Kat & Marty

We fell from the Canadian skies into the arms of friends. Scotty (Marty's old university friend), picked us up at Vancouver airport and whisked us off home to a true Australian welcome. Cold beer out on the front porch. We stayed with Scotty, his hospitable wife Lyn and their lovely son Sage for the next 3 nights. I am convince Sage, at the ripe age of one, is going to be either a professional stuntsman or a professional climber as his acrobatic abilities were amazing. He climbed everything, including me at one point, with great determination.

On our first morning in Vancouver, Scott dropped us off to Stanley Park. This is a park located on a headland that combines manicured lawns with wild forest. Squirrels bounced about everywhere to our great delight. They are way too fast to catch! We were entertained by small seagulls trying to eat huge starfish and getting stuck with only one starfish leg down their throats. Actually at first I was horrified, but by the time we saw this happen two or three times I began to see the funny side. From Stanley Park we walked down Vancouver's main shopping street, Robson Street. We paused at a deli to get fresh bread, cheese, tomatoes and fruit to picnic on washed down with Rasberry Lemonade. A perfect feast and well needed as from there we still had a lot of walking ahead. If only I knew then...

We caught the seabus from the center of Vancouver over the bay to Grouse Mountain. The seabus is a ferry that takes about 15 minutes to cross. Grouse Mountain is a ski field that overlooks Vancouver. In summer the gondala stills runs ferrying tourists and day-trippers up and down the steep mountain. Or you can walk. The Grouse Grind is basically a staircase of tree roots, rocks and dirt that continues straight, and I mean straight, up for an hour. This day was over 30 degrees celcius so you can imagine the state we were in when we reached the top. Beetroot was too pale a colour to describe the shade of my face. Even Marty's usually composed complexion looked quited flushed. Thankfully, after feasting on left over apples, bananas and mangoes, Marty relented on the punishment being dished out to my legs and bought us tickets down on the gondola. I was happy about this until we started descending and I saw out of the huge glass windows a death inducing drop that we would fall down if anything went wrong. Of course nothing did and by the time we were half way down I was enjoying the view like everyone else. We caught the seabus back and headed on foot through Gastown and Chinatown back to the MacIntyre residence.

After finally turning up dusty and foot worn two hours later than planned to Scott and Lyn's, there was nothing for it but too shower and put on our party clothes. We went to the Sandbar on Granville Island where we ate oysters and I went back to my new favourite fish the Halibut. Marty had salmon. Scott and Lyn thought we had missed out by not ordering the Ahi Tuna which is served almost like sushi with wasabi on the side. It was here I tried my first Ceaser. This is a cocktail made from Clamato Juice (similar to V8), Tabasco Sauce, Vodka and garnished with green beans in a glass rimmed with celery salt and pepper. It nearly knocked my socks off! As Scotty and Lyn were a week from moving to the UK we decided to draw the night out a bit longer. We played pool at the Soho, Lyn's old haunt. Then there was a cranberry martini in a cocktail lounge before heading home and more conversation on the front porch.

In the morning we got up reasonably early and went out to White Pine Beach on a lake shore. We met Julie and Mark, good friends of Lyn and Scott. Julie and Lyn convinced me to almost swim across the lake with them. They swam at a leisurely pace making conversation while I concentrated on not letting my arms fall off my shoulders and not lagging too far behind. It was great fun to have some girl time. After we went back to Julie and Mark's for refreshments. They had a lovely backyard with lush green lawn any Perthite would envy, but even more wonderful were the humming birds that flitted around. They are such minute birds it was difficut to follow them with my eyes, even with my glasses on.

We returned back to town for a barbeque and socialising with Lyn's cousin Holly who had kindly babysat while we went out to dinner the night before, and Lyn's twin sister Marie-Anne and her partner Bruno. We tried a delicous new salad of spinach leaves, strawberries, blueberries and feta drizzled in a vinagerette.

After such a relaxing time it was time to pick up a hire car and head out of town. We acquired a Chrysler Sebring. It was red too so it went faster! It was a little intimidating to be driving on the right hand side of the road for the first time but Marty handled it like a champ and we cruised off down Highway One East out of town through the fruitlands of the Okanagan Valley to the wine region of Penticton, our belongings strewn through the back seat and boot of the car like they had always lived there.

The Rockies are a spectacular mountain range and the 6 hour drive to Pendicton was full of treats, not least the cheap fruit stalls lining the Okanagan Valley. We bought loads of cherries and blueberries for under $5, almost as much as we could eat (with these things I can always find room for a little more...), and tried cherry cider. I found it quite terrible but if you like Christmas cake icing you might like cherry cider. I will run the other way if I see it coming.

