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Canada seems very familiar. It's not just the language, it's something about the way of life. Admittedly, the hats are different - theirs curl up at the sides, cowboy style. And they don't include their sales tax on advertised prices. And sometimes they add an additional 15% gratuity to the price even if you are not particularly grateful (rare - Canadian service staff seem extremely polite, respectful and hard working). But besides that, there do seem to be more points of connection with Australia than most other countries we have visited.
Like Australians, Canadians appear to "pullulate timidly on the edge of alien shores." Geographically, they hug the borders of their land and, for the most part, populate only the edge of a vast expanse. Their European derivation and colonial history also places them in a slightly embarrassing position in relation to their indigenous first people (also called aborigines). And finally, like Australians, they take enormous pride in the power of the wilderness that both threatens and inspires them. Ohh, and they have lovely wide roads too - in towns that were designed for motor vehicles, not beasts of burden and foot-slogging. Coffee here is pretty good too.
We arrived in Calgary on the eve of 'Canada Day.' From the airport, we took a minibus shuttle to Banff - a journey of just over two hours. Calgary is a country town that seems to have taken itself by surprise and grown into a city. High-rise have most definitely sprouted somewhere in its vast urban expanse, but most people seem determined not to notice. Volunteers (women of a certain age wearing red lipstick, white cowboy hats and boots) greeted us at the international terminal with a rousing "Howdy folks" and kindly helped us find our bus. The bus driver had that quiet gruffness that is typical of country folk everywhere. There were no seatbelts and the 'bus' looked like an off road vehicle. Within minutes of leaving the airport we were in the countryside, bumping our way past plenty of battered country cars and monster utes along the way.
The land around Calgary is pretty flat but up in the distance you can see the mountains lining themselves up on the horizon. It reminded us of the drive from Sydney to the Blue Mountains, except that there is more space. And grass. Lots of green grass in large
paddocks. When you get close to the mountains, you realise that they are a lot bigger than the mountains at home. They are sharp, grey craggy shapes shooting out at odd angles from the plains. And you don't rise slowly up onto the plateau like at home. Instead you seem to drive into a neat path through the base of the mountains. I'm sure that you must gain altitude somewhere though, because halfway along the route you are surrounded by ice and glaciers; it just doesn't feel like you are travelling uphill.
Whenever I imagined the road from Banff to Jasper at home, I envisaged something like the Blue Mountains community - a string of townships running along a mountain range inside a national park. The reality is a little different. It takes twice as long to drive between Banff and Jasper as it does to drive from Glenbrook to Hartley and, apart from the village of Lake Louise, there aren't any towns along the way. There is a large petrol station about half way and then the Columbia Icefields Centre which has a restaurant, kiosk and interpretive display centre. Other than that, there are only a few camp
Horse Riding
in Kananaskis countrygrounds, lookouts (or pullouts as they call them ie; 'pulling out' of the highway to look at the view) and the odd group of camp style bungalows for tourists.
The township of Banff is the largest town along the route. It is a little more compact than Katoomba and markets itself at the tourist dollar like Leura. It is cradled by snow-capped mountains and edged with the Bow River, which makes it quite a picturesque little village. Jasper is touted as being much more densely populated with wildlife but is not as pretty, being edged only with the railway line and sitting on the junction of a major thoroughfare linking Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. However, Jasper does have a slightly more remote feel because it takes much longer to drive to a major city from there and because the main road leading into the town is sometimes closed during heavy snowfalls in winter.
One thing that is definitely different about Canada is the number of animal species that are readily observable in the national parks. I saw my first wild animal in Canada on the shuttle bus heading into Banff. I thought it was a lump of two
Lookout on Duty
Taking care of the family by four sticking out of the ground until it moved. I soon discovered that the Rocky Mountains are crawling with these really cute critters called Ground Squirrels. I wanted to take one home. There are a few different types. The Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel looks like a traditional squirrel except that it has stripes down its back and lives in a hole in the ground. They are commonly seen around outdoor cafe tables trying to bum a free feed from the tourists. The Columbian Ground Squirrel is my favourite. They live in family groups in grassy parklands and sit up like meerkats keeping an eye on the world. They make a loud chirping sound whenever someone comes near, which is quite often because they seem relatively untroubled by living next door to people. If you get too close, they stop chirping and dive down the nearest hole. I could have sat watching them all day.
