Iconic Views

It's one of the things about being a tourist, that you fee that you have to see the views in the brochures in order to feel that you have done the job properly and really have appreciated what the country has to offer.  With this in mind we went on a boat trip along Maligne Lake - so called, we believe, because the horse of a French priest who was one of the first to travel through the country, slipped and was injured while crossing the river which he felt was malign.

The scenery was dramatic on all sides and a large number of photographs were taken by a small number of people.  On the left of this picture is the biggest lump of rock I have ever seen.  At the end of the lake, the boat pulled in to the side to allow us to disembark and take photos, and so a lot more Picts were taken.  This one was taken before a young couple walked onto spirit island to collect their canoe and paddle back down the not inconsiderable length of the lake.

Imagine the frustration of some of the other members of the trip who had to take their photos with these inconsiderate people contaminating the foreground, although the young offenders had had the consideration to park their canoe on the far side of the island where it was out of shot.

So we can now relax as we have the iconic image, but the difficulty here is that there are views of mountains and water everywhere – so much so that we are perhaps beginning to suffer from scenic indigestion.  As long as the sun shines, there are scenes like this everywhere.

The First Nations

A significant part of Canada's history involves the culture of the First Nations.  There are many things about the first nations' way of life and living which are very similar to those of the Maori in NZ. They are being preserved, but because this is such a big country and there were so many tribes with different languages, preservation is a much more challenging issue which is not helped by the fact that much of what is known comes from an oral tradition.  The continuation of some of the cultural traditions is an important part of some people's lives.

These are prayer ties which are to be found on Aspen trees in part of one of the Reservations to the south of Jasper.  In many ways they are the equivalent to leaving a candle burning in a church.  These have been there for some time.  Blue represents the air, yellow - the sun, green - the earth and white - the air.

This structure was recently built for the Sun Dance ceremony which can be held over up to 4 days in the course of which a lodge like this is built.  It is a very intricate structure, but all the timbers are simply laid in place after being cut.  Old structures from previous years still, stand - without the ties required by Health and Safety.  

One of the interesting things to discover about the plants is that these Aspen trees are all connected to the same root system and that they are therefore all part of one big plant.  They provide the timber for the construction of the lodges and tepees, and being one root system, the plant continues to grow.

The Wilderness

It's all very well saying that you want to off the beaten track, but the harsh reality of being in one of the underpopulated parts of the world like this is that you are literally out of touch.  The reason that there is so much wildlife to see is that there is nobody here.  The small exception to that may be the arterial roads a d their junctions, but, given that the road from Jasper to Banff is a tourist highway, you can drive a surprising distance without seeing another vehicle.  Email and mobile phones are useless: you are better off shouting!  On the other hand there is the positive side: you can see birds like ravens:

If You use the more traditional canoe for transport, then you might easily come across a couple of beaver even although they don't want to look at the camera.

And in some places you find that people have humming bird feeders:

so the fact that Facebook or email are not there to distract you is not really noticed.

Friends in High Places

For the average tourist, complete with walking boots and a pole, it is not difficult to gain the heights above Jasper - a town of about 5,000 which has not really grown at all in the last 20 years as it is in the middle of a National Park and land is not made available for the development of housing.  All you need to do is to get into the tram (!) which will then whisk you to the top of the mountain.  After that, the intrepid traveller can climb a few more hundred feet to the top.

From here, the views are stunning and the Rockies are rockier.  You can look back to the west and see that, 50 miles away, the peak of Mount Robson is still in the clouds!

Closer at hand, you are spoilt for choice.  The mountains are everywhere, with cornices on the rocky peaks ready to break off when the climatic conditions tell them to and plunge thousands of feet down the rock faces.

Serious Scenery

The Rockies just got rockier.  It would appear that this is where it starts to get serious!  This is Mount Robson which is the highest point in the Rockies.  Apparently the top is only free of cloud for about seven days in the year - and today isn't one of them.  However, we should perhaps be thankful that we can see as much as we can as there is thunder and a storm is forecast.  The is a short glacier on the face of the mountain which must produce some spectacular icefall.

