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Published: March 5th 2008
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Lake Louise
This is what Lake Louise looks like.. The wind tugs my hair out from under my hat and whips it with a snap across my face. The wind is arctic, condensing my breath into tiny ice crystals which cling to my eyelashes like icicles hanging off the eaves of a cottage, also inconveniently making my nose do an instant Rudolf impression, lighting up like a light bulb.
Welcome to Canada
After going through the usual palaver of the airports such as ambushing your bag on the conveyor belt and being jostled by others who are also trying to waylay their luggage as it disappears down the conveyer belt, and then the fun of the terminal...being lost and disorientated trying to find the exit, trying to find where the hire cars stalls are so that we can get the keys AND trying to find said car, which is like trying to find a needle in a haystack during a hurricane whilst blindfolded and starting from about two miles away, (as you can probably tell this is clearly one of the things I like most about airports...I mean is it really that hard to have the rental cars near to the airport? and in order?) finally -car
But this was what we found.
As you can see aside from the angle of the shot... it look entirely different. The bits of the lake which were not frozen were so still that in places its hard to tell what is real and what is a reflection! located- we drive out of Calgary and towards Banff or more specifically Caribou Lodge and so the holiday begins.....SHABANG!!!!
Picture a small little town waist deep in snow with neatly kept gardens in front of grey clapboard houses with roads practically clear except for a thin line of grey muddy slush down the centre. Driving just a little way out of Banff we arrive at our first stop...Caribou Lodge
We arrive at a turquoise-topped lodge set against snow covered forests, a stunning mountainous backdrop to a stunning - and, to be frank, ostentatious and extravagant- hotel which has everything from saunas and a complimentary shuttle service to town to heated underground parking. To be honest it looks like a rustic cabin that you would come across in a forest but blown up to gigantic proportions with the rough edges polished till it gleams.
Interesting little fact here that you may find entertaining. Our waiter that night came from Ipswich! It’s a small world of 24901.55 miles eh?
And we're off -sadly this also means bye bye Caribou Lodge- on the way we pass through Banff National Park via a huge blue and sea green glacier (people
Grrrrrrrrrowl
THis was the first Grizzely bear that we saw, and as you can see -if you look closely- you can see that its happily munching on dandelions actually looked like stick figures as they made their careful way across the glacier) but the piece that I was more interested in was Lake Louise which was a known hot spot for spotting the beautiful creatures otherwise known as wolves, not to mention the fact that it was a local beauty spot with its azure water surrounded on all sides by snow laced mountains which dip down at the bottom as though they were fingers cupping the water. flowers explodes in riots of colours reds, yellows, purples and pinks with deep green foliage around the edge of the lake all the way down to the white and black stones sporadically outlining the lakes edge.
Well at least that was how it was depicted in the photos in the brochures (and the one we nicked from the cabins selection of places to visit)...what we found however was a lake virtually frozen solid surrounded by opaque white walls of snow and piles of snow which underneath presumably the rocks and flora were even though their could of been lost civilisations underneath the deep snow for all we knew. However the bits of lake that were actually visible where literally mirror smooth, in fact it was so clear that in photos its virtually impossible to distinguish which way is the top of the photo and which way is the bottom.
Sadly no wolves and needless to say I'm not impressed with that fact, wolves were the main reason that I had actually come to Canada and it seems like they were going out of their way to avoid us since we could hear them but couldn't see them as their howls fill the valley. Interesting fact here, did you know that wolves' howls don't echo? Well I suppose it makes sense since you don't really want to tell your food that you're about to eat it, makes stalking your prey pretty difficult if you keep telling it where you are lurking...
We stop off a the gift shop combined with the tourist information place were I get a wheat bag in the shape of a black bear, and the utterance from mum ‘I’ll get you this bear since its going to be the only bear we see… probably’
Ironically about half a mile down the road towards Jasper we get stuck in a traffic jam caused by a coach full of tourists stopping so that everyone can ogle at the grizzly bear which was munching on dandelions. Despite the fact that bears can literally rip your face off if they want to -you know as a subtle hint to leave them alone- they are cute, plus did you know that their favourite food are dandelions?
We arrive at the cabin in Pioneer British Columbia and one again the ‘rents have come up trumps… a log cabin with no TV and no radio, jasper is 100km away and the nearest village is Valemount… 20km away. Their idea of heaven, which is a view not shared by me. At all. In any way, shape or form. Ever.
However the view almost starts to make up for it. The big window looks onto a large meadow broken in the middle by a meandering stream which burbles loud enough to be heard faintly through the windows (which should give you a good idea about the isolation of the place, since the stream was at least a good 50 feet away) till in the distance the edge of the meadow collides with a belt of trees which erupt out of the meadow grass in a solid line -blatantly natural- a mix of both soaring pines and more sedate spreading deciduous trees, and on the horizon was MT. Robson.
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