Zazvonil zvonec a pohadky je konec.

Ahoj vsichni. Doufam, ze se dobre dari a vsichni uzivate leto v plnem proudu. Tentokrat pisu naposledy a to o nasem poslednim tydnu ve vychodni Kanade. Letenku jsme si mohli pridat za £25 a tak jsme se rozhodli vychodni Kanadu na tyden okouknout. Z Calgary jsme leteli do Toronta, tam jsme chvili mysleli, ze jsme pristali nekde v Singapuru, bylo 38 stupnu a 80% vlhkost vzduchu. Vyzvedli jsme si luxusni auto Chevrolet town&country s 93km na tachometru a neuveritelnym prostorem.



Jeste ten den jsme prijeli k Niagarskym vodopadum, Kanadska strana je docela velkej kyc, ale vyhled na vodopady je podle me lepsi nez ze strany Americke. V noci byly vodopady barevne osvicene a vypadalo to lepe nez pres den. Bylo hodne vody a vodopady byly vetsi nez jsem si je predstavovala. Taky na nas z krovi vyskocil medved myval.



V Torontu jsme stravili par hodin jedno pozdni odpoledne. Je to nejvetsi Kanadske mesto a z pohledu turisty, tam toho moc zajimaveho k videni neni. Asi nejvetsi atrakci je CN Tower, je jednou z nejvetsich budov na svete.



Ottawa je hlavni mesto Kanady, je to jedno z hlavnim mest, ktere by nikdo netipoval hlavnim mestem, jako napr. Camberra v Australii nebo Bern ve Svycarsku. Libilo se nam na trzisti s mistnimi produkty Byward a nekolik zajimavych kolonialnich vladnich budov. A prekvapilo nas neuveritelne mnozstvi homelesaku, celkove jich bylo hodne v Kanade, ale v Ottawe asi nejvic.



Meli jsme jeste 3 dni pred sebou a Montreal a Quebec city. Rozhodli jsme se stravit jeden den nekde v prirode u jezera a tak jsme navstivili Saint Maurice National Park. Kempovali jsme v parku a na informacich nam doporucili 15km okruh jako trek. Byl to nas posledni trek a byl silenej. Cesta byla uplne nova a asi potrebovali nekoho na proslapnuti cesty. Cesta byla lesem nahoru a dolu, pres kameny a koreny a slibovane vyhledy se nekonaly. Druhy den jsme si ale zlepsili naladu u jezera Lak de Eduard.



Qubec city je krasne stare mesto v kanadsko-francouzskem state Quebec. Lide, priroda i architektura jsou presne jako ve Francii. A stejne jako ve Francii, vetsina lidi nemluvi anglicky, coz je docela sokujici, kdyz zbyvajicich 75% Kanady se uci francouzky ve skole a vetsina z nich mluvi plynule francouzky. Vsechny znacky a informace jsou v obou jazycich, ale jak clovek prejede do statu Quebec, tak existuje jazyk jen jeden. Vybrali jsme dobrou sobotu na navstevu, ne jen ze hrali v parku Pink Floydi ( teda jen Roger Waters), ale pripravovalo se na zavod plachetnic do St.Malo ve Francii, zavod se kona kazde 4 roky. A tak jsme se po zmrzline, nekolika pivech a mistni specialite Poutine (hranolky polite omackou s kousky syra) pripojili k 20 000 lidi sedicich v parku, kde jsme neco z koncertu slyseli.







Posledni den jsme venovali Montrealu. Musim rict, ze jsem vzdycky ocekavala, ze to bude uzasne mesto plne krasne francouzske architektury a charakteru. Trochu jsme byli vsichni zklamani. Po projiti stareho centra jsme mysleli, ze jsme asi sli spatne a centrum jsme vynechali. Takovych turistu s mapou, tam bylo vic a vsichni chodili dokola stareho centra a rikali si, to je asi ono. Montreal je urcite kulturne zajimave, hodne festival a pored se neco deje. Mestu jsme dali sanci jeste druhy den a zasli jsme do Latinske ctvrti a Cinske ctvrti. Ale bylo tam hodne zajimaveho street artu.



Trochu vzruso byla nase posledni noc. Nejdriv bylo v planu prespat nekde v aute za mestem, ale uznali jsme, ze sprcha pred odletem by bodla a misto na zabaleni batohu taky a po dalsim horkem dni jsme meli hroznou chut na studene pivo. Nasli jsme jeden kemp asi 30 km od centra, kde vetsina lidi zila v karavanech. A vsichni nam tam prisli uplny blazni:) Ale zakoncili jsme nas vylet studenym pivem. 

Nas let mel letet v 8 vecer do Londyna a mame v 11 vecer do Parize. Jeste jsme se divili jak se setmelo brzy po ceste na letiste. Prisla, ale silena bourka, hromy, blesky a vsechny lety byly o nekolik hodin zpozdene. Allana tata nam zaridil pristup do salonku Air Canada a tam jsme si alespon spravili naladu. Mama nakonec odletela s Air France s 2 hodinovym zpozdenim. Ale nas let presunuli az na dalsi den. Sice nam zaplatili noc v hotelu, ale zrusili letu vic a nez se vsechno vyridilo, bylo 3 rano. A tak jsme na spanek meli jen nekolik hodin, pred navratem na letiste. V Londyne jsme cekali dalsich nerkolik hodin na autobus a do Norwiche jsme prijeli v 5 rano uplne hotovy. 

