Tuesday 9th September 2008

Pam had phoned Trudy to arrange picking up the camper van at the airport so, with time to spare, Pam, Penny and I had a little wander round Calgary, stopping off for breakfast at a small diner. Having received piss poor instructions from Trudy as to exactly where in the airport we were supposed to meet her, we spent an hour or so, with Penny, wandering round the airport like farts in a colander. We hugged Penny goodbye, finally located Trudy, completed the paperwork, got in the van and Pam drove us away (after a quick practice run round the airport car park). What a star. And obviously the only way to start your Canadian adventure is by - you guessed it - going to Safeway! Still, needs must. So, with the belly side of things taken care of, we drove off to Banff. Bucketing down with rain, and with only the odd, unplanned detour, we arrived at Banff about two hours later. We booked into a campsite, having passed two huge female elk grazing right by the side of the road, one on each side. Pam wanted to stop and gaze but I urged her on, otherwise I’d have been making a makeshift bow and arrow, shooting one down and gnawing on it there and then. Having forgotten/not had time for lunch, I was ravenous to say the least. We rudimentarily parked the van and hotfooted it to Banff: the bus stop was only about 50 yards away from where we’d parked. A pint of very tasty beer and an 8oz sirloin and I was ready for anything. Or so I thought, until we returned to the van and realised that it might have been a tad more sensible to get our beds sorted, nighties and wash stuff etc. ready, before night descended and it was all but pitch black. Still, we’ll hopefully live and learn! (But then, hey, why break the habit of a lifetime). Canada, nighttime in the forest in a camper van = f - - - ing freezing! Christ, it was cold. I’m getting the feeing that, by the time we’ve finished the trip, I’ll have developed the art of existing on just a couple of hours sleep a night (but no Thatcher jokes, OK). Anyway, I finally gave in, got out of bed at 6.30am and went to have a shower to warm up. And it worked. By the time I got back to the van Pam was up and about. After a breakfast of granola, blueberries, juice, tea, rye bread and hummus I felt decidedly human again (albeit frozen human - the warming effects of the shower having worn off). With everything spick and span, after breakfast, by about 10am, we were ready for the day.

Wednesday 10th September 2008

We took the bus into Banff and went up Sulphur Mountain on the gondola (cable car) - awesome! (So how Canadian do I sound?) After the rain of the day before, it was now a gloriously sunny, beautiful day and the views from the top were wonderful. We followed this with a long walk along the Bow River to some lovely falls: gentle, not really a waterfall as such. I was absolutely knackered by the time we walked back into Banff but, ever intrepid, we stopped for a pint. Sitting outside on the balcony sipping (OK, swigging back) my pint I glanced down the street and suddenly realised that at the end of it was a huge mountain! Again, awesome. We finished our pints and began traipsing about looking for a restaurant. We found ‘Earl’s’ and I had the most delicious beef burger and salad imaginable. Then we got the bus back to the campsite and I was comatose within minutes.

Thursday 11th September 2008

We were up and about early and, having driven into Banff, we realised we were too early for the hot springs so we mooched about in the Indian Trading Post shop for a while. Still too early for the hot springs, we wandered about a bit and found a beautiful public garden almost opposite the shop. It was a lovely place to while away a spare hour. We got to the hot sulphur pool at about 10.30am. Mmmm, it was wonderful. The water was really hot, the sun was really hot, we were out in the open air surrounded by the majestic peaks of the Rocky Mountains - glorious. We finished at about 1 o’clock and had a picnic lunch at the foot of the cliffs in the car park. Then we set off for Lake Louise on Highway 1A (the more scenic baby brother of Highway 1). And the scenery was spectacular - wall-to-wall mountains wherever you looked. We stopped at Johnson Canyon and had a wonderful two-hour walk to the falls. Then we drove on to Kicking Horse campsite, which we finally found after a short, unplanned, diversion. It was a really wild (as in raw, untamed) looking site. We saw a herd of elk, a group of females and a bull, grazing at the side of the road.

