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Week 1, Day 8
Distance 02:35
Up early - shuttle bus from the airport hotel to the International Terminal and the usual fun of going through security, shoe and belt removal, etc.
VIDEO: Departure from San Francisco
I requested the window seat from my long-suffering dearly beloved so I could view and photograph the expanse of the Rockies as we crossed California, Oregon, Washington and across the 49th parallel USA/Canadian border into Alberta.
That worked out well, didn't it?
On descent we were IMC (in thick cloud) to about 300' on final at Calgary. :-(
We were met by the lovely and hospitable Ron and Margaret, and here is where the Canadian part of the adventure starts!
Week 2, Day 9
Calgary
Distance 65kms
A lovely lazy day with our friends Ron & Margaret, spent catching up on the last ten years. It's more like we haven't seen them for 10 months rather than ten years. A small outing was made to a local shopping mall where someone purchased a new suitcase (hoping the luggage gods had been appeased) and someone else got a local SIM card.
This evening we went over to meet their daughters and families for a delicious roast dinner. THANK YOU!!
The snow we encountered on the way home just added a festive touch and showed up the next day as a white crest on the Rocky Mountains to the west.
Week 2, Day 10
Calgary - Drumheller - Calgary
Distance 280kms
This trip was to see a part of the Alberta Badlands, and a dinosaur museum.
First stop was the view out over the badlands. The badlands are usually formed by the deposition of material (normally silt, shale and sand) that is then eroded away, leaving various shapes and visible layers in the landscape. (Geologists may cringe at this simplification - sorry.)
These badlands were just a little damp - nice autumn colouring in the foreground, though
There are badlands through areas across North America. One of the side effects of the erosion is that it can reveal fossils. This was borne out by our next stop at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. We had never heard of it until Ron & Margaret suggested it as part of our trip. We were so glad that they did!
The museum has a mere 130,000 fossils and is located in the middle of the fossil-bearing strata of the Late Cretaceous period (100 to 66 million years ago).
A Couple of Dinosaurs - the right photo showing how it's excavated (click to enlarge)
You can't fault their informative signposting throughout the building
More dinosaur photos
The displays and presentation were brilliant, and I apologise for not jotting down all the names of the various species. We stayed for two hours and only scratched the surface of what was on offer.
Week 2, Day 11
Distance 350kms
Ron & Margaret are in the process of moving out of Calgary to their place at Tie Lake, so we went in convoy on the first road stage of our Canadian trip. By a quirk of fate, Ron knew of a Lancaster housed in the Bomber Command Museum of Canada that just happened to be on (or just off) our route at the village of Nanton. What a surprise! Nanton had been a training base for the RCAF during WW II.
DeHavilland Tiger Moth w/canopy
Avro Lancaster Mk X
Gate Guardians: Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck & Lockheed/Canadair T-33
We spent about an hour here - far too short a time for aircraft nuts, but we had to get back on the road to Tie Lake.
Next stop was Frank Slide. This had nothing to do with Mrs Slide's son, Frank. It is the site of a huge land slide that happened in 1903.
Frank Slide - photo doesn't convey the sheer scale of this landslide (Hwy 3 is at far left)
At 4:10am on April 22nd, 1903, 90 million tons (30 million cubic metres) of limestone slid off the mountain, wiping out part of the coal mining town of Frank, cutting the Canadian Pacific rail line, blocking the river and also destroying the coal mine. It is estimated that the slide was 1km wide, nearly half a km high and was 150m deep. A lot of rocks ended up on the other side of the valley where they remain to this day. The noise was heard up to 200kms away.
There are a number of remarkable survival stories, some of which can be read at <here>.
After lunch we continued on to Ron & Margaret's place at Tie Lake. There are some beautiful lakes around western Canada, and this is certainly one of them.
After unpacking, we wandered down by the lake.
Tie Lake - instant postcard scenery
Week 2, Day 12
Distance 327kms
We're now off on our own, without our lovely helpful tour guides. :-) However they had suggested that we eschew the main highway for part of the journey and travel up the side of Kootenay Lake and then take the ferry at the head of the lake.
Kuskanook Harbour, Kootenay Lake
Canadians seem to be as enthusiastic about their great outdoors as Australians are. This was one of a number of small marinas we saw. We had lunch overlooking the lake before proceeding on to the ferry.
Ferry, 'cross the Mersey Kootenay Lake ('Osprey 2000')
The number of '5th wheel' and normal caravans towed by large 4x4 'trucks' was amazing.
Juvenile Osprey near its nest, watching the 'Osprey 2000' ferry leave.
Today's destination was a B&B near Castlegar. It had gained very high ratings on Trip Advisor, so we decided to give it a try. We weren't disappointed. We were met by Marc, our host, and made very welcome.
Windborne B&B, Castlegar, BC
Week 2, Day 13
Distance 227kms
Marc cooked up a wonderful breakfast of yoghurt and fruit, candied salmon omelette, toast and coffee. Mmmmmm!
Feeling appropriately set up for the day, we set out for Osoyoos. We'd been a little worried about this leg as not far across the USA/Canada border, forest fires had been burning out of control and the road had been closed for a short time a few days previously. However, there were no reports of anything en-route, so we set off.
We were following (mostly) the Crowsnest Highway. This parallels the US border and we noticed lots of signs to 'US Border - Hours 9am - 5pm'. Wonder what happens if you get stuck on the wrong side?
Canada has 'B Doubles' too.
Some of the gradients on the main highway were quite steep. This one was about 9%, but we've seen them up to 17% (or about 1 in 6)!
Christina Lake
Just magic - below the level of the road, there were a couple of rows of houses facing the lake. Must be hard to wake up to a view like that every day...
To take the gloss off the lovely views above, about 50kms from Osoyoos we drove through the small village of Rock Creek. It reminded us so much of the devastated towns in SE Tasmania we went through about 2 years ago. No photos, but there were over 30 homes destroyed and the scars on the landscape were all too obvious.
Osoyoos on the lake with a couple of bush fires in the hills
As we were a little early to check into our hotel, we had to find a way to spend an hour or so. Funnily enough, I had researched just such a location in the outskirts of Osoyoos - it was a model railway exhibition. How lucky was Sue that I'd found this?
This is about a quarter of the total display
As a former model train nut, I was in awe of the amount of work that had gone into this setup. It's the product of 14 year's work by an Austrian couple and their daughter and son-in-law.
Week 2, Day 14
Distance 401kms
Early morning view from our room - Osoyoos
The smoke from yesterday's fires had mainly dissipated and just hung low to the hills. Off to the big smoke (Vancouver) today and its presumably big-smoke-sized traffic.
We stopped for lunch at a National Park just off the highway.
Camp site #56
Note the thickness of the picnic table! I guess they have timber coming out their ears. There is sufficient space here for your average 5th wheeler and Ford F250 with room to spare. Fire pit available when fires are allowed (not when we were there due to the drought). This site will set you back $23/night (but only $11.50 for seniors out of high season). Long drop toilets about 20m away next to the bear-proof rubbish bins.
We arrived in Vancouver at about 4pm. The traffic was as one would imagine for a city of ~2.5 million. Our GPS, Charlotte, thoughtfully took us right through the centre of the CBD. It wasn't really her fault as our hotel was near Stanley Park, and the centre of town was about the only way for a non-local to get there. To say we were pleased to reach our accommodation unscathed would be an understatement!
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