The Marathon Trek

All that was left in Whistler now was the last few days of packing and preparing for the trip. And of course the obligatory party! As it was Matt's last day as well there was a party arranged, and it happened to coincide with karaoke night in the Crystal Lounge. What a happy coincidence. As is traditional, the first half of the evening was spent drinking slowly but steadily to ensure that sufficient lubrication was achieved. Suffice to say that point was achieved, and a fine rendition of the Backstreet Boys "I Want it That Way" was performed. This was then followed by a multitude of fine dance positions in Tommy Africa's, then outside on the street, then a customary post club snack (Why won't they open a Pita Pit over here!).

Luckily my bus wasn't till 3pm the next day so I had plenty of chance to chill out and recover from my hangover before leaving. There were tearful goodbyes as I got on the bus, not sure what the next 3 days sitting on a bus would involve. Basically I was just thankful to get my board bag on the bus so I could move around a bit more freely.

Although, of course, this wasn't really the case on the bus, as it was pretty crowded, and there was no chance to stretch out! Probably the most frustrating aspect of the first leg of the journey was that I got on the bus from Vancouver at 6pm, which meant it was getting dark by Chilliwack, and therefore the bulk of the mountains were travelled past in the darkness. Another frustration that I had to deal with was the fact that the bus stopped about