Penticton seemed very dry. It is a township caught between two lakes. A canal joins the lakes and it was thick with people lying floating down on their air mattresses. The campgrounds looked dry. dusty, extremely overcrowded and we knew they were expensive so we enquired at the Information Centre on local free camp spots. A helpful young lady directed us up the wrong side of the lake for where we wanted to go, to the Okanagan National Park. It seemed like a great idea until we hit a gravel road. The turn off to our camp site turned into a four wheel drive track and I was extremely concerned we would get stuck in our little hire car with no way out. We did make it through some mud and scrub unscathed to the campsite. We just had time to put up our trusty little tent when a thunder storm unleashed it's fury. It was a relief to take shelter in the car. I probably would have stayed there all night if Marty hadn't insisted on help with dinner and setting up the camp.

Compared to the paid sites in town where we saw tents pegged half under and half between the popular gigantic RVs people drive around for their holidays over here,  our clearing was paradise with the smell of pine needles and a small stream running past. We played yahtzee then slept like the dead.

On our drive back into Penticton in the morning we picked up two hitch-hikers - cherry pickers - to drop off in the township. The conversation was rather strange as they were French Canadian and hardly spoke English. From what I understood they were heading down to a town close to the American border where the herbs were good and the pine cones gigantic. We decided we didn't need to go there and headed in the opposite direction on the Trans-Canadian highway to Calgary. From my passenger seat I was able to enjoy the Rockies in all their glory. Each mountain looks like a giant slab of rock has been violently thrown up in the air, then has never come down. Huge jagged ridges tore the skyline and occasionally glaciers poured down their faces. There were many mountain lakes too. One of my favorites was the lake at Sycamore - Houseboat Capital. The weather was perfect and it looked like such a great place to camp, but on and on we drove. It was a shock to suddenly shoot out on the Eastern side and see nothing but flat land. Calgary was visible very soon after.

We drove straight to Charmagne and Pat's house. Charmagne flatted with me in Taiwan and has stayed in touch all these years so I was really looking forward to catching up with her. We arrived just as they were putting their gorgeous daughter, Catie, to bed. Of course it was too exciting with new people around so we got to meet her for a while, a lovely treat.

Charmagne spent the next day as our tour guide, escorting us through the Davonian Gardens - indoor so people can enjoy them in the harsh winters, and around Prince's Island. Here we had coffees and desert at the River Cafe, an idyllic corner of trees and sunlit water dancing past in the Bow River. I do have to say that I rate this cafe on it's bathrooms, I could have messed around with the soaps and hand lotions in there all day. Alas it was not to be, we had bookings to make for the next leg of our trip.

That night Charmagne and Pat took us and another Taiwan friend Sherri, out to dinner at The Tower. This is a concrete pillar with a viewing platform and restaurant at the top and is shaped like an Olympic Torch. It was built when Calgary hosted the Olympic Games back in the day, along with the most enormous ski jump I have ever seen (but I digress). We were whisked up the handle of the torch in a smooth elevator then ejected onto a viewing platform that had a glass floor from which you could see down the dizzying depths to the distant cars and roads below. I could only stand on it while firmly grasping the steel girder. Marty joked he could smell chicken, but I couldn't help but notice he was a little tentative when he first stepped out on it as well.

The restaurant was lovely. It revolved, so in one hour we gained the entire panorama of Calgary. The city ascended down to the prarie floors away from us and the skies put on a spectacular light show against the distant rockies with black clouds split by lightening then pierced by golden rays of sunlight, finishing with a rainbow. It could not have been more perfect! This wonderful dinner was a wedding present from Charmagne and Pat to us and was greatly enjoyed.

In the morning Charmagne outdid herself in the hospatality stakes by getting up early to cook bacon, eggs, perogies (a type of dumpling), and waffles to see us on our way. We got up early enough to join Pat before he left for work. It is always so sad to say good bye to friends we see so little of.

By 11:00 we were on our way into town and met Caveman, Marty's old engineering friend from his Calgary days, for lunch. Caveman had lots of interesting stories for us as he has hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island and the Grand Canyon, both of which we are planning to do ourselves. We left with the hope that he may join us at Rio for Carnaval.

The road to Banff was not too long. Two hours later we pulled into the pretty township. We took a campsite at Village 1, 5 minutes drive out of town. The earth was rock hard and we had trouble driving in the tent pegs. Marty had to take over with a rock to put them in enough to hold up our tent. Instead of climbing Sulphur Mountain we window shopped through all the giftshops looking for a replacement Mountie keyring for Judy (Marty's Mum). We couldn't find one to the same calibre as the one Marty had given her before but saw many wierd and wonderful things. Due to the shale in the earth around Banff, many fossils have been found and the shops were full of sand blasted ammonites and all sorts of interesting fish and leaves cast in rocks from thousands of years ago.

We had a drink on a rooftop bar, then went to our campsite and cooked dinner on our campstove. We were exhausted and enjoyed having an early night. The hard earth felt it's way through our foam mats and we both felt a bit sore when we woke in the morning.

