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!

Destination Daydreams: Vancouver and The Rockies

It's been a while since I wrote one of these! My mum and sister will be joining me for a couple of weeks in Canada at the end of August, so I figured I might as well jot down some ideas.

We'll be renting a motorhome for the duration, which will be hilarious because neither my mum nor my sister have driven anything that big. And I, being the non-driver, have been told by my sister that it's my job to direct them into parking spaces. Yeah, right.

So, what do I actually want to do around Vancouver and the Rockies? Well, first up, I'm planning on spending some time in Vancouver before the relatives arrive. There's plenty to do in the city itself but I'd also quite like to get out to Vancouver Island and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Took a little bit of digging, but apparently I can get a ferry from the city to the island. Hurrah.

My mum would like to visit Capilano Suspension Bridge. Looks pretty amazing to me - a footbridge high above the river. Good job I'm fine with heights.

Once Vancouver and its immediate vicinity is out of the way, we're going to spend a while going up and over the Rockies. There's a lot of amazing sites to choose from up there, but I'd really like to see Lake Louise. It looks like such a beautiful area, but then I imagine there's plenty of those.

I'd also love to visit the Burgess Shale. This is an internationally important fossil site, where some of the earliest complex life on Earth is preserved in the rocks. And by early, we're talking over 500 million years old. Parks Canada run guided hikes to some of the sites and while a couple of them are probably a bit strenuous for my liking - especially given that Mum/sister will need to be able to drive afterwards - there's a less arduous one to the Kootenay outcrop. All the shiny pretty science things.

Aside from that, there's nothing specific in mind for the Rockies. I'd love to go riding again and there's plenty of opportunities to go rafting or kayaking, which would be amazing. My mum really wants to take a hot air balloon ride, since she missed out when she visited India last year.

Oh, so many things!

The last thing I'd really like to see and recommended to my mum by a chap at the travel agent, is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. This a World Heritage Site south of Calgary, so a bit out of the way of our intended route, but it's something I'd like to see. It is, as the name suggests, a buffalo jump - a place where the native folk of the area would drive herds of buffalo over a cliff to their deaths. A remarkably efficient way of hunting.

Still relatively vague plans at the moment, but I'm sure as August creeps closer they'll start forming into more of an itinerary.

What would you recommend visiting on a roadtrip over the Rockies? Any hidden gems to see? Why not share in the comments below.

Solo Travel: Getting around without a car

Herein lies one of the greatest barriers to my round the world travel plans: my lack of a driving licence. I’m unlikely to motivate myself to pass by the time I set off next summer, so exactly how am I going to get around without a car?

Relatively easily, is the answer. There are always options for those minus their own wheels, so let’s take a look at a few of them.

Option 1: Take a train ride

Public transport is always the first thing I look at and in the UK, it’s trains as a general rule. Over here they can get you places quicker than the long distance buses for similar cost. National Rail is a good place to check prices and times, plus has updates on engineering works and such.

Elsewhere, I have minimal experience with trains, but I can definitely recommend the TranzAlpine in New Zealand which runs between Christchurch and Greymouth on the South Island. It passes through the Southern Alps and is primarily aimed at tourists. It goes slow enough to enjoy the scenery, plus you get onboard commentary. Great fun.

Approaching the mountains on the TranzAlpine

With regards to trains in other nations, I’ve taken a good look at Via Rail in Canada, which looks like it’s pretty good value for the distances it covers, running as it does from one coast of Canada to the other. I’m planning on using this to do the majority of my town hopping there. Australia has very few long distance train services, the main ones being the Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin and the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth. Since buses don’t seem to operate between Adelaide and Perth, I’m looking at using the latter to bridge that gap. Looks pretty comfortable, but maybe pricier than I’d like. Could be worth it for the experience though - takes a couple of days to cover the vast distance across the Nullarbor Plain.

The only other place I’ve researched trains as yet is Peru, for which I’m thinking of taking the PeruRail train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes to see Machu Picchu and is also an option for getting from Cusco to Lake Titicaca. This looks to be fairly reasonably priced, potentially scenic and maybe, just maybe, marginally more comfortable than a bus.

Other train services that I’ve looked at include those in Alaska and Chile, which are still being researched, along with rail tripping around Europe using the Interrail Pass.

Option 2: Hop on the bus

Where trains are either too expensive or not an option at all, buses are the next thing I look at. I’ve never taken a long distance bus in the UK, but National Express is probably worth looking at if you’re after one.

Elsewhere, I’ve used NakedBus in New Zealand. These guys offer intercity bus travel between a large selection of towns and also offer day trips to major tourist attractions (which means booking you onto someone else’s tour). We used them to get from Auckland to Paihia and from there to take a tour of Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach. Customer feedback seems to be mixed, but we had no issues with them and they were reasonably quick to refund us when our trip to Milford Sound was cancelled because of inclement weather.

Take a bus onto Ninety Mile Beach. Obviously.

In Australia I’ve used Greyhound to get from Adelaide to Melbourne and I’m definitely considering using them as my main transport for the Australian leg of the Grand Tour. That said, given that said previous experience wasn’t great due to the snoring man next to me, I’ll probably have to invest in some earplugs and I’d highly recommend doing so to anyone considering taking an overnight bus (or train for that matter). There is little quite as depressing as arriving at your destination exhausted and grouchy because a snoring monster stopped you from getting any sleep at all.

Aside from NZ and Australia, I have zero experience with long distance buses. However, if Greyhound in the US and Canada is anything like that in the Antipodes, I’m more than willing to give it a try and it’s actually the main way I intend to get around the US.

