Destination Realities: Canada

Sooo... I spent just over 2 months in Canada. It's a huge country. Really huge. With that in mind, how did my time there match up with my original plans?

I only really planned the beginning and very end of the trip, so here goes.

The Maritimes

1. Nova Scotia

Man, I had huge plans for Nova Scotia - Bay of Fundy, Lunenburg, Joggins... I only ended up spending about 5 days in the province, courtesy of ending up an a very short notice road trip with a fellow Brit I met on the first day. I did get to explore a bit of Halifax and I did see the Bay of Fundy and whales in it to boot. Didn't see much else of the province though.

2. Newfoundland

I would have loved to visit Newfoundland. However, while getting there would have been easy enough - ferry from Nova Scotia - getting around once I got there would have proved difficult and expensive. So Newfoundland will have to wait for now. I need someone who can drive...

3. New Brunswick

Not really part of my original plan, but I did end up spending a couple of days there. Admittedly, I spent that time mostly in the hostel (because it was raining) or in the station (because, woo, midnight train). Hmm...

4. Prince Edward Island

I'd not planned on visiting because I "didn't want to rush myself". Out of all of the maritime provinces, this is probably the place I felt least rushed. I spent nearly 3 days there, enjoying how quiet it was even despite the kitschy madness of Green Gables.

Quebec

5. Quebec City

I'd originally only planned on a week in Quebec province, but after rushing through the Maritimes in just over a week, I was ready to slow down. Which meant I ended up spending 4 days in beautiful Quebec City instead of the day or 2 I'd originally thought. As a result, I had much more time to go exploring the city's history. Great stuff.

6. Montreal

I spent 5 days in Montreal, the longest I'd stayed anywhere since I left Iceland. It would prove to be the beginning of a pattern - 4-5 day stays became my default as much as possible for the rest of my time in Canada. I'm glad I slowed down so much - Montreal had plenty to offer, even if it did rain some more.

7. Outdoorsy things

Yeah. I didn't end up doing any of those in Quebec. Getting caught outside in a torrential downpour doesn't count.

Ontario and the prairies

I didn't actually plan anything for this, really. I mostly just pootled through the big cities (Ottawa, Toronto) and revisited places from my previous trip (Kingston, Niagara, Hamilton). More on that in a bit.

As for the prairies, I hadn't really planned on anything there. I knew I wanted to take the train across from Toronto to Vancouver, but originally I was going to go non-stop. I decided 4 days on a train didn't sound like fun (says the girl who just booked a 51 hour bus journey), so I ended up stopping in Winnipeg and Edmonton and I'm very glad I did. Both cities just a little bit off the main tourist trail, but well worth visiting.

Vancouver and the Rockies

8. Vancouver Island

Yeah. That didn't happen. By the time I arrived in Vancouver I wasn't really in the mood for doing anything much. Despite breaking up my train journey, those nights trying to sleep on the train really seemed to screw with my brain.

9. Capilano Suspension Bridge

This did happen though. Success!!

10. Lake Louise

This also happened. It rained quite a bit and a big fucking bear scared the shit out of us at the campground, but we did see Lake Louise.

11. Burgess Shale

Didn't happen. We drove past it. And past the turn off for the Stanley Glacier trail, which runs past another outcrop of the same fossil-bearing shale. I made do with a few random museumm exhibits and the faint hope of spotting a fossil at Marble Canyon.

12. Riding, rafting, kayaking

Wow, I had all the outdoors things in mind for the Rockies. And we managed most of them (and more). Ziplining, canoeing, rafting, riding, bobsleigh (yes, bobsleigh). Plus a whole bunch of really nice walks. Success on that count.

13. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

This is a World Heritage Site south of Calgary and ultimately turned out to be just a bit too far out of the way. A shame, but it'll have to wait for another trip.

On first glance, it looks like I missed out on a lot of the things I originally planned or wanted to do. But I also did a lot more that I didn't intend. I took a road trip with someone I'd only just met and anyone who knows me will probably understand that that's quite a big deal for me. My time in Canada, while obviously amazing and great fun, also proved to me that I can deal with social situations and I can actually hold a conversation with people I don't know. It's lovely.

Now, things to bear in mind for anyone wanting to repeat the above. Because clearly everyone wants to take 2 months to travel Canada.

1. Canada is huge

Yes, I know this should be obvious, but it's worth mentioning. Getting around can take hours or even days unless you're going to focus on just a little bit of the country. A bus from the capital in Ottawa to Toronto takes about 3 hours. A train from Campbellton, New Brunswick to Quebec City takes 8 hours. And a train across from Vancouver to Toronto takes 4 days.

Yup. Huge. Maybe just focus on an area - Ontario around Toronto or Quebec & Montreal are probably good ideas.

2. Inter-city buses are pretty good

Greyhound's network runs from Ontario across to British Columbia. East of that connections are run by smaller provincial companies. Getting between the big cities is pretty easy and it's even possible to get a bus from Toronto out west to at least Calgary - I know, I met someone taking it. It took her 3 days.

3. Canadians really are friendly

I know it's a stereotype, but I've found it to be true. From the helpful attendant on the Toronto subway to the chap who parked the RV for us the first night we had it, the stereotype has held true and it's been absolutely lovely.

