Canada

I really loved Canada. It was so much more in every way than I expected – the scenery, the people, the variety. We enjoyed the tour itinerary, and what we didn’t love, we were fascinated by anyway.

We started in Vancouver, and went to Grouse Mountain as our travel agent recommended. It was okay – the grizzly bears were wonderful. The scenery was obcured by smoke, a problem for much of the first week or so of the trip. Glad I went, wouldn’t bother going back, though I loved Vancouver.

The tour proper started on the second night with a dinner, where we met our awesome travel guide, but also met the fascist group who would be the bane of our existence for two weeks. Hard drinking, small thinking, white trash with money. Ugh. But we also had some great people and I prefer to remember them instead.

Our first excursion was a First Nations guided tour up Indian Arm. Of great historical and spiritual signficance for the Salish people, I have the pretty scenery got dull after a bit because I was so bloody tired. But after a bit of a nap, I woke up and engaged our fantastic guide, Cease Wyss, in convo, which proved to be rewarding in the extreme. Amazing lady – an ethnobiologist, musician and drummer, canoe teacher, and instructor to First Nations actors. She made the trip a real highlight of the tour, and a great start. (Pictures after the cut – click to see full sized version in a new window)

On the trip we went past an old power station which is often used in movies/TV:

Next day we joined the Rocky Mountaineer

for a two day trip to Banff, via Kamloops. We had to be ready to board by 7.30 am, and listen to too many people and bagpipes for that time in the morning, without breakfast (because we were second sitting that day and so didn’t get a – admitted excellent – meal until 10.30!). It also took over three hours to get out of Vancouver and conurbations. Grrr. But then we entered the desert regions. Yes, there are deserts in Canada. And it gets hot. up to 40 degrees Celcius (that’s 104 F). So hot in our glass topped carriage

they were handing out cold towels. It was too hot to go out on the landing to take photos because the air was like a furnace. In the carriage behind, the air conditioning stopped working altogether. Yowza. Outside, it looked like this:

Those formations in the first pic are called hoodoos. Those ones are near Kamloops, our first night’s stop, where it was still 37C/98F when we arrived at 7pm and the train was greeted by these two guys

They don’t work for the railway, they just turn up for every train! The Mountaineer did get a big welcome in Kamloops though, and a farewell – it’s one of the main, even only, bit money maker for Kamloops.

The next day the scenery turned a lot more typically Canadian, with lots of trees, bald eagles, a moose (we’d seen big horned sheep the day before), rivers, glaciers and really steep mountains:

The murky/blue colour in the water is because of rock flour (or glacial till). We saw a *lot* of startling blue/green water on this trip.

The Banff hotel (which I will talk about in my hotels post) was a real step up from the one in Kamloops (although it was the best Kamloops has to offer.) Banff is in the middle of a huge national park and while it was still pretty warm when we got there, it was cooler than the day before.

In brief, the hotel was huge, our room too small and the scenery was amazing 🙂 We were supposed to go on a helicopter ride but it was cancelled because of weather conditions, so instead, Doug went into town and I went shopping downstairs in the hotel. But even buying an icecream in the hotel meant I saw this:

While Doug took photos like this, just walking in town and back to the hotel:

(the shopping was great. Bought many pretties 🙂 )

After the semi-obligatory ‘Meet the Mounties’ session at the hotel the next morning (actually it was fun), it was off to Sulfur Mountain to ride the Gondola up to the top. Many, many people 🙁

The views were great but somewhat obscured by smoke. There were 155 forest fires burning in British Columbia in all directions that week. Lots and lots of smoke.

We stopped off to see some more hoodoos (or ‘fairy chimneys’ as the French call them):

Then to Lake Louise, via the exquisitely beautiful Moraine Lake in the Ten Peaks. Words fail me when it comes to this place:

We were about 6000 ft above sea level here. Exertion was definitely a bit of a struggle.

