Kingston is located slightly southwest of Ottawa just on the border to the U.S. Robert had been here a few years ago and had good memories of the city but for Victoria it was the first time. Kingston did not disappoint as we found the city wonderfully cute, old, historic and beautiful. As Kingston actually used to be the capital of Canada before the capital was moved to alternate betwen Montreal and Toronto and finally queen Victoria decided that the permanent location would be Ottawa, the town has lots of old historic buildings and landmarks. We walked past the house that used to be the residence of Canada's first prime minister sir John A MacDonald and saw many other beautiful buildings, houses and churches. The weather was beautiful which made the town even more appealing!

We stayed two nights at an inn in a really nice old building, walking distance from the city centre. Our first evening, we explored Kingston's pub life and found a great pub which according to Robert served the best beer he has had so far in Canada. That's no insignificant compliment coming from a guy who loves his beer!

The brewery even had their own car in front.

The following day the sun was shining and we went on to see more of Kingston. We strolled down to the harbour where we found an old locomotive in front of which Robert had to pose:

The view of the docks and the water was amazing:

We went inside the big cathedral which had a nice ceiling:

Most museums were closed for the season, but since Robert has a certain interest for the military and Kingston is the home to the Royal Military College of Canada, we drove out to take a look. Completely open to the public, we were able to walk around on the area and the old buildings which were beautiful. We kind of expected somebody to tell us to keep out, but it seemed to be a regular tourist attraction and nobody said a word about the two strangers strolling around. A guy even asked us for directions as if we looked like we knew what we were doing!!!

Robert was happy to find a tank that he could climb up on (yes, there was a sign saying 'no climbing' but that just made it so much more exciting!)

Yes, Kingston definitely made a good impression on us and we both agree that it's probably the nicest city in Ontario we've seen! We will now head towards Quebec city for more historic sightseeing and hopefully some good food!

written by  Victoria & Robert on November 13 from Ottawa, Canada
from the travel blog: Across Canada
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After we left Ottawa we headed to Montreal for three days. Montreal is only about two hours drive from Ottawa. Much closer than we had realized. Both of us have been to Montreal before, so we knew that we wanted to stay in the old part of town where you can walk down the cobblestone streets and feel like you take a step back in time. We decided to 'splurge' a little and stayed at a very nice hotel right by Place d'Armes. In fact, the hotel was even called 'Place d'Armes'.

The second day was grey and rainy so we decided to go to a museum or do some kind of indoor activity. We went to the 'Biodome' which is an exhibition about eco systems of the world. It was pretty interesting and well done with sections on the tropics (complete with monkeys, exotic birds, anacondas and crocodiles), the arctic (penguins and other funny looking birds), the Ontario nature (otters, ducks and other Canadian animals) and Madagascar (LEMURS!!!).

That evening we went for dinner in the Latin Quarters and unfortunately picked a not so great restaurant among hundreds of excellent ones! Oh well, at least the atmosphere was nice and festive. It was October 31 which means Halloween in North America. Various creative and funny costumes were on display on the sidewalk as people were on their way to different Halloween parties.

Unfortunately, our visit to Montreal became very somber when Robert found out that a friend of his had died in an accident in Africa. Even though the following day was beautiful, and we went for a nice walk, we decided to head back to Ottawa the following day as Robert had decided to travel to Tanzania for the funeral and his flight was leaving from Toronto which is closer to Ottawa than to Montreal. We decided that Victoria would stay with her friend Tony who had offered us to come and stay with him next time we visited Ottawa. He probably didn't think we would be back so soon....

Robert flew to Tanzania that Wednesday and Victoria settled back in Ottawa. Robert will write a bit about his trip in a separate entry to the blog. Victoria spent her time reading, exploring more of Ottawa; swimming, running and going for a hike in Gatineau Park.