4. It's worth brushing up on French

I thought I would be all right in Quebec, Canada's French-speaking province - I learned a bit of French a very long time ago and I'd made sure to learn a couple of useful phrases like "I'm sorry, I don't understand." and "Do you speak English?". Oh, and I can say please, thank you, hello - all that malarkey.

However, in Quebec City at least, outside the tourist hub in the Old City, it's maybe worth knowing a little more. When I went to try poutine, the girl at the counter had to get her English speaking colleague to help because my French didn't stretch to understanding "eat in or take away?

That said, other Quebecois seemed quite amused by my appalling pronunciation of bonjour and were quite happy to talk to me in English.

5. Maple syrup

You have to try it. Proper maple syrup, not the stuff labelled "pancake syrup" or "original syrup". Maple syrup. Preferably with pancakes and bacon. Sausages are also acceptable. It shouldn't be so good.

Budget

Just to clarify: I've cut the last 2 weeks of my trip out of this because that was spent with my mother and sister and a lot of things had already been paid for.

Accommodation: worked out at less than £20 a night. I think this is pretty impressive given that I had to pay for a hotel for one night that cost me several times more than a hostel. Congratulations, me. Hostels in Canada range around the £15-£20 area, generally, with price spikes in Toronto over the summer, or so my hostel owner informed me. Out of the way places may also be more expensive - I paid $30 a night for a pretty basic place in Winnipeg, but it's the only hostel in the city.

AirBnB is pretty popular in Canada and some places you can find rooms cheaper than hostels. This is particularly good for places like Kingston, which have no hostels. At all.

Food: less than £5 a day. I'm pretty pleased with this considering I did treat myself to a couple of delicious brunches (looking at you, Original Pancake House...) and several trips to Tim Horton's. Fresh fruit and veg seems to be relatively expensive in Canada, but tinned goods are similarly priced to the UK. Plus, several of my hostels provided breakfast, which helped keep costs down.

Transport: less than £25 a day. This is hugely bumped up by the fact that in my first week I went halves on a car hire (at about $300 each) and then in August I took the train across the country which cost me nearly £500. Fortunately, the train had been budgetted for, although I loathed paying that much. If you don't take the train, transport can be done pretty cheap. A bus from Ottawa to Toronto costs about $20-25, and prices are similar between the other large cities in the east. City transit systems are pretty good - most will charge you about $3 for a single trip ticket.

Activities: about £5 a day. Obviously, this varied a lot. In Ottawa I bought a museum passport which covered all the big national museums and cost $45 (just over £30). Similarly, in Toronto I got a CityPass which covered the CN Tower, the Zoo, aquarium, Royal Ontario Museum and Casa Loma. Other costs mostly related to museum entry fees and the tourist trap that is Niagara Falls. Whale watching came in at a remarkably cheap $50 - that's £30 for a good 3 hours of sailing and a pod of fin whales right next to the boat.

Anyone else been to Canada? Is there anything I've missed that you think should be included? Let me know!

USA: Can I have my fingerprints back, please?

Oh my. Nearly 3 months into this trip and I've finally reached my third country. I'm currently in Alaska, where I've spent much of the last week after saying toodle-pip to my Mum and sister. However, I think I left the last post in a bit of an odd place, so let's finish that off, shall we?

Why do you look so worried?

Wow. So, Saturday was our final day with Wes, our (almost) trusty RV. After nearly 2 weeks of driving around the Rockies in which he'd nearly killed us with carbon monoxide, stalled repeatedly and nearly lost a wing mirror, we had to deliver him back to the hire company in Calgary. On the way I spotted a dead elk...

Anyways, we dropped Wes off and then made our way into the city to the fancy hotel Mum had booked for our last night together before she and Amy flew back to the UK. Oh, and I mean fancy. Look at the shiny.

The Fairmont Palliser, originally built by the Canadian Pacific Railway (them again), hence the swank. Anyways, we couldn't actually get into our room because we were much too early, so we dropped the bags and headed out to explore.

Calgary is an odd little place. It's quiet. Very quiet. We popped into a little diner to have lunch - more pancakes for me. Om nom nom.

And then went down to the Eau Claire market, which was just as dead as the city centre. As was the lovely park on the island in the river.

Hmm.

After a very relaxed day, we headed out to the 1988 Olympic Park. This was the winter olympics that Eddie the Eagle was at as well as the famous Jamaican bobsleigh team whose exploits inspired Cool Runnings.

Yeah... bobsleigh... we went in a bobsleigh. Down the '88 track. Piloted by the Aussie team's pilot. Clocked something like 78mph on the way down.

It was awesome. Slightly terrifying at points. I mean, I'm short. You're supposed to keep your head up so you can see which way the bends are going, but I struggled at times. Too short to see past Mum. Resulted in a couple of bounces of my thankfully helmet-clad noggin off the sides.

So cool. Definitely recommend it.

We also had a go at the scooter luge they have on the site. Much less terrifying, very much fun. Although I did get stuck behind Amy who appeared to be driving like a granny. This is coming from me, the woman who managed to ram herself repeatedly into the wall many years ago on a kid's ride at a theme park in Germany. I should have been the one pootling along worrying about corners. I wasn't. I was sitting impatiently behind my little sister, wondering why she was going so slow and wincing every time someone overtook us.

Ah well. I had fun. I would have gone back for another go, but Mum and Amy weren't interested and there was a big old rain cloud rolling in.

Indeed, as we waited for the taxi to arrive, the rain started. Fortunately we found a tiny bit of shelter with these little signs about Olympic events.

