There comes a time in every one of my readers lives when they have to ask themselves one question: "Am I feeling lucky?". Well if your not then you should be because its Adventure time again and that can mean only one thing; yup, part two.
The end of part one saw me boarding yet another bus on yet another glorious day to leave Revelstoke behind and head closer to the centre of the Rocky Mountains to the tiny tourist village of Lake Louise. As you will all by now expect the scenery along the way was at least (if not more) wondrous as it has been all the way here, with one small exception. "'Ello" I hear you think "what could that be?". Well the thing that occasionally spoilt the view were a number of mountainside tunnels. These tunnels (which didn't go through the mountains, just around the edges) were supremely ugly. No attempt had been made to disguise their brazen concrete utility. Which brings me on to another thing, so if you will just allow me to get on to my soap box I will continue. I have noticed on numerous occasions since getting to Canada that far too much of the place is marred by poorly finished concrete things. Some are bridges others buildings or pedestrian underpasses or sea walls. Now many of you will quite rightly be thinking that much of the world (the UK included) has a great deal of concrete on display, so why am I banging on about it now. Well, for two reasons. Firstly these things often crop up in areas of significant natural beauty, which only serves to highlight their ugliness and secondly due to their 'unpolished' appearance. By this I mean that they appear to have been built by machines that leave behind moulding marks and a pitted surface that collects dirt and stains. They are built with all the finesse of a multi-storey car-park. Anyway I will shut up about that now and talk of prettier things.
Lake Louise is split in to two regions. The lake and the village. The village is really only a tourist resort, just a couple of shops and hotels and the hostel. It is often the case in such places that prices are rather high and this was no exception. Knowing this in advance I had planned to stay here just one day and so got an early night so as to set out bright and early the next morning. I walked from the hostel back through the village and over the partly frozen river to where I could either walk up the road to the lake or use one of the two woodland trails. As usual my tourist map was hopeless but with some perseverance I found the start of one of the trails. When I did however I discovered that like in Revelstoke the paths were covered in compacted, slippery snow. This wasn't exactly a shock but I had been hoping that some sort of err... well... luck, would have meant that at least the lower paths were clear. This meant it was either walk up the road (with endless tourist buses roaring past) or give the path a try and see what happened. I stepped on to the snow and took a few steps, it seemed OK but then I hadn't reached a slope yet. Luckily I had plenty of time as it was rather slow going but definitely worth it not only for the views but also for the peace and quiet as no one else was stupid enough to be out there. Anyway, after a remarkably long time I arrived at the top and rejoined the road to the car-park which was already half full with tourist buses. I navigated my way through a huge crowd of Japanese tourists all looking in to the fold out screens of their video cameras instead of where they were going and at last beheld the lake. The lake was of course frozen too although the ice was thinning to the point where ice skating was off the cards (which didn't ruin any of my plans). The views across the ice to the mountains beyond were particularly good and so I took my place among the other tourists to take my photos. I have to say though that to me so much of the landscape I have seen around here had been spectacular (as I think I mentioned) that I am not sure that one particular view can be regarded more highly than any other or indeed the place as a whole.
With the photo taking done it was time to see if there were any more of the trails that it was possible to walk on, no matter how slowly. Again it came as no surprise that most were not an option with all but the lake shore path having avalanche warnings. So the lake shore it was. Naturally I would have preferred the chance to wander the more mountainous paths to the various lookout points but still thoroughly enjoyed this easy going trail. One advantage of being there in the snow was that even this path was almost empty of people. During the summer season it can apparently see more than fifty thousand visitors. I returned via the same woodland path I had come up that morning and after an uncomfortable night at the very cramped hostel I set off to the bus once more. The bus was over an hour late but I didn't mind as it was yet another excellent day to sit absorbing the view and breathing the cool mountain air.