Tak tot vse. Dekuji vsem, kteri nasi cestu sledovali. Tohle byla nase posledni dlouha cesta a ted se pokusime zacit zit normalne a jezdit na dovoleny:) (Jeste nevime jestli nam to pujde) Momentalne pisu z Francie. Byli jsme na svatbe kamaradu Gregga a Lisy na zamku ve vesnici Riberac. Jeli jsme Eurostarem a TGV a zbytek stopem. Bylo to nadherny! 

Mejte se krasne a brzy na videnou v Praze.

 

Zdravi Monika a Allan

No Cars Go

Stepping off the plane into the early evening air of Toronto we were immediately hit by a wall of heat and humidity, we almost thought the plane had detoured to the Caribbean instead. No, it was summer, in Ontario.

We drove straight out of the city and down to the Niagara Falls. We arrived late at night and were greeted by a view of the falls illuminated by multi-coloured floodlights beaming out from the casino across the road. We joined the roughly half a million people being soaked by the spray whilst walking along the viewpoint pathway along the falls. Apparently there are times that the water tumbling produces so much static electricity that visitors hairs literally stand on end.



The hints at tackiness (the lights, the street vendors) we saw at night became infinitely amplified by day, with the town of Niagara Falls being full of theme bars and restaurants, all-you-can-eat restaurants with queues of professional eaters lined up outside and some really nasty tourist attractions that it is amazing anyone wants to visit. But they do, by the coachload. Very tacky but at least it is what it is, there is no pretention at Niagara Falls. Perhaps the worst was the waxworks with a model of a Burmese longneck Padang tribeswoman playing music with a 50’s singer with a cheesy grin and a little monkey banging a drum in a cage.



The more genteel, and maybe slightly snobbish, side of the neighbourhood is situated just up the road in the town of Niagara-On-The-Falls. The town is full of colonial buildings housing boutiques and galleries and posh ice-cream parlours, all sat there on the shore of Lake Ontario and surrounded on the other sides by acres and acres of vineyards. We didn’t visit any cellar doors or even try and Canadian wines but they seem to be doing pretty well.



We left the Falls region and returned to Toronto, the economic powerhouse of Canada I guess. From a visitors point of view there is not a whole lot to see and do. Probably the most famous landmark, the CN Tower looms over the downtown, kind of to be expected from one of the world’s tallest buildings. We got to the centre a little bit late in the day and didn’t stay for long. I regret that we didn’t have time to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame and see the Stanley Cup but otherwise we didn’t really feel like hanging around. As a place to live however I can think of many worse places than Toronto. The city is a real patchwork of multi-culture. Not just superficially such as being able to eat virtually any global cuisine without leaving the city centre but it is also very obvious how the mixture of communities keep the city going across every strata of society.



From the economic capital we drove to the political capital, Ottawa. One of those quiet, unassuming capital cities that is always the answer to a trick question in a pub quiz. Monika kept accidentally calling it Canberra for the entire duration of our visit due to their similarity in this way despite visually being total opposites. The Parliament areas do nothing to conceal the British involvement in the history of Canada and sit in juxtaposition to the tall office buildings of the encroaching downtown area. Just across the centre of the town the area around Byward Market is the other main tourist centre, great for wandering around and browsing the stalls at the same time keeping a close eye on the dodgy dealers and hustlers loitering around.



The standard of driving in Eastern Canada is certainly no better than that in the West, perhaps it is even worse. Two highlights over the past week were the motorcyclist who couldn’t decide which lane he wanted to be in then stuck his finger up at me when he realised I was in the one he wanted to be in and then the police officer who undertook me, crossed the double-lines into the car pool lane (despite being on his own in the car) and sped away a fair few miles per hour over the speed limit. I lost count of the number of traffic offences he committed during that manoeuvre and its not as it was an emergency, there were no lights or sirens to excuse him.



We left Ottawa and, bypassing Montreal, headed into the Laurentian mountains in Quebec. We had planned to visit the Mont Tremblant region but were put off by reports of high entrance fees and poor organisation at a park that is not a Canada National Park but a Quebec National Park. We decided to visit the Saint Maurice National Park instead, operated by National Parks Canada. Here we spent a day on a demanding trek through the forest around some lakes and the next day relaxed on a beautiful beach in the blistering sunshine.



I find it strange that Canada embraces such a multi-cultural society formed by the different immigrant groups but that within the country there is so much friction between Canadians and French-Canadians from Quebec. On a CBC news broadcast in Alberta we heard the sports reporter commenting on the selection of the Canadian torch bearer for the Olympics state “At least they picked a proper Canadian, and not some guy from Quebec that no-one cares about” which seemed a bit controversial. On the other hand I found it astounding that across the rest of Canada almost all signs, adverts and public notices are in both English and French, wasting ink with these long French translations, but in Quebec there is no English on any signs at all. How does that work? Why should the majority of the provinces accommodate the language of one which is not willing to reciprocate the gesture. It is astounding that hardly anyone in Quebec speaks any English at all, I mean not even one word. In shops, bars and campgrounds we often had to wait whilst they hunted out someone who understood some English. Don’t get me wrong, this is often the beauty of different countries and cultures but I found it strange here to be in a region where no-one speaks the dominant language of the country at all. It is quite strange to hear the French spoken in Quebec though, known as Quebecois, a very different dialect of French. There is also of course the French influence most evident in the architecture. Finally, heading into Quebec everything seemed to suddenly get a bit more untidy and dishevelled and I had the distinct impression we had just driven back into the 1980’s. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out Quebec is much poorer than the other provinces we have visited. I could make one google search to find that out I suppose.