We were trying to come up with creative names for them. Mum had an accidental un-PC moment when she titled the last one "competitive hopping" and I had to point out that the icon was actually for disabled sport, so yes, the figure did only have one leg. We thought it was quite funny afterwards.

And then Tim's for tea and a night in a nice, big, comfy bed. Ahhh.

My credit card is crying

Tim's, yet again, for breakfast. Followed by a trip to the Calgary Tower, which is like the CN Tower, only littler and much less crowded. And cheaper. And you get an audio guide included in the price. Take that, CN Tower.

Anyways, there are excellent views from the top and the audio guide is pretty awesome. Lots of interesting stories about the history of the city.

After that, it was time to say goodbye to Mum and Amy who had to catch their flight back to the UK. I headed off solo again, this time to a hostel just down the road from the hotel.

I spent the evening fighting with booking sites, trying to sort out a bit more of the US leg of my trip. I should have done this weeks ago, in preparation for dealing with whatever immigration questions I might face trying to enter the US. But no, I had to leave it until the night before my flight.

Fortunately, everything behaved in the end and I got everything booked for the first 2 weeks of my US leg. My credit card, as a result, was a bit shocked.

I spent my final night in Calgary trying to get some sleep in anticipation of an early start the next morning. I was rather foiled by the girl in the bunk beneath mine who snored. All night. Non-stop. Ugh.

Should I have a stamp?

Said snoring roommate meant that I was a right grump when I crawled out of bed at 5am the next morning. After a remarkably long (but cheap) bus ride to the airport, I got checked in and went to face the US Customs and Border Protection officers at pre-clearance.

There I was, all prepared with my tablet full of downloaded ticket confirmations, bank statements and travel insurance. The guy looks at me, takes my passport and tells me to put my hand on the scanner. So now the USA has my fingerprints. He hands back my passport. Sans stamp or anything to indicate how long I'm allowed to stay. He waves me away.

What the fuck?

Anyway, it's still only just gone 7am and I haven't had any caffeine, so I think nothing really of the fact that my passport has no stamp. Grabbed a Tim's for breakfast (probably my final Tim's for a long time, sad times).

Onto the plane, which is a little regional jet thing. Very tight on space. Uneventful flight, save the 40 minutes we spent sitting on the taxiway waiting for our gate, which I spent chatting to the guy next to me about travel.

And then I was in Seattle. I'd been told at the airport in Calgary that my bag was checked all the way through, so I figured I'd just go to the gate for my flight to Anchorage. Cabin crew on the plane disagreed, saying that anyone getting a connecting flight had to collect their bags, recheck them and go through security.

As a result, my sleep-deprived, caffeine starved self was just a little bit confused when I got off the plane and had to go in search of some sort of customer service person to help me. They confirmed that I could just go to the next gate. Hurrah.

Still, I was a bit worried about that security thing...

Obviously this wasn't too much of a problem, because I got on the plane with no problem and then spent a lovely few hours watching Disney films. Yay.

No security to go through at Anchorage, which confused the hell out of me, so I had to make use of the free Wi-Fi to make sure that I hadn't somehow managed to skip security at one of the three airports and that it was quite all right not to have a stamp in my passport. Google (and the US government websites) said, yes, that's fine, calm down.

And then I spent the afternoon lazing at the hostel. Oh, and I met an Eskimo lady. I should point out that she called herself an Eskimo lady, which surprised me because I was taught at school that Eskimo is a somewhat derogatory term. She was lovely.

Anchorage, why are you so warm?!

I spent my first morning in Anchorage having the most delightful lie-in. Oh, it was glorious. Hurray, catching up on sleep.

I then attempted to bring the blog up to date. I failed. Epically. So instead of moping around the hostel, I took a walk into the city and visited the Anchorage Museum.

Glad I did. A big chunk of the museum is closed for renovations at the moment, but the parts that are still open are brilliant. There's an excellent display covering the major native groups that live in the state, with some really interesting artefacts.

The gallery had quite a bit of input from Alaska Natives, from what I could gather, which I think is wonderful.

There's also a great section downstairs that's clearly aimed at kids, but I couldn't resist. My inner child had great fun playing with all the interactive displays. I even made a very short stop motion film featuring a couple of moose and a bear...

And of course, the obligatory infra-red camera.

As I left the museum, it was still way too warm. I had rather imagined Anchorage (and Alaska in general) to be a bit cooler, but it's been over 20 degrees every day so far, I think.

The Day Of Nothing

I actually have no idea where this day went. I think I probably wrote a blog post. And then read. A lot. Definitely read a lot. And nothing else. Productive much. I think I just needed a day (or three) to chill.

Hablas Espanol?

First, I realised that the hostel, which provides free breakfast, has a waffle maker and the staff actually provide the waffle mix. Which meant syrupy waffles for breakfast. Om nom nom.

After another lazy morning, I decided I couldn't just spend all day doing bugger all again, so I took myself for a walk along Chester's Creek. When I GoogleMapped this, it came out at about 3.5 miles for my planned route. It should have taken me just over an hour.

I'm pretty sure I did it in about 45 minutes, so either I went a different way or Google lied to me. Possibly a bit of both. At least I got out in the fresh air for a bit, but jeez, Alaska, why are you so warm?!

