Advertisement
Published: March 12th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Paul & Lizzy at Kimberley base area
First morning - sun is shining, and we've had about 4 hours sleep Another week, another adventure….
The whole world seems different when you have a car doesn’t it? We are certainly making the most of ours, and how our adventure this week, took ourselves to Radium, BC and Invermere. Radium’s claim to fame is the hot springs, and Invermere’s claim to fame - not sure!
Anyway, we set off bright and early in the car and got to test what the car can really do (no, not really, we know the car doesn’t go any faster than about 100kms). Radium itself really isn’t particularly exciting, and is in fact kind of seedy. There are a stack of motels on the highway which look like they are available by the hour, and there are a couple of petrol stations - that’s about it! We went to the hot springs, and had a soak for a while, but they weren’t as warm as we expected. Being the wimp I am I was cold in the almost 40 degree water! As the steam drifted off the springs it formed condensation on the bare tree branches above, it looked amazing, and I would attach some photos, but Paul locked the camera in the locker he
Kimberley
Paul hits the deck at Kimberley (this seemed to happen a lot) rented.
We also visited Invermere which is about 20kms down the road, and felt like we were country folk visiting the big city. Granted, Invermere is one of the smallest towns in the world, but it must be a centre for neighbouring towns because it had an astonishing number of useful services. There is also a massive lake (frozen of course), and there were a stack of ice fishing shacks dotted all over it.
We managed to find a shop that sold hot BBQ chickens (isn’t it amazing the things you crave when they’re no longer easily available?) and crusty (yes, read stale) bread rolls, and took ourselves to a gorgeous lookout where we had a great picnic lunch.
By the way, and this is particularly un-PC, that part of the world seems to breed an extraordinary number of extremely fat women!
Astonishing that we’d never been to Radium or Invermere before, and then within about a week we were there twice! Twice as we went through there earlier this week on our way to Kimberley ski resort - work organised a trip there. The hill was great, and the weather was beautiful. It was what
Kimberley
Looking towards the base area ‘they’ call ‘spring skiing’, and the temperature was for once bearable! The snow got a bit slushy in the afternoon, but it was lovely to be out on the hill and not be worrying about hypothermia! We had a great time, even when you consider that Paul fell so hard that he dented his helmet, and while we were night skiing a girl came flying down the hill behind us and ran into me - yes I fell, and yes, I slid a long, long way down the mountain. Night skiing is one of those things you have to try once, and once is enough!
We stayed at the Marriott (it’s really the only accommodation at the hill), and it would have to be one of the most disorganised and badly run places we’ve stayed in ages. We were supposed to be in a room with two double beds (we were sharing with another couple), and there was one bed, one sofa. One of the wineglasses in the kitchen looked like it was ready-made for a bar brawl (there was a massive chunk of glass missing from the side), the electronic keys didn’t work (between us we had to
have them reset 3 times), and you could stand at the counter for about 10 minutes before any staff would appear! Oh well, I guess it all adds to the adventure!!!
After our trip to Kimberley we actually had to work for a couple of days (what a shock to the system!), but it's okay, because on Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Fernie. Fernie's another ski hill kind of near Kimberley (yes, we got to go through Radium and Invermere again), and it was amazing. There was 20cms of fresh snow just as we arrived, and so the Tuesday was a perfect powder day. We had an amazing time, and Paul finally got the hang of snowboarding! Yay!! Fernie has the reputation as having one of the best powder falls of any ski hills, and given it's received more than 9 metres (yes, 9 metres) of snow this season, I'd say the reputation is deserved.
We played hard for the two days, and even came down some black runs (not intentionally!), and found a run which I think both of us will always remember as the best run we've discovered this season - an incredibly long blue
Fernie
View from the top run, "Currie Powder".
As with all parts of this trip which are associated with Lake Louise - and the other people who work here - the bus ride back was an adventure, primarily because of a drunken idiot on board (a British ski instructor) with the nickname 'Huggies' - yes, as in the nappy, and yes, it does relate to his needs when he is pissed. I'm not going into any more details.
Another highlight for me over the last couple of weeks has been discovering how incredibly small this world is. About two weeks ago a guest came to the Guest Services counter, and after my initial smile (which I give to all guests), I actually looked a little closer at who it was, and realised it was a girl I went to primary school with! Absolutely amazing. We've been hanging out since, and were even incredibly touristy the other day and went on the Banff gondola. It was great, but no photos, as being the genius I am I didn't take the camera. My excuse for being such a bimbo is I packed my brain away along with everything else before we came here - it's
Fernie
The mountain - where to from here?? not as though I need it in Lake Louise!!!
Not sure what the next adventure will be, but we're now really focussing on getting our plans together for the next phase of our trip. So in the short term, our adventures may be limited to heading to Calgary to get camping stuff, or heading towards Jasper and Golden to see the Icefields Parkway...
We'll keep you posted - miss you all, and thanks for the messages and emails, please keep them coming!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0435s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb