iceland

Carl

Canada Icefields Parkway, Banff, Jasper, Inside Passage, Vancouver Island & Whistler E-Mail sent 22nd July 2001 Vancouver & back home… The Hostel was vibrantly noisy in Victoria, there was space for one night only. I managed to visit the George & Dragon as they have an improv comedy evening on Monday nights. Very funny, like watching "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" live and with loads of audience participation. Back at the hostel, very squeaky old metal bunkbeds and people returning tipsy from a 70′s fancy dress night, sleepless night. I spent the day exploring Victoria, nice artisan feeling. From Victoria (VI) I took the ferry over to Vancouver. I managed find Sarah’s high-rise apartment OK in downtown Vancouver. Her work colleagues invited me to join them at a local restaurant for a meal. Good food and jollities, a friendly bunch having fun, one of the perks of expat Kiwi’s in Canada. We even managed to see a skunk outside the restaurant. The following day I hired a car so that I could explore Squamish & Whistler. When I arrived at National Rentals to pick up the compact car and was offered an upgrade to a convertible for no extra cost. My mountain bike wouldn’t fit in the trunk of the car, even after I had taken both wheels off, not very practical, so the frame had to travel on the rear seats. So off I went up route 99 in a Ford Mustang. Near Whistler I picked up a hitch-hiker originally from London but he had been living in Canada for the past 5 years earning a crust by planting trees. He commented on the car, saying "you must be doing well for yourself" in a sarcastically jealous tone, so I told him it was a rental. In Whistler I bought a day lift pass for me and my bike. They have created what they called a "bike park" allowing bikers to take the cable car up to the mid station and spend all day using gravity to whiz downhill on groomed single tracks. This is a mecca for downhill addicts. A local mountain biker who I met in the cable car allowed me to try his full suspension mountain bike. It had 6" of travel on both the front and rear wheels. The riding position and style was totally different from my mountain bike. You can defiantly go downhill fast on these and you can cruse over most obstacles without a second thought. I spend a few hours on the downhill’s until my bones were truly shaken and my hand’s were blistered. Explored Whistler before I started driving a scenic route back towards Vancouver. The weather had cleared and I was able to cruse around with the soft-top down, nice. I explored a track heading up to a lake, the Mustang has surprisingly good ground clearance. I stopped off at Squamish as the mass of rock was not to be ignored. Houses on the edge of town were separated by single pitch (pitch=1 length of rock climbing rope, usually approximately 50M) crags. There is also a very impressive mass of rock dominating the town. Rock climbing routes of up to 8 pitches long. Wow, it was very impressive in the sunset. I’ll have to return to play sometime in the future, especially as it’s only 45 min drive from Vancouver. Further down the road towards Vancouver I heard a travel warning on Mountain FM about a dear that had been hit on the road. A few minutes later I passed some warning flares on the road followed by a dead dear on the south-bound shoulder and a motorbike and rider on the north-bound shoulder being attended to by a paramedic. Later I was stopped at a police road block. 4 squad cars all blazing lights. The police officer looked at the open car, noticed my bike frame on the rear seat and asked me if I had drunk any alcohol. I said no, and he waved me to continue. I managed to take a few scenic pictures of the sunset as it dropped below the sea. The road bridge through Stanley Park closed at 6pm so I had to take the longer route into downtown Vancouver. This was strange as one minute I was driving through industrial suburbia, the next through scary Hastings St and the next through cafe district. And so, another trip came to an end that following day I biked towards Vancouver International Airport. I woke at 5am BST on Sunday, listening to the BBC World Service while typing this e-mail, Ryan Air have just announced that they will be soon giving away their European flights for free. They plan to make a profit from their additional services that they can offer, such as insurance, onboard food & entertainment, car hire etc. And I thought my Canada 3000 flight was cheap! Many thanks to everyone who I met on this trip. Especially Sarah, the Namgis tribe, the nameless bloke I met who told me about the Courtney Music Festival, Norah & Ed, Tricia-Dawn & Randy, Dany and anyone else who I was lucky enough to meet. Doug Blane Milton Keynes, Great Britain, Sunday 22nd July, errr, I think? "Long ago when the world was young, after a great flood, a giant halibut (that was so big you could stand on it) lived at the mouth of the Nimpkish River. One day he swam ashore and transformed himself into a human. He proceeded to build himself a house and with some difficulty raised the four main houseposts. With a daze, he fashioned the huge beams that were to be placed atop of the vertical posts, but when they were finished, he was unable to lift them into place. As he sat lamenting, he heard a sound behind him and turned to see a Thunderbird alight on a high rock. This supernatural bird offered assistance and grasping a beam in his talons, flew into the sky and put the beam in place. Then he descended and took off his Thunderbird mask and costume, ordered it to fly up into the skies and said ‘You shall never flap your great wings to cause thunder, nor flash your great eyes to cause lightening except when death comes upon a prince or a princess of my descendants.’ He then announced that he would be the younger brother of the first man. He then began to build a house for himself. These two ‘first men’ became the progenitors of one of the Namgis families and those descended from that pair to this day have the right to display the Thunderbird and Halibut as their crests." E-Mail sent 17th July 2001 OK, so I biked from Port Hardy – Port McNeil. Took the ferry across to Alert Bay. As luck would have it the canoes from the tribal journey were coming into port that afternoon. They are all paddling down to Squamish for the 28th, collecting other tribes (and the canoes) along the way. I was able to join in the feast up at the "Big House" and see traditional (non tourist) songs and dances with animal masks, etc. It was quite an experience. They were all very friendly. The following day I went back to the VI and took the bus down on a ticket to Nanaimo. However I was chatting to a local on the bus and he told me about a music festival on Courtney, so when the bus arrived at Courtney, I got off… The 3 day festival was excellent. Some good music from Danu (Irish), Colcannon (Ozy), Spirit of the West (Canadian) to mention but a few. My 1st music festival…, maybe Glastonbury next year…? Monday and I am now in Victoria for 1 night as the hostel is full tomorrow. So off to Vancouver for a few days before I fly back to Blighty. It’s nice to be able to flow with life again, changing direction with the wind. I hope you are all well. Doug PS: AFD=Artificially Freeze Dried (foods) E-Mail sent 11th July 2001 Greetings from Port Hardy OK so I decided to take the slow slow train from Jasper to Prince Rupert (PR) via Prince George (PG). Yup, it was very slow. My bike didn’t travel on the train, but was taken to the next train station in a van and thus arrived before I did. Nice mountain scenery, snow capped peaks, deep gorges, etc. PG wasn’t so nice, I won’t recommend the city. I managed to find the red-light district, easy really as it was in down town PG. Thankfully it was Sunday and therefore no bar brawls to end the day. An early start to the day and the second slow slow train journey to PR. PR was nice enough. I had however managed to leave my sleeping mat (and my tent poles as they were rolled inside the mat) on the train. I only realised 5hrs later, and luckily managed to get them back, phew. Another early start and this time the slow ferry boat through the Inner Passage (IP) to Port Hardy (PH) on Vancouver Island (VI). The trip was nice a scenic. The ferry calm as it meandered through the IP. I arrived at PH after 11pm and the sun had already set. The port was 5 miles from the village of PH, so I biked it in the pitch black of the night as I didn’t have any cycle lights with me. I found a nice B&B with a Hostel section for the night. In fact as the weather is nice and I am a tad tired from the past 3 days of constant travel I am spending the day chilling out here. Not sure what to do next, but I have only a 4-5 days to get myself to Vancouver before I fly back to Blighty. Rich & Lisa have come up trumps again providing me with a Kiwi contact Sarah in Vancouver who has kindly invited me to crash for a few days. Thanks to you all. So, I am not sure if I’ll e-mail you again from Canada, as I’ll be back before I know it… Arrrrh. Have fun, Doug Blane E-Mail Sent from Jasper 05/07/2001 So I have arrived in Jasper. I biked from Banff - Lake Louise - Mosquito Creak - Rampart Creak – Jonas Creak – Jasper along the Icefields Parkway. Excellent weather, good views of the mountains etc. Have seen wild bighorn sheep, goats, moose & elk but no bears. Am chilling out for a few days here in Jasper. Clean clothes again…, arhhh. Fresh food (no AFD’s), yum yum. Trying to decide where to go next…? I hope you are all well. Doug "mind creates illness illness changes mind" E-Mail Sent from Banff 26/06/2001 I arrived in Calgary OK. Spent a few days in the YHA. Calgary has quite a nice relaxed feel, for a city. There are may homeless people, but not aggressive, in fact they are nice to talk to. Some prefer to be without a home…, kind-of like the old traditional Indian ways. As the weather became bad, I caught the Greayhound to Banff. Have spent a few day’s chilling out, getting over jet lag etc. Found the Hot Spring, and had to sample it, arhh. Went biking yesterday, nice track by the side of a river. Sat on the beach, so quiet. Banff in nice, not as touristy as people have said. A bit like a small version of Chamonix. Loads of things to do in the mtns. I’ll spend a few more days here and they bike the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. I haven’t seen any bears…, yet. I hope you are all well. C U, Doug

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