Calgary/Banff - Supercool! (freezing even!)
(ooooh.. it's a big one!!! I haven't been writing down any of the stuff I've been doing on this trip because I've been so busy. This blog entry is a monster because it's kind of a diary to myself of what I've done as these last few days have just been jam packed! So settle yourselves in. As always, photos have to wait till I get back to London)
The last five days have been an absolute blast! I've just flown back into Vancouver this morning and am a complete wreck (we haven't had a lot of sleep lately). We've finally snagged an unlucky day as the weather here at the moment is shocking (super windy and raining all day) with some huge storm expected to hit the city at 2am tomorrow morning. Michelle and I are taking advantage of the situation and actually sitting down and relaxing in a net cafe (ok, and checking on stuff to do over the next few days).
We arrived in Calgary quite late last Thursday evening, and we're greeted by a cheerful lady holding a sign reading 'Brett and Michelle'. It turns out that their mum's friend (who was putting us up in his apartment) couldn't make it and so had sent a friend to get us. It turned out John (the dude with the apartment) was calling in to work (he's a pilot) so his friend just drove us to his place and let us in. None of us had met John before, and yet, here was are standing in his apartment!! It was really bizarre! The thing was, all the beds had a pile of little towels on the ends, folder into fans! bottles of water next to them etc.. the whole place was immaculate. It was almost SO perfect, we started to worry! After a little bit of deduction, we worked out that it was a fully serviced apartment and John had simply asked the housekeepers to set up beds etc for us. Whew, he wasn't a weirdo Canadian/UK pilot murdering neat-freak!
After a really good sleep, we surfaced late the next day just in time for John to get home around noon. He made quite a first impression, sauntering in the door with a massive sombrero on. Apparently he'd had to fly to Mexico, and it was all very stressful sitting on the beach having a drink or two between shifts.... We all quickly warmed to him however, he's a cool guy, and shortly afterwards he took us for a bit of a cruise around the city as an introduction.
The main city centre is actually quite small and there are pieces of urban art (like sculptures etc) everywhere, I was really impressed. All of the major buildings are connected with covered walkways and in the upper floor of one of the major malls there's even a full tropical garden. That was pretty cool to walk around. After that we headed to a favourite restaurant of John's called 'The Keg'. It was a mega busy steakhouse which really lived up to the reputation. I ordered a 14oz steak (one massive hunk of meat) and it was bloody superb - the meat barely needed pressure to cut it was so tender! After everything I waddled out feeling extremely carnivorous and satisfied. John then took us to a favourite cowboy bar of his called 'Ranchers' (I think that's the spelling). It was hilarious! People really do walk around in cowboy hats and flannel type shirts, they even squaredance! We had a couple of beers and checked the place out, but as we were quite tired we eventually headed back to the apartment for relax/crash after deciding that tomorrow we'd go skiing.
Friday morning we got up nice and early and headed towards the Sunshine Ski Resort. It's near a town called Banff (which is approximately 1.5 hours away from Calgary) and has is John's favourite resort in the area. We found out on the way there that it was the last weekend of school break and when we arrived, it was super crowded! The drive to the resort is amazing though, you go from cruising over flat plains and seeing moutains in the distance, to the mountains just getting bigger and bigger, until you are driving between them as they tower over you. The sense of size is just scary as they just seem to continue to grow a you approach and I've never really seen anything like it (the Austrian alps are big, but I've never approached in quite the same way).
Back to the skiing/boarding. I'll try not to exaggerate when I talk about it, but MAN IT WAS THE BEST BOARDING I'VE EVER DONE! Seriously, like the best best best snow ever.... The West Coast of Canada has been getting record snow falls so far this season, and the entire two mountainsides of Sunshine were just COVERED in super soft snowy powder. Boarding in it was totally weird at first, it feels so different, but after a run or two you just feel SO cool about it, the soft snow gives you awesome control and you can just grip with the board much more easily.. it's brilliant! The other bonus is that for someone like me who's all about learning to jump off anything he can find, falling over really doesn't hurt very much as the soft snow absorbs the impact (my bum was thanking me).
