Retrospective

I'm back!

It's been a helluva two weeks. Got back into Stansted at 5-30am, am now back at home, showered and feeling a little tired.
It was a little difficult to log my adventures since I was constantly on the move. In the last 14 days I have changed hotels 9 times. And of course, by the time I got myself to a PC of some sort, the moment had gone :)

So now that I am back and trying my best to refrain from jumping straight into bed, I thought I would do a little recap of my fortnight away.

Day One

Flight to Vancouver, on arrival was picked up by limo to our hotel. I was struck by the similarity of this city to Hong Kong island. Lots of wide open roads and shiny skyscrapers. Went to bed very early as was horrendously jetlagged.

Day Two

Explored Vancouver. Did the usual touristy things like visit the Aquarium (they had Beluga whales there which were really really cute), strolled around Stanley Park (was more like a 5 mile walk), Chinatown. We walked through the down and out areas of the city - gee, if this is as bad as it gets, then I'm moving here.

Day Three

First hotel transfer. We moved to a hotel about 3 blocks away closer to the harbourfront. Did some more exploring - saw the biggest cruise ships I have ever seen in my entire life. Can they really fill all these with people? I found out later that one of the ships I saw had been contaminated with the Norwalk virus. Wasn't quite so keen to go on it after that :)

Day Four

This was the day I had been waiting for. We boarded the Rocky Mountaineer which would get us to Banff in two days with a one night stop in Kamloops. There was a lot of excitement in the air as we waited to get on. I was bemused to see that we were the youngest group of passengers (with exception of a small toddler). There is a lot of fuss over this privately owned train, each carriage has it's own attendant who rushes around giving a running commentary on the sights in between dishing out snacks and coffees.
It took some 8 hours to get to Kamloops where we disembarked. On this day we had seen a total of 2 black bears (black specks in the distance), a bald headed eagle and lots of cows.

Kamloops is a smallish town with just under 90000 residents. I was expecting to find only a gas station and a corner shop but to my surprise there were lots of bars and restaurants. Whilst nursing a v+c at the local Irish pub, I pondered over the movies I had ever seen about people being born in towns like this and never being able to leave. I guess I could imagine it in a place like this.

Day Five

We resumed our journey into the Canadian Rockies. Saw some pretty funky sights and some breath taking scenery. Also spotted lots of osprey nests and 1 osprey. Still no moose and the only bear I saw was a loggerhead one :)
I was a bit tired of the whole charade by this point as there is only so much sitting and eating you can do in a day. By the time we got into Banff I was more than eager to go. Greeted by the resident mounted police we all piled into couches for hotel transfers and then stared open jawed at the castle-like Banff Springs hotel when we pulled up. It's like a fairy castle in the middle of snowcapped mountains. Equipped with multiple restaurants, shops, 5 pin bowling alley and an outside heated pool, I was in 7th heaven.
As if we hadn't eaten enough already, we spent the evening in a local fondue restaurant dipping strange meats such as rattlesnake, ostrich and buffalo into miscellaneous sauces whilst glugging the local brew. Fondues always brings back childhood memories of reading Asterix. Strange that.

Day 6

Went for a coach tour of local Banff. I hate coach tours, all that getting on and getting off the coach and taking photos. This one was much the same, waterfall here, mountain there, and yet another lake. Pile on, pile off. Toilet breaks. We were taken to this cave with a hot spring - $4 normal entry to see a smelly cave and some bubbling water. There were lots of signs warning us not to put our hands in the water (as if!) because there was a species of snail in the water that only existed in these particular pools. Makes you wonder if there is even any point in preserving a species that doesn't exist in the normal food chain.

The highlight of this day was a gondola ride to the top of Sulphur Mountain followed by a trek up to the top of the mountain. I really live for moments like these where I find such natural beauty that it takes your breath away and brings a lump to your throat. Yes I took pictures but I doubt that they could ever convey that moment as I lived it.

Day 7

Another transfer to Lake Louise. As I may have mentioned earlier, there is not much village to speak of in Lake Louise. There is the main lake (so named after Queen Victoria's daughter), the hotel which sits in front of it (Chateau Lake Louise) and the village, which is a 45 minute walk away. Thus we resigned ourselves to spending a very relaxing couple of days at the hotel.