Lake Louise is apparently the romance capital of Canada. It certainly is the home of one of the most garrulous guides we had on our trip! But the scenery is undoubtedly stunning, and there were quite a few weddings going on, so romantic? I’d say so 🙂

Our room had a fantastic view out over the lake on two sides. Also the meal in the restaurant in the hotel was one of the very best we had on the entire trip, and that’s saying something. (Unfortunately breakfast was another story, but oh well.)

Onto Jasper, via the stunning Icefields Parkway, which takes you through and past many glaciated mountains. Plenty of chances for scenic shots

before we went on a drive up onto the Athabasca Glacier in a special ice bus. I was happy to go for the ride, but declined to walk on the glacier itself because I’ve fucked both knees slipping on ice before and I wasn’t eager to do it again with several weeks of my holiday to go! Doug went out of course.

Stopped at the Athabasca Falls

Before heading to Jasper Park Lodge on the edge of Lake Beauvert

Which was very pretty (and the loons made eery noises at night), but our cabin was a fucking long walk from where we were dropped off, and this meant lugging luggage a loooong way in the 35C heat!

It was a lot cooler up at Maligne Canyon the next day (with a *very* grumpy, albeit informative guide):

This canyon completely fills with snow and ice in the winter, and you can still walk the trails around it then.

Maligne Lake was another “omigod” place.

And Spirit Island on the lake offered the most beautiful views of all

So despite our guide, our awe was struck 🙂 Later that evening Doug went on a wildlife search, and yes, saw bears and elk. He was happy, and surprised since we were told the bears were likely to still be in the high country on account of the heat.

The next day was a long drive to Vernon, though with plenty of scenery on the Yellowhead Highway and in the Okanagan valley, the main fruit and wine producing area of British Columbia. Our destination was Predator Ridge, above a golf course, and quite the most over the top hotel I’ve ever heard of. That evening we had supper in the hotel, but the next was at the Gray Monk Winery estate, which produced fairly mediocre wines, but wonderful food (served by the loveliest people you could ever hope to meet!)

Another long day’s drive after two nights in the spa resort, back via Kamloops and the desert region, and a long and very winding road along Duffey Lake:

And then to the ski resort of Whistler, which was holding a festival of dirt bikes 🙁 Whistler the town was meh (although surrounded by beautiful mountains) and the hotel/food were ordinary, but breakfast the first morning was at the Squamish/Lil’Wat Cultural Center. They did the best scrambled eggs on the trip 🙂 We watched a short film about the First Nations people and the area, then we had a talk from Holly Edwards about the center and her people:

After that she had us join in a traditional dance which I think was called “Embarrass the fuck out of the white people” 🙂

The centre is a beautiful building and a great showcase for First Nations art and culture.

We spent big in the shop 🙂

The other highlight of the stay was the Peak 2 Peak Gondola. We saw a family of black bears (mum and 2 cubs) as well as an older juvenile, on the ride up to Whistler Mountain, and when we rode the gondola over to Blackcombe Mountain, we were greeted by hordes of hoary marmots – from whence Whistler got its name (they whistle, you see 🙂 ). The scenery up top was nice, but nothing spectacular:

Whistler to Vancouver meant an early start so we could meet the float plane to Butchart Gardens in Victoria on Vancouver Islands. And this is where I draw a veil over the only activity on the trip I didn’t participate in, because once we got to the gardens, one of our lovely fascists decided to be an absolute bitch to me, and one of her friends decided to tick me off for my reaction to this, instead of telling her friend to pack it in. I therefore kept out of the rest of the group and activities the rest of the day because I was bloody upset.

However, this was the only really negative thing about the trip and I refuse to dwell on it. The next day we explored Victoria in the morning (nice enough town, great eateries) and went orca hunting in the afternoon. Wonderful boat ride, and we saw orcas 🙂

Farewell dinner that night in the hotel for our great tour leader and driver, with a lovely view over Victoria night:

then up at sparrowfart to catch the ferry back to the mainland and the start of our cruise to Alaska!