Well here I am in the comfort of my sisters home in Baie D' Urfe, Montreal, where women cook and men watch sport on TV and I have time to think about our short interlude in the Rockies.
We travelled by Greyhound bus, how iconic is that? They are very comfortable and have really big windows, stop every 2 hours or so and sweep quietly along the excellent Canadian highways. The views from the bus were interesting from the start (7 am Tuesday 12th May) so we were both gazing out of the window the whole time and I dind'nt doze at all, even though it had been an early start.
The Rockies are so craggy and there are so many fir trees on them and great deep ravines with rushing water, waterfalls tumble down mountain sides and so much snow and icy fingers of small glaciers creeping down towards the ribbon of road. Sometimes a valley floor will open out and there is either wonderful alpine meadow type terrain or boggy wetland stuff, sometimes there are broad river beds covered in rocks, fallen trees and gravel beds with a small rushing stream meandering around. It is obvious that come snow melt that little stream becomes a rushing mighty torrent hurling rocks, debris and whole huge trees before its foaming waters. There are also huge lakes of a curious icy blue and the endless trees, taller and closer together than anything you would ever see in Britain.
Because of being on the highway we didn't really pass through towns, but stopped on the outskirts to drop and pick up passengers, we had a nice soup and sandwich in one place and were able to earwig on a Pinteresque, one sided conversation where an older man was loudly alternately harranging or plaintively asking a younger woman why she was going away, she didn't answer and just got up to go and board her bus so I guess she had her reasons!
Our trip lasted from Tuesday to Friday, stopping one night in the tiny and workaday Revelstoke and two nights in the more resort-like Banff. Both towns are laid out on a grid system with huge wide roads and low, mainly two storey buildings. Some of the buildings date from the 1880's and some are more modern. Revelstoke was a goldrush town and they both grew up about the time the railroad was built across Canada. Revelstoke boasts four museums and loads of eating places as well as hardware shops, shops selling snowmobiles and chainsaws and a very small mall. It also has a main street that looks like something out of a wild west film, even more so at the moment because they are digging it up to pedestrianise and so the road is just mud. It was cold on the evening of the 12th and we were glad of our borrowed gloves and I of my thrift store hat and jumper.
We woke up to a sunny morning and were actually quite hot as we waited on the steps of the "Same Sun Backpackers Hostel" for the taxi to take us to the bus stop. Imagine the deep quiet of a small town in the rockies, very few people about and a car passes you about every 5 minutes (cars stop at cross roads for pedestrians to cross, even when the pedestrians are quite a long way from reaching the corner), the view of snow covered mountains all around you and the crisp, clean air faintly scented with pine.
On to Banff, a funny journey, we crossed a time zone line and the driver didn't notice so there was a good deal of confusion about the lenght of time at a stop, he thought we had an hour and some of us knew that we did'nt. At the front of the bus is a notice that instructs not to talk to the driver when the bus is in motion. The very front seat was taken by a very senior lady who was a bit blind, this meant that she couldn't read the notice and she talked to the driver all the way from Revelstoke to Banff, about 4 plus hours, we knew all about her whole history by the time we reached our destination.
The journey took us through more breathtaking scenery, snow storms, clouds, past notices that said "Avelanche Area, no stopping", through tunels and over high bridges . We arrived in Banff on a lovely sunny, but cold afternoon and walked to the YWCA, where we had a very comfortable room and a great place to eat.
Banff is smarter looking than Revelstone and has developed as a resort almost since its foundation. It has lots of mountain equipment stores, jewelry stores, smart boutiques and very expensive places to eat (hence the Y cafeteria being our resturant of choice). It had a powerful advocate in a man called Luxton who moved to Banff in the 1900's to recover from an ill advised 2 man canoe trip across the Pacific. He recovered and never left and became a 'Booster' for the town, married a local and ended up with all sorts of bussiness enterprises and has a whole museum dedicated to him.
We walked about the town, had short walks along trails, went to the museums, ate and drank and had a fantastic ride up to the top of Sulphur Mountain on a cable car. The weather was horrible on Thursday, snow and the mountainds hidden by cloud that played a sort of hide and reveal game with us, one minute you would get a glimpse of a snowy slope or peak and the next it would be obscured and another peak or rocky outcrop would slip into view. It was a bit grey too so though wonderful the veiws did'nt sparkle in the way they do on post cards.
The next day was different, sun out, snow overnight and the sparkle was there, on trees covered with snow and the peaks glistened and all the rocky ourcrops had their strata picked out in gleaming white. It was so bright and the trip up the mountain was breath taking with views that went on for ever.