Arriving in Quebec City we were surprised by the amount of traffic on the streets. By the time we had reached the old walled city all the streets were bumper-to-bumper and we couldn’t work out why until we finally parked and asked a passing German tourist. Roger Waters was performing The Wall that evening just yards from where we had parked and a yacht race between Quebec City and St Malo in France, held every four years I think, was setting off the next day. This was especially exciting for Milada, being a yacht captain herself and a Pink Floyd fan. We wandered around the old town and photographed the famous Le Chateau Frontinac before heading down to the marina to visit the yachts and crews preparing for the race. We had time for a glass of La Boreale, the local Quebecoise biere, of which the dark version was very much to my taste. What better way to finish off a day in Quebec City though than with a plate of Poutine, arguably the national dish of Canada. Poutine is a plate of chips covered in melted, squeaky, cheese and gravy. Delicious. After this we slowly made our way back towards the Citadelle and joined roughly 20,000 people hanging out in the parks and gardens waiting for The Wall. With tickets starting at $100CAD just for general admission to the site I guess these people either could not get hold of tickets or could not afford them. Either way there was a real festival atmosphere as we sat waiting for the show to begin. The viewpoint was directly behind the stage so there was no chance to catch a free glimpse other than the impressive fireworks at the start of the show but we could hear the music quite well. After being disappointed by Bob Dylan and The Who in concert I made a vow not to watch any other vintage acts, reformed or otherwise, and I wasn’t tempted to break that rule here but I was very happy to observe how everyone came for a great time without buying tickets.



Our final stop in Canada was Montreal. For some reason I imagined a city similar in style to Quebec City so I was disappointed to find an urban sprawl surrounded by ugly industry being ground to a halt by the never-ending roadworks. Walking around the old town it was interesting to see the other tourists with maps looking up and consulting their maps and wondering, is this it? The Latin Quarter at least evoked a bit of gritty character through its strip joints, hot dog vendors and second-hand thrift stores. The streets populated by an incredible number of destitute and winos with the fashion here for beggars being bare chests which adds an extra piquantness. Imagine those films you see of a ghetto in Detroit or Philadelphia or whatever and that what parts of Montreal look like. You can almost see the dirt and grime steaming up from the pavements in the 35°c heat. Overlooking the whole city from atop Mont-Royal you can see all the separate areas meshed together, with the interesting Olympic Park standing guard on the other side of the city. We drove out of the centre to camp just south of town, following the signs pointing to New York.... We didn’t quite get that far however and the next day returned and headed for Montreal Airport. Canada was about to have it’s revenge on us however. We returned the car, checked in and all was going well. As we went through security we commented how dark it looked, despite being just after 5pm. All of a sudden a massive storm hit the city, cutting power for thousands of residents and grounding most aircraft. Milada was able to leave with just a short delay but Monika and I were forced to spend another night in Canada before flying home the next morning.

Z Kanady

Ahoj vsichni, zdravime z Kanady. USA jsme opustili z destiveho Seattlu trajektem. Listky jsme meli koupeny predem a meli jsme je pro pripad, ze americka imigracka by chtela letenku/jizdenku z USA a jizdenka na autobus jim nestaci. Jeste musim dodat, ze se mi libilo ve statech vice, nez jsem ocekavala a urcite je tam, kam se vratitJ Pripluli jsme na Vancouver Island do Victorie, hlavniho mesta Britske Kolumbie a velkym rivalem mesta Vancouver na pevnine. V Kanade nas privitalo slunicko a konecne jsme po tydnu svlekli bundy, to bohuzel nevydrzelo dlouho! Kanadu cekal prodlouzeny vikend a pondelni 145.vyroci kanadske nezavislosti a tak se pocasi resilo v radiu cely den, prosli jsme si mesto. Trochu nas sokovaly mistni ceny a zmrzline za $8 jsme odolali.

Po ceste do Tofina jsme hledali kemp, ktery se nam nepodarilo najit a tak jsme nakonec kempovali na divoko u jezera. Trochu jsme se obavali, ze budem mit medvedi navstevu v noci, ale nic. Rano nas probudila mlha a dest. Jeli jsme narodniho parku Pacific Rim. Destny prales s divokyma plazema Pacifiku a male turisticke mestecko Tofino.