The next wild animal we saw in Banff was a white-tailed deer nibbling at a hedge in someone's front yard. We saw plenty of big horn sheep and quite a few elk. I didn't realise how big elk were until we stopped beside a
Stopping by Lake
On a Sunny Morning few big stags at the side of the road. One came up behind the car and made our hearts beat faster until it moved on - it was the size of a horse. They have huge, beautiful antlers that look amazing close up. We went on a bit of a mission to find a hoary marmot (funny looking sleepy cross between a beaver and a squirrel that lives in rocks above the treeline) but we are sorry to have to report that we failed to locate one despite our best efforts. We did have a few lucky breaks though - we saw a mountain goat not far from the Icefields Parkway and a black bear on the Bow Parkway. The encounter with the mountain goat was interesting because we saw it from the car but couldn't stop. A little further on, we saw a pullout and decided to walk back the road a little way to try to get another glimpse. We must have been closer than we thought because as we were hurrying back up the road on foot, the mountain goat jumped over the railing to greet us on the road. Needless to say we backed up pretty
quickly.
But its not just the wildlife that gives the Rocky Mountains its world heritage status. The scenery is so incredibly beautiful and diverse that it is hard to believe that it is real sometimes. Some of the rocky canyons almost looked Australian with their craggy sides and rounded river boulders. But Australian rivers don't hurtle headlong down the slope like Rocky Mountain rivers. Some of the lakes looked like Swiss alpine lakes except for the Grizzly Bear warning notices posted around the edges. The heat of the day in the mountains is scorching, but is quickly cooled by the catabatic winds of the glaciers when you walk in the alpine zones. Nature seems to speak louder in the Rockies, forcing you to sit up and take notice of the forces that are at work in our world. We were constantly amazed by the power needed to push enormous mountains up out of flat ground, or ground solid rock down with moving water and ice. Everywhere you looked, the earth flexed and strained its muscle.
One of the most incredible trips we made in the Rockies was to the Mt Edith Cavell Glacier, just outside of Jasper. The
walk in to the edge of the glacier was only about 30 minutes but it followed the old glacial valley that had been ground down to dust and rocks by thousands of tons of ice during the last ice age. It was only just beginning to recover after the ice had finally receded. Plants take a long time to grow in this region because they have an extremely short summer growing period. Delicate alpine plants were blooming amidst the rocks and we spent quite a bit of time taking macro shots of the flowers. Even though it was a very hot day, the pond below the glacier was covered in broken sheets of ice. There was a thick wall of ice above the pond (Edith Cavell Glacier) and another glacier (Angel Glacier) hanging from the cliffs above the moraine (dusty, rocky debris of the landscape which has been ground down and moved by the ice). While we were there, a large chunk of ice fell from Angel Glacier, which made us look up very nervously at the huge expanse of compacted ice that was slowly inching its way down the cliff towards us. This part of the world is truly
a very special place.
There was plenty to keep us occupied in the Rockies. We went horse-riding and swam at the natural hot springs (swimming in a hot bath - too hot to stay in for more than 10 minutes at a time). We took a cable car to the top of a mountain in Lake Louise and canoed on the Lake itself. There was another cable car to the top of Whistler's Mountain just outside Jasper which was by far the most beautiful -all alpine flowers and rocks (but alas no marmots willing to have their picture taken). We stayed overnight in Beauty Creek Hostel halfway along the Icefields Parkway. Beauty Creek Hostel is a converted old Japanese internment camp from WW2. We stayed in dorm rooms with about a dozen other travellers and had some fine evening conversation debating the merit of various cuisines around the world. Unfortunately, we inadvertantly offended an ex-Swiss/French national (he told us he was Canadian - had lived there for over 40 years) by telling everyone that the Swiss have the worst food in the world. There was a lot of nervous laughter about that one!