We went up in the gondolas with crowds of other people, some really dressed up, some in suits, a Mounty in full dress uniform, all sorts of people with Canadian flags, while waiting in line for our gondola we were all serenaded by the high school jazz band. We asked the very statuesque blond dressed in National Parks uniform, whose name was Larie Schwartz, who shared our gondola what was going on and she told us it was a citizenship ceremony for 51 new Canadians, she also told us she was the anthem singer of 'O Canada'. At the top we goggled at the fantasic views, had a coffee and goggled some more and then joined in at the back of the ceremony. It was really quite wonderful, we were'nt there for the whole of it, but we listened to the heartfelt oration of the Judge who had taken the oath from all of the new citizens and then some speaches from local politicians and then Lorrie Schwatz sang the anthem, acappello - well it brought a tear to my eye, all these people from about 30 or so countries all starting new lives. It was a real priveledge to be present.
We went back down the mountain after an hour or two on the top and Brian went for a dip in the acclaimed Banff hot springs bath, I watched because I have a horrible cold (no colds for 2 years at home and this is my 3rd in 4.5 months). He was in the water or lounging on the edge of the pool for about an hour with the occasional snow flurry drifting around him and the other bathers. We spent the rest of the afternoon on a walk by the river to the museum that is on the sight of the origional hot springs pool 'The Cave and Basin Museum'. It is the place where some prospecters found a hole in the ground with steam coming out of it. The water is very sulphurus and the cave really pongs. You can't bathe there any more because it is the home of the tiny and endangered Banff Hot Spring Snail (about the size of a grain of rice). There is a good exhibition of old photos and the story of the development of the national parks, Banff was the first one in 1880 something.
Some funny things happened on our trip, we flooded our room at the YWCA, well it wasn't really our fault. The loo started making funny noises and wouldn't flush properly. We reported it as we went off to breakfast and came back about half an hour later to find them vac sucking about 2 inches of water out of the whole carpeted room. It had also ruined the ceiling of the room below. Two rooms ruined! Goodness knows what had happened but the water must have started flowing again after we had left the room. We had to gather up all our stuff and were moved to a different room. I saw the janitor the next morning and he said 'no leaks today eh?'.
Also I nearly broke the ticket machine on a local bus by feeding my $2.00 piece into the slot made for smartcards, the bus driver was very nice about it, but it was a bit embarrasing as we all sat and waited while he fished it out - all the other passengers looking at me!
Off now to take another decongestant and watch the last of an ice hockey match on the high definition T.V.
Tess
We travelled by Greyhound bus, how iconic is that? They are very comfortable and have really big windows, stop every 2 hours or so and sweep quietly along the excellent Canadian highways. The views from the bus were interesting from the start (7 am Tuesday 12th May) so we were both gazing out of the window the whole time and I dind'nt doze at all, even though it had been an early start.
The Rockies are so craggy and there are so many fir trees on them and great deep ravines with rushing water, waterfalls tumble down mountain sides and so much snow and icy fingers of small glaciers creeping down towards the ribbon of road. Sometimes a valley floor will open out and there is either wonderful alpine meadow type terrain or boggy wetland stuff, sometimes there are broad river beds covered in rocks, fallen trees and gravel beds with a small rushing stream meandering around. It is obvious that come snow melt that little stream becomes a rushing mighty torrent hurling rocks, debris and whole huge trees before its foaming waters. There are also huge lakes of a curious icy blue and the endless trees, taller and closer together than anything you would ever see in Britain.
Because of being on the highway we didn't really pass through towns, but stopped on the outskirts to drop and pick up passengers, we had a nice soup and sandwich in one place and were able to earwig on a Pinteresque, one sided conversation where an older man was loudly alternately harranging or plaintively asking a younger woman why she was going away, she didn't answer and just got up to go and board her bus so I guess she had her reasons!
Our trip lasted from Tuesday to Friday, stopping one night in the tiny and workaday Revelstoke and two nights in the more resort-like Banff. Both towns are laid out on a grid system with huge wide roads and low, mainly two storey buildings. Some of the buildings date from the 1880's and some are more modern. Revelstoke was a goldrush town and they both grew up about the time the railroad was built across Canada. Revelstoke boasts four museums and loads of eating places as well as hardware shops, shops selling snowmobiles and chainsaws and a very small mall. It also has a main street that looks like something out of a wild west film, even more so at the moment because they are digging it up to pedestrianise and so the road is just mud. It was cold on the evening of the 12th and we were glad of our borrowed gloves and I of my thrift store hat and jumper.
We woke up to a sunny morning and were actually quite hot as we waited on the steps of the "Same Sun Backpackers Hostel" for the taxi to take us to the bus stop. Imagine the deep quiet of a small town in the rockies, very few people about and a car passes you about every 5 minutes (cars stop at cross roads for pedestrians to cross, even when the pedestrians are quite a long way from reaching the corner), the view of snow covered mountains all around you and the crisp, clean air faintly scented with pine.
On to Banff, a funny journey, we crossed a time zone line and the driver didn't notice so there was a good deal of confusion about the lenght of time at a stop, he thought we had an hour and some of us knew that we did'nt. At the front of the bus is a notice that instructs not to talk to the driver when the bus is in motion. The very front seat was taken by a very senior lady who was a bit blind, this meant that she couldn't read the notice and she talked to the driver all the way from Revelstoke to Banff, about 4 plus hours, we knew all about her whole history by the time we reached our destination.