Banff was only 45 minutes away and is another tourist and skiing area although is significantly larger than Lake Louise. It was upon my arrival here that I had the first of those odd accidental meetings that happen when travelling. Having gone the long way through town (another bad map) I was just waiting to cross a road when I bumped in to one of my fellow BUNAC-ers that I had got to know in Vancouver. Fortunately she was able to give me directions to the hostel and off I went not realising that I was about to have to walk up a mountain to reach it. When I finally did get there and I opened the door to my dorm I was in for a little bit of a surprise. Two of the three Canadian guys that were also in this dorm had rearranged the furniture and hung duvets and sheets between the bunks to create a kind of den. They had done this to surprise their friend but unfortunately I turned up before he had returned so the had to undo it all. These guys were in Banff for a drunken weekend and the room was seriously cluttered with beer cans and bottles of spirits, they had even managed to hang some from the ceiling. They had converted the bin in to an ice bucket and the room smelled strongly of salami. They took some delight in informing me they intended to stay up 'till 4am playing poker in the room - fortunately they went out in town instead.
After a cramped night sleeping with my backpack on my bed as there was nowhere else to put it in the tiny room, I got an early start. I set off to walk a number of the short trails that conveniently were both close to town and free of snow. I had in tended to cross the road in front of the hostel to walk the Bow River trail but I couldn't find it and after a fair bit of wandering around set off down a back road to meet the Tunnel Mountain trail instead. This was a steep zig zag track up to the top of the mountain which offered excellent views across Banff and from the top you can see over the other side and up the valley beyond. This was all very pleasant but the mountain had a surprise for me yet as on my return down the mountain I encountered three beasts. I will try and be a little more specific but I must confess that I have been unable to determine what they were. They were some kind of deer shaped creatures, grayish beige with big flapping ears and I suspect only young ones as they weren't very big. In any case they weren't too shocked to see me so I was able to get a photo for future identification purposes. Realising suddenly that if they were young then there may be some huge hoofed monster lurking in the bushes I snuck quietly past and carried on down to town. Following the river around the edge of town I crossed the railway tracks to reach the start of the Fenland trail. This flat wooded trail was supposed to guide me around an area of fens but they had gradually been drying up over the years and had almost returned to being plain old woodland. It was still a nice little walk and after this I crossed town to pick up the Bow River trail (that I had failed to find that morning) from the other end. The first part of this trail was busy as it led to the Bow Falls, something which the tourist maps seem keen to point out. It has to be said that the 'falls' weren't exactly what I had been expecting. I had expected the traditional waterfall where water is at some point in free-fall between higher and lower riverbed sections. Here (I am assured) the water level drops some 20m however it does this over a distance of about 150m causing some white-water. Its all very nice, just a bit poorly named. Continuing along the trail the crowds vanished and I was alone in the forest. The day was hot and sunny and it was a great trail to wander. Reaching the far end I discovered why it had been so hard to find that morning - the path just petered out. I found my way back to the hostel eventually and when I did I found the Canadian guys had left. I was leaving Banff the next day but before I tell you about that I encountered for the first time a new backpacker oddity, just when I though I had seen it all before. I have named this phenomenon the 'Phantom Backpacker' as in the early hours of the morning a shadowy figure enters the dorm without turning on any lights. He makes up a bed and sleeps in it for a few hours but before anyone else has got up, he leaves again. I have noticed these spirit folk a number of times since on account of them making a lot of noise.
The journey from Banff to Calgary offered more great viewing as I passed out of the other side Rockies and in to the vast pale grasslands where towns have a more wild west sheen. Calgary is a pleasant modern city which went through a boom in the 70's thanks to oil. My first task here (as usual) was to trek all across town to the hostel, a task that would have been a hundred times easier if I had known that the C-Train (city train) was free through downtown. Anyway I got there in the end and settled in to another malodorous dorm. Also in my dorm were a couple of yorkshiremen (Ian and Darren) with whom I ended up exploring much of the city. One of the reasons for coming to Calgary (which I hadn't intended to at this time) was because of an old Canadian guy I had met in Lake Louise who lived in Calgary and said there wasn't much point in going. In my experience people are rarely enthusiastic about places they have lived for years but will rave on about a place they went on holiday for a week. Fortunately this logic, flimsy as it sounds, held firm on this occasion. During my time there I visited the Glenbow Museum, which is my idea of a decent museum on account of it being huge. To my recollection its only the third museum I have still been in at chucking out time.