I spent the rest of the afternoon refreshing my Spanish. I had a bit of a freak out when I realised it's now less than a month until I plan to be in Peru so I thought I'd best brush up on my very rudimentary language skills. So far, my go to phrase is "Lo siento. No entiendo." (I'm sorry. I don't understand). This can be followed by either:

"Hablas Ingles?"

Or:

"Hablas mas despacio, por favor."

Basically, if anyone tries to talk to me, I'm screwed. Maybe.

You're welcome, Miss Zoe

After a day of apparently not doing anything other than farting about trying to learn Spanish, I made the effort to find something to do. This may have been partially spurred on by questions over breakfast from fellow guests about my plans for the day. Of which I had none at that point.

I ended up going into the city and taking the trolley bus tour. The sales chap insisted on calling me Miss Zoe, which I found both odd and sort of adorable. The tour itself was actually pretty interesting and included all sorts of little nuggets from the former school teacher who was our guide.

Passed by Earthquake Park, which was a section of the city which slipped quite a long way towards the inlet during the huge 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. We also got a glimpse of Denali, the mountain from which Denali National Park gets its name. Not bad, considering Denali is over 100 miles from Anchorage.

Also passed by the huge numbers of small planes that fly out of Anchorage. Apparently Alaska is home to half of the small planes in the USA. That's pretty impressive.

And then lunch, before I popped in to book a cruise around Prince William Sound to see all the glaciers. ALL THE GLACIERS. Hopefully I'll also see some wildlife. That'd be nice. Maybe whales again...

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Visitor Centre, mostly watching the many films they have about Alaska's wildlife, its history and the aforementioned 9.2 magnitude earthquake. That was a few hours well spent, and free to boot.

Basically, my first almost-week in Anchorage has been relaxed. Surprisingly, my travel brain hasn't been yelling at me to get out and do things, so clearly I did need to take a break. No worries though - plans for next week include the cruise I booked and possible visits to the Alaska Native Heritage Center and maybe the zoo. Should keep me busy. Plus I have lots more Spanish to catch up on.

A few more days in Anchorage and then on to the lower 48!

Canada: Three idiots in an RV part 2

Wow, the schedule I'd somehow been managing to keep for the last 2 and a bit months appears to have gone a bit wonky. No worries. Ever onwards and all that.

So, having driven from Vancouver to Jasper, via Whistler and a number of other places, my second week with Mum and Amy in the RV began with a celebration, because guess what, it was my birthday.

Happy Birthday To Me

Birthday fun began with a trip to the Other Paw Bakery in Jasper, which I'd visited on my brief stop in Jasper on my way across on the train. Birthday cake consisted of a big chunk of Java Cheesecake Brownie and it was delicious. Om nom nom.

Cake hastily nommed, we set off for our next adrenaline fix - rafting down the Athabasca River. I've never been rafting before. I need to go again.

Who knew bobbing down a river, paddling through rapids and getting soaked by (once again) glacial water could be so much fun? Delightful adrenaline rush, discounting the fact that Jhett, our guide, on hearing that it was my birthday decided to find a special birthday wave for me. Cue getting thoroughly soaked again.

Once back on dry land and back into dry clothes, we headed to the Bear's Paw Bakery, forerunner of the Other Paw and home to equally delicious baked goods. Oh, and London Fog, to which I've taken quite a liking. Following that and a stroll around the tat shops of Jasper - and there are many - we popped into the Jasper Brewhouse for a birthday meal and I finally got my hands on a glass of cider for the first time in over 2 months.

Joy.

Then off back to the campground, where Mum and I had afters in the form of bannock - a sort of scone-mix wrapped around a stick and cooked over a fire, while the Wildlife Guardians from Parks Canada told us how to stay safe around wildlife.

What a lovely day.

Ah, un ours

The following day we set out for a long drive down the Icefields Parkway from Jasper to Lake Louise. It should have been fairly uneventful, but just after we pulled out of the campground onto the main road, a grizzly bear ran out in front of us.

I feel I should mention that said bear was nowhere near actually getting hit by the RV. But while I was happily going "WE SAW A BEAR!" and trying to decide which species it was, Amy was clinging to the steering wheel for grim death and apparently felt a bit sick. Understandable, I suppose.

Unfortunately, the bear rather having taken us by surprise, I have no photographic evidence. This is rather annoying.

Onwards down the lumpy bumpy Icefields Parkway. Which we had to pull off not far down because the right hand wing mirror had wiggled itself loose and was now absolutely no use to Amy in the driving seat. Wiggled it back, set off again, and it wiggled loose. Again. Buggeration.

On the plus side, there are some stunning views down the Parkway. I had to giggle at this one, purely because the mountain is apparently callled Mushroom Peak.

Further on, and with a still-non-functional wing mirror, we pulled in at the Icefields Centre to take a break and admire the Athabasca Glacier across the road. We briefly considered taking one of the bus trips to actually go on the glacier, but it was a) expensive, b) crammed and c) there are better places to get up close to a glacier (*cough* New Zealand *cough*). Instead, we settled for a hot drink and a seat out on the observation deck.

On the way out, we found this excellent sign.

Apparently there is a mountain behind the centre called Nigel. We found this overly amusing. Anyways...

Pootling on down the Parkway, we had another stop at the Crossing, where the Sasketchewan River passes under the road and where Mum and Amy tried poutine. Pretty sure the poutine there was not as good as the poutine I had in Quebec - the cheese curds weren't right.