Bylo to tam hezky, ale predstavovali jsme si to trochu vetsi divocinu. Kempovali jsme na stejnem miste u jezera a tentokrat jsme potkali medvedici s malym medvidetem nekolik kilometru pred kempem. Ja s mamou jsme spali radsi v aute a Allanovi chudakovi nezbyvalo nic jineho nezs pat ve stanu. Dalsi den jsme se napojili na trek Trans Canadian trail od jezera Cowichan. Trek vede pres celou Kanadu az na Novofundlandske ostrovy. My jsme usli asi 10km, pocasi se vylepsilo a tak jsme se i smocili v pruzracne rece. Rano jsme vratili auto opet ve Victorii a busem a trajektem jsme prejeli do Vancouveru, tam jsme meli zarezervovany hostel v centru. Prselo a byla hrozna zima. Prosli jsme si centrum mesta a krasny obri Stanley park. Na pohledech jsme videli jak je mesto obklopene horami.

Allan vyzvedl auto, tentokrat upgrade jen o jednu tridu, dostali jsme Chevrolet Impala s velkym kufrem a za 14 dni ho musime vratit v Calgary. Prvni zastavkou bylo lyzarske stredisko Whistler, kde se take konaly zimni olympijske hry 2010. Spali jsme v super kempu pred mestem, ale bylo tam hodne ceduli o medvedech a kazdej urizlej parez vypadal jako jeden. Bylo to ve vlhkem lese u divoke reky a museli jsme vypit nekolik lahvi cervenyho, abysme vubec mohli jit beze strachu spat.

Prvni nas trek byl dobrodruzny, na informacich pani rikala, ze je to pekny jednoduchy trek. Sli jsme na Rainbow Lake 16km, ale netusili jsme, ze nahore je jeste nekolik metru snehu. Ten den konecne bylo teplo a slunecno a snih tal o sto sest, byl to stoupak, nejdriv pekna cesticka, pak bahno, pak misto cesty reka a nakonec snih. Jezero bylo pod snehem, borili jsme se po pas a dolu jsme prisli az v 8 vecer.

Dalsi den jsme si dali pekny vystup na Joffre jezera a spali jsme v krasnem kempu u jezera Marble Canyon, tam, jsme si i zaplavali v ledarne. Pocasi bylo neuveritelne, azuro 29 stupnu a stejne pocasi hlasili na cele 2 tydny a opravdu bylo:)

Cestou do statu Alberta a znamych Rocky Mountain jsme na den zastavili pod horou Mt. Robson, nejvyssi hora kanadskych Rockies. Je tam nekolika denni trek az do Robsonu passu, my jsme jsme jen na otocku k prvnhimu jezeru.

Z Britske Kolumbie jsme prekrocili hranice do statu Alberta a prvni zastavkou bylo mestecko Jasper, male horske mestecko s krasnou scenerii. Sli jsme nekolik treku v okoli, po ceste k jezeru Maligne jsme potkali medveda (z auta a vubec se nestydel) a 2 obri jeleny s chlupatyma parohama tkzv. Elkove. Teploty vystoupaly az ke 30 stupnum a snih a led tekly silenou rychlosti, v rekach bylo nejvic vody za poslednich 200 let. Premysleli jsme o raftech, ale $100 za hodinu a pul jizdy se nam nechtelo vyplaznout. Ale asi by to byla zajimava jizda.

 

Pak jsme se pomalu presouvali N.P. Jasper smer N.P. Banff. Asi nejhezci cast Rockies byla presne tam podel Icefield Parkway. Spali jsme v kempu naproti Columbia Glacier a asi nejhezci trek, ktery jsme sli byl vystup na Willcox pass.

Vetsina treku se jde jehlicnatym lesem 90% cesty nahoru a pak se dojde k peknemu jezeru nebo vodopadum, tenhle se sel po vrcholkach se super vyhledem na ledovce a cele pohori Rockies. Kalnych tyrkysovych jezer je po ceste mnoho, ale 2 nejlepsi byly urcite Peyto Lake a Bow Lake, dali jsme si v Bow koupel, opravdovou rychlovku, jen nekolika vterinovou.

Jedine co nas opravdu otravovalo, byli mistni komari. Vsude hodne vody a tak tech drzych parchantu bylo hodne. V kempech nam nedali pokoj a kousali pres 2 vrstvy obleceni, repelent jim zas tak nevadil a ohen taky ne.

Na den a noc jsme si zajeli do N.P. Yoho, prijemne jsme si odpocinuli od davu japonskych turistu a nemeckych rodin v obrich karavanech, kterych bylo smer Lake Louise vic a vic. Nasli jsme i venkovni koupaliste u vesnice Field. A i kdyz jsme vodopadu uz videli hodne, Takakkaw falls urcite stoji za zminku.

Lake Louise je asi nejvetsi turistickou atrakci Rockies, mozna i Kanady. Je k tomu samozrejme dobry duvod, je tam opravdu krasne. Ale v cervenci, prvni opravdu letni tyden tam bylo natriskano. Do kempu jsme se nevesli a tak nam bylo dovoleno postavit stan na parkovisti asi 4 km od vesnice. Na parkoviste u jezera Louise se muselo pred 8 rano, jinak parkovani bez sance. Nastesti skoro vsechny ty davy turistu byly spokojeni u jezera s fotkou hotelu v pozadi. A tak na 15 km okruhu na jezero Agnes a udoli 6.ledovcu jsme meli cestu skoro pro sebe.