One thing I learnt about the region is that due to some weather system the temperature in Calgary can go up and down very fast. I had arrived to bright sunshine and it was about 20C but overnight it had changed to cloudy skies, strong freezing winds and a light scattering of snow. This however was just a taste of what winter can be like which is why the city has what it calls the +15 system. This system of walkways allows you to reach almost any point in the city without going outside. Navigating it however isn't too easy but we enjoyed trying to anyway. Another indoor oddity are the Devonian Gardens, which are an indoor park type garden on the 4th floor of a skyscraper. Inside it has plants, full size trees, streams and pools full of fish and fountains. At three acres in total its a curiosity worth a wander. Another place worth a wander is Calgary zoo as this too is good and large and also has decent indoor viewing areas for those cold Calgary days. The zoo is split in to various sections grouping the animals geographically. Naturally I wanted to visit them all but the area that I was keenest to see was the 'Canadian Wilderness' section. The reason being that I wanted to swat up on all the local wildlife in case I encountered it and also so I can say I saw (whilst in Canada) the ones I didn't encounter. Top of my list to check out were (quite obviously) bears (both black and grizzly), moose, buffalo and beavers. The bears were all sleeping but it was nice to see them anyway and the zoo didn't have any beavers so I will have to hunt them down in the wild. On the up side I saw some elk which faintly resembled the beasts of Tunnel Mountain so at least I have a lead to follow up. Another bonus this zoo had to offer (in a different section) were the illusive red pandas. Until this point I had begun to believe that the red panda was a zoo keepers joke as I could never see them but here they were being kept at ground level (rather than at the top of the tallest tree in the park) and so after a couple of decades of trying I have seen them at last, and they are quite cute. The zoo also had a particularly excellent hippo pool with glass sides and shoals of slightly worried looking fish in it and a very enjoyable set of green houses and a butterfly house. I must confess though that part of the reason I spent so much time in there was simply to enjoy the hot air thick with humid fragrances. Unfortunately I did have to go back out in to the cold eventually.
On my remaining days in Calgary I explored the city's parks as the temperature had suddenly risen again. The most notable of these was a river island called Princes Island. As well as the usual park type things such as monuments, pretty bridges and dubious rusty sculptures there was something of far greater interest. The western corner of the island contained a large pond about which various signs told of the problems even a small population of urban beavers can cause to trees. It indicated that there were beavers near by and as I progressed I found gnawed off tree stumps sticking out of the ground. I was greatly encouraged that I might see one of these creatures but alas it wasn't to be. I will just have to keep on looking.
With Calgary done it was time once more to move on. Those of you who have been charting my progress on a map (and I know some of you do) may be surprised at this point that I didn't continue eastward but instead I turned around and headed back west. The reason being that there were places closer to Vancouver that I had yet to see but that I needed to wait for the season to progress a little before it would be worth going to them. So initially I returned to Banff for a stop over and it was then that the problems struck. I had intended to take a more southerly road back to Vancouver stopping all along the way but the first problem was that I couldn't get in contact with the hostel in Kimberley (a mock Bavarian town) and the bus got in after midnight, no prizes for guessing it was a Samesun hostel. So I crossed that off the list only to discover (just in time) that Nelson (my next stop) had been missed off my multi- stop bus ticket. This only left Kelowna but the hostel there was a Samesun too so I just gave up on the whole idea and opted for a 13 hour overnight bus trip to Vancouver instead. It was a pity but not a disaster as I would be going back east later anyway.