And onwards with the driving, stopping again when we came to the Weeping Wall. I suppose it's a waterfall, but it really does look like the wall is crying.

And still onwards. Long drive, much. We started passing a few more icefields, one of which I couldn't find a name for on the map, so we christened it Bobstevedave, because we couldn't agree. Of course, once we pulled in at the Bow Glacier and looked at the map there, we found that Bobstevedave, or the Bobster as it'd swiftly become known, was actually the Crowfoot Glacier. Ah well.

Shortly after that we arrived into Lake Louise, successfully negotiated the texas gates (cattle grids to us Brits), and parked up. It was still fairly early, so we popped into the village to grab some groceries and explore the visitor centre. All good, until on the way back we passed a ranger near the camp entrance, shouting "Woah, bear" and firing what we think was an air gun. Probably walked back to the RV a bit quicker after that...

Snow in August?

It rained all night. It was still raining in the morning. Not to be deterred, we drove up to the Lake Louise gondola and ski resort, thinking it might clear up. Plus, for an extra $3 on top of the gondola ticket, we got breakfast. And not just a drink and choice of pastry. Proper buffet breakfast. Which meant I was a pig and had waffles and bacon and sausages and eggs and syrup and tater tots. And just to make it marginally less unhealthly, a cup of chamomile tea. Yum.

After breakfast, we took the gondola up the Whitehorn mountain. We had wanted to take the chairlift, but it was still damp and horrible, so we thought better of it.

Good job as well, because when we got to the top of the lift, it was snowing. Yes, snowing. In August. In the northern hemisphere. And not nice fluffy snow either. The sort of sharp icy stuff. It's that bloody Storm again. As I said to Amy, it's like Taranaki all over again, where an icy rainstorm followed us into Mordor...

Yeah... explanation of that here: The Weather Stabbed Me In The Face

We sought refuge in the little interpretive centre, which was interesting, if a bit small.

And then tramped upstairs to grab a hot drink and attempt to admire the view out of the window. Clearly not many people were willing to brave the lift, because as we walked through the door, one of the waiters came over and said something along the lines of "yay, customers!" Made me smile.

As did the hot chocolate. Not so much the view...

And then back down the gondola and across to Lake Louise proper. As in the lake itself, not the village.

Even in the appalling weather, it manages to be pretty. A surreal sort of green colour. We weren't willing to stay outside in the cold and the drizzle very long though, and disappeared into the Chateau Lake Louise hotel in search of warmth. Definitely warm. Also full of fellow tourists. Another hot drink and roam through the shops later and we headed back outside.

At this point, the weather was beginning to improve and after a little while sitting around at the campground in the RV, we decided to brave the outdoors again. Took a nice stroll out to the end of the campground, where you could see the mountaintops just beginning to poke out from beneath the clouds.

Very peaceful.

And then something coughed.

Or maybe snorted.

And we turned almost as one to find a fucking big bear standing on the bank behind us. "It's OK," says Mum, "just stay calm and keep walking." So we do. And I don't dare look behind me to see where the bear has gone, even though I really want to know where it is in case it's creeping up behind me or something. "It's all right," Mum says, "it's gone away." And indeed, it did go running off into the other side of the campground. Away from us.

At this point, all my brain wants to do is laugh hysterically. So it does. A bit. Amy looks like she did the day before when the other bear ran in front of the RV.

I love wildlife and everything, but I'd rather not be that close to a bear again without something between us.

If they can get a bus up here...

After our close encounter with the bear, we started the following day with a slow drive up to Moraine Lake. Supposedly, this lake is even more awesome than Lake Louise. To be fair, Lake Louise wasn't perhaps at its best due to the rain and everything, but Moraine Lake is definitely beautiful. Of the many colourful lakes we saw on this trip, I think Moraine is the only one where my camera actually captured the colour I saw.

Brilliant, bright blue. I've never seen a natural water body that colour.

My admiration of the lake was somewhat marred by all the idiot tourists trampling over the rockfall which dams the lake. There are signs everywhere asking you to stay on the trail, but who cares? I want to take a photo for Facebook/Instagram/insert self-absorbed-social-media-here. What do you mean these lichens take hundreds of years to grow? They're just plants. Sensitive ecosystem? What's that?

Basically, I spent most of my time on that rockfall grumbling under my breath about how I hoped they'd all fall and hurt themselves and it'd serve them damn well right. People have no respect for nature.

/rant

Oh, and I saw a pika. These are basically just cute little balls of fluff. Clever little fluffballs - they gather plants and store them in a sort of pantry for the winter.

After a leisurely morning at the lake, we set off on our drive to that evening's campground. Plenty of time for other stops though, including a drive up to Takakkaw Falls at the end of the Yoho Valley Road. Said road involves a set of switchbacks that are much too tight to get an RV round in one go. Amy had to reverse into the bend in order to get round them. As we found later, there are actually coach trips up this road, so we figured if they can get the buses up there, an RV shouldn't be too much of a problem.

It was worth the farting about, because the falls really live up to their name - Takakkaw translates to something like "it is magnificent" in Cree.

And the view back down the valley towards Kicking Horse Pass is equally spectacular.

After successfully returning down the switchbacks, we carried on a little way down the road to the railway settlement of Field. Field only exists because of the railway - the incline through Kicking Horse Pass is pretty damn steep and was even steeper in the early days, so Field existed only as a place to add extra locomotives to trains climbing the pass.