We drove out to the famous Lake Loise which I found as beautiful and as striking as all the pictures promised. The lake water is a turquoise green colour due to all the glacial water that feeds it. At one end a Fairmount Hotel - The Chateau - stands in full grandeur with views up toward the glaciers. To stay there one must pay hundreds per night. We walked up to the 6 Glacier teahouse then on to see where the glaciers poured down the valley. From there we went back up the mountain on the side of the lake to see smaller lakes and another teahouse by Lake Agnes. By the time we got back to The Chateau our legs were tired, but not too tired to go and wander around the hotel ground floor gift shops. We drove to Morraine Lake for a quick look but were too tired to stay long so drove back to Banff for burgers at Wild Bill 'Peyto' Saloon. Wild Bill was apparently the best packer and guide in the West. We returned to our campground to see a White-tail Deer grazing by our tent. A little while later a herd of Elk moved through the campground - very surreal as they were not afraid of people at all.

We were woken in the morning by rain on the tent. I just managed to drag myself out of it after Marty, before it collapsed, the pegs falling over in the mud. We threw everything in the car and drove out, headed for Jasper, another National Park township with a nearby ski resort.

Jasper was a small town that reminded me of Wanaka before the housing boom. That is Wanaka without the lake or anything else much the same at all - it was the vibe of the thing. We were exhausted so bought some food at Coco's Cafe recommended by the Lonely Planet Guide then collapsed in our tent at the Whistler Campground for a sleep. It began to pour with rain again so we went and cooked dinner in a concrete rain shelter and passed time talking to a Swiss couple on a four week holiday.

We tried to get up early the following morning but it didn't really happen. Fortunately crossing back from Alberta to British Columbia we gained an hour so we had a little extra time to waste. Though waste time we did not, as we drove pretty solidly for ten hours through to Whistler. Stopping only for a Subway Sandwhich to remind us of home and later, some petrol and a packet of salmon jerky (would you believe?) which tasted more like salt than salmon but soon had the car smelling fishy!

We hit Whislter just in time for the culmination of the Kokahnee Mountain Biking Festival. We got in to town too late for the Information Centre but managed to catch a desk clerk who directed us to The Aspens. These are privately owned apartments that are rented out and sit at the top end of Whistler - I mean top end literally as they are a little up Blackcomb. Our apartment looked right over the ski lift which still runs in summer for hiking and taking in the scenery. It would be magic in winter as we could ride right from our room to the lift...another year perhaps. Though to be honest I wouldn't want to be paying peak rates for our room with a view.

On Sunday morning we went downtown and joined a Lutheran/Anglican church service and were blessed to be there while the bishop was visiting. A group of 13 year olds were being confirmed into the church and the Bishop spoke a wonderful sermon on how to live a Christian life. We shared communion, bread dunked in (to my surprise) real wine. Usually we just have grape juice or ribena.

In the afternoon we hired mountain bikes and cruised around on the valley tracks. After a while Marty encouraged me onto some steeper and narrower dirt trails which were a lot of fun to ride though I am pretty slow. We saw a woodpecker attacking a tree with great vengeance and rode through a suberb of lush holiday houses, one with a float plane parked outside. To finish the day off Marty treated me to poutene, a Canadian dish of hot chips with gravy and cheese curds poured overtop, delicous! We ate while watching extreme bikers take on the an enormous dirt bike track with jumps so big they made the riders look like ants. In the malls there were different riders giving demos on trick riding - we were treated to seeing some of the world's top experts.

Monday brought an early start as we needed to get our hire car handed back in early or risk paying another day for it. Once in Vancouver we paid a quick visit to a supermarket to pick up hiking food for the West Coast Trail and also stocked up on yet more camping equipment at MEC (Mountain Equipment Coop) a vast outdoor store chain with everything you could dream of - even camping ice-cream machines!

We tried to drop the car off but despite our best efforts we were late so ended up having it for another day. We drove it to Granville Island and had a fantastic time walking around the markets there. There was fresh produce to die for - huge punnets of berries, barrels of different fruits and vegetables and stands of cheeses and salami. My mouth was watering so badly. For lunch we ate beef pot pies followed by cherries, and bought chicken kebabs for dinner. We also stocked up on pepperoni sticks for hiking and cheese too. Then we wandered through a variety of pottery stores, sailing stores and even a paper shop which I could have spent hours in. I think it was pretty hard for Marty to get excited over paper though.

Finally we went back to the HI hostel. For the first time this trip we found ourselves sharing a room with two others, also from Australia. It was nice to converse, but strange to be sharing sleeping space. I am planning to avoid dormitories as much as I can - reason 101 why it is great to have a tent.

The next day was our farewell to Vancouver for the last time. Marty dropped bags and me off at the tourist info centre then took the car back, fortunately in time this time. We ended up needing to take a taxi to the bus terminal for our ride to the ferry to take us over to Vancouver Island and the taxi driver tried to convince us in broken English to take his taxi right to the ferry. We were already happy with our arrangements so he went away shaking his head and muttering. We took the front seat in the bus and had uninterrupted views of another side of the city - the industrial side. We drove straight onto the ferry and were free to roam the massive boat for the hour and a half ride to the island. Time to reflect and plan.

Marty has got our photos online now so please check them out at this link:

http://katmarty.smugmug.com