After Robert's five day trip (3 days of travel, two days of actually being in Tanzania), he returned last night completely dazed and confused, jetlagged and exhausted and we are using today to rest before we will continue our travels tomorrow. The plan is to go to Kingston which is located slightly south of Ottawa and then continue back into Quebec and towards the Maritimes.

written by  Victoria & Robert on November 10 from Ottawa, Canada
from the travel blog: Across Canada
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We arrived three days ago and our plan was to stay two nights, but we liked it so much we decided to stay an extra night!

Night at Parliament Hill

The experience of Ottawa has far exceeded both our expectations. Perhaps that's because we actually didn't think much about what the city could be like before we arrived here. Yes, it is the capital and yes, we knew that there would be Parliament Hill, government buildings and museums, but beyond that, we simply didn't know much about the city.

To our surprise we find the city very nice. Perhaps it's because it has a very distinct European feel to it and maybe that stirs emotions of familiarity in both of us? Or perhaps it is the blend of old buildings, nice restuarants, the mix of French and English and a very welcoming atmosphere? Or perhaps, and probably most likely, it is a combination of all those things!

When we arrived at our hotel and checked in, Robert left the car at the curb. While we were standing at reception we saw a parking attendant approach our car. Robert leaped out to avoid getting a ticket, but ready to fight if she had already given him one. There is something about Robert and parking tickets that just do not go together. Sure, nobody likes to get a ticket, but Robert for some reason has stronger than usual negative feelings against parking attendants (and law enforcement in general).

The poor parking attendent was a lady and she handed him a ticket when he approached her. Victoria, from observing from the hotel reception could see the smoke coming out of Robert's ears and thought that 'this is definitely not a good start on our stay in Ottawa...' However, something strange happened after that. Robert's body language displayed that he was upset... but suddenly he reached out and gave the lady a hug!!!! Victoria thought that this might be it.. he has gone completely mad over the rage of a ticket... or he is trying to strangle the poor lady.... It turned out that the parking lady had seen him coming out of the hotel but since she had started to issue the ticket she just finished it by entering $0 where the amount of the fine is usually displayed! Thank goodness!!!

After the little 'incident' that ended well, everything else has been very pleasant. Even though it is almost November and rainy and grey, the city has still managed to make a good impression on us. We have wandered down to Byward Market with excellent resturants and enjoyed good food, wine and desserts! Our visit to Parliament Hill was interesting and informative. Victoria got to see the centre of power in the capital for the first time as a fairly recent Canadian citizen and we went on a good and informative tour of the government building. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the House of Commons and watch the question period with the Prime Minister as they were full for the day. Apparently you can get in by writing to your MP, but we didn't know that beforehand, and Victoria was very embarrassed admitting she isn't even sure who her MP is.....

Parliament buildings

The second day we went to the War museum which was excellent and LARGE. After four hours we started to skip sections to finish. It was very well done and the exhibitions were excellent. It was also very empty. Not many tourists at all which we later understood was due to the fact that part of the museum staff was on strike and encouraged the public not to visit the museum and to not to cross the picket line. Somehow we missed that so we'll just claim ignorance...

Victoria got her swimming itch satisfied by being invited by an old swimming friend of hers from British Columbia who now lives (and swims) in Ottawa. An early 6:30am start and 3,000 meters of really hard swimming has satisfied the swimming need for the next few days!

Victoria and the Rideau Canal

FLAT prarie landscape

So in seven days we have passed through five provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and entered into Ontario) and adjusted our clocks from Pacific Standard Time to Mountain Time to Central Time and now in Ontario we will shortly change them again to Eastern Standard Time. Since our last blog entry we have been through Moose Jaw (Victoria had to stop since she has a couple of friends from there), Regina, Winnipeg(will tell you more about this experience in a minute), Kenora and finally Dryden from where this entry is being written.

Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan and I'm sure there are interesting things to look at. However, we drove in to town late at night and as we have learned by now; the road that leads into a city in Canada looks pretty much the same anywhere with fast food resturants, gas stations and standard hotel chains such as the Travelodge, Super 8, Comfort Inn etc. After some driving around we ended up at the Howard-Johnston.

