Planet Ruby Starrs

Well finally something started to go our way at last.....It all improved quite a bit later that evening, unfortunately not Dr Freds knee but I had been whinging on about seeing a bear and he agreed that driving wasn’t a problem so a little unenthusiastic and a tad reluctantly he agreed to go for last drive down to Lake Maligne at dusk just so I could at least say we had tried our best… I know there should be plenty of other chances of spotting a bear but I really wanted to see one up here.  So we headed out as the sun went down.  First just outside the campsite we got some glorious sun setting pictures, enhanced sadly by the smoke still lingering as the fires still burned up the country – slightly better in control but still not good  – then just as we were about to turn off the main highway we came across a lot of cars parked and admiring a herd of Elks ( well i think they were elks i need to check)– this was  worth turning out for.  After a few sn...

Its all going a bit downhill at the moment!!! Yesterday Dr Fred got up and could hardly walk, with very little warning other then a funny sensation the night before- his knee has decided to rebel, cease working in an efficient manner and swell up to the size of a medium melon.  Its grim! We spent the day feeling sorry for ourselves, Dr Fred extremely gloomy and not even a bear sighting to cheer us up.   We did see a moose or maybe an Elk but we were on a busy road and couldn’t stop so it was a fleeting glimpse and not enough to raise our spirits.  Trouble is knees might go bad overnight but they certainly don’t mend that quickly!  So Saturday is another doom and gloom day Dr Fred’s knee worse if anything - its very swollen still and ice has helped but its also quite painful.  At least he can still drive and while he’s feeling like an old crock he has at least got me to cheer him up! We went into town and had coffee and cake by way of a treat and I ...

A day out to Lake Maligne.   It was a nice lake not as spectacular as Lake Louise but the plus side was although it was busy it wasn’t anything as bad as Lake Louise – we went for a walk around the side of the lake and then up into the forest and then had a quick look at the Visitors centre which was just café and shop before heading back towards Jasper to find the Maligne Canyon.   After coffee and donuts in the car park we walked down the river side into the canyon – or rather through it and above it.  It was a great walk alongside the water with stunning rock formations washed away by the constant water flow.  There were several places where the water cascaded in to the river  - some of it came from leakage of Medicine Lake a lake we had driven past earlier, although the lake paled into insignificance dwarfed by the incredible limestone mountains alongside, with a ridge measuring about 4 k's long which Dr Fred was having fantasies about..... ...

We moved on from the motel, the storm the storm the night before had caused lots of damage and I was so glad we had been in the motel and not the tent.   storm clouds over the motel We headed down the highway to find a campsite near Lake Louise.  Camping is limited here and was busy but we were early so go sorted and then went off to look at the Takakaw Waterfalls – very spectacular…  DR Fred at the Takakaw falls back to the camp – there is so little flat land around here that everything is crammed in so we are right next to the road and worse still the railway (miles and miles of freight trains) !!! Anyway we didn’t really notice the traffic or train noise in the evening as we went to a talk on the Burgess shale  Fossils, (interesting and google them for more detail) and then came back to base and went to bed!  The trains were ridiculously noisy in the night and they go on for ever… and then there’s another one!!!!  but in the end...

verge flowers We had two nights at Martha Creek camping, it was very pleasant - we had our first day of pretty lousy weather which sadly coincided with our trip to Mount Revelstoke National Park.  It’s a 26 km drive up the 'Meadows in the Sky Parkway' to an altitude of about 1900 metres   Because Canada is celebrating 150 years birthday all the parks are free this year which is a nice idea so we got a park pass at the gate and started the slow drive to the top.   misty mountain views It was very picturesque, there were loads of viewpoints to stop and look at but it was getting very cloudy and when we got to the car parking almost at the summit it was raining.   This didn’t detract from the colourful verges, they were lovely full of wild lupins, yellow daisies and red and white flowers with a very typical background of tall thin fir trees.  All this is surrounded by massive snow covered peaks which slowly disappeared into the m...