By the end of the day I was throwing myself off just about anything. A lot of the runs at Sunshine are reasonably long, but almost all have trees etc somewhere on them which are great sources for jumps (the snow piles up between them etc). There were also a number of places where snow had packed up almost like a sand dune and so after coming over the crest, there was a big dropoff on the other side (some of them were like 6 foot drops). One of the main challenges I've been trying to do is jump or go off a dropoff and land 180 degrees. I managed a couple during the day and was totally happy. But by far the best thing was a straight jump I took towards the end of the day. I really launched off the jump and because I had speed, flew a long way before perfectly landing it in the soft powder. It felt _SO_ amazingly good I gave a little 'wohoo' as I landed and I even managed to get a 'Whoah!' out of Brettski as I sailed past, so it MUST have looked awesome!!! *strut* Yup folks, snowboarding rocks!
Now that my head is massive, I will try to delfate it by telling you that at numerous times during the day I went the proverbial 'ass over tit'. I even managed to properly finish off the wrist guard that snapped in Quebec by snapping the other part of it late in the afternoon. As I didn't fall anywhere near as heavily as I did in Quebec, we figured that the guards couldn't handle the cold temps (it was -15 or something on the slopes) and so got brittle. Powdery snow can also make things very diffcult as you can be cruising along, when suddenly the board can just sink into a powder depression you're up to your waist in snow (or if you wipe out, you're head deep in it). It does take a LOT of effort to get out of that stuff! Brett had an awesome wipeout late in the day when he sunk right up to his chest (he skis, so it's even harder to do this) in the powder. One ski snapped off in the process and Brett then had to go digging in the snow to find it.. it was hilarious as we honestly thought it might be gone!
One of the other amazing things that happened to me during the day was that I was caught in my first whiteout/snow blizzard. The winds had been getting stronger all day and late in the afternoon at times you could literally see them coming as they whipped down the mountain picking up snow like a wave as it advanced. It's quite spectacular to see it coming at you and at times it had picked up so much snow you literally couldn't see what you were boarding on (yeah, you can't see the snow under your feet!) - i.e. whether there's a dip or rise etc coming up. It is a very freaky experience as just just have to ride and trust the board to keep going under your feet.
However the worst white-out incident happened in the middle of one run where I had stopped to speak to Brettski before tackling a jump. Brett sailed over the jump and just as I was about to go, suddenly the world just went completely white. Somehow I was caught right in the middle of a snow tornado/willy willy type thing and I literally couldn't see ANYTHING! Brett said he turned back after going over the jump (so he was less than 20 meters away) and he couldn't see me anymore! I could barely see my board in the snow (on my feet), or my own gloves etc and the snow whips around so much the goggles get pelted by a little sea of white flecks so you are totally blind.. If that is a taste of what a real snow blizzard is like, count me freakin out! It was really quite scary and thank goodness I wasn't actually moving at the time (as to the left of the jump and just past it were trees and you had to veer to the right).
After all that I boarded out the day without any serious injuries. John took us into Banff for a quick beer after the resort closed before we heded back to Calgary to meet up with Damo and Zac who had just flown in from New York. On the way we were trying to think of a place to go for dinner, and finally it was agreed - we're off to Hooters!!! (I made a call, I just _had_ to do it for kicks). Damo and Zac eventually woosed out of dinner, and man did they miss out! Let me just say that Hooters is bloody shocking. I mean REALLY shocking. The food really isn't even food, it's deep fried roadkill/cardboard/i-can't-believe-it's-not-roadkill type stuff which is just not good. The waitresses also aren't exactly the brightest bunch in the word, so it is nice to know that all my preconceived notions regarding their 'recruiting policies' were spot on. But I guess in that department things really aren't too bad, so I do recommend that guys should at least go there once, just for the experience. I couldn't resist getting a picture with all the ladies ... (yup, all of the chicks are certainly 'out there' with the cleavage, it's a pity they're not exactly stunners).... Oh, and the Koala is called Zac, he's Michelle's Aussie mascot who's been travelling with her for the last nine months. OH I just remembered something else, this really sums it all up, the Hooters advertising slogan is "delightfully tacky, yet unrefined"... I couldn't have said it better myself.