We also visited the Athabasca
Glacier which is the main tourist attraction en route to Jasper. The tour guide explained that a glacier is a body of ice that does not melt over summer and gradually builds up into such a large mass that it begins to create its own micro-climate. You can feel the cool winds blowing off the ice-fields when you are standing in the searing sun. After enough snow has fallen in one area, the ice compacts until it is so dense that its physical properties are altered and it becomes plastic instead of brittle. In this state, it is able to flow like a river - albeit extremely slowly. You can get a ride in a purpose built bus that takes you out onto the Glacier itself to walk around in a designated safe area. Apparently a young boy was killed a few years back when he ventured outside the marked area and fell down a crevasse. It was nowhere near as slippery as I expected it to be. It also had spots of soil like material embedded in the ice which are apparently impurities that have become trapped - they created interesting patterns on the surface which I didn't expect.
The food in Canada has been great but is not helpful when you are trying to watch your weight. We have spent a lot of time just driving around wildlife spotting and sitting by gorgeous alpine lakes relaxing so we don't need the hearty hiker's meals that all the cafe's seem intent on providing. Everything comes in extra large, giant or enough to feed a family size portions. When we arrived in Vancouver, we ordered what we supposed would be a small meal in a Korean restaurant and received about four times the portion we expect in an Australian Asian restaurant. Very tasty though. That's another way in which Canada reminds us of home - it appears to be a very multicultural country, with loads of Asian Canadians and a huge variety of ethnic restaurants in town.
Vancouver reminds us so much of Sydney that it made us laugh out loud. It is surrounded by the sea and has small beaches with life guards watching over the swimmers. There are small sailing boats on the water and half dressed people relaxing in the sun. The parks along the foreshore look really familiar and we even saw a kind
A Tom Sawyer Moment
at the back of Beauty Creek Hostel of miniature harbour bridge just down the road from our hostel. The architecture is about the same age as most of the buildings in Sydney so even the style of the buildings have a vaguely Sydney-esque feel. The population is a similar mix of anglo-asian, with a few other minority groups jostling for space. There is a great park called Stanley Park which is a bit like the Botanic Gardens and offers plenty of great walking paths along the foreshore as well as space for cycling and roller-blading.
As we were walking in the park yesterday, we looked out at the eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean and imagined we were staring straight across the 'ditch' to Australia. Despite the miles, we are starting to feel as if home is very close by. Tomorrow, we are going to visit our new friends Jane and Joe who live in Victoria (another reminder of home, although this Victoria is Canadian). Our tourist identities seem to be fading here and we feel more like we have arrived in a strangely Americo-French-Asia-British extra state of Australia, surrounded by familiar accents and faces. There is an enormous Australian presence here and even the newspapers
Mountain Goat
Warning ...warning... are making jokes about the number of Aussies living in Banff. One of the first interactions we had when we arrived in Canada was a surprisingly familiar line spoken by the receptionist at the local pool in Banff. When we inquired about swimming, the guy at the counter called out to Richard "Hey, you teach at Blaxland High School don't you?" The ex-student, a really pleasant lad named Chris Streeter, had not actually been in Richard's class but we did manage to find some common ground in his sister who had been in the same year group as James. By the time we left the shop, we felt that we were very close to home indeed.
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Cheryl
non-member comment
Another to the list
Hi again, Looks like the place to go to enjoy the beauty of another country without feeling too homesick. Just to be able to see all the wildlife up close and personal would be fascinating. I have just spent the weekend watching baseball with a Canadian lady. She spoke of going home to visit her father soon. I now understand why she spoke so fondly of the country she grew up in. It looks beautiful.