By now, hungry enough to have lassoed one of the elk and hacked at it raw (I see another theme developing!) we drove into Field, a delightful, tiny little town. It shows just how much taste is a very individual thing. We went into one (of only two) eateries and, after a good hour's, if not more, wait we finally had dinner (Malaysian chicken). It was good but, on balance, I much preferred Earl’s in Banff. To each his own. I guess the highlight of my day was finally getting through to Ian on the phone and having a good, long chat with him. It made the wait for dinner (almost) worthwhile! We drove back to camp where I collapsed into bed and didn’t get up until 8am (though I wasn’t asleep the whole time). We plan to spend Friday locally - a slow, gentle day - saving the day after for Lake Louise, before heading off towards Jasper.

Friday 12th September 2008

After a late start - I didn’t get out of bed until about 8.30am - we set off for Takkakaw at about 10.45am. It was a real zigzag of a road with hairpin bends, though not too many thankfully! Nonetheless, it was a bit of a white-knuckle ride. We had planned to heat up some soup for lunch but, on the way, the heavens opened and it tipped it down. It was still drizzling when we got there, which knocked the soup on the head, so Pam prepared us some sandwiches. We then hiked the five-mile round trip to Laughing Falls, which doesn’t sound much but it climbs gradually up the side of the mountain. The scenery was gorgeous, sheer paths passing waterfalls to the river running below (so a few hairy moments) but the paths were mostly good and wide, so I felt pretty safe. Laughing Falls was beautiful, a powerful waterfall cascading - no, cascading is too gentle a word - plummeting down to the river below, creating wide water sprays on the route down. On the way back down thunder began to rumble and lightning to flash (don’t shelter under trees - uh oh, surrounded by nothing but) and the heavens opened. We got very, very wet. By the time we got to the bottom the rain had stopped, the sun was out again and we were drying off, so we spent a half-hour walking in the opposite direction to the foot of the Tekamah Falls. Again, the spray from the falls almost created its own separate, living entity. We meandered back, then stopped off again in Field for a delicious salmon dinner accompanied by a glass of red wine at the Cow café, before crossing the road to the Flying Pig for a pint. It was a wonderful day - it’s a shame I almost froze to death in the night!

Saturday 13th September 2008

I woke up at about 6.30am after getting gradually colder and colder during the night. I’d left my socks off because it felt warm enough - big mistake! It was impossible in a sleeping bag to turn enough to retrieve them - also, I was stymied by a really painful right knee. So, frozen stiff, I got up. There was a thick mist hanging in the trees - and there are an awful lot of trees - which was determined to hang on in there for a while. I coughed up some thick, green phlegm. I hope it’s just sinuses clearing and not pneumonia developing! Fingers crossed. Anyway, I had a long, hot shower and my first hair wash in what feels like a decade and felt ready to face the world again.

We drove to Moraine Lake, a lovely place where we enjoyed a short walk. We deliberated as to whether to take a canoe out ($30) But I persuaded Pam that it would be better to head for Lake Louise itself and hire one when we got there. Another big mistake! Having driven to Lake Louise, we found it was going to cost $55 for a canoe (almost double the price). What a rip-off. But, we’re on holiday so what the heck! We went for it and spent a brilliant hour canoeing up and down Lake Louise (well, about an hour and a quarter actually - it’s great not having a watch between us). They didn’t charge us any extra for our late return. We followed this by a short walk through the woods alongside the lake, then decided to drive to The Heritage Station restaurant, where we’d booked in for dinner for 6.45pm. Having quarter of an hour of so to spare, we sat by the side of the river to write our postcards. In the restaurant I had the best meal I’ve had so far in Canada - scrumptious. We drove back to the Flying Pig at Field where we had a final drink with Terry and Gill, a lovely couple we’d made friends with on our first night. It was a really lovely end to a really lovely day. It was a bit warmer in the van - or maybe it was the merino wool socks and the fleece! It was freezing cold though at 6am when I finally woke up. (I’d been sleeping fitfully for a while before fully waking up, becoming gradually aware of it getting colder and colder).

Sunday 14th September 2008

Sunshine is forecast again for today, though it was flipping cold to start off with. A long, hot shower revived me, followed by breakfast, then bye-bye Kicking Horse, Lake Louise here we come. The plan was to have a shortish walk up the mountain by Lake Louise to a place called Agnes Lake Tea House - a teahouse way up the mountain - just under 400 metres of ascent - uphill all the way. Well, I was really chuffed with myself. I made it with no mishaps. The lake up there was like black ink. On the way up we passed snow patches. The views were absolutely magnificent: I couldn’t believe how high I’d climbed. Apparently, it’s the most walked path in Canada (or maybe the Rockies, I’m not sure). We had tea (weak, nothing to write home about) then a ‘comfort stop’ before heading back down. I overheard an American woman remark that removing a ‘fanny pack’ was quite difficult whilst wearing full hiking gear. OK, I know it’s the American equivalent of a bum bag but, and childish I know, it still sounds really, really rude! We didn’t get to the bottom again until about 4.15 in the afternoon. I’d been rabbitting about food for about two hours and Pam mentioned a café at the Lake Louise hostel, called Bill Peyto’s, which she thought she’d read about in her Rough Guide. We found the Lake Louise hostel. It was really beautiful - it put the Calgary one to shame! And Bill Peyto’s was very good. Replenished, we headed off towards Jasper. We were originally just going to pull over and park the van in a promising spot somewhere just off the road, if we found one, but we ended up pulling into Mosquito Creek campsite. There were no spaces, so we parked the van right by the river and I proceeded to make a campfire, using logs from the pile reserved for - you guessed it - making fires! I got a roaring fire going. We were surrounded by an incredible range of snow-capped mountains and fir trees. As the evening drew to a close, the sky had the most delicate pink hues and the last rays of the sun bounced off the mountain peaks. What a way to end another fabulous day.

Monday 15th September 2008

Drove up to the Icefields Parkway and visited the glacier. Had a brilliant day but didn’t manage to find the time to write anything about it, so a very truncated entry for today!!


Tuesday 16th September 2008

As the weather’s been so glorious and the forecast is for more of the same today, I did my washing. How rock ‘n roll is that? Hanging it out, I was observed by an elk doe, a beautiful creature, so graceful and still. I kept a wary eye open though for her mate turning up. It’s the rutting season and I don’t want a huge, many-antlered hulking beast looking askance at me. We drove to Maligne Lake, about 50km away, some of the road being pretty close to the cliff edge! We had a picnic lunch, then took a boat ride over to Spirit Island, our most expensive trip so far. Although the boat ride itself was excellent - 35mins each way along the biggest lake in Alberta, we only had 10 minutes on the island itself, a huge disappointment. Still, c’est la vie. The views from the boat were stunning - soaring mountains, glaciers and, the highlight of the trip so far, a bald eagle perched on a tree stump that graced us with a soaring flight into the air. Thank God (or the spirits) for binoculars. From there we drove to Maligne Canyon. This was probably the most awesome sight so far, in the true sense of the word. In places, the sides of the canyon were so steep that we couldn’t see the bottom. I must be conquering my fear of heights (mostly) because I could stand at the edge (holding on to the rail quite firmly of course) and look right down into the gorge. I even took some photos. (An aside - we’ve now seen so many elk that we’re really quite blasé about them and, as for chipmunks, so passé). We got back at about 7pm for dinner at Earl’s (again) then bed (knackered). At Earl’s I had a bacon burger and salad followed by a chocolate sticky toffee pudding. The dessert was a one-off absolute over-indulgence. I could feel my arteries clogging up with every delicious mouthful. I slept until about 7.45am, though aware for some time prior to finally waking up that my shoulders were feeling cold inside my sleeping bag.

Wednesday 17th September 2008


A cold morning, though not freezing, and more cloud about though the sun is trying to break through. We sat in Earl’s last night poring through the Rough Guide and decided to stay one extra day and drive to Whistler in just two. Hope we don’t regret this decision. Anyway, today’s going to be a gently paced day, just walking - probably the Valley of the Five Lakes. So, hold that space!
Well, it’s almost 5pm and we’ve just got back from our ‘gently-paced’ walk through the Valley of the Five Lakes. What started out as a 4.2km walk finally ended up as about 11km, about eight miles. No wonder I’m more than ready for a cup of tea. And I did all the driving today too - without mishap. We actually started off going into Jasper, sorting out our train tickets for the Skeena and establishing that we could leave our luggage at the Greyhound depot for our last day in Jasper before heading off home. Job done. It’s been another beautifully sunny day, there was a lot more cloud this morning to start off with, so wandering round Jasper was cooler, quite pleasant. By the time we got to the Five Lakes walk it had cleared considerably and was hot again. All the other walkers we met were native Canadians - a first. And we saw very few. We did a circular walk round the largest of the lakes - a tranquil, idyllic place. We saw beautiful dragonflies, grasshoppers - it seemed like two types - a common or garden grasshopper that just hopped and one that looked common or garden but didn’t hop but flew and had gorgeous yellow wings that made a really loud noise (we later found out from Ian that they were actually locusts).
As I said to Pam, if the dessert yesterday clogged up my arteries, the walk today melted them again. I think it’s the first day we’ve actually got back to the campsite and had enough time to sit down and have a relaxing cup of tea before setting off out again to get our dinner. I’m sitting here drinking my cup of tea, it’s still and peaceful the sun’s still b lazing down (though it’s lost a smidgeon of its heat) and it’s just totally relaxing.