Odpoledne jsme se stavili na dalsim jezeru a to o neco mene popularni Moraine lake, kvuli medvedum se muselo na treky ve skupine minimalne 4 lidi. Mamina se prosla kolem jezera a my s fajnovym parem z Texasu jsme si vybehli do udoli 10.vrcholu.

V Banffu se nam zacalo zhorsovat pocasi, z poslednich 10ti dnu jsme byli zvykli jen na tmave modre nebe a zadnej dest. Mestecko Banff je vyspelejsi oproti sousednimu Lake Louise a nebo Jasperu. V zime jsou to vsechno lyzarska strediska. Turiste jezdi po cely rok. Banff je jedna hospoda vedle druhe. Misto dlouheho treku jsme se rozhodli zajit pesky z kempu 5km na veceri a pivo, aby nikdo nemusel ridit. Diky mistnim cenam alkoholu, jsme pili poslednich par tydnu hlavne caj po vecerech. Cesta byla narocna hlavne zpatky po luxusnim steaku, nekolika pivech a byla uz tma, baterku jsme nevzali a jen jsme cekali az nas sezere medved. V Banffu jich je extremne hodne, hlavne Grizzly a nektere treky jsou zavrene, ze jich je tam moc. Ale zase nic.

Po ceste do Calagary jsme jeste zastavili v mestecku Canmore, kde byla nejaka hornicka slavnost a zavody na kolech, tam jsme fandili cele destive odpoledne.

Do Calgary jsme prijeli na posledni den nejvetsiho Rodea vubec Calgary Stampede. Mesto bylo po velkem tydennim mejdanu, vsude kovbojove s kocovinou a zbytky slamy. Bohuzel cely den prselo a mesto jinak zajimave vubec neni. Vecer byl ohnostroj a ten jsme videli z kempu. Z Calgary letime na tyden do vychodni Kanady. Zacneme v Toronto a koncime v Montrealu.

Tak se vsichni mejte krasne.

Zdravi Monika, mamina a Allan

The Star Rover

The first thing that happened to me in Canada was that I received a parking ticket. We had been in the country less than fifteen minutes. I had simply walked from the pier to the car rental office and returned to the pier to pick up Monika and Milada. As I walked across the parking lot with their bags I saw a lovely pink ticket flapping against our windscreen. In hindsight it was merely one in a series of issues and inconveniences that have marred our journey through Canada. On the other hand I drove straight down to the office of the meter maids and after explain the situation had the fine ($54 reduced to $32 if paid within 3 days) annulled and had to pay an administrative fee only. So at least this initial Canadian experience finished on a brighter note!



We arrived in Canada at the start of the Canada Day holiday weekend, a celebration of the creation of the country back in 1867. Unfortunately the weather here has the same attitude to bank holidays as in the UK so one sunny day in Victoria was followed by three days of rain, fog and miserable weather on Vancouver Island. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, a fact that surprised me, and resembles something like a quaint, pretty Scottish town. There is very much a British influence, from the colonial architecture of the government buildings to the botanical gardens (the most famous of which, the Beaufort Gardens, we didn’t visit due to the astronomical entrance fee) and also a cricket theme pub, The Sticky Wicket. I found Victoria a little bit too prim and proper though, I wouldn’t like to live there, I would be in constant fear of scuffing the pavement with my shoes or something.



Half way up Vancouver Island on the Pacific coast lies the old surf village of Tofino. In years gone by this has grown from a small leftfield community of surfers and hippies to a developed tourist town with a booming whale watching industry. The weather of course put paid to most people plans of surfing or spotting a pod of Orcas swimming by. We visited the region to go hiking in the Pacific Rim National Park though so our plans were only slightly impacted. We made a few short hikes through the forest trails, some emerging on to beaches being patrolled by bald eagles, others to streams that at certain times of the year are visited by salmon who make those death defying journeys up river to spawn. The only disappointment for us in Pacific Rim was not finding the Bombers Trail, a trek that leads to an old World War II bomber plane that crashed in the forest. The lady who quashed my parking ticket recommended it but the guys at the Visitor Centre would not tell us where it was as they discourage people from walking on that trail. Which was a shame.



On the way back to Victoria we made a detour to Lake Cowichan and the Cowichan River Trail. This is the final section of the Trans Canadian Trail, a trek that crosses from Nova Scotia all the way across Canada to Vancouver Island. This part of the trail was very scenic, running along the river but high up on either side giving great views over the whole river canyon. We did not actually see the lake itself as it was hidden behind a variety of private residential areas and industrial parks.



Back in Victoria we were given four options to cross over to Vancouver. The first was to charter a sea-plane (yes, the Visitor Centre actually recommended that!) and the second was some sort of hoverjet. Predictably we went for the fourth option, a local bus from Victoria to the port at Swartz Bay, across on the BC Ferry, then a bus and metro combo from Tsawwassen port to downtown Vancouver. The ferry journey was an easy 1½ hour crossing and we were soon in Vancouver. This is a city that is often touted as one of the best places to live in the world. So, the weather was bad but I really could not see why. OK, you have sea and mountains within easy reach but downtown itself I found quite dull and characterless. Things looked better around the wharf area and Gastown with some cool looking bars and cafes and Stanley Park would be a beautiful place to stroll in the sunshine but otherwise it was just another of those non-descript towns with the same shiny office blocks and the same global brands touting their wares. I did like the idea of Dog parks though, like kids playgrounds but for dogs, who really seemed to appreciate it!