Bus services operate pretty much everywhere too - from experience it’s worth checking out Reykjavik Excursions in Iceland who offer, as the name suggests, excursions around Iceland as well as a variety of bus passes so you can explore the island at your own pace. The other main Icelandic bus operator is Grayline - I have no experience with them, but they offer much the same as Reykjavik Excursions.

Buses are also a main option for Cambodia where, courtesy of the useful info published by Move to Cambodia, it seems to be fairly easy to get between the capital Phnom Penh and Siem Reap by bus. Outside of that… well, that brings us onto option 3.

Option 3: Take to the high seas…

Or rivers, as the case may be. Aside from the various bus options in Cambodia, it’s also possible to take a boat along the river between the two cities. Reviews seem to be mixed and safety seems to be… well, not great, but as mentioned in a Destination Daydreams post, it looks like it could be worth it for the experience.

Boats of a rather larger variety are also a contender for my transport between Vancouver, Canada and Anchorage, Alaska. There’s a bunch of ferries that hop along that western coast and it looks like it could be good fun to sit back and relax for a day or two and just watch the world go by. Not exactly cheap though.

Option 4: Take flight

The final solo option is to take an internal flight. I don’t think I need to go into detail with this, but as a general rule, flights tend to be more expensive than other options but can make up for it by being quicker and generally more comfortable. There are few places where I’d consider taking internal flights - Australia, mostly and also Chile to access Punta Arenas in Patagonia. Aside from that, the first three options always get considered first.

There is, however, one last option for those poor souls like me who can’t drive themselves or don’t have access to a car...

Option 5: Make friends

Isn’t that one of the greatest joys of travelling? Meeting new people and making friends with folks from all over the world? Perhaps one of your new friends can drive? Perhaps they’d even be willing to split the cost of hiring a car with you so you can check out that hard-to-get-to hidden gem? Give it a go. Even if you don’t succeed in getting that car hire, you might make a new friend in the process.

I’ll admit, to date I’ve cheated a bit on this last one, because I had existing friends to drive me around New Zealand and Ireland. Bloody good fun though!

Driving NZ's SH6 in Ead, our trusty hire car

What tips do you have for getting around without a car? Have I missed any more unusual modes of transport you’d recommend?

Ireland: Can't back out now...

The flights are booked.

Well, actually, the flights were booked nearly 2 weeks ago, but I sort of forgot to mention that. Oops.

Anyhoos, flights are booked. Dates are therefore fixed and there is now no going back. Instead, onwards!

Onwards to the booking of other things, beginning last night with hostels. I say hostels... the first one we booked was a Travelodge in Derry. Because obviously. Basically, it's the same sort of price between the 3 of us to get a Travelodge for the night as it is to book a hostel dorm. So we figured, hey, make the most of it.

We're also looking at a lovely place out on the edge of Donegal near the highest sea cliffs in Europe. This is super cool, obviously. That one's Claire's job to book. No idea why. Just is.

We've also booked hostels near Sligo and Tralee. Standard criteria for our hostel selection is as follows:

• Free parking (or at least parking nearby)
• Free tea (because, tea)
• Free interwebz
• Small rooms where possible - I don't think we've booked anything over a 4 bed dorm yet. Which means the inevitable making the fourth person feel really awkward...

We're not too fussy. I hope.

Really, I suppose, we should have started the hostel booking fun at Dublin. That's where we're flying into. Should maybe sort that out...

Also trying to sort out car hire. New Zealand lulled us into a false sense of security with it's whole "if you're over 21 we'll let you have a car" attitude. Ireland is not quite so keen on young drivers. Most of the companies will only hire to over 25s and those that do hire to under 25s have a tendency to charge ridiculously high additional fees. Not good. Claire'll be all of about 3 months short of her 25th.

Looks like she might have found one that won't charge us stupid extra fees, though. Hurrah and all that.

This post is evidently going nowhere, so why don't you hop on over to the nice shiny new page I've set up with our current planned route? This one 'ere.

"I would appreciate a manky sock"

The day started badly. The ladder of the bunk bed slipped and I pretty much fell out of bed. I've got a bump on my chin to prove it. Oops.

Anyways, once we actually got going it was fine. The sun was overly bright, but the views were nice even if the air was freezing. We grabbed a couple of bad pictures of the pretty side of Dunedin train station.

We had a quick stop at Shag Point, because it sounded funny and it had a lookout. Turned out to be pretty cool because there were fur seals basking on the rocks. I especially liked this poser.

The first proper stop was at Moeraki Boulders. These things are amazing - almost perfectly spherical and no one really knows why. Claire and Amy decided we need pictures of them standing on the boulders so took their socks and shoes off, not thinking that we didn't have a towel to hand. This resulted in them drying their feet off on one of Claire's old socks. Nice. I just giggled and took photos.

We had breakfast in the cafe at the top of the cliff. Very nice and filling, even if the tea went cold really quick. Om nom nom. Egg and bacon pie. Mmmm.

And then there was driving. And driving. And more driving. We finally stopped for a proper break (a while after switching drivers) in a layby to eat yesterday's lamb and mint pies from Arrowtown. They were delicious. Om nom nom again. No need for tea now.

Then there was a weird song about New Zealand on the radio. I will find a link to it when I have chance.

At last, and not as late as we'd expected, we arrived in Kaikoura. Parents will be glad to know that we did some laundry. Hurray for clean clothes. Tomorrow, WHALES.