It's not that much bigger now, although it does have a visitor information centre and a little gas station where we grabbed some lunch (which showed up as JUNKFOOD on the register. I was amused).

From there, a fairly straightforward drive out of Yoho National Park to the town of Golden. Straightforward apart from the very long, winding hill which drops out of the park towards the town There were a group of bighorn sheep (we think) at the side of the road, which managed to freak Amy out only because I shouted GOAT on seeing them. My bad.

Golden's only a tiny place, but the campground was lovely and the sunset behind the mountains... well...

My feet have gone soft

After a delicious second breakfast in a bakery in Golden and having tightened up the still wiggly wing mirror with an allen key we'd had to buy in Golden (because the RV came with no toolkit?!), we set off for a slow drive down the Columbia River Valley.

Perhaps the most relaxing day we've had, given that it was a relatively short drive and once we got to Radium Hot Springs, we had no real plans for the day. Mooched around for a while, grabbing a cup of tea followed by a lovely ice cream, before we drove up to the campground and parked.

A little while to just chill out and then we took the 2.5km track over the hill to the hot springs from which the town takes its name. Admittedly, the water from the springs is now channelled into a swimming pool, but it felt pretty good after the walk in the heat.

The only downside to a relaxing soak in the pool was that my feet, hardened by two months of tramping around cities and parks and museums and stuff, got a bit soft and therefore the walk back to camp was a bit... tender. I think I got off fairly easily - Amy really seemed to be struggling with the squishy feet situation.

The Storm is coming

Another fairly leisurely day, driving up through Kootenay National Park from Radium to Banff.

The road crosses three mountain chains and two rivers, so it was pretty expensive to build back in the early 20th Century. We stopped at the info centre for a drink and then headed back up the road. At which point I noticed the big black cloud further up the valley.

Oh dear.

We'd thought about stopping at the Paint Pots - ochre-stained lakes, very cool - and then maybe taking the trail up to the Stanley Glacier. With the Storm apparently intent on making another appearance, I looked at the map again and suggested stopping at Numa Falls, in an attempt to at least see something before the rain came down.

Glad we did. Numa Falls is pretty, well, pretty.

Even if Amy did worry that I'd fallen in at one point, because I'd gone wandering off to take photos and she couldn't see me.

Back in the RV, we entered the very edge of the rain, passed the Paint Pots turn off just as the rain stopped (much to my annoyance) and instead pulled in at Marble Canyon. On reading the first information board, I had to suppress the little voice in my head that was geeking out massively.

See, back up near Field is the Burgess Shale, a fossil bearing rock which includes evidence from around the time of the Cambrian Explosion - the period in which life sort of went a bit mad and all sorts of things were evolving. A couple of years back, scientists found another outcropping of this rock in the vicinity of Marble Canyon and the info board included a note to say that any fossils found should be left and reported to the Parks service (or something along those lines).

Yes, the science geek in me was squeeing over the super faint possibility of finding a fossil. Oh yeah.

As it is, Marble Canyon is pretty impressive in and of itself. It's very narrow and not all that deep, but it's beautiful. And, there's a waterfall at the top end.

And, there's a great view from the top, as Mum and I discovered while making friends with a chipmunk.

From Marble Canyon we headed straight to Banff, where we spent the afternoon raiding tat shops (again) and I found myself an excellent t-shirt.

I've got the la-la horse

The following morning, we went horse riding. My horse, Red, did mostly what he was supposed to do and left off eating things when I told him (i.e., pulling on the reins).

Mum's horse, Dunny, seemed like he was still half asleep.

And Amy's horse, the wonderfully named Soupy Jones... well, he did what he was told to start with...

So there we are, tramping along, occasionally having to pull our horses away from tasty things or trees that they felt like smacking us into. Enjoying the view and the peace. We make it across the Spray River, through the wood at the edge of the golf course. Soupy begins trying to eat whatever he can get his mouth on, despite Amy doing everything the guides are telling her.

And then we come back to the river. Dunny decides to stop in the middle of the river and have a drink. We've been told that the horses get a bit possessive about their place in the line, so if one stops to drink, everyone behind has to stop too.

Soupy has no intention of stopping. As I'm trying to tell Amy she needs to pull back and make him stop, Soupy is blithely tromping past the oblivious Dunny to take his place in the line.

For a moment, Mum is seriously concerned that Dunny's going to flip. Fortunately he doesn't. All the while, Red's just tramping along with the same look on his face that Mum's younger dog gets when he's having a la-la far away moment. All fine by me. At least my horse was behaving.

Meanwhile, not content with his new spot in the line, Soupy has decided that he really wants his lunch. Which means we all have to keep stopping while Amy tries in vain to drag him away from whatever's taken his fancy. Poor Amy.

Which means that when a deer appears right next to the trail and seems completely unfazed by the gaggle of amateurs riding past, Amy misses it at first while we're all going WOW, because she's trying to drag Soupy away from a bunch of delicious thistles.

Fortunately we all made it back in one piece. Hurrah. I love riding. I'll have to find other places to go.

After our little equine adventure, we popped up to the Cave & Basin National Historic Site. This is where the National Park system really started - workers from the railway stumbled upon the cave, which had actually been used by the local indigenous people for centuries, and started marketing it. The government got in on it, bought the site and the first National Park in Canada grew up around it.

