Halifax

 This was the most interesting clock we've ever seen. It's movement is generated by the flow of fluid through numerous pipes of varying diameters. You read the hours from the height of the fluid on the left and the minutes on the right. It is called the Clepsydra Water Clock and is at the Abbotsford airport. We had a 4 am check-in so it was something to entertain us while we waited for our flight.

This is Halifax, a combination of old and new. For example, St Paul's Anglican church was built in 1750 - wooden and still standing, plus construction cranes on the skyline. These colourful shop-fronts are typical of the older buildings.

Interesting sculptures along the waterfront. These 3 lamp poles depict the 3 levels of drunkenness - we are next to 'drunk and fallen over' pole with the one behind us supposedly looking on with concern. The one at the back is only half tanked! It's quite a long, interesting stroll along the harbour boardwalk, passing many historical sites.

 Lucky enough to catch a ship as it sailed past the lighthouse on the island across the bay.

The public gardens are across the road from our hotel and as Canada is celebrating 150 years as a nation this year, some of the displays are really amazing.


Seen today: Nova Scotia Crystal glass blowing at their workshop; Elevator button to the  'Lobby'.

Day 6 of our road trip

Another day, another beautiful lake - better make that several more beautiful lakes. This area in Canada, The Okanagans, is renowned for it's wineries, orchards and lakes. The changing of the foliage colour only added to the beauty of the drive. We have been incredibly fortunate with the weather and today was sunny and warm.
The roads are in good condition and the sweeping corners make them a pleasure to drive. John keeps saying how good it would be to ride a bike following the route we've driven the last few days.









In previous posts we commented on the size of the motorhomes and 5th wheelers. This is what we are talking about. Check the size compared to the VW parked in front of it!

We revisited an area that Canada Chris and I had seen a number of years ago and were pleased to see both similarities to our memory and some changes. These rows of espaliered apple trees are common in the Similkameen River Valley, and the road-side stalls have many varieties that we've never heard of. We spent a leisurely afternoon catching up with a teacher friend from the local school.

Halloween is coming up so all the local produce stalls and markets have their pumpkin and gourd varieties on display for sale. Have you ever seen so many different varieties as are pictured here?

The West Coast of Canada doesn't have all the colours of 'fall' because of the tree varieties. These are the Aspen which are common on this side of the country and are changing now. The shades of yellow and light green are amazing, particularly when mixed with some deep reds and greens.

While we were having a walk around Princeton, we noticed all the cars just stop. Why? Because a group of deer was walking across the road. They then proceeded to raid a rubbish bin and eat the sunflowers from a garden nearby.

We are heading back to Abbotsford tomorrow for a rest and repack day before flying to the East Coast. There probably won't be a blog post for a few days.

Seen today: Christmas tree farms; glass bricks (haven't seen them for some time); 1.75L bottle of Captain Morgan rum for $52.99 in a local bottle shop.

Leaving the Rockies

 Our trip down the mountains through Kicking Horse Pass took us to Natural Bridge, outside Field. Here the river is forced through this narrow gap. As expected, there were bus loads of tourists, some of whom took risks to get that up-close photo. We wondered how many end up getting a bumpy ride down the rapids!
The blue in the photo is an accurate representation. This coloured water is common in glacial areas. No wonder we haven't seen it in Australia.

Compared to Lake Louise, the canoe hire at Emerald Lake is a bargain, although the sign says only 3 moose at a time in a canoe.

Once again, a beautiful lake, although you probably wouldn't say that if you fell out of the canoe. 

You know you are in avalanche country when you travel through these snow sheds designed to keep the highway open as the snow, ice and rocks test the strength of the roof.
We had a bit of wet weather which needed extra care down the steep, winding descents. Because this was the Trans Canada Highway there were lots of trucks and motorhomes, as well as the usual cars, buses and a few brave motorcyclists.
Cold and wet is not a good combination on a motorbike.



Seen today: A man walking his cat on a lead; An osprey watching us watch it as we walked along a jetty; Spiral Railway Tunnels, built to drop the gradient from 4 to 2 degrees because of the many incidents, derailments and deaths at 4 degrees.

                                                                                     

Glaciers and Lakes

 We started the day with a lovely walk to the bus depot (-1C at 7:00 but not unpleasant). We knew this was going to be our longest day and we weren't disappointed. Altogether, the tour lasted 10 1/2 hrs, but what a great day!
First stop was beautiful Lake Louise named after Queen Victoria's 4th daughter. With no wind, the water was like glass giving a near perfect reflection. In case you think hiring a canoe would be fun, the going rate was $95 for a half hour. Not what we'd call a bargain! As usual John felt the water temperature - first 4 out of 4 for exhilarating.