It is probably worth a paragraph or two in this blog to talk about accomodations. After almost two month on the road, we have seen a variety of motels, hotels, inns and B&Bs. The standard, quality and expectations are usually (but not always) correlated to the price you pay and while we are not on a backpackers' budget, we've been trying to be a little thrify if the place is just somewhere to rest our heads before continuing driving the next day. On occasion we have 'splurged' a little when we find a cute town or place but for this driving portion of the trip, our motto is 'clean and cheap'.

The Howard-Johnston in Regina was 'clean and cheap', but also completely and utterly disorganized. The hotel was under renovations which made part of it look like a construction site and the drilling into walls (it felt like our heads) started somewhere around 7am in the morning. But the alarming part was the staff of the hotel. There were two girls working the front desk and Victoria is usually a very patient customer who rarely complains, but after the check-in procedure took almost half an hour and when we asked for directions and the girls couldn't even point out on a city map where the hotel was located, even Victoria had problems hiding her frustration. That incident, plus some smaller ones, made us not feeling too sad to leave Regina. Sadly so, as the city probably has so much more to offer than the experience of incompetent hotel staff.

Next stop for the evening was Winnipeg, Manitoba. The city is large and we ended up in the middle of downtown. Again, trying to be.. hmm... 'frugal', we found a hotel that looked fantastic on the outside, located in a beautiful building from 1914; the Marlbourough. The rate of a hotel room (about half of the Radisson across the street), should have given us a hint though..... The hotel had a pool, gym, restaurant and breakfast was included in the price which sounded great. Still.... the price should have been the clue....
We were woken up several times during the middle of the night by people in the hallway who after getting completely drunk had forgotten which hotel room they belonged to and decided to let the entire hotel know that they were lost. Strange characters were snooping around the hotel property and Victoria felt so uncomfortable she turned around and went back to the room after an attempt to go to the convenience store. The security guy at the hotel wore a bullet proof west and the place was just seedy.

The next morning we decided to skip the free breakfast in fear of what the restaurant would look like. We decided to give Winnipeg another chance by driving to the Forks which we had heard was a nice part of town. The Forks looks a little bit like Granville island in Vancouver with an open market housed in an old warehouse. It was quite charming and nice and we had breakfast there before going for a walk along the river and crossing over to the French part via Provencher Bridge which is an interesting masterpiece of architecture and engineering.

Robert and the bridge

Provencher Bridge

Leaving Winnipeg behind us, we soon entered into Ontario and drove through the town of Kenora which was a nice little place on a lake. Not being able to find Robert a proper pub, we continued to Dryden where we spent the night before heading towards Thunder Bay.

written by  Victoria & Robert on October 23 from Dryden, Canada
from the travel blog: Across Canada
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First, just a couple of things about the blog. As you notice we have started a separate mini blog for this portion of the trip. But since you are reading this you must have found it ok! Secondly, we have realized that it is sometimes difficult to find the time, internet connection etc. to do a proper blog update with pictures and everything. Therefore, we've decided that the posts from this part of the trip might have a little less photos and be shorter, but as we want to keep the blog going, we think that just a paragraph about the place we are currently in would be better than nothing at all... Sometimes you'll just see the name of the town as an 'empty' post but it will allow you to follow our trip on the map on top of the page.

Ok, that's enough for 'admin stuff'. Back to the fun stuff!

Well, we are now in Medicine Hat, Alberta and unfortunately there isn't anything that exciting to write about it. We came in late last night and after trying to find 'downtown' for half an hour we ended up at the first motel we had seen when we entered the city.

It is quite a change in scenery from the eastern part of British Columbia. After leaving Vancouver and driving east we picked a slightly different route than the way we had come back through when driving from Golden. This time we went more south through Manning Park and stopped in Grand Forks, Nelson and then drove through Cranbrook to Kimberley. From Kimberley we passed through Fernie and then entered Alberta.