The journey took us through more breathtaking scenery, snow storms, clouds, past notices that said "Avelanche Area, no stopping", through tunels and over high bridges . We arrived in Banff on a lovely sunny, but cold afternoon and walked to the YWCA, where we had a very comfortable room and a great place to eat.
Banff is smarter looking than Revelstone and has developed as a resort almost since its foundation. It has lots of mountain equipment stores, jewelry stores, smart boutiques and very expensive places to eat (hence the Y cafeteria being our resturant of choice). It had a powerful advocate in a man called Luxton who moved to Banff in the 1900's to recover from an ill advised 2 man canoe trip across the Pacific. He recovered and never left and became a 'Booster' for the town, married a local and ended up with all sorts of bussiness enterprises and has a whole museum dedicated to him.
We walked about the town, had short walks along trails, went to the museums, ate and drank and had a fantastic ride up to the top of Sulphur Mountain on a cable car. The weather was horrible on Thursday, snow and the mountainds hidden by cloud that played a sort of hide and reveal game with us, one minute you would get a glimpse of a snowy slope or peak and the next it would be obscured and another peak or rocky outcrop would slip into view. It was a bit grey too so though wonderful the veiws did'nt sparkle in the way they do on post cards.
The next day was different, sun out, snow overnight and the sparkle was there, on trees covered with snow and the peaks glistened and all the rocky ourcrops had their strata picked out in gleaming white. It was so bright and the trip up the mountain was breath taking with views that went on for ever.
We went up in the gondolas with crowds of other people, some really dressed up, some in suits, a Mounty in full dress uniform, all sorts of people with Canadian flags, while waiting in line for our gondola we were all serenaded by the high school jazz band. We asked the very statuesque blond dressed in National Parks uniform, whose name was Larie Schwartz, who shared our gondola what was going on and she told us it was a citizenship ceremony for 51 new Canadians, she also told us she was the anthem singer of 'O Canada'. At the top we goggled at the fantasic views, had a coffee and goggled some more and then joined in at the back of the ceremony. It was really quite wonderful, we were'nt there for the whole of it, but we listened to the heartfelt oration of the Judge who had taken the oath from all of the new citizens and then some speaches from local politicians and then Lorrie Schwatz sang the anthem, acappello - well it brought a tear to my eye, all these people from about 30 or so countries all starting new lives. It was a real priveledge to be present.
We went back down the mountain after an hour or two on the top and Brian went for a dip in the acclaimed Banff hot springs bath, I watched because I have a horrible cold (no colds for 2 years at home and this is my 3rd in 4.5 months). He was in the water or lounging on the edge of the pool for about an hour with the occasional snow flurry drifting around him and the other bathers. We spent the rest of the afternoon on a walk by the river to the museum that is on the sight of the origional hot springs pool 'The Cave and Basin Museum'. It is the place where some prospecters found a hole in the ground with steam coming out of it. The water is very sulphurus and the cave really pongs. You can't bathe there any more because it is the home of the tiny and endangered Banff Hot Spring Snail (about the size of a grain of rice). There is a good exhibition of old photos and the story of the development of the national parks, Banff was the first one in 1880 something.
Some funny things happened on our trip, we flooded our room at the YWCA, well it wasn't really our fault. The loo started making funny noises and wouldn't flush properly. We reported it as we went off to breakfast and came back about half an hour later to find them vac sucking about 2 inches of water out of the whole carpeted room. It had also ruined the ceiling of the room below. Two rooms ruined! Goodness knows what had happened but the water must have started flowing again after we had left the room. We had to gather up all our stuff and were moved to a different room. I saw the janitor the next morning and he said 'no leaks today eh?'.
Also I nearly broke the ticket machine on a local bus by feeding my $2.00 piece into the slot made for smartcards, the bus driver was very nice about it, but it was a bit embarrasing as we all sat and waited while he fished it out - all the other passengers looking at me!
Off now to take another decongestant and watch the last of an ice hockey match on the high definition T.V.
Tess
3 comments:
Sounds like a fun trip, great pictures by the way. A bus trip sure has its advantages, no need to worry about the road, you can just stare out of the window the whole ride. Anyways, great reading,
take care, Julie
Hi both - Canada sounds as great as we remember it, and Banff HS as smelly! Wish we were back there. As for the flooded rooms - you do manage to create some (mis)adventures, don't you? Enjoy the remainder of your trip.
PS. Remind me when you get home: I owe you a massive £1.85 in royalties from 101 Ways (2-years' worth) - I suggest you get yourselves a (small) drink to celebrate!!
The scenery is really beautiful. Hope I can visit Canada some day. We Singaporeans go wild when we see real snow.
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