 From there it was back on the bus and past some beautiful lakes in the Bow River Valley, ending up at Peyto Lake. These lakes are a beautiful blue colour caused by 'rock flour' ground by the glaciers as they move. This effects refraction of light allowing the blue end of the spectrum through.

 Because it had snowed, and several bus-loads of tourists had already walked to the viewing platform at Lake Peyto the path was icy and therefore extremely slippery. It was pretty seeing the snow still on the trees.

This photo is typical of the road along the Icefields Parkway.

 This may look like we are standing in snow but we are actually on the Athabasca Glacier. The ridge in the background is part of the Columbia Icefields which feeds many glaciers. This one is 5km long, 1km wide and 300m thick in places. Sadly it is also receding at a rate of about 5m per year.

To get onto the glacier, special vehicles with 6 wheel drive and tractor tyres are used.




Our last adventure for the day was the Glacier Skywalk over the glacier. It is fairly new and takes you our on a glass walkway almost 300m above the valley floor. (John and me in the photo on left).

Seen today: Mountain goats; 700 year old but only about 3m tall fir trees (due to very short growing season and poor soil); lines of tourist buses; Triple Continental Divide (where water flows to 3 oceans - Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic.

Banff

    In the Rocky Mountains at last and these 'hills' really are big! The temperature is brisk but not uncomfortably cold and we had some lovely walks along the Bow River. Our walk to the Great Divide (near lake Louise where the water flows either East or West) didn't eventuate. The guide informed us there had been several bear sightings in the area and asked if we had our bear spray. We assumed he meant anti-bear spray and because we didn't, decided to play it safe. The guide was from Bendigo and picked our Aussie accents immediately. 
We also didn't get to Moraine Lake as the traffic was horrendous and parking non-existent - parking spaces gone by 7:00 am. We'll see Lake Louise on our tour tomorrow anyway.
This is the view looking up the Bow River with Hoodoos (pointy eroded rock formations) in the foreground and Mount Rundle in the background.

The Banff Springs Hotel is fairly widely recognised. It was built in1888 and has undergone many building changes since then. One thing I noticed missing since my last visit was the copper roof. The new one certainly makes it blend in more with the background. We went for a drive to the Banff Centre where I did some study nearly 30 years ago. Amazing to be able to recognise some of the buildings still.

We had a leisurely walk to downtown Banff, juggling our way between the many tourists, to the riverside trail and the falls. The town is so busy even the locals are surprised. Our walk took us over a fairly new suspension bridge, along a path through the forest and followed the river past rapids to the Bow River Falls. These two views are looking up the river. The water is quite cold, fast moving and ice blue.

 Further up the river near the Hoodoos, we watched a runaway canoe being jostled along the river. Hopefully the occupant wasn't somewhere up stream hanging onto a rock! The rapids, shown below, don't leave too many paths to choose if you are paddling.

Interesting to see a log 'cabin'. We half expected to see Davey Crocket with his beaver hat, although we are probably a bit far north!

Seen today: Elk; bear droppings; yellow school buses used as shuttle buses taking people to the lakes as the parking was full; an Inukshuk in someone's front yard - Inuit stone structure which looks like a person and means it's a safe/friendly place; our B & B is on Grizzly Street.

Closer to the Rockies

A morning walk in Nelson proved worthwhile. Firstly, we walked across this bridge over Kootenay Lake to Lakeside Park (aptly named). The gardens were beautifully maintained, with the walks along the lake shore being very picturesque and lots of interesting surprises, including this totem pole.

 We followed the lake north to the hot springs at Ainsworth for about 1/2 hour, founded in 1883. There were three pools of varying temperatures. The main pool (pictured) was probably 35C, the caves pools was 42C and the cold plunge pool was atmospheric temperature (about a 3 on the JK/DZ scale). We were excited when we spotted a black bear cub in a tree a little way up the hill, but soon realised it was a stuffed toy. Good to see someone has a sense of humour! When we arrived and started talking to the manager, he asked if we were Australian and soon all the staff were there listening to our strange accent. (We don't think it's strange).

 After our therapeutic dip, we caught the Balfour ferry across the lake to Kootenay Bay. This 35 min ferry trip is the longest free ferry trip in Canada, but obviously still cheaper than a bridge. There was room for about 80 cars, but being North America there were some pretty big motorhomes on board.