We had been told that Nelson was going to be a great place so we spent a night there. It is a beautiful spot with mountains, the Kootney lake and a quite little town. However, to find a breakfast restaurant that would serve bacon and eggs was a bit of a challenge. There are tons of places that serve vegetarian and vegan food but for an Englishman, that just won't do! We eventually found a really nice place on the way out of town so Robert's day was saved by a heaping serving of bacon!

Ferry ride across Kootney lake

On the B.C. side, the landscape in the Kootneys is spectacular with the Rockies and the Kootney mountains. However, almost as soon as we entered Alberta everything flattened out. Like, REALLY flattened out. More like a pancake!!! Miles and miles of farmlands! Cows and horses everywhere!

Approaching Lethbridge which is the first major city on the Alberta side it was evident that the city has a past history in the coal mining industry. Hills from the by product of mining greets you when you drive in and some kind of huge bridge that looks like a transportation system for coal can be seen in the distance.

We decided not to stop in Lethbridge and therefore drove another two hours to Medicine Hat. Today we will drive through the rest of southern Alberta and into Saskatchewan. Probably another few hours of flat lands. Robert is still driving and keeps singing to stay awake. Victoria is awake because Robert sings.....

Oh, to end this post, we just want to share a few pictures from the last part of the Arctic trip. Robert finally got his goat (not the way he had hoped for) and Victoria got a kiss from a camel....

Robert got the goat! ...at a petting zoo.....

A Canadian camel....

Victoria and the goat

Alternatively, just go to our 'homepage' where you will be able to see both our blogs so far (Canadian Arctic and Across Canada):
http://www.blogabond.com/victoriaandrobert

Hope to see you there! Again, feel free to comment and let us know what you think about our (sometimes) crazy adventures!

-Victoria & Robert

written by  Victoria & Robert on October 20 from Vancouver, Canada
from the travel blog: the Canadian Arctic
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The three days in Vancouver were spent taking care of som admin stuff, re-packing the car and meeting up with a couple of friends. It was a little strange to back in your 'hometown' (at least for Victoria who have lived in Vancouver for eight and a half years) and not have a permanent address in the city. However, both of us felt a little clastrophobic with so many people in such a small space.

When we checked out from our hotel after three days it felt good and we are now ready to embark on the journey east. We will be maintaining the blog for the next portion of this trip, so come back soon to see what we are up to!

written by  Victoria & Robert on October 16 from Vancouver, Canada
from the travel blog: the Canadian Arctic
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So we were finally off to Golden to see if Robert could spot the elusive goat..... Without knowing pretty much anything about the whereabouts and behaviours of goats and neither of us had never been in the Kootneys before so it was a little bit like finding a needle in a haystack. However, we knew what mountain goats looked like because we had seen them in pictures and we saw some 'live' ones on the side of the road high up in the mountains when we drove through the Banff National Park. That must have been a good start. Right?

In Radium hotsprings, Robert had got some leads on where around the town of Golden he might find the goats, so on that advice, we set off on a forestry track straight into 'goat land'.... or at least what we thought would be the home of the mountain goat. We set up camp at a remote site and since there was a little of a chill in the air Robert put in the wood burning stove that we have for the tent. It would turn out that would probably be what saved us from freezing to death!

The first day of goat hunting included a plan to go for a four hour hike up a 7000 ft mountain. A neighbour at the camp site had given us some vague leads on where to go and since we were clueless we thought that it couldn't be that difficult and set out to follow this trail that the guy had told us about. It turned out that the 'trail' was virtually non-existent and we spent the next two and a half hour climbing a VERY steep hillside. 15 minutes into the hike Robert pulled a calf muscle and for a moment we were wondering if the goat hunt had ended before it really even started.... Luckily, the calf warmed up and we continued.

Victoria made a snow man before we set off:

During some parts of the 'hike', we were literally hanging on to tree branches to pull ourselves up! Victoria was the lucky carrier of a 35lbs backpack which contained all our gear and emergency supply, and both of us where absolutely exhausted when we reached the top of the mountain. Having set off quite late we had to pretty much turn around right away so we spent the next two hours climbing down again without seeing any goats or any other animals. Oh, wait. Yes, we did see a few bear tracks and cougar tracks. We even found some fur balls that the big cat had coughed up which contained hair, pieces of bones and claws from some unlucky animal that ended up being cougar dinner.