Thursday 17th September 2008

We had a long drive to Kamloops and I did a good bit of the driving. The scenery has changed dramatically. It’s dry, dusty, agricultural - it’s lost the wonderful high mountains. Kamloops campsite is a strange mixture of drear/beautiful. It’s right beside a river, which is lovely, but to get to the campsite we drove through an ugly, dusty industrial site - horrible. We had a long walk into town along the river, by the industrial estate over the river bridge, along by the side of the railway track to eventually a McDonald’s (for toilet - needs must!) then had a lovely meal, with wine (not at McDonald’s, I hasten to add). Most enjoyable - a lovely place called The Plaza. It was Kamloop’s salvation. It was a really hot day and a stifling evening.

Friday 19th September 2008

Woke up to find the milk curdled - yuk! No breakfast or cup of tea. No, not quite true, had toast and a banana and a melon (yummy). In theory, it’s a shorter drive to Whistler but in practice it turned out to b e a long, meandering mountain road, where we were rarely able to get above 60km ph, more often way below this. It was a lovely drive though, the scenery becoming more dramatic again. It holds promise. The Riverside Campsite in Whistler was hideously expensive! Nearly $60 for a really miniscule space, than they had the gall to charge $1 to use the shower on the pretext of conservation, then ran sprinklers through the night to water the putting green. Also it was a flat fee of almost $60, whether you wanted to hook up to the electricity and water or not (we didn’t), so being fleeced for trying to holiday economically as well. So, the huge things that look like bloody great trucks and which are phenomenal gas guzzlers are being subsidised the likes of me. Bugger that. We walked from the campsite to Ian’s - about a million miles - well, it seemed like it after being stuck in the van all day. Wonderful to see him. We went for a very inexpensive meal (I’d been dreading the cost!) then for a couple of beers afterwards to a lovely open-air bar in the village square, The Amsterdam. Then a taxi back. A wonderful evening. We’re driving back to Ian’s for about 10am tomorrow morning.

Saturday 20th September 2008

It’s a very cloudy morning, and the rain began slowly whilst breakfasting. We got to Ian’s for tea and coffee, then had a little wander round Whistler village. Then we loaded Ian and Blue (his flatmate’s husky) into the van and went to Brandywine Falls for a short walk. In theory. After wandering round for what seemed like hours in the ever increasing rain, soaked to the skin, scrambling up the rock face, losing one of my Miami earrings in the process, we eventually walked along a railway track we found, seeing a young bear dart into the bushes along the way, eyes constantly peeled for Mummy Bear, until we finally found a sign to the suspension bridge, which was where we were headed for hours back (and only 3km away!) During the walk we all thought, at times, that we’d have to call out the rescue services. We walked over and back across the suspension bridge, and found our way back to the car park, loading the smelly dog (he’d been into every pool and pond along the way) and Ian into the back, then back to Ian’s. Ian got on the internet and found us a reasonably priced B/B at Mount Currie, about 40km back towards the way we’d come. We left Ian’s at about 5.30ish to go and book in at the B/B - what a wonderful place. It had a log-burning stove (where I dried my very, very wet green jacket). I had a long. hot shower before returning to Whistler, where Ian took us to a fabulous Japanese restaurant. It cost $30 for miso soup, salad, etc. and Japanese-style chicken and steak that they cooked in front of you. Then onto a bar at the Hilton for a beer with Ian and his mates, before the drive back to the B/B. I slept until 7.50, sheer luxury.


More to follow folks.

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