After Hooters, we decided that we'd go and hit Ranchers properly! Yup, we got pissed! I met quite a few interesting people in there but I couldn't manage to get myself one of those 'Stetson' cowboy hats off anyone (except a barmaid temporarily - see photo). I did meet a bunch of cheerleaders though, so here's a photo... they were hilarious, "Hooray for everything!... yay!" :) John was the devil of the night as he maliciously got us plastered with tequila shots, it was NASTY!
Sunday morning things moved VERY slowly. We managed to eventually get into town to hire a car, then get Damo and Zac from their accomodation in the suburbs, then head towards Banff. We didn't get there till quite late in the afternoon and even once we were there, things still moved slowly. Unfortunately Brett and Michelle were really feeling the bad side of the previous night so we didn't really get much done. We did have a look around town, book some trekking and stuff for the next day before heading out and finding the hot springs near town. A sort of swimming pool has been built which is fed from the spring where the water is almost 40 degrees. No one had bathers though (and Brett and Michelle were in the car feeling evil) so we didn't go in (we later found out we could have hired them, but oh well). Given the activites scheduled for the next day, we then headed back to Clagary for dinner (some NASTY NASTY chinese) and a semi-early night.
The activities we'd arranged for Monday were the Grotto Canyon River Hike and Husky Dog Sledding. The hike pickup was in Banff at 9am, so that meant we had to be up at about 5:30am in Calgary to give us time to get the guys, then get to Banff. It was an early start, but the drive was really good as there was hardly anyone on the roads, so I could just speed like mad.
The trek itself is amazing. We got driven out to a dry river (I'll explain later) which has now frozen over in the winter. You also given spiked soles which strap onto your shoes to give you grip, and then you just walk up it! It the summer, the river is 'dry' because the water actually flows underneath the ground in the rock. In the winter as the ground freezes, the holes etc in the rock get filled up, and the water starts to get forced up to the surface. This then freezes, and so a dry river somehow has an ice covering - pretty neat eh! The climb itself is quite amazing and you get to see the rock formations, learn about wildlife from the guide, literally see sections of ice where just below the surface water is moving, or air bubbles are trapped (the ice cracks as you walk on it), see some native rock paintings and then right at the end, see a frozen waterfall. Now that is REALLY impressive. People apparently often climb the ice pillars and just as we left, two guys appeared with climbing gear but we couldn't stay to watch.
Damo decided to uphold the Aussie stupidity image by sliding down the thing on his stomach... here's some pics of it all. Overall, the experience was totally unique and therefore, totally awesome. Our guide also gave us a really handy warning about upcoming weather. Apparently a cold snap was coming to Banff and it was expected that the temperature on Thursday would be -28degrees... thank goodness we were leaving!
After lunch we had also arranged to go on a husky sledding trail. This too was a totally unique experience as we got to help saddle up the dogs, connect them to the sled, drive the sled while it was going while talking to our guide the whole time (Joel was a young guy, very cool) as we swished along the forest trails. I must say it wasn't as quick as I'd thought it would be (but there were two massive aussie dudes and Michelle in the sled, plus the driver to pull) but it really made you aware of the stupidly difficult time people used to have moving around and living in the mountains. Just getting supplies anywhere would have been a long and arduous task.