So Friday dawns and we are up, out of our motel and away, Dr Fred is feeling loads better and we head off back into the wilds along highway 5 towards Revelstoke.   We were going to stop for brekkie at Annis Bay but it wasn’t sign posted, (the sign posting everywhere seems particularly bad or we just haven’t got the hang of it yet)…. so we missed it so we stopped at Sicamose a seemingly small inoffensive, very quiet place that was actually gearing up for a full on biker STOMP festival - slowly growing a street market/food scene and expecting loud music and all sorts of biker shenanigans for the next two days.  We wandered around  looking at biker gear shops, potential tattoos,  a vast array of huge bikes and trying to find the elusive visitors centre which never appeared..  there were loads of very big very noisy bikes and tough looking critters over tattooed wearing shorts and easy rider bike hats(pretty grim tbh) wandering around, we decided to sample som...

The awesome scenery just continues and we haven't even hit the real mountains yet!!!  We have camped in a couple of fab campsites - very spacious, and all with green tree surrounded private pitches, camp fires - which are currently banned due to the forest fires etc and picnic tables.   Last night we were joined by several chipmunks doing entertaining jumps around the place, the night before I thought we had been visited by a bear but I reckon it was just a pesky chipmunk who had eaten the kitchen roll in the trunk of the car!  (note native speak there)anyway it reminded us to be more careful next time it might just be a bear.   It seems a lot of people are not careful and in fact quite the opposite leading to difficult decision and dead bears. these bears will be shot :-( This marvellous mountainous landscape lends itself to amazing waterfalls, I visited Shannon Falls near Squamish which was impressive and then we went to Brandywine falls a bit further up...

Today it feels like our road trip has been upgraded from a budget trip in a tent to a luxury  drive around North america in a cruise mobile - i can picture myself a few days down the line - sun kissed ( probably burnt) driving in my car, arm hanging down the side, slightly grubby possibly even a bandanna  to take edge of the posh car .... a kinda aged Janis Joplin driving my Mercedes Benz cruising  the Canandian highways... Anyway back to reality….. We hit walmart and bought roll mats and stove, coolbox some camping pans and bits and pieces to make camping more comfortable in fact totally luxurious in keeping with the new image – then we did some food shopping – all cowboy food easy to cook and quick to eat, finally we hit the liquor store and stocked up on beer and wine and finally headed off up highway 99 the ‘sea to sky highway’ to Squamish where we had located a campsite – Dr Freds got used to driving the car and all seems to be going fine. Our first night ...

huge moss covered trees Today we walked around Stanley Park - some massive trees and beautiful woodland and views across the bay.  there are some seriously old trees here but apparently 10,000 were destroyed in a storm in 2006 which must have been a massive change tot he landscape. We saw a turtle sunbathing  and lots of Canada geese and even spotted two bald eagles swooping across the bay.  There were some amazingly zebra striped dragonflies and quite a lot of large stately herons.  Its a large area so although it was busy - sunny Saturday day out - it didn't feel crowded apart from the cycle lanes and it was a nice change to the non stop traffic and bustle of the city the day before. turtle sunning itself beautiful roots of a fallen tree We walked right through the park and we wandered into town, walking through very varied suburbs but mostly looking quite affluent, we had lunch in a bar and found quite a few little street markets. We did a lot...

We've made a few faux pas - foreign  country different customs and all that  - we didn’t realise that drinking in Canada is quite a different experience to anywhere else!  You have to wait to be seated!!!! Even just for a beer! We went to a bar suggested by the B&B owners and just walked in…. to be swiftly grabbed by a member of staff and sent back to queue and be seated by the hostess!!! Except there was a queue so we decided to try a different bar which turned out to be closed – so we went to the Havana bar and queued to be told the bar was full and there was a waiting list so we ended up back at the original bar where the queue had now gone and so we got seated on the patio where finally we were able to choose from a massive range of craft beers and get a drink! and very nice it was!!!   It had been a long day in the city - first the museum and then a wander around Granville Island, taking in the market and various shops, aimed at passing tourist trade so qu...

Totem poles in the great hall Today we went to the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Amazing exhibits of First Nation artifacts, history and art, displayed in a wonderful great hall and surrounding rooms.  Many beautiful totem poles, and other symbolic carvings, creatures, huge dishes, spoons, renovated, reconstructed and some in their original state on show celebrating Canada's early and present history. Symbolic statues and huge dishes for ceremonial parties. A ceremonial garment constructed from several pieces of other garments - a kind of recycling!! In one of the gallery rooms there was an interactive video display where the room was enclosed and different images were projected onto the walls. As you walked around certain bits of the imagery reacted with your shadow causing the projection display to change and suddenly what had been a quiet piece of fluttering art was a red mist, a rainbow or sparkly lights or li...