Just an hour or so along the Sea-to-Sky highway lies the world famous ski resort of Whistler, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The residents did not actually want the Olympics there as they claimed they already had a beautiful and opulent ski town with all the required amenities, which I think is true. They received a lot of snow on the mountains around Whistler this year so some of the hiking trails were still closed due to snow and avalanche dangers in July but we did undertake two beautiful treks. The first trek was up to Rainbow Lake which required quite a lot of traversing through the snowpack and a few crossings of snowmelt streams. The second trek was half an hour’s drive north of Whistler, the trail involved clamouring over some rocks on the way up to the Joffre Lakes, three lakes that sit right underneath glaciers. Finally the weather had cleared up for these two treks which made the views well worth the effort.



One of the first observations I made of Canada and Canadians was just how bad they are at driving, especially when compared with the standard of driving in the U.S. Every day we witness acts of driving that are dangerous, disrespectful to other drivers and just plain negligent. It is like being in a country where every third driver is an 18 year old lad from Norwich in a souped-up Nova SRi. The worst experience we had was the guy who decided to pass us on a single lane road, but as the opposite lane was full of oncoming traffic he veered onto the gravel ‘soft’ shoulder and passed us on the wrong side, spitting up stones and dust and barely giving us an inch of leeway as he returned to the road. It was such a shame that the police car that passed us about 500 yards down the road hadn’t seen it. Otherwise the drivers display a scant regard for speed limits or other traffic restrictions and are constantly tail-gating or beeping at cars that are obeying the law. It is true that we have only seen a couple of patrol cars on the highway and there are no signs warning of speed cameras so perhaps this is the reason?



Another disappointment whilst on the road is the total lack of any decent service stations or truck stops. Those you do find sell coffee and snacks at vastly inflated prices and in small piddly portions. If there is one thing the US can teach the world it is that if you charge a reasonable price for coffee, soft drinks and hot dogs and offer them with a variety of condiments and toppings at your petrol station then people will come and spend money on other things, like petrol. If I had known that I would no longer be able to get a 64oz lemonade, a bottomless coffee and a cheese and chilli dog for less than $4 (including tax) all in then I would have made an effort to visit an AM-PM gas station one last time.



Also, I didn’t mention hitch-hikers in any of my emails from America and I meant to as it is amazing to see the hitch-hikers here. We know a lot of people that travel to work or school every day by hitch-hiking even though they have a car at home, doing their bit for the environment. We would normally pick almost anyone up, we have experienced standing on the road watching people smile and wave at you as they pile past in their giant, empty people carriers and it does not feel good. Only if the hitcher really looks like a homeless drunk or a mass-murderer would we probably drive past and even then feel a bit guilty. On this trip, over about 9,000 miles we have only picked up two hitchers because all the rest looked a bit crazy and dangerous. It is as if they don’t realise how bad they look. Often the hitchers are not even standing up but rather lounging by the side of the road in filthy strands of clothes, rolling a cigarette whilst attempting a half-arsed wave of the thumb. They also don’t seem to consider the location where they are trying to be picked up, we have seen hitchers on the approach ramp to highways or on narrow bridges with no obvious place to pull over. Hitch-hiking is a dying practice across Europe already, both the hitchers and potential rides becoming more and more suspicious, which is a real shame. Now I feel like I have seen the future of hitch-hiking, and it does not look good!



The longest drive of this part of the trip was from Whistler to the Rocky Mountains. We drove via Kamloops, a tar strip of motels, petrol stations and shopping centres. Not particularly pretty or interesting for tourists but conveniently located between Whistler and Jasper and full of all the essentials we needed. I quite enjoyed our day in Kamloops, perhaps because it had no pretentions to be something it was not, which I found refreshing.



Closer to the Alberta border we stopped overnight at the base of Mt. Robson. This is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies and the peak dominates the skyline as you approach the mountain. We did hike up a short part of the trail that leads up to the Mt Robson pass, although we only reached the first lake on the trail we joined many hikers who had made the three or four day trek up to the pass and back. Unfortunately down at the trailhead we found ourselves helping a girl who had tripped on her shoelace having reached the bottom and knocked herself unconscious. I suppose her only consolation is at least it happened at the bottom and not half-way up where the situation would be ten times worse. Close to Mt. Robson is Mt. Terry Fox, named after the courageous guy that attempted to run across Canada on a prosthetic leg. He lost his leg to cancer and as soon as he had recovered he set off on his run, dipping his leg in the sea in Newfoundland to signal the start. Unfortunately he never made it as the cancer re-appeared in his lungs somewhere around Thunder Bay forcing him to give up. He is now regarded as Canada’s biggest national hero and had a mountain in the Rockies named after him.