The best bit of the sledding though was the frozen lake they took us to. Without a guide, there's no WAY I'd ever set food on any frozen water body as you just don't know what the ice thickness etc is. The lake they took us to had ice over a foot thick (according to the guides) and we literally walked straight out to the middle of it. In certain patches the ice is totally clear and you feel like you are literally standing on NOTHING over this inky black, freezing cold water. You can't help but think in your head - "what the hell am I going to do if this breaks!". After starting a little timidly, soon we were all running around sliding on the slick patches, it was awesome. There was even an ice fishing shack out there on the ice which had been blown over for us to check out. One intersting fact from the guides - apparently you only need four inches of ice on top of water and you can drive a car on it! It's that strong!
Sledding took a few hours, so by the time we got back, helped unhitch and feed the dogs etc then get driven back into Banff, it was past 7pm. We grabbed a quick beer and met up with John and his mate Monkey (Steven really) before heading back to the Hot Springs we'd been to the previous night - we'd all brought our bathers this time. After a LONG day in the cold (it got really cold in the afternoon), sinking into 38 degree water was just heaven. We soaked and soeaked for hours, and it was amazing (something about being able to climb out of a hot pool and grab some snow is just weird!). I did a bit of an experiment, and by standing up out of the water, my hair actually froze on my head (icicles were in it and everything) bit I was warm because of the water. We also amused ourselves and a few other patrons by using Damo's waterproof camera to take group photos underwater, they were very cool I thought (well, I took the first one, in the second some lady took the picture and I'm almost cut out in the bottom left corner).
Eventually the 'prune-quotient' was reached and we decided we had to get going, people were kinda hungry too after a LONG day of activity. So we headed back into Banff to a nice pub and had one last civilised dinner together (ok, semi-civilised because Damo dragged everyone down). It was really nice but a little sad as I realised that it was the last meal with everyone on the trip, and things were coming to a close. Sniff....
By the time we all finished up, it was nearly midnight and we still had to drive back to Calgary. It was past 2am before we eventually dropped Damo and Zac off (Bye guys!) and made it back to John's apartment. As our flight was at 7:45am, we had to be up at 5:30am to be at the airport by 6:30ish, which was just a bad idea to contemplate. Sure enough when the alarm went off at 5:30am, I wanted to smash it! The final kick in the pants was that the flight here to Vancouver was really bumpy. The bad weather made the landing really pretty rough, and one lady on the plane was freaking out a little (apparently just repeating "oh my god, oh my god...").
Brettski isn't staying in Vancouver with Michelle and I, he's already started the journey home this afternoon. *sniff* Cya Brettski! (was awesome hanging with you and the boys again!)
Rather than waste a day feeling tired, Michelle and I headed to the Vancouver Aquarium this afternoon. I heard somewhere it's one of the largest in the Northern USA/Canada or whatever, and it is pretty cool. The best thing is that they do lots of shows with Dolphins, Otters, Sea Lions and even Beluga Whales. I've got a lot of photos of the animals but they don't really look that good as it was hard to get good shots. The weather was already getting nasty at that stage and although it was quite warm when we left the hostel at midday (like positive 9 degrees or something), the wind was howling along and freezing us right through our clothes.
Just as I was writing this earlier it started absolutely belting down with snow. Massive fat flakes (biggest I've ever seen) which fully smacked onto my head and face as I stood outside watching them - I had to go out there. And yeah, you can catch them on your tongue! Then suddenly, it just stopped. I think we're in for a strange night with the weather.
I think that's enough of a novel for the moment. Hopefully the weather will fine up a little for the last few days of the trip, but it has been on amazing experience. While sometimes I feel homesick for the warm, sunny beaches of Perth, every so often (liek the snow tonight) I am reminded of the really amazing stuff that is out there in the world, and I really want to go and see it!
Cya's round. Thanks to all of those who came all the way from Aus, it was amazing catching up again so please continue to keep in touch. My trip is almost over! - "Canadia eh?? what's all that aboot?"
