Dateline: August 20th 2017, Ontario, etc Alberta, Canada
The Great Canadian Trek 1 Toronto - Jasper - Jasper
Canada: The Blog
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| Assembled tourists at Lake Louise. |
Due to popular and certainly miss placed demand
August 9th - September 9th - the great Canadian Trek, with the Tourists, Annie & Gary.
To review:
It started out as a throw away invite to surprise Junior, aka Richard, for his 65th birthday, I believe, when we were last staying with Annie & Gary in Australia last year.......
Junior and Annie go way back: they met in the Johannesburg youth hostel in 1975. Getting a job as a white person in South Africa during Apartheid was unfortunately, very easy.They got jobs and decided to rent a house in Orange Grove:, 58 6th Street I believe.
It was a hikers haven, everyone was welcome to doss down wherever they could find a space on the floor. Which I did
Just as well for me as I'd just arrived and had about $15 in my pocket.
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| Arrival of the Oz Mob |
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And Then the American
Mob |
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My great idea is for everyone to bike downtown
Afraid Annie's biking days are over if they had ever began |
If anyone's interested, (as if I'd care about that), I had left London in September 1975, and arrived there following a 3 month trip on a truck through Europe to Istanbul, Damascus, Jeddah, Yemen, Assab to Addis. Then hitched up to Blue Nile Falls, about 600 Km north, then back to Addis Ababa at Christmas. More hitching with a marvelous R&R stopover in Nairobi, and after about another 3 month, arrived in Johannesburg in March 1976,
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| Collective Mob on the move. Off to the Island |
Annie & I soon became somewhat of an item. Yup, thats how far back we go
Where was I?
Then, after much adjusting for reality, it was
So, Annie & Gary arrived August 5th, Junior 6th, camping at Oastler provincial park 8th - 11th, surprise party, 11th (yep, another tight schedule), complete with dreadfully destroyed burgers and bangers (Rus actually finished off the most
burnt), but Daisy, Marts new life companion also helped out.
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Finally, the missus returns to the camping schtick -
Ostler Park complete with the Bridge Quartet
Yep, pretty damp and miserable weather |
Camping consisted of 6 of us: Annie, Gary, Junior, Gerry, me and surprise! The Missus. Bridge Booze and sometimes survival: it was mostly dry, but not always
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| Well, it's the great Canadian outdoors |
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Hiding from the mozzies and supping the grub,
Smitho Pancake style |
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| A surprise birthday party, complete with total destruction of most of the grub |
The party came together in the usual way. People started arriving, the barbeque was fired up, bottles were opened, donations were set out on the table, people drank, eat met, repeat. Hope everyone had fun
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| Brian trying to find the secret of my carbon sauce |
We've accumulated lots of chairs and loungers from the contents of
Kayla's London house (Ed, just sold today, September 15th), so this time
everyone had somewhere to sit........ until it rained that is.
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Another Admirer..... and
daughter |
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| The Falls, US Style |
We do the tourist Schtick down to Niagara, over to the States to get a
US Visa stamp in Annie's passport. It cost $15 (maybe), and turned out to
be a stamp on a piece of paper in their passport. Not a stamp in their
passport.
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| Queen Lear. Pretty dreadful actually |
Oh well.
We have a few days, so the touristsand a few locals head to
Shakespeare in the park -High Park summer regular jaunt.
Too late, but don't bother anyway
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| I can't get all of Canada in here |
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Finally - the train "The Canadian"
A great experience. Somewhere in Ontario |
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| But fantastic coffee and grub |
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| Really great food, and all the beaver dams you can count |
The next few days find us
on the train. VIA RAIL from Toronto to Jasper. 3 nights, 3 and a half
days. Everyone is surprised its on time. Apparently, sometimes it can be
16 hours late!!
Here's Googles take:
https://goo.gl/maps/PUb2dNBLoKt
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| Somewhere in Manitoba. You thought it looked familiar, right? |
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Winnipeg, with Museum of
civilisation in the background |
OK, I know Rus lives for these things, and yes, it was fun, AND great food, and, and and.....
Glad it was just the 3 days though. Thats enough. Big Train, Small Talk.
After
a few chats with other white haired "Bucket" "Trip of a Lifetime"
couples, I had decided that was enough. Big Train, Small Talk indeed
We
have 5 hours or so in Winnipeg, the others go on a coach tour. I take
to the streets and end up in the Museum of Human Rights, Canadian
style. Politically correct, but stunning architecture. Go just for that
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Travelling Minstrels, even in the stations on route
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Jasper, only 3 hours late. As it says on the Via Rail blurb: "Be flexible, for departure and Arrival.