To arrive in our North Easterly target for the day, Radium Hot Springs (about 120km as the crow flies), we had to drive north, east, south, then north again (about 360km of driving). The scenery changed rapidly. There had been some heavier falls of snow last night up in the mountain and it was clear to see in numerous places. The rivers have changed to a lighter greenish blue rather than the blackish colour of some of the other lakes because of the glacial run-off.

Seen today: Deer; Hoodoos (eroded cliff faces in the Columbia Valley); A Dodge RAM whose door handles were on a level with Chris' eyes; Teepees (Tipi); Higher mountains than yesterday - even higher than Mt Gravatt!

Towards the Rockies

 So...the warm weather is over? There's snow on them thar hills. The drive to Nelson on the Kootenay River at the base of the Rockies, took us through a range of spectacular scenery. We saw snow-capped peaks, pine forests, flat farmland of corn and apple orchards, lakes and rivers. The colours are just beginning to change and the temperature has dropped significantly. Those early settlers and miners must have been tough critters! We went through a town called Hope so you can imagine some of the puns which flowed easily (You've just left Hope! Some people live in Hope!).

 At Osoyoos we stopped beside the beautiful lake for a walk and a cuppa. The people here  obviously have a sense of humour as places were called things like Desert Surfside (as the area is High Desert), Sun Beach Motel and the theme park was Rattlesnake Canyon. The Green Gables Beach Resort, pictured below, is probably managed by Anne (although the original is some 5600km to the east on Prince Edward Island).
John had to check the water using the JK/DZ temperature rating. Surprisingly, it only rated a brisk (2 out of 4), given the altitude and season.

 We were held up for about an hour because of a road crash - not us fortunately, as the car involved was quite a mess. The roads generally were in very good condition given the number of trucks, large motorhomes & 5th wheelers out and about.
We've been checking out the animal warning signs, like this one for deer. Others included warnings for elk, bears (with cubs) and badgers.


Seen today: A hog farm (so the sign said); blue spruce, aspen, fir and birch trees; wide shallow rivers running along the base of quite narrow valleys; pumpkins at the ready for Halloween; John driving on the right and some huge SUVs. 

East of Vancouver

Morning one, Abbotsford, Canada. Slightly cloudy, misty, cool but not cold (John went outside to take these photos in shorts, t-shirt and thongs - I did not!).
This top photo is from Canada Chris' front yard overlooking the Fraser River Valley towards the mountains. Very picturesque, as you can see. Different trees but quite Maleny-like. After lunch we walked to the Fraser River which is just past the treeline.

The leaves are starting to change colour as you can see along Chris' driveway. There are already many leaves on the ground which is why they call this season Fall. Wouldn't have the same significance in Queensland where most of our trees are evergreens.

On our afternoon walk we passed this barn which is in fact a film studio. To us it looked just like the barns we imagined in rural North America. Also, although we didn't take a photo because they were pretty boring were huge sheds which we thought housed either pigs or chickens. Wrong... Chris informs us that raising turkeys is very big business here. We can only imagine how many thousands of turkeys there must be in this farming community alone!


Seen today: Blackberry/raspberry bushes (as common as our lantana) growing wild along the side of the road and acting, we'd imagine, as very good trespass protection given the thorns and the 2-3m height of some of them; logs floating in the river, probably waiting for a Monty Python lumberjack; the inside of a Costco store; unleaded fuel $1.26 and diesel $1.12 (the way the price difference should be).

Go east, young man!

Here we are on the west coast of Canada after an interesting trip. Fortunately the time in the air was totally uneventful, but getting onto the plane was marred by 'technical' gliches. In Brisbane it was the conveyor belt for the luggage that wasn't working so that delayed check-in.
In New Zealand, we found they were experiencing problems with fuel supply and only loaded enough fuel to get us to Noumea, where we then sat on the tarmac in the plane for an hour while they refueled the plane. (It felt like one 5L container at a time).
This diversion added a further delay by significantly increasing the distance flown between NZ and Canada. But here we are safe and sound and that's the main thing. We are sitting at the table in central heating having a cuppa and a chat with Lief. (Chris's older son). Tomorrow is a rest day before we hit the road with our friend Chris heading to the mountains.

The photo here shows us at the Auckland airport outside the Kiwi Discovery shop.

Seen today: Lots of ocean; 2 malamute pups at the Vancouver airport; aeroplane food.