The first thing we did was to indulge in some proper afternoon tea overlooking the lake. This was a very 'english' affair with cucumber sarnies and cream scones.

One thing to note about this hotel - it was used as the main set in the film The Shining. I was slightly freaked out when I realised the deja vu I was feeling on the way to my room was down to the fact that it was the same corridor as in the film with the twin girls in the white dresses...
"red rum. red rum". Brrr...

Day 8

So we thought it would be nice to go for a little hike after breakfast to Lake Agnes. It was a little tougher than we imagined as it was a good 3.5 miles each way, and uphill. I was pleased to discover that I am quite fit despite of my job and made it up in an hour. It was worth it - the lake was stunning - it also drained off as a waterfall into a smaller lake below it.

After that 7 mile trek we thought we'd go canoeing on Lake Louise. Unable to just sit in the boat and look pretty, I had to grab an oar and row. It's a lot more difficult than it looks!

Day 9

We were picked up by this lady coach driver who would be driving us to Jasper. She kept on yakking about the highways and the history of the roads. Luckily she wasn't driving for too long. On route to Jasper we stopped off a this place called Icefields Parkway which is actually on a glacier. We all boarded this funny coach on giant wheels which took us down onto the glacier itself and we all romped in the ice and snow like children. Since we had a special designated area to play in, it felt even more like we were in a playpen :) Strange to think that we were standing on some 300 metres of solid ice. On the way back to our highway coachwoman, we were shown these holes in the ice which turned out to be some 300 metres deep. For fun, the people that work out here climb down them......

Our hotel in Jasper was a glorified lodge out in the sticks. We were only due to stay for one night which was a shame as it was pretty funky. Each room is in a cabin of sorts and there is no fencing anywhere in Jasper to keep the wild animals out so all over the hotel there are signs warning about bears, cougars and rampant elk. September is elk mating season thus all the elk bulls are a little more ornery than usual.

Day 10

We were originally supposed to be picked up at 2pm to get onto the VIA rail train which would take us overnight to Vancouver. Unfortunately, we found out at the very last minute that there had been a derailment and that the train was not to be arriving until the next day. We could either wait for the train to arrive and stay another night in Jasper, or alternatively take a special coach back to Vancouver (which would take 12 hours). Hmmm. Tough choice. We called our tour operator to make all the arrangements and decided to relax another day in the hotel (which also had a jacuzzi and outdoor heated pool).

So after relaxing for the day on the lake and in the jacuzzi, we wandered out of our rooms at about 7pm to find some dinner. One of the most surreal things I have ever seen - about 4 metres away from our rooms was an elk bull munching on the grass. Luckily we were on the second floor so we didn't have to worry about it charging at us. We just stared at it chewing away happy as pie. It was most strange.

Day 11

It turned out that the train was due to arrive at 5am and therefore we had to be at the station ready to board at 4-30am. Needless to say I spent a lot of that journey sleeping. It was a 16 hour ride back to Vancouver - never again! I could have made it back in a few hours by plane. Hmph.

Day 12

Did more sightseeing in Vancouver - this time we visited the Capilano Suspension bridge and Grouse Mountain. The bridge is horrible, it's really long and wobbles all over the place when other people are on it. As expected I guess. Being terrified of heights, I hated it.
Grouse Mountain involved taking a gondola up the mountain. At the top, we couldn't see anything as it was a foggy day. However, they had 2 grizzly bears in captivity and also some wolves. We oohed and ahhed at these for a while. Amusingly, the wolves were ex-acting wolves used in films we'd never seen. B-movie wolves in other words :)

Day 13

Decided to visit Vancouver Island. It was a 3.5 hour trip but it was worth it - by the power of the internet I managed to book the hotel the night before for a bargain rate too! We got into Victoria about mid day and booked ourselves on a whale watching excursion for the same afternoon.
I'm getting a little tired of typing now but the whale watching was amazing - we must have seen at least 15 orcas in all - a number of which swam right past the boat about 3 metres away. We learnt that harbour seals are inherently stupid. There they are sat safe, high and dry on a rock. In comes a killer whale, seals start panicking and jump back into the water one by one. Seals get eaten. Now there's darwinian behaviour for you.

Day 14

Back to Vancouver to get ready to go home. Think I may have mixed up my days here but no matter. I'm going to bed now!