As I drive along the road of a day I think of things to write about in the blog and then I forget them when I get to the motel and start typing in the evening: So I apologise for the blog missing out on a lot of detail. For instance: today we rode for about 50 miles in fairly populated (for Canada) countryside until reaching Alberta where we drove for miles and miles on nearly empty roads again. The climate in that part of Alberta is quite temperate and the countryside is rolling hills – but imagine rolling hills as you know them but on steroids! Everything is just on a vaster scale in Canada. I can recall cresting the brow of a hill to be met with a vista stretching as far as you could see to the horizon (20 miles?) of densely forested rolling hills with a road weaving through them into the far distance. Just one empty road – the one we were on. The sky was blue with wispy cloud and it was warm. Now this is picture book scenery which rates an exclamation of “Oh wow”. The trouble is though, you then crest another brow and there’s an even more impressive sight – and so it goes on and on.
Journey’s end today was Jasper in the Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies which as you can see from the Wiki entry continues the “Oh wow” theme – as will the Icefields Parkway ride we’re doing tomorrow.
The downside to all this is a) you get blasé about the scenery and b) due to the nature of this trip we never stay anywhere long enough to explore it. So you’re always left thinking about what you missed.
PS Animal watch today was quite poor – just loads of deer and mountain goats.
Tonight we’re staying in an OK motel in Jasper – a real tourist town in the Park. And due to a booking cock up Symon, John and I are all sharing a room: c’est la vie.