Fully sick, ja?

Words don't really describe the Rockies. (Except to say.. WOW!) Pictures don't really capture them. (But be warned I will still bore you all stupid with the gazillions of photos I took up there). You simply have to see them, they are unlike anything else on Earth.

After my last blog, I checked in (under the watchful gaze of various stuffed and mounted animal heads) to the Athabasca Hotel, which has been there since Jasper was a train stop in the wilderness. Banff and Jasper national parks are among the oldest national parks in Canada. They were originally started as a tourist venture to get more passengers on Canada Royal Pacific Rail's trains, and that heavy focus on acquiring tourist dollars remains today. After one night at the Athabasca I needed somewhere a little easier on my hard done by wallet.

Then I came out and found my car had been hit with a coke bomb: some kids had planted a full coke can beside my car and stamped on it so that one whole side of the car was COVERED with droplets of sticky soft drink, congealing in the sun. Took f'ing ages to clean off. After that I'd had enough of towns and went down to a canyon and hung out at a lake and climbed up to a look out and watched an elk swim across a river and night found me still in the Jasper area, with the Athabasca still the cheapest option. I drove out of town to a hostel, which was crowded with screaming kids and had no beds. But I was not going back in to Jasper.

"Well," said the girl at the desk in a heavy European accent, "we have a fully sick hostel up on Mt Edith Cavell. There is no electricity or anything.."

So I drove out into the wilderness, up this winding road in a dark forest, with occassional glimpses of snowcaps and glaciers in the starlight, and found this place. Like I said earlier, wow.
So sorry if none of you have heard from me for a few days, I've been busy tramping through forests, and climbing up above the treeline to look at glaciers and sitting by lakes full of icebergs. It's been pretty good.

I spent too long up there and needing to get the car back left me with a hell drive across BC trying to do in one day what had taken me three on the way over. From mountains and 6 degrees in the morning, to corn fields and red barns and fruit stalls with mountains of pumpkins stacked in front of them, to vast sparkling lakes and multi-lane highways through industrial zones, to deserts (yes, deserts, in Canada!) and 28 degree heat, to sunset over more mountains and night-time forests where deer ran from my high beams, I drove and drove and drove. But I couldn't quite do it, I couldn't quite make it, and in the middle of the night with no more energy or wits to drive, I ended up in... HOPE! Chainsaw town! Nooo!

But as I pulled in, I found myself in a strip of motels and takeaways and neon signs, and no sign of the creepy place where I'd had my door rattled in the night. I walked up the motel strip until I found one where I could talk the guy into giving me government rate (ie the rate reserved for Canadian public servants) and returned to Van next morning. Just as Creepysville had disappeared, so had Rain City. It was brilliant sunshine and smiles in Vancouver this time.

Goes to show, I guess, each place has a hundred faces, just depends on what day you come in. I will be back in Australia on the morning of October 12th, which will be the 40th day of my journey, and the last day of the 30th year of my life. Anyone want to get pissed and look at pictures of mountains? Lots and lots of pictures of mountains...



PS Caroline, I owe you a beer, so you better come. It was about 20 minutes. Damn those parked cars, eh, they really sneak up on you.