Yes indeed!
Here's the entertainment
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| Stunning stuff. notwithstanding. Somewhere in Alberta |
I get the rental and we're on our way. Pausing only to get some grub for the night, to Terracana Ranch by the Fraser river
Heres the first road trip courtesy of google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/LCy1ALzDXww
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| Wild stuff by the road, just into Jasper |
We pass fairly stunning rockies stuff. Mountains, huge lakes, trees, you get the idea.
We have a free Canada 150 parks pass. I think they paid for them by firing all the park wardens.
There's certainly no one anywhere asking to see it
Maybe this is why:
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| More wild stuff by the roadside |
The ranch is a bit short on kitchen basics, but Annie rustles up a spag bol, and we sup into our Oz reds.
We're home
this is the sort of place you can have free ranging dreams that suddenly inform you about the basics in life....
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Waiting for Salmon to leap,
they didn't
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Valemont - Wetlands -
More mozzies than you can run away from |
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Blue River Adventures -
Bears and stuff from Jeeps |
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And boats. I read my
Economists |
We head out from Terracona (2 nights here) for a night at Tappen new Salmon Arm
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| Sunnybrea near Salmon Arm - What a fantastic B&B! |
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| Salmon Arm Pier. Lovely place |
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Remaining few Hemlocks
in the park |
.
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| Sunnybrae near Salmon Arm - Later that same AM |
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So we are heading out to Golden, via Revelstoke.
First stop is a scrap yard with some ancient scraps abounding. Gary dissapears for 30 - 45 minues. In fact he only comes back because his camera batteries run out.
We drop into a few side visitors areas as we head through a few parks, pass through "Avalanche Country", complete with signs to prove it, and of course, lots of burnt and burning forests. Many controlled areas with speed limits, police directing traffic, new roads being built and helicopters ferrying water to the latest hot spots.
Of course, its all just PR. The forests are infected by Pine Beetle, caused by, as environmentalists would have it, rampaging global warming not being able to kill them in lest than desperastely cold winters
The hotel is more of a hostel, but we get plenty of bridge in
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| Annie & Gary trying a ski lift, without skis at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort |
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| Radium Hot Springs, Modeled by Gary |
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A pensive moment as we
open the beers |
So, Radium Springs with another pause for Gary to click a few rusty wrecks on the way.
The hotels has fantastic views, basic accomodation and a make it up as you go along barbeque area. We do
The "Hot Springs" while pretty cheap is an appalling rendition of an old hot stream.
Totally devoid of any semblance of nature or aesthetics. Dreadful. I leave a note saying so
Off to Banff.
A stop at a few parks and generic roadside tourist vistas on the way.
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| Just another mountain |
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| Paint Pots indeed, paint stream |
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| Paint Pots Provincial Park. Primitive man in his element |
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| Marble Canyon, |
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| Us, modelling Vermillion Peak |
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The actual Canyon Falls,
about .5Km |
Onward to Banff.
High Country Inn
I found the place to be a bit like New York, but run with Canadians values and sensibilities. Outrageously expensive though.
I was here 10 years ago. I don't recognise it now.
Annie & Gary head off to an improv. Its in a bar.
We find a fantastic sushi cafe with a "Canadien Railways" train on track and you just help yourself.
Fantastic food.
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"Little Bastard" looking
for breakfast at
Lake Louise |
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| Assembled tourists at Lake Louise. |
OK
Up to Lake Louise. I hope for breakfast. I've looked forward to showing the tourists the chateau and the accompanying brunch that Andrei & I pigged out on 10 years back when we stayed here.
It was not to be:
1: We got up too late for brunch
2: The brunch was for residents only
Sigh. We hang out in a local Lake Louise hotel and have an excellent breakfast and the attention of "Little Bastard"
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| It's high season here. People everywhere and you have to wait for a parking place.... |
And on to Jasper via Athabasca Glacier which aint what it used to be
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| I'm standing where this glacier ended in 1902 |
We end up back in Jasper on Saturday 26th. Enjoy the hot tub and "Executive Suite" at the Tonquin Inn.
I deposit
the waifs and strays at the station the next day, and prepare for (yes, delayed late departure) of the Skeena express to Prince Rupert.
Much more to come........
From Your Correspondent
We
have 5 hours or so in Winnipeg, the others go on a coach tour. I take
to the streets and end up in the Museum of Human Rights, Canadian
style. Politically correct, but stunning architecture. Go just for that 
The hotel is more of a hostel, but we get plenty of bridge in
1 comment:
I recognized the sunset shot from the train! We have that same picture hahaha
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