Banff-tastic

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Yet another awesome trip with Moose over the weekend, this time our driver was a bit of a loser but the rest of us on the bus were pretty cool. Made really good friends with a Sadie and Joe, a young couple from Manchester who are into similar music to me (Sadie is also in a band which I will have to get into) so we had fun talking about bands and playing our favourite songs to each other. Sadie also lived near me and Joe worked at the vegetarian cafe and a pub near me so chances are we'd actually run into each other before.

My trip was a strange one, normally it is part of a seven day plus round trip to Banff, Jasper etc but due to work commitments I could only go as far as Banff before making my own way home.

First stop was Bridal Veil Falls, a 60m metre high waterfall (although I am getting a little jaded: seen one waterfall, seen them all!) and then the small towns of Hope and then Kamloops before staying a night at a small hostel in Shuswap which features a nice lake and beach area (I didn't swim).

Next morning we made our way to another hostel for some awesome pancakes. Whilst the others had their pancakes, Joe, a few others and I went looking for the nearby Beaver Lodge. Sadly there were o beavers to be seen but along the way we did see an eagle swoop down and take an awesome dive into the water to grab a fish. Even stranger, the walk through the forest was marked with barbie dolls and other kids toys hanging from branches - very Blair Witch Project!

A few more stops along the way including some go cart racing (so much fun and I had the fastest cart going!), lunch by a lovely river, a stop at Emerald Lake where Joe jumped into the freezing water (the look of horror on his face was priceless) and then Kicking Horse natural bridge which featured some damn fast and deadly rapids.

Special moment along the way, traffic on the road stopped suddenly as a herd of mountain goats (or something like that) decided to cross in front of our bus and block traffic for a few minutes as they meandered along the road and then down a very steep embankment.

We finally arrived into Banff (avoiding the rain which bucketed down on our way in to Banff) late on Sunday night, had pizza and beers at the pub and then a few of us headed to a local club to boogie.

The next morning it was time to farewell my new friends as most of them were continuing their tour (was really sad to say goodbye to Sadie and Joe but we will catch up when they return to Vancouver on Friday and are already making plans, together with Nikki from Aberdeen, for a music/nachos/Alan Partridge DVD/vego dinner weekend fest back in Manchester at some stage).

All on my lonesome and with the promise of clear blue skies, I went to a hiking path near my hostel (the views from the hostel were amazing) for a hike to the Hoodoos (strange shaped limestone rocks). The scenery was totally breathtaking with huge mountains, deep valleys, bright green/blue water and trees all around me.

Things got a little scary when I realized I was the first person down the trails that day (the occasional spider web indicating this fact) and then I saw a few huge bear paw prints which looked fairly fresh!!! They were actually headed the way I'd come but as that was the only way I knew how to get back to my hostel, I calmly walked very fast to more populated areas keeping my ears out for any strange sounds!

Feeling that I'd seen enough nature for one day, I went into the tacky touristy centre, did some shopping (a lovely chocolate/nut/caramel thing and a peanut butter milkshake) before catching my Greyhound bus back to Vancouver, a ride of some 15 hours arriving back at 5am ready for work at 8am ... fortunately I took some sleeping tablets so was able to get at least 10 hours sleep and was quite perky for work.

Oh and in case news reached back home, I escaped the landslide at Whistler by two weeks (but had friends trapped there for 5 days!) and survived unscathed from my Greyhound bus ride (a guy recently had his head cut off by another passenger http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Man_decapitated_on_Greyhound_bus_in_Manitoba - friends of mine were meant to be on the same bus but by chance had changed plans at the last minute!). And they say Manchester is dangerous!!!

No rest for the wicked and after arriving in at 5am Tuesday morning it was straight off to work and then out that night to lovely Deer Lake Park to catch Feist and support act, Canadian band The Weakerthans (incidentally one of Joe’s favourite bands, so much so he has one of their lyrics tattooed around his arm).

This is the third time I’d seen Feist this year having seen her in Madrid and Paris and once again she was awesome. She really does have one of the best voices in pop and is backed up by some funky songs, great stage show and a lovely stage manner.

On the topic of gigs, the past week also saw me see three bands. The first being Conor Oberst (better known as Bright Eyes, a band I saw at the Fremantle Arts Centre a few years back); Film School a fairly underground indie rock band and The Faint a dance/punk rock band that had us all dancing like maniacs.

Mum actually bought me The Faint CD for Xmas a few years back, in fact that year Mum got me three CDs and I am seeing all three bands in the coming months - !!! and Spiritualized being the two other bands. Mum does love going to JB Hi-Fi with a Xmas list full of my weird bands … not!

The rest of my time was spent catching up with friends from recent tours. A whole bunch of us were out last Wednesday for the third round of the fireworks competition, tonight’s offering from China featuring a great start and jaw dropping finale but overall lacking the consistency of Canada’s offering.

Friday night we also farewelled Thomas as he started his travels to the States and Alaska (a place I would love to visit at some stage) but will hopefully be back for a few nights of partying in September and we might even catch up in New York for Xmas/NYE.

Hoping to relax a little this weekend, my first weekend in months and months where I’ve not got anything planned other than the pub Sunday arvo! A hike could be fun though.

Next week will also be pretty quiet, before I catch up with some friends returning from their travels and catch a few gigs including (x fingers I can get a ticket) seeing Radiohead which should be ace.

Hope everyone is well, would love to hear from you all.

Lots of love

Pete

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Comments

[tam]

goats?!
Hahahaa... Peter, they aren't goats! You're so funny.

[pqc]

rudolph
yes i know that, we all know i am stupido :-) i have since been told (by a bloody german no less) that they are a type of deer and that does make more sense but you know its got four legs, its climbing up/down a mountain, its a mountain goat to me ....