Anka
The last five days have been an absolute blast! I've just flown back into Vancouver this morning and am a complete wreck (we haven't had a lot of sleep lately). We've finally snagged an unlucky day as the weather here at the moment is shocking (super windy and raining all day) with some huge storm expected to hit the city at 2am tomorrow morning. Michelle and I are taking advantage of the situation and actually sitting down and relaxing in a net cafe (ok, and checking on stuff to do over the next few days).
We arrived in Calgary quite late last Thursday evening, and we're greeted by a cheerful lady holding a sign reading 'Brett and Michelle'. It turns out that their mum's friend (who was putting us up in his apartment) couldn't make it and so had sent a friend to get us. It turned out John (the dude with the apartment) was calling in to work (he's a pilot) so his friend just drove us to his place and let us in. None of us had met John before, and yet, here was are standing in his apartment!! It was really bizarre! The thing was, all the beds had a pile of little towels on the ends, folder into fans! bottles of water next to them etc.. the whole place was immaculate. It was almost SO perfect, we started to worry! After a little bit of deduction, we worked out that it was a fully serviced apartment and John had simply asked the housekeepers to set up beds etc for us. Whew, he wasn't a weirdo Canadian/UK pilot murdering neat-freak!
After a really good sleep, we surfaced late the next day just in time for John to get home around noon. He made quite a first impression, sauntering in the door with a massive sombrero on. Apparently he'd had to fly to Mexico, and it was all very stressful sitting on the beach having a drink or two between shifts.... We all quickly warmed to him however, he's a cool guy, and shortly afterwards he took us for a bit of a cruise around the city as an introduction.
The main city centre is actually quite small and there are pieces of urban art (like sculptures etc) everywhere, I was really impressed. All of the major buildings are connected with covered walkways and in the upper floor of one of the major malls there's even a full tropical garden. That was pretty cool to walk around. After that we headed to a favourite restaurant of John's called 'The Keg'. It was a mega busy steakhouse which really lived up to the reputation. I ordered a 14oz steak (one massive hunk of meat) and it was bloody superb - the meat barely needed pressure to cut it was so tender! After everything I waddled out feeling extremely carnivorous and satisfied. John then took us to a favourite cowboy bar of his called 'Ranchers' (I think that's the spelling). It was hilarious! People really do walk around in cowboy hats and flannel type shirts, they even squaredance! We had a couple of beers and checked the place out, but as we were quite tired we eventually headed back to the apartment for relax/crash after deciding that tomorrow we'd go skiing.
Friday morning we got up nice and early and headed towards the Sunshine Ski Resort. It's near a town called Banff (which is approximately 1.5 hours away from Calgary) and has is John's favourite resort in the area. We found out on the way there that it was the last weekend of school break and when we arrived, it was super crowded! The drive to the resort is amazing though, you go from cruising over flat plains and seeing moutains in the distance, to the mountains just getting bigger and bigger, until you are driving between them as they tower over you. The sense of size is just scary as they just seem to continue to grow a you approach and I've never really seen anything like it (the Austrian alps are big, but I've never approached in quite the same way).
Back to the skiing/boarding. I'll try not to exaggerate when I talk about it, but MAN IT WAS THE BEST BOARDING I'VE EVER DONE! Seriously, like the best best best snow ever.... The West Coast of Canada has been getting record snow falls so far this season, and the entire two mountainsides of Sunshine were just COVERED in super soft snowy powder. Boarding in it was totally weird at first, it feels so different, but after a run or two you just feel SO cool about it, the soft snow gives you awesome control and you can just grip with the board much more easily.. it's brilliant! The other bonus is that for someone like me who's all about learning to jump off anything he can find, falling over really doesn't hurt very much as the soft snow absorbs the impact (my bum was thanking me).