Moving on on the route over to Jasper, the scenery starts to become more dramatic.  It is a thought that Scotland used to look like this - on a smaller scale - until we cut down all the trees!  This is Lake Yellowhead with Yellowhead Mountain behind.

At the foot of the mountain, along the side of the lake, is a railway line which is regularly used by enormous goods trains which plod slowly up the hill.  They are all double headed and travel at a gentle 30mph as they seem to be about half a mile long and defy your imagination as they keep relentlessly up the hill.

We get to the campsite at Jasper where there are all sorts of warnings about rutting elk and assorted bears, but we find that for the moment there is not problem as a year old elk is grazing quite comfortably in the middle of the campsite - ignored by most of the campers.  He will become a teenager and then things might not be so tranquil!

Wildlife

There is an aspect of keeping up with the Jones's on a trip like this.  You start to feel that everyone else has seen a bear, but that for some reason they are choosing to hide from you.  You travel slowly along isolated roads in the hope of catching a glimpse and it seems that the bears have all decided to steer clear.  You then head for the main road and just as you are getting up speed, you come across one of the creatures calmly munching a salad in the ditch about ten feet from the main highway north.

The next lay by has a notice warning of gopher holes, and, being more sociable by nature, Mr and Mrs G pop out to say hello.

There are all sorts of animals which are of the same ancestry as their European counterparts, but somehow or other, they manage to look a bit different - smaller or larger.

Clearwater

This is a curious mixture which could probably only happen in North America. The campsite lies between the well manicured fairways of a golf course and the forest where bears roam freely.  Bins are generally bear-proof and there are signs everywhere advising about self preservation in bear territory.  We understand that they wander across the road and hold up the traffic, but so far they have hidden from us.

As you drive up the valley the road changes to become a wide dirt track which goes on for about 24 miles to the end of the trail where further travel to the north is by boat. People used to farm up here, even before there was any road.

Average speed on a road like this is not high with any vehicle, and especially a 6 ton camper van and so there is plenty of time to look out for wildlife.  There is plenty of evidence of interesting wildlife as there are piles of scat of various shapes and sizes at the side of the road. Illustrating the fact that you were too late!  On the other hand there are an assortment of waterfalls and chutes where the clearwater river comes down the valley which are very dramatic.  The Helmecken Falls are one of the highest in Canada.

Settlement

It was a hard life for those who came out west.  The wagon in the picture weighed about one ton and could carry about 3 tons of goods, but only if pulled by a team of horses or oxen.

Travel looks like fun, but the thought of 14 miles between each change of horses in one of these, sitting outside in all weathers, makes the M6 seem more acceptable.

At the end of the journey, there was always the saloon.  Did you know that the shot glass gets its name from the fact that it cost 25 cents - the same as a bullet for a revolver?  When you we served at the bar, you left a shot as a deposit!

The cards didn't have numbers, because most men couldn't read.

Chemainus

This is a small town which had one industry: logging.  And when the lumber mill closed down at the end of the last century, the town had no further employment.  Some enterprising resident had the idea of painting the town's history on the side of the buildings and so a tourist attraction was born.

Here again you find references to the First World War in a far away country, but there is plenty of local information as well.

This shows the work of the lumber yard and the railway which took the finished planking away.  The logs were all floated in by river and that still goes on.

The Paintings are incredibly detailed for outdoor murals, but they are regularly retouched by their original artists.  This one shows the local store which was run by a Chinese man who obviously was into free enterprise and lived long enough to retire to his homeland.  Some 20th century relations with the Chinese and Japanese have not been so cordial.

British Columbia and The Rockies

Today we were told that we would be leaving British Columbia and getting into the Rockies which didn't initially make a lot of sense until we made the journey.  As we started to make the climb from Whistler, we passed through countryside which had mountain grandeur, trees and water flowing in torrents like this landscape.

Then we climbed - slowly in the motorhomes and no doubt causing some frustration to the residents - until we reached another level where we started to come across lakes with glaciers high  in the background.

Then the trees started to disappear and the mountainsides became bare with occasional trees growing in isolated spots while they wait for ice to freeze and split the rock around their roots, leaving them to plunge into the rivers below.  