Woo, potted history. The site is quite interesting in itself, like the delightfully smelly cave.

And the cafe does some really yummy cakes.

And then another raid of the tat shops before having tea in the Elk & Oarsman. Yummy elk burger and cider for me. Mmm.

Which brings me almost to the end of my Rockies adventure with Mum and Amy. Just 2 more days remained in Canada. Wow.

I wonder how Alaska will compare?

Canada: Three idiots in an RV part 1

I'm back! And alive. And in Alaska. If you've been wondering where the blog's been, apologies for the radio silence over the past couple of weeks - I was in an RV for most of it with seriously limited Wi-Fi. Recap follows below. I've split it into two parts, just because a lot has happened and I don't want to just give you text wall.

So, you know how I've been travelling mostly solo for the last 2 months? For the last two weeks, I've had the joy of road tripping with my mum and sister. This is a slightly odd thing for my brain to deal with, but the first week has turned out wonderfully.

If in doubt, Tim Hortons

I think I left the last post at the point of going to retrieve Mum and Amy from the airport. Turns out the flight was delayed nearly an hour, so I pulled my usual and had a bagel and cuppa from Tim Hortons while I waited. They turned up eventually and then it was off to the city to check in to the hotel.

A hotel! I've been staying in hostels for the last 2 months (give or take an AirBnB and emergency hotel), so this was pretty nice. Not the absolute swishest of places, but they did have toiletries that I could filch. Hurrah. Oh, and this view out over the city.

Mum and Amy were fighting the jet lag, so we went for a walk down to the bay, where we found a very nice Chinese restaurant for tea. We were the only non-Chinese people in there. I take this as a sign that it's proper Chinese food. It was delicious, but expensive. Ah well.

Be Our Guest

We made up for the expensive tea the following morning by visiting Tim Hortons for breakfast. And to think I'd been doing so well about resisting the call of the Tims...

Anyway, the morning continued with a trip to Granville Island Market, which was pretty cool. Grabbed some delicious reasonably priced fruit and then set off for a walk around the sea wall.

Which involved getting a ferry, of which no photos, for some reason. Anyways, the sea wall was lovely and warm with a nice breeze and this random inukshuk...

Then off into Stanley Park, but not before we bumped into a family of raccoons. So cute.

Stanley Park is a little bit huge, but mostly forested, so it made for a gorgeously cool walk after the heat out in the open. There may have been some giggles about bears, to which Amy's response was to sing the Winnie the Pooh song. On repeat. For ages.

After a lovely afternoon strolling around the park, we popped back to the hotel and then had tea at the White Spot Diner (most delicious) before heading back to the park to see a production of Beauty and the Beast. Great show. Even better for being outside in lovely weather.

Jurassic Goat

The following morning we boarded a free bus up to Capilano Suspension Bridge on the northern side of Vancouver. Yay, free things. Plus, I got discount at the bridge because I have HI membership - see, perks of staying in hostels.

Anyhoos, the Capilano Suspension Bridge is just a bridge across a ravine. It also happens to be very wobbly. And sort of bouncy. And has the delightful ability to freak people out without even trying. Unless you're not really bothered about heights or wobbly bridges, like me, in which case it's just fun watching everyone else freak out and pull funny faces with every wibble.

The complex also includes a tree top walk, somewhat dampened by the fairly large number of people using it. The walk through the forest is pretty cool though and I have to mention the owls, because OWLS.

Following a leisurely wander around the bridge complex, we hopped onto a public bus (oh my) up the road to Grouse Mountain. More entry fees, but easily made up for by everything on offer on the mountain. We took in a guided walk with one of the rangers, a ride up the chairlift to the top of the mountain, a most amusing lumberjack show and a glimpse of the mountain's two captive grizzly bears.

Great fun. Especially when the chairlift inexplicably stopped while we were hanging just outside the bear enclosure. I may have joked that we were like the goat in Jurassic Park... just hanging there... waiting to lure the bears out...

As mentioned above, the lumberjack show was also awesome. Bizarre, but awesome. See photo of two men trying to balance on a log while trying to knock the other off...

After coming back down the mountain, we were told that the free shuttle bus back to the city was buggered up and we'd have to get another public bus instead. Cue Mum giving me all her change because I had none and then a ridiculously long time stuck on a bus in traffic in Vancouver's boiling heat. Nice.

Amy decided we should rectify our resulting bad moods with a trip to Tim Horton's for tea. And of course no one objected.

His name is Wes

On Monday morning we took a super long taxi ride out to Delta, south of Vancouver, to pick up the RV. After some wrangling because we'd turned up earlier than the company wanted (not our fault), we finallly got on the road.

Sort of. So, Mum's driving along a bit stressed because she's driving an automatic, on the wrong side of the road and it's a whole lot bigger than anything she's used to driving. I'm grumbling about the map and directions I've got to work from. They are shit. Super shit. And as a result, we ended up going in entirely the wrong direction and nearly ended up getting on the ferry to Victoria... or Nanaimo... or something.

Oops.

Anyways, we sorted it out, after a few minutes of me thinking I was going to get dumped at the side of the road for getting the directions so badly wrong. This is still bugging me, because usually I'm pretty bloody good with navigation. How annoying.

Safely back on the right track, we finally made it to Whistler, where I discovered the RV's name was Wes (reg plate 145 WES, so definitely a Wes) and we headed straight into town to find our activity for the evening.

Ziplining.