On returning to Vancouver it was clear that in my absence spring had sprung with the many trees now adding additional greenness to the already pleasant city. I was only to be in Vancouver long enough to plan my next bit of travel but whilst there took the time to wander through Stanley Park a little more. This time my off track tip-toeing was rewarded by an encounter with a pair of woodpeckers. They were larger than I had imagined and sported the classic woodpecker black cloak with red hood and were busily pecking wood.
As soon as it could be arranged I was busing my was to a ferry terminal to spend an enjoyable 1.5 hours on the 'Spirit of Vancouver Island'. As I have mentioned in previous adventures I like to use a mixture of the available types of transport and have of recent years become rather fond of crossing the occasional strait. The strait in question was the Georgia Strait as I was on my way to the provincial capital of Vancouver Island, Victoria. The journey as we wove our way between several smaller islands was really rather picturesque and as you will by now expect, it was a beautiful day. Once in Victoria I checked in to the hostel and was pleased to discover that it was a bit of an 'old school' hostel. None of this (cushion class) on-site bars and hot tubs business and definitely no tiny cramped four bed dorms that modern hostels tend to have. My dorm was like a barn and had easily got forty beds in it. Victoria is a rather lovely place and it is famed for being very English. This probably started on account of some of the more impressive buildings about the place but of course has been taken rather further by locals wanting tourist dollars. I even heard that some Americans visit in order to get a taste of what England is like. I just hope they don't take it all too seriously as on my wanderings about town I spotted a number of amusing places. There is a shopping arcade called 'Penny Lane', a pub called the 'Sticky Wicket' and naturally there was a 'British Candy Shoppe' which as well as 'candy' sold other rare imports such as Twiglets. The local supermarket got in on the act as well with a section devoted to British imports such as Branston Pickle, HP sauces and even Yorkshire Tea (which I somehow resisted buying). I don't know if it was because of all this or because of Victoria's own charm that I felt quite at home here and so stuck around for quite a while. During my time there I soon learnt to ignore the fake British veneer and sought out other things. The harbour path was an excellent little walk offering great views and the chance to just sit and watch the boats and sea planes taking off. Later I discovered beyond an impressive set of totem poles the rather pristine Beacon Hill Park. Although far smaller than Stanley Park it is still a lovely place to wander around and has a large population of (semi-captive) peacocks of both coloured and white varieties. Progressing right through the park I reached the coast and took a path along it before descending some steps to the stony beach where I wandered along watching the insane antics of the kite surfers.
One other thing for which Victoria is famous and which appears on almost every postcard and tourism poster is 'The Empress'. his is just a hotel but its vastness and grand design combined with its prime position at the head of the harbour mark it out as iconic of the city. It is regarded very highly and is considered to put the neighbouring Government Buildings in the shade. This is an opinion with which I simply disagree, its an impressive sight alright but its only superiority to its neighbour is its location.
Anyway before I finally departed this haven I decided it was time to take to the seas again but this time not for the purposes of transport. I got up early and set off in to town where I signed up to a tour. Then the other tour members and I had to don bright yellow life jackets / waterproof suits before parading through tourist filled streets feeling a touch conspicuous, to reach the boat (a zodiac) in which we were to zoom across the waves. We travelled at considerable speed for almost an hour before our pilot cut the engines a short way from a line of cliffs. Here we waited with eyes fixed on the water. Soon enough our reward came in the form of the dorsal fins of Killer Whales (Orca's) protruding from the water. The pod of whales were spread out all along the line of cliffs in transit up the coast to find fish to hunt. We watched them passing by for over an hour, they were a little far away for the photo's I took to have much chance of being any good but at least I have seen them at last. Another entry on my 'List of Animals I Have Seen'.
Anyway, that about wraps up Victoria and this issue too. Next up I headed to Tofino on the west coast where I saw even more wildlife, and I must confess it was even better. For that however you will have to sit patiently and await part 3.
David.