Completely exhausted and a little bit discouraged, we decided to take the next day off and go down to Golden. That night there was a full moon and in the distance we heard the wolves howling. The morning was a slow one also because we woke up and realized it was minus 12 C! Thanks to the wood burning stove in the tent, the temperature inside was hovering about 10C or so above freezing, but as soon you left the tent, it really felt chilly! Golden is a little town on the west side of the Rockies in the Kootney mountain range on the British Columbia side. The surrounding environment is beautiful in the Columbia valley with mountains on both sides, farm lands and wetlands where the river cuts through the mountains. In town we did our bi-weekly laundry at a laundromat and found a very cute bookstore with a nice cafe.

The next day we got an early start as we wanted to be up on the mountain by mid-morning and our experience from the first hike was that it would take us about 2 hours just to get to the top of the mountain range. Even though we had sworn never to do the same hike again, we decided to take the same route as we knew that it at least would take us to the top. The night before it had snowed quite a lot, but thankfully, it wasn't as hard this time. Perhaps it was psychological because this time we knew what was ahead of us and how long it would take to reach the top, or perhaps it was also because our bodies had adjusted better to the altitude. In any case; one thing was crystal clear: finding a mountain goat is not easy and requires that you are in decent shape! If you are not alread, you will for sure get fit!

We reached the mountain ridge around noon and it provided the most spectacular and beautiful view!!! We had a great view of the Rockies, the Kootney mountains and the Columbia valley.

However, it was quite chilly with a considerable amount of snow and the clouds were sweeping past the mountains very quickly. When the sun was shining it was warm and wonderful, but as soon as a cloud came in everything changed in a second and it was easy to understand how people get caught by surprise by weather on top of mountains and get in trouble... In other words: weather on top of a mountain is very unpredictable and can change quickly.The best way to describe mountain weather is 'temperamental'.

We spent about two hours walking on top of the mountain range but didn't see anything in terms of wildlife. So eventually we decided to head down again and turned around to follow our own tracks in the snow. That's when we saw that a the tracks of a BIG cat had walked the same direction as us very recently. The only feasible explanation is a mountain lion and it was probably a good thing we didn't see it!

After another day's rest we decided to give it one more go. It would be nice to at least see a mountain goat even if only in the distance!
The alarm went off early in the morning again and...ugh... it was -16C!!!!! The wood burning stove in the tent had kept the temperature somewhat comfortable during the night, but by now, the milk, toothpaste, water and everything else containing liquid was frozen solid...... We eventually learned to bring the water into the tent during night, but we didn't want to bring any food inside as we had already seen quite a few black bears and knew very well that we were in grizzly country so we felt it would be unnecessary to invite the bears for dinner inside our tent... A guy with a cabin in the area stopped by and asked if we had seen the big grizzly. "Which grizzly?" Robert asked? "The grizzly, the size of your car" the guy replied. "Hmm.....no... we haven't seen him.....yet".

Robert had studied the maps in great detail and had this idea that taking a new route up the side of a mountain would be worth a go. Oh boy, were we wrong about that!!! This time we went straight into the woods. No trail whatsoever but a bunch of fallen trees which we climbed over and under. After that, bushes with branches sticking out in all direction making it extremely difficult to walk forward. In short: we spent four hours struggling through very dense and difficult terrain- all on a steep incline. During our lunch break we discovered that all the food was frozen so we chewed on some icy sandwiches and tried to not break our teeth on the granola bars.