By this time we had realised just how expensive Canada is, the cost of living is much higher than the U.S. and we have been trying to work out if it is as expensive as Australia? I can’t work out why it should be so expensive, I guess the average per capita income must be pretty high. Everything is more expensive here than south of the border. OK, so we are in high season so it is understandable that car rental is more expensive but food, clothes, provincial campgrounds, national park annual permits? Don’t even mention beer or wine. Apparently British Columbia has some great local breweries producing some excellent craft beers and ales. It is possible but I can’t be sure because I am not prepared to pay four times more for a beer here than a similar bottle in the U.S. I heard that Phillips Brewery in B.C. in particular has some noteworthy drops; if I save up enough to find out I will let you know. I wonder if the cost of beer and wine is an attempt to reduce alcoholism or binge drinking? I have heard the idea bandied about by politicians in the UK, if it is true then I hope we never adopt it at home. Why should normal, honest drinkers be penalised for the misdemeanours of others. Luckily I am moving to Prague soon where all my beer dreams can be realised. Of course the relative cost of travelling in a country would never be one of the main aspects that I would judge a country on. I would love to go to Japan, a country not exactly renowned for offering good value. We are also quite used to experiencing massive differences in the price of goods as we cross borders – Singapore to Malaysia springs to mind – just when added to the other negative aspects we have experienced it seems to become more significant.



We crossed from British Columbia to Alberta and headed for the town of Jasper. It is a surprisingly small town with no suburbs or high-rises or big superstores, like driving into the old days. Probably the nicest of the towns we visited in the Rockies and surrounded by classic mountain scenery – snowy peaks, glaciers, icy-blue lakes and alpine forest. We made a couple of treks, the first around the Valley of Five Lakes and the second up through the Bald Hills overlooking Maligne Lake. Along the road to Maligne Canyon and Maligne Lake we also spotted a bear, some giant elk and a couple of bighorn rams. All-in-all it couldn’t have been more of a complete Rockies experience unless a Mountie had popped by on his horse. A less welcome form of wildlife that we encountered in Canada were mosquitoes, millions of the little buggers. We had met a few swarms in Washington and Oregon but nothing to prepare us for this. The mosquitoes of the Rocky Mountains are the most impolite and aggressive mosquitoes I have ever met. If the mozzies in Africa and Asia were as rude as this then whole countries would have been wiped out by malaria years ago. They bite through layers of clothes here and wriggle through your hair to get to your scalp, they squeeze into your ears, up your nose and between your eyelids. Half the problem is the sheer number, huge black clouds greet you at campgrounds and don’t offer any respite, not even after dark, nor are they deterred by smoke from a fire. At one point I counted 83 on my legs alone. In all honesty I would rather meet a bear in the wild, at least you know what you are up against and can see him to put up a fight, with these you kill half-a-dozen and they are replaced by fifty more!



The road south from Jasper to Banff is known as the Icefields Parkway, the reason-being that the road passes an impressive number of glaciers and snowy peaks along the way. We stopped to view the Athabasca Falls before reaching the glaciers themselves. It is a very scenic drive and just a twenty minute walk to the foot of the Athabasca glacier. Many people were taking a tour up on to the ice but we preferred to hike up to Wilcox Pass, on the other side of the road, which offered views of many glaciers together as well as a view straight down this part of the Rockies range. Also along this stretch of the road are some amazing lakes that glow in a creamy turquoise colour, something to do with mineral deposits being ground out by the glaciers perhaps? Two of the prettiest were Peyto Lake and Bow Lake. We decided that Bow Lake was so nice we should take a dip in it, a very short dip. 

The Jasper-Banff National parks stretch from just north of Jasper to just south of Banff and are probably the biggest tourist attraction in Canada, full of skiers in the winter and hikers, cyclists and canoeists in the summer with a lot of German families driving out-of-control RV’s and coach-loads of Japanese tourists clogging up every view-point also. With this in mind we made a short side-trip back into B.C. to visit Yoho national park, which, despite being just 20km away is far less visited. We were able to enjoy the Takakkaw Falls and Emerald Lake walks in a slightly less crowded manner. Also in Yoho national park are the spiral tunnels that have been blasted through mountains in order to allow trains to be able to cross the range. These tunnels reduce the gradient by twisting around with a slight incline, the net result being that you can often see the start of a freight train emerge from the tunnel at the top (or bottom) whilst the rear end is still chugging in at the other end.



Back in Alberta our next stop was at Lake Louise, the jewel of the Rockies. This claim is probably justified as it is beautiful, not just the lake but the glaciers and mountains behind and blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately if visiting in the middle of July during the first week of good weather in the summer then the experience will be shared with about sixty thousand other visitors all wandering along the lakeshore and taking photos. Sadly many of them are taking photos of the god-awful ugly monstrosity of a hotel that has been built on the shore of the lake rather than the pristine beauty of the landscape on the other side. Luckily all it takes is a short hike from the lake, past the packed tea-house at Lake Agnes and up to the Plain of Six Glaciers to get a bit of peace and quiet.



Slightly less visited but still heaving is Louise’s next door neighbour, Moraine Lake. The trails here go though some forest particularly popular with bears so trekkers must be in groups of at least four to hike up the Larch Valley for views of the Valley of Ten Peaks. We met a couple from Austin, Jameson and Taylor, who were on their honeymoon to hike up there with. Jameson had just had an accident with a chainsaw a couple of days before the wedding (how very Texan!) but we made it up and down in one piece. Valley of the Ten Peaks, Plain of the Six Glaciers, Valley of the Five Lakes?!? Surely someone could have been a bit more creative with the names, they all sound like Enid Blyton adventure stories.



