Long Time No Hear

I thought I had better make an appearane on my blog, as through various means of communication people were beginning to think I was no longer around due to my substained absence from t'interweb.

Of course being a poverty stricken traveller, the real reason for this silence was due to me and Rich getting our kicks on routes 3, 3A, 3C, 97, 99, 5 etc etc. We left the safe confines of Whistler approximately a week and a half ago, and we have another 2.5 weeks approx until we darken Whistler's doors again. Therefore this may or may not be my last correspondence till then, it all depends on how stingy I'm feeling as I have to pay for my internet time now(boo hoo I hear you say!).

We are now approximately 949 kms away from Whistler in the town of Fernie, just nestled into the western edge of the Rockies. Somehow we've managed to do about double this distance, but we've visited a couple of places along the way. Here is a brief run down. Once I have free access to the internet I'll be sure to bore you all with the details.

Okay, here goes:

First Day - Whistler to Kelowna - If you look at the map this is a long way. We were going to stay in Hope overnight, but due to there being little going on there we decided to keep going to Kelowna. Trust me this is a long way, especially with the last two hours battling through snow drifting in the dark so that you can't see more than 10 yards in front of you! Very intense drive. Met some cool people in the hostel once there!

Second to Fourth Day - Kelowna to Big White and Back Again. Great ski area. Lots of friends made and good times! Good snowboarding, followed by a game of ice hockey, and beers in one of only two pubs in town!

After that (lost count of the days!) - Kelowna to Nelson. Once again a dodgy snowy drive, but at least it was light this time! Anyway, Nelson is quite a cool town. The experience was marred by spending the first night at the Flying Squirrell hostel which is prob the worst place to stay ever! Full of long term dopehead residents, who had a tendency to wander into your room unannounced. Still managed to change to a HI place which was very civilised. Snowboarded at Whitewater. Very reminiscent of the Scottish ski hiils, with only two chair lifts! Still, it had some snow, so it was fun! Stayed in Nelson for a total of four nights, and it was quite a cool place. A lot of the buildings are restored Victorian buildings, and the main street is straight off a film set (literally, cos I think it was used in the Steve Martin Film "Roxanne"). It's a very arty community, which means there are lots of hippies and weirdo's and it's fair share of potheads, but in the most part it's quite cool.

Now - Stunning drive from Nelson to Fernie. If there's one part of Canada so far I would recommend to people it would be this area, around the Kootenay Lake and onto the Rockies. The drive was amazing, crossing through the Selkirk and Purcell Mountains, before some relatively flat land, before coming across the brick wall that is the Rocky Mountains! They really do rise nearly out of nowhere. I'm looking forward to the trip from Calgary to Banff, from the prairies to the Rockies to get a real contrast!

From here - well the itinerary has been provisionally changed slightly and is likely to look like this:

Fernie to Calgary
Calgary to Banff - Week or so in Banff inluding Lake Louise and Sunshine Village
Banff to Kicking Horse
Kicking Horse to Revelstoke
Revelstoke to Kamloops (Possibly, can't really remember this bit!)
Kamloops to Vancouver
Vancouver to Vancouver Island (We're off to see some big trees! Yay!)
Vancouver Island to Vancouver
Vancouver to Whistler (sans car, boo hoo!)

I shall keep y'all informed!