Still no goats in sight but we did see some tracks! However, after five hours we decided to turn around again. As stated before, we concluded that going down is at least as difficult as going up! Victoria was trying to keep up as best as she could with half a foot shorter legs compared to Robert but after falling flat on her face in the snow for the 20th time and getting even more snow inside her boots, she couldn't keep quiet anymore: "Robert! I don't want to come across as complaining, but I AM NOT HAVING THAT MUCH FUN ANYMORE!!!!!" Thankfully, Robert's reply was 'Well, that's ok. I stopped having fun about 3-4 hours ago! But don't worry. We are almost there!"

It turned out it would take two more hours before we reached the road where the car was parked and by now we had hiked non-stop for eight and a half hours!!!! Needless to say we were completely drained and we concluded that the day had been somewhat of a disappointment. The only good thing was that it was a hell of a good workout! Our legs were covered in bruises and our hands were full of bits from the trees we had been grabbing on to, but at least we must have buns of steel by now!!!!

The day after, we decided to break up camp and head back into town. By now, we had spent ten consecutive nights in the tent so the thought of a 'real' bed and being able to go to the bathroom without having to worry about running into a bear felt quite compelling!!! The last night we woke up to find that 'somebody' or 'something' had picked up the core of the corn on the cob from our meal that we had thrown on the the camp fire ... It could have been a bear the size of our car or something smaller and it's probably better that we don't actually know what it was...

Tomorrow we are heading back to Vancouver. Probably via Revelstoke and then Kelowna. We plan on spending 3 days in Vancouver to sort out all our stuff and re-pack for the next leg of this journey which will take us east across Canada!

written by  Victoria & Robert on October 11 from Golden, Canada
from the travel blog: the Canadian Arctic
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We arrived to the campsite early evening and were greeted by a very grumpy camp site receptionist. We were the only ones in the whole campsite that stayed in the tent so we quickly became labelled as 'the brave ones'. The weather over the three days was a mix of rain, clouds and some rays of sunshine. The temperature dipped down to around freezing at night, but we have finally mastered the art of bundling up with blankets, extra sweaters etc. when going to bed so it didn't feel too cold (however, not applicable to Robert as he insists that his sleeping bag is 'toasty warm').

The reason why were are in this area of British Columbia is that Robert is on the hunt for a mountain goat. Through the province there is a draw for certain animals and he was 'lucky' to get the goat. Victoria, with no hunting experience whatsoever is observing and learning. While she has never been an opponent of hunting, she has never really understood the attraction to go out and kill an animal. However, she is quickly realizing that the people hunting for wildlife in most cases are way more environmentally conscious and respectful for nature and animals than the people who never have been involved with, or close to hunting. Through our travels we have met many people who are out hunting as it is prime hunting season. The knowledge and respect for nature and animals and a wish to live in harmony with the environment is very geniune and sincere. There is a personal opinion on hunting, but Victoria's point of view is definitely changing.

In Radium we visited the hotsprings on several occasions. It was the perfect way of ending a chilly day; soak in the 40C warm waters! Victoria took it a bit to the extreme and ran up the mountain to the hotsprings, swam and then ran back. Perhaps not the most common opinion on relaxation!

'Cold' pool at Radium hotsprings

After three days in Radium we realized that we are still in the Alberta time zone even though we have crossed back into B.C. We thought it was just this little village that was the exception because it is so close to the Rockies, but when yet another waitress looked a little annoyed when we came in to the restuarant 10 minutes before closing time, we realized it was because it was 9:50 and they were closing at 10. We thought it was 9pm!

We are now heading a bit north towards Golden. We will find a backcountry campsite and set up a base camp. From there, we will go out on day trips to try to spot the elusive goat!

written by  Victoria & Robert on October 4 from Radium Hot Springs, Canada
from the travel blog: the Canadian Arctic
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We continuted from Fort Nelson To Dawson Creek and with the arrival to Dawson Creek which is known as 'mile 0' on the Alaska Highway we concluded that we had driven pretty much all of the Canadian part of the Alaska Highway from Haines Junction to Dawson Creek. The Alaska highway was built in 1942-43 during the WWII by the U.S. Army and completed in just eight months.

After leaving Dawson Creek we entered into Alberta. The first towns to drive through were Grand Prarie, Beaverlodge(!) and then Grande Cache were we camped for two nights.

In Beaverlodge we were greeted by a giant beaver statue.

Of course, Robert had to climb up on the statue to get a picture with him and the beaver...

When he got down again we realized that apparently the town of Beaverlodge were not encouraging climbing the beaver as we noticed a sign that pointed out that climbing the beaver could be dangerous and lead to injury. Two things come to mind: 1. Beaver jokes... don't climb the beaver! hahaha! 2. If there is a sign saying something is 'forbidden'; Robert will do it.

In Grande Cache we decided to set up camp and were surprised to find a really nice municipal camp ground. We spent two nights here and for the first time experienced camping in weather below freezing. The town is on a high altitude so during night the temperature dipped into a couple of degrees in the negative territory (Celsius). A little chilly, but after putting on a touque, socks, long sleeved shirt and and extra fleece blanket, even Victoria was warm!

To keep us warm in the afternoon and evening we kept a camp fire going. Victoria had a go at chopping wood for the first time and managed quite well to chop the logs without chopping her legs off!

Robert took the opportunity for some grooming. With kitchen scissors and the side mirrors to the car, he took to the task of trimming away some of that hair. Victoria assisted and these are the 'before' and 'after' photos....

We explored the surroundings of Grande Cache a little bit by taking a trip out to the Sulphur gates which is where two big rivers merge; Smoky River and Sulphur River. The landscape is beautiful and a geologist's dream with different types of rocks in a beautiful setting.

Our first night in Grande Cache we had just arrived when the family in the camp spot closest to us came over and invited us to their camp fire. Very friendly and perhaps even a little bit surprising! Nice people in Alberta!
The next night, a lone motorbiker pulled up to the camp site when dark was setting in and since he looked cold and probably didn't have an axe to chop wood for a fire, Robert went over and invited Marc. Marc was a super nice guy who was on his way home to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories from a two month long trip down south through the U.S and back. Since Marc is an experienced outdoor person and (obviously) avid motorbiker, Robert and Marc connected and had a good chat about motorcycles, hunting and stuff. It is really amazing how many nice people you can meet if you just reach out a little!

Back on the road the next day we entered the Jasper National Park. We first drove to Jasper where we spent the night at a really nice hotel. We were getting a little 'lazy' but truth to be told, most campgrounds are closed for the season and as we now were in a national park you can't really pitch a tent just anywhere.

We saw some mountain sheep.

Dinner in Jasper was consumed at the local Korean restaurant. The very friendly staff tried to force Robert to use a fork as they doubted that he would be capable of using chop sticks. Robert insisted (and presvered) that he was fine eating with chop sticks but the Korean lady was hard to convince. Victoria ordered a traditional dish but needed help preparing it. The Korean lady looked questioningly at Victoria and then showed her how to mix the veggies with the rice. Then she went back to the rest of the staff and the conversation probably went something like this "strange Korean girl sitting over there. Can't pronounce the food she ordered correctly and doesn't know how to mix the rice with the veggies!!!" Victoria eventually explained she was born in Korea but grew up in Europe which was met by a long sentance in Korean and more confusion as Victoria looked like a big question mark.

The next morning we drove into Banff national park and made two stops: one at the Athabasca falls and one at the Columbia icefields.

As we were going higher and higher, we reached an altitude of over 2,000 meter. It got chillly and by the time we got out of the car to look at the glacier it was again below freezing and with some snow flurries.

We hiked up to the end of the glacier which is a rapidly receeding glacier that reached about a mile further down the hill just less than a century ago. Little markers along the hillside showed the reach of the glacier at different years.
Once at the edge of the glacier there were a billion different signs warning for the danger of stepping out of the designated trail. Of course that made Robert want to take a closer look.

Back in the car we now headed for Lake Louise and then on to Banff.

written by  Victoria & Robert on September 30 from Banff, Canada
from the travel blog: the Canadian Arctic
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