They're not called The Rockies for nothing!

Co-existence

There are some fairly amazing 'suburbs' in this city.  The majority of hoses are built of wood, so it should not be too surprising to discover that some of them have been built on pontoons which are rated to pontoon streets with pontoon shops.  Some are out from the centre of the city which means that you yacht can be moored at the back door, while others are fairly central like this.

The population is not exclusively human.  There are no stray dogs, but there are harbour seals.

A notice recommends that you should not feed the sea lions or sea otters as they are dangerous.  They didn't seem to present too much of a hazard as we watched them playing on nearby rocks in the twilight yesterday evening - but they were about 200 yards away.  Interesting place this.

Busy Harbour

The camp site in Victoria overlooks the harbour.  There is no real need to set an alarm clock because the harbour is also the local airport with commuting flights to Vancouver and Seattle starting from about 7am.

Crossing the harbour in one of the water taxis is not generally hazardous apart from the fact that they do have to give way to the regular aircraft taking off and landing.  Amidst this bustle of activity there are plenty of other things to be seen if you keep your eyes open.  In the trees opposite the campsite there are bald eagles which come and go to regular perches.

and the are a few otters around as well - but more of them later.

Island Ferry

Well, we have finally picked up our motor homes and they are just as big as we thought they might be. There is so much space that things get lost! There is so much space that it is a problem keeping the vehicle in one lane!  Things may get better, but so far it is not exactly a relaxing vehicle to drive - or be passenger in (I am told)

The crossing from Vancouver to Vancouver Island looked as if It would be quite an ordinary voyage and so we went to have something to eat.  About 30 minutes out, the ship started to use its bow thrusters which was a bit disconcerting!  On going outside, we found that we we going through a VERY narrow channel called Active Pass.  This is the vessel going the other way and disappearing round the bend.

In Chinatown

One of the things that strikes you as you walk the streets of Vancouver is the multi-cultural society.  It is not the same as the UK, as the majority of the non-european immigrants here are oriental and they will probably soon constitute the majority of the population.

So it should not Be surprising to come across a classical Chinese garden in the middle of the city.  It is quite unusual and possibly the only one of its type in the world outside of China where everything is balanced with the Yin and Yang.

It is a remarkably peaceful spot in the centre of a bustling city where you feel that you are away from it all and transported to another dimension.  Dashed cunning . . 

Regeneration

We took a bus out of town today to the local Botanical Gardens which are located beside the University of British Columbia.  The campus is impressive with loads of green space.

The forest is interesting as you keep coming across nursing trees.  They are the stumps of trees which were felled decades ago and into whose decaying timber seeds took root.  As the new young tree starts its growth three or four feet from the forest floor and puts roots into the stump, the stump slowly rots end exposes the root growth leaving amazing contortions of tree root which has still found its way to the ground.  This has been going on for a long time and so there are all sorts of stages of this process on view. 

Under these roots are the remains of a stump which was left about a century ago - and the stump 'nursed' more than one tree.

Vancouver

This is an attractive place to live.  There is all the amenity of a city, but it is spaced out with a lot of residential buildings in the centre, easy access,to the hinterland and less traffic than one might have expected - or maybe it's that it seems to keep moving.  Also they have no trams - but trolley busses!  Float planes like these are overhead all the time.

Like Auckland, there is harbour all around and so there are lots of recreational boats and boatyards, but the old dockyard area has been regenerated to provide an attractive docklands area.

Stanley Park provides a huge green space in the middle of all this which we got around on bicycles and found these Indian totem poles which were reminiscent of Maori art in New Zealand.  Cheery looking lot of faces, aren't they?

Bowen Island

Day one was a 32 hour day, but there were working days that felt even longer!  We arrived at Bowen Island, to the north of Vancouver at about 4.30 local time having got up this morning at 5.30 to get to Heathrow.  The ferry across to the island was just like any ferry on the west coast of Scotland, bringing the children back from a day at school.

However, the weather was better than the west of Scotland generally is today.  It remains to be seen if it will continue to be as enjoyable.