Oh yes. This sounded like great fun to me. Amy didn't seem entirely convinced. 5 lines through the forest above Whistler, with tales including a cougar eating a fresh kill on one of the landing platforms during one trip. Fortunately we didn't run into any cougars or other delightful wildlife. Unfortunately, none of us took a camera, so I am limited to sharing these glorious shots with you which were taken by one of the staff.

Aren't we graceful? I was trying to turn myself upside down there, but couldn't quite convince myself to let go of the strap.

Following our little adrenaline fix, we headed back to the campsite for the evening where a friendly Canadian chap kindly parked Wes for us after watching Mum deliberate for a while. Yay, friendly Canadians.

Wes is trying to kill us...

Day two in the RV began with Amy taking a turn at the wheel. This meant a leisurely drive through the coastal mountains and on into the almost desert like region beyond. What should have been an uneventful drive was first interrupted by the carbon monoxide alarm going off. This resulted in Mum throwing herself across the RV as she tried to open windows while Amy pootled down the road. Wes, we decided, was trying to kill us.

It was also interrupted by Wes's complete inability to maintain revs going down hills. Which resulted in stalling. I thought it was pretty much impossible to stall an automatic, but between Mum and Amy, Wes stalled quite a few times during our first few days.

Anyways, we managed a stop at lovely Marble Canyon just for a few minutes to recover from the madness. I geeked out slightly because they have stromatolite-like microbial formations in the lake. This is awesome.

It was, however, approaching TOO HOT. Which only got worse when we finally got to Juniper Beach Provincial Park, our stop for the night. We spent the afternoon lazing around in the sunshine, too warm to do anything and Amy actually went and stuck her feet in the river.

This would become a recurring theme...

Why have you stopped paddling?!

Day three should have been fairly uneventful. Get in the RV. Drive to Kamloops. Get groceries. Drive to Clearwater. Park RV. Explore.

Which is pretty much how it went until the directions GoogleMaps had produced for Mum tried to send us down a dirt track. A good 20km or so from the campsite. Amy niftily turned the RV round and we pootled off back the way we came.

Fortunately, once in Clearwater (which is on the main highway, so god knows why the directions sent us so far wrong), the site was easy to find. We grabbed lunch at the Painted Turtle restaurant on the site where I finally got round to trying London Fog. This is pretty much like a latte, only with Earl Grey tea instead of coffee. It is delicious. Plus, look at the view from our table.

After lunch had chance to settle, we hired a canoe for an hour of paddling out on Dutch Lake, on which shores the site sat. This began as a sort of leisurely meander, Amy and I doing the paddling, Mum being chief photographer.

It was great fun. Until we turned to head back to the dock and realised that the wind was determined to blow us back the way we'd come. Hilarity ensued as Mum took over paddling from Amy and then Amy took over paddling from me. Mum was in the Sea Cadets and had a bit more idea what she was doing, so she got to be captain. I think we might have still been paddling round the lake if it had just been me and Amy...

That evening, Amy decided to stick her feet into the lake while I took photos of the moon being pretty. It really was a gorgeous moonrise.

The glacier-fed lake was icy cold!

Day four in the RV began with a drive to the tiny settlement of Valemount where we grabbed a delicious bite to eat at Don's Social House, a little diner just off the highway.

From there it was just a short drive up to Mount Robson Provincial Park and our campsite. Having arrived so early, we decided to take the trail up to Kinney Lake at the feet of Mount Robson. We were rather under-prepared. Amy decided to sing Be Our Guest in order to either stop her feet hurting or to scare the bears away. The 4.2km "easy" track climbed quite steeply in places. It was too hot.

In the end, we did reach the lake, which was a beautiful cloudy blue-green thanks to the large amounts of rock flour - very tiny rock particles - suspended in it.

There wasn't a suitable place for Amy to stick her feet in the river flowing down from the lake, so we all stuck our hands in it instead. It was icy cold, as can only be expected from a glacier fed river.

After a long trek down from the lake, we spent another evening enjoying the peace and quiet at the campsite.

Idiots abroad

The end of my first week with Mum and Amy began with a gentle drive from British Columbia into Alberta, with a first stop at Moose Lake.

Again, Amy discovered that glacier fed systems are icy cold, but put her feet in it anyway. Mum made friends with a dog called Louie. And then we toddled off over the provincial border, past the town of Jasper and on up a winding road to Maligne Lake. This entailed negotiating the crowd of parked cars and associated idiots who had near enough blocked the road part way up. On a bend.

I have no idea what they were gawping at. Probably a bear or moose. Neither of which they should have been so close to. Anyways, we eventually made it up to the lake, grabbed a delicious and reasonably priced lunch from the cafe and then set off to visit our second Moose Lake of the day.

Amy did not stick her feet in this one. I think we may all have been slightly worried about bears.

And then back down to Maligne Lake, which is a beautiful bright blue-green.

Gorgeous. Took a walk round another of the marked trails, although this one seemed to go on for much longer than the map suggested and we started wondering if we'd gone the wrong way. Fortunately, Wes finally loomed into view in the car park and it was off to the campsite and the associated bear warnings. We were starting to get used to them...

Well, that covers week one of my adventure with Mum and Amy. Week two should be posted shortly. Just as soon as my brain wakes up again. 5am start to catch a plane this morning is not agreeing with me.

Ziplines and canoes and hiking! Hurrah!