By the end of the day I was throwing myself off just about anything. A lot of the runs at Sunshine are reasonably long, but almost all have trees etc somewhere on them which are great sources for jumps (the snow piles up between them etc). There were also a number of places where snow had packed up almost like a sand dune and so after coming over the crest, there was a big dropoff on the other side (some of them were like 6 foot drops). One of the main challenges I've been trying to do is jump or go off a dropoff and land 180 degrees. I managed a couple during the day and was totally happy. But by far the best thing was a straight jump I took towards the end of the day. I really launched off the jump and because I had speed, flew a long way before perfectly landing it in the soft powder. It felt _SO_ amazingly good I gave a little 'wohoo' as I landed and I even managed to get a 'Whoah!' out of Brettski as I sailed past, so it MUST have looked awesome!!! *strut* Yup folks, snowboarding rocks!
Now that my head is massive, I will try to delfate it by telling you that at numerous times during the day I went the proverbial 'ass over tit'. I even managed to properly finish off the wrist guard that snapped in Quebec by snapping the other part of it late in the afternoon. As I didn't fall anywhere near as heavily as I did in Quebec, we figured that the guards couldn't handle the cold temps (it was -15 or something on the slopes) and so got brittle. Powdery snow can also make things very diffcult as you can be cruising along, when suddenly the board can just sink into a powder depression you're up to your waist in snow (or if you wipe out, you're head deep in it). It does take a LOT of effort to get out of that stuff! Brett had an awesome wipeout late in the day when he sunk right up to his chest (he skis, so it's even harder to do this) in the powder. One ski snapped off in the process and Brett then had to go digging in the snow to find it.. it was hilarious as we honestly thought it might be gone!
One of the other amazing things that happened to me during the day was that I was caught in my first whiteout/snow blizzard. The winds had been getting stronger all day and late in the afternoon at times you could literally see them coming as they whipped down the mountain picking up snow like a wave as it advanced. It's quite spectacular to see it coming at you and at times it had picked up so much snow you literally couldn't see what you were boarding on (yeah, you can't see the snow under your feet!) - i.e. whether there's a dip or rise etc coming up. It is a very freaky experience as just just have to ride and trust the board to keep going under your feet.
However the worst white-out incident happened in the middle of one run where I had stopped to speak to Brettski before tackling a jump. Brett sailed over the jump and just as I was about to go, suddenly the world just went completely white. Somehow I was caught right in the middle of a snow tornado/willy willy type thing and I literally couldn't see ANYTHING! Brett said he turned back after going over the jump (so he was less than 20 meters away) and he couldn't see me anymore! I could barely see my board in the snow (on my feet), or my own gloves etc and the snow whips around so much the goggles get pelted by a little sea of white flecks so you are totally blind.. If that is a taste of what a real snow blizzard is like, count me freakin out! It was really quite scary and thank goodness I wasn't actually moving at the time (as to the left of the jump and just past it were trees and you had to veer to the right).
After all that I boarded out the day without any serious injuries. John took us into Banff for a quick beer after the resort closed before we heded back to Calgary to meet up with Damo and Zac who had just flown in from New York. On the way we were trying to think of a place to go for dinner, and finally it was agreed - we're off to Hooters!!! (I made a call, I just _had_ to do it for kicks). Damo and Zac eventually woosed out of dinner, and man did they miss out! Let me just say that Hooters is bloody shocking. I mean REALLY shocking. The food really isn't even food, it's deep fried roadkill/cardboard/i-can't-believe-it's-not-roadkill type stuff which is just not good. The waitresses also aren't exactly the brightest bunch in the word, so it is nice to know that all my preconceived notions regarding their 'recruiting policies' were spot on. But I guess in that department things really aren't too bad, so I do recommend that guys should at least go there once, just for the experience. I couldn't resist getting a picture with all the ladies ... (yup, all of the chicks are certainly 'out there' with the cleavage, it's a pity they're not exactly stunners).... Oh, and the Koala is called Zac, he's Michelle's Aussie mascot who's been travelling with her for the last nine months. OH I just remembered something else, this really sums it all up, the Hooters advertising slogan is "delightfully tacky, yet unrefined"... I couldn't have said it better myself.