Banff town itself is probably the most visited of all the Rockies sites. By now we were exhausted and getting a bit bored with treks through forests to lakes (in the same way that in New Zealand for instance the mention of a waterfall trek results in people running for cover) so we stuck to a short walk around Lake Minnewanka and the one trail that leads from the campground into the centre of town and back again. I am sure that Tunnel Mountain and Sulphur Mountain are both great treks but by now the rainclouds had also returned so we have a good excuse. We did plan to visit the Hot Springs at the top of Sulphur Mountain but in the end the hot showers in the campground were good enough for us after a few days of trekking so we went for dinner in the centre instead.



One disappointing aspect of the national parks in Canada has been the state of the campgrounds. Whilst they do have all of the requisite services it is always impossible to actually pitch a tent on the sites. This is due to rocks, gravel and other terrain that is not usually found in campgrounds. Surely before setting up a campground it would be common sense to make sure it is actually fit for purpose? I had to laugh at the two campsites we found that actually had perfect grass on the sites. At the first one the ranger came and told us to move our tent off of the grass and on to the gravel and at the second one a large sign forewarned us not to even bother trying the grass out. I have a good mind to invoice Parks Canada for 12 tent pegs, to replace the ones I have bent out of shape trying to drive them into the ground. The cost would be about £15 in the UK but I suspect here you might need a loan to be able to afford 12 tent pegs!



We had planned to bypass Canmore and Calgary and head to Drumheller, just east of Calgary. Famous for its pre-history involving a lot of dinosaurs the attraction for us was the hoodoo landscape close to the town. It turned out to be further from Calgary than we thought however so instead we spent a day in Canmore and found the centre all closed off for the Miners Day, a parade to mark the town’s history as a mining centre. For some reason they celebrate this by staging a series of cycle races. Although not quite Le Tour it was still great to see, although unfortunately two races did end with a serious pile-up just after the finish. They perhaps should have thought about that when they put the finish line that close to a 90° right-hander. Calgary is perhaps most famous for its annual rodeo, the Calgary Stampede. We arrived in the town on the final day of the Stampede and found the whole town covered in hay bales and all the bars and restaurants had temporary ‘saloon’ doors covering their entrances. The area around Kensington seemed a cool place to wander around but the downtown area was particularly lifeless. And we were there during Stampede, apparently the world’s greatest outdoor show and certainly the highlight of Calgary’s calendar. It did rain all day though so perhaps that’s why it was so dead. We camped just by the old Olympic park on the West of town, we had a view of the ski jump from our campsite.



One of the aspects of travel that we most look forward to is meeting new people and observing the different cultures. I suspect this is the main reason most people visit foreign countries. We were disappointed not to receive a warm welcome from most Canadians that we met. In general we have found them to be quite uptight and often abrupt and cold in their manners. This is in stark contrast to the easy going welcome we almost always received from Americans from Louisiana to Washington. For example, it is common etiquette when hiking to greet fellow hikers, perhaps to enquire about the trail or ask how they got on. Here our greetings were often responded to with blank stares or looks of suspicion. The times we have heard any Canadians enjoying themselves, during the Canada Day weekend for instance, it all seemed a little forced and unnatural. About the only thing they seem to be passionate about is their flag and how many places they can display it on their bodies, clothes, bags, cars or houses. I felt like shouting “OK WE GET IT, YOU ARE NOT AMERICANS”. Most telling was an interview on CBC radio with a Canadian author. She told a story how she seeked out a Canadian at Heathrow to mind her bag, she said once she saw the Maple Leaf flag on a suitcase she knew she could trust the owner. Later she mentioned how she had had her purse stolen “eight or nine times” in Canada. I am not surprised at this considering her apparent lack of critical thinking capability. Of course we have also met some really friendly Canadians, just not as many as in other countries and certainly not as many as we expected. You might have noticed that I have been slightly underwhelmed by our visit to Canada thus far. It is not that it has been a bad place to visit, just that compared to the U.S., Australia and New Zealand (similar countries that I have visited in the past year) it has many more negative aspects. To be honest this has really surprised me, if you had asked me last year to rank these four countries in order of how much I would enjoy travelling in them then I think Canada would have been number one and the U.S. number four. Experience has proved the opposite. Some of the reasons are from personal experience, others are due to general observations about the country. Unfortunately a further reason is probably due to my misapprehension of Canada in the first place. I must plead an ignorance of just how much of a tourist trail there is here in the Rockies in the summer. I was looking forward to a bit more wilderness and isolation. We didn’t expect to find it in the U.S. but we did, parts of Southern Utah being about as isolated as you can be in the middle of the most developed country in the world. However, I did expect to find it here but now I realise my error. I can’t see myself returning to Canada but if I did I guess I would head for the Yukon. On the other hand, if I was thinking about visiting the Yukon I would probably end up in Alaska or Kamchatka instead. It’s a shame, but it’s true.

Thankfully Canada has a week to redeem itself; tomorrow we have a flight to Toronto and spend a week making our way to Montreal.