After Hooters, we decided that we'd go and hit Ranchers properly! Yup, we got pissed! I met quite a few interesting people in there but I couldn't manage to get myself one of those 'Stetson' cowboy hats off anyone (except a barmaid temporarily - see photo). I did meet a bunch of cheerleaders though, so here's a photo... they were hilarious, "Hooray for everything!... yay!" :) John was the devil of the night as he maliciously got us plastered with tequila shots, it was NASTY!
Sunday morning things moved VERY slowly. We managed to eventually get into town to hire a car, then get Damo and Zac from their accomodation in the suburbs, then head towards Banff. We didn't get there till quite late in the afternoon and even once we were there, things still moved slowly. Unfortunately Brett and Michelle were really feeling the bad side of the previous night so we didn't really get much done. We did have a look around town, book some trekking and stuff for the next day before heading out and finding the hot springs near town. A sort of swimming pool has been built which is fed from the spring where the water is almost 40 degrees. No one had bathers though (and Brett and Michelle were in the car feeling evil) so we didn't go in (we later found out we could have hired them, but oh well). Given the activites scheduled for the next day, we then headed back to Clagary for dinner (some NASTY NASTY chinese) and a semi-early night.
The activities we'd arranged for Monday were the Grotto Canyon River Hike and Husky Dog Sledding. The hike pickup was in Banff at 9am, so that meant we had to be up at about 5:30am in Calgary to give us time to get the guys, then get to Banff. It was an early start, but the drive was really good as there was hardly anyone on the roads, so I could just speed like mad.
The trek itself is amazing. We got driven out to a dry river (I'll explain later) which has now frozen over in the winter. You also given spiked soles which strap onto your shoes to give you grip, and then you just walk up it! It the summer, the river is 'dry' because the water actually flows underneath the ground in the rock. In the winter as the ground freezes, the holes etc in the rock get filled up, and the water starts to get forced up to the surface. This then freezes, and so a dry river somehow has an ice covering - pretty neat eh! The climb itself is quite amazing and you get to see the rock formations, learn about wildlife from the guide, literally see sections of ice where just below the surface water is moving, or air bubbles are trapped (the ice cracks as you walk on it), see some native rock paintings and then right at the end, see a frozen waterfall. Now that is REALLY impressive. People apparently often climb the ice pillars and just as we left, two guys appeared with climbing gear but we couldn't stay to watch.
Damo decided to uphold the Aussie stupidity image by sliding down the thing on his stomach... here's some pics of it all. Overall, the experience was totally unique and therefore, totally awesome. Our guide also gave us a really handy warning about upcoming weather. Apparently a cold snap was coming to Banff and it was expected that the temperature on Thursday would be -28degrees... thank goodness we were leaving!
After lunch we had also arranged to go on a husky sledding trail. This too was a totally unique experience as we got to help saddle up the dogs, connect them to the sled, drive the sled while it was going while talking to our guide the whole time (Joel was a young guy, very cool) as we swished along the forest trails. I must say it wasn't as quick as I'd thought it would be (but there were two massive aussie dudes and Michelle in the sled, plus the driver to pull) but it really made you aware of the stupidly difficult time people used to have moving around and living in the mountains. Just getting supplies anywhere would have been a long and arduous task.
The best bit of the sledding though was the frozen lake they took us to. Without a guide, there's no WAY I'd ever set food on any frozen water body as you just don't know what the ice thickness etc is. The lake they took us to had ice over a foot thick (according to the guides) and we literally walked straight out to the middle of it. In certain patches the ice is totally clear and you feel like you are literally standing on NOTHING over this inky black, freezing cold water. You can't help but think in your head - "what the hell am I going to do if this breaks!". After starting a little timidly, soon we were all running around sliding on the slick patches, it was awesome. There was even an ice fishing shack out there on the ice which had been blown over for us to check out. One intersting fact from the guides - apparently you only need four inches of ice on top of water and you can drive a car on it! It's that strong!
Sledding took a few hours, so by the time we got back, helped unhitch and feed the dogs etc then get driven back into Banff, it was past 7pm. We grabbed a quick beer and met up with John and his mate Monkey (Steven really) before heading back to the Hot Springs we'd been to the previous night - we'd all brought our bathers this time. After a LONG day in the cold (it got really cold in the afternoon), sinking into 38 degree water was just heaven. We soaked and soeaked for hours, and it was amazing (something about being able to climb out of a hot pool and grab some snow is just weird!). I did a bit of an experiment, and by standing up out of the water, my hair actually froze on my head (icicles were in it and everything) bit I was warm because of the water. We also amused ourselves and a few other patrons by using Damo's waterproof camera to take group photos underwater, they were very cool I thought (well, I took the first one, in the second some lady took the picture and I'm almost cut out in the bottom left corner).
Eventually the 'prune-quotient' was reached and we decided we had to get going, people were kinda hungry too after a LONG day of activity. So we headed back into Banff to a nice pub and had one last civilised dinner together (ok, semi-civilised because Damo dragged everyone down). It was really nice but a little sad as I realised that it was the last meal with everyone on the trip, and things were coming to a close. Sniff....
By the time we all finished up, it was nearly midnight and we still had to drive back to Calgary. It was past 2am before we eventually dropped Damo and Zac off (Bye guys!) and made it back to John's apartment. As our flight was at 7:45am, we had to be up at 5:30am to be at the airport by 6:30ish, which was just a bad idea to contemplate. Sure enough when the alarm went off at 5:30am, I wanted to smash it! The final kick in the pants was that the flight here to Vancouver was really bumpy. The bad weather made the landing really pretty rough, and one lady on the plane was freaking out a little (apparently just repeating "oh my god, oh my god...").
Brettski isn't staying in Vancouver with Michelle and I, he's already started the journey home this afternoon. *sniff* Cya Brettski! (was awesome hanging with you and the boys again!)
Rather than waste a day feeling tired, Michelle and I headed to the Vancouver Aquarium this afternoon. I heard somewhere it's one of the largest in the Northern USA/Canada or whatever, and it is pretty cool. The best thing is that they do lots of shows with Dolphins, Otters, Sea Lions and even Beluga Whales. I've got a lot of photos of the animals but they don't really look that good as it was hard to get good shots. The weather was already getting nasty at that stage and although it was quite warm when we left the hostel at midday (like positive 9 degrees or something), the wind was howling along and freezing us right through our clothes.
Just as I was writing this earlier it started absolutely belting down with snow. Massive fat flakes (biggest I've ever seen) which fully smacked onto my head and face as I stood outside watching them - I had to go out there. And yeah, you can catch them on your tongue! Then suddenly, it just stopped. I think we're in for a strange night with the weather.
I think that's enough of a novel for the moment. Hopefully the weather will fine up a little for the last few days of the trip, but it has been on amazing experience. While sometimes I feel homesick for the warm, sunny beaches of Perth, every so often (liek the snow tonight) I am reminded of the really amazing stuff that is out there in the world, and I really want to go and see it!
Cya's round. Thanks to all of those who came all the way from Aus, it was amazing catching up again so please continue to keep in touch. My trip is almost over! - "Canadia eh?? what's all that aboot?"
Anka
posted by Anthony Hawke at 3:59 am
2 Comments:
Hey Anka,
Glad you made it out to Grotto Canyon for ice hiking. You guys didn't seem to think it was legit when I mentioned it!
Cheers,
Kelli (Ali's housemate).
Too much fun Anka, keep going mate.
slowly getting through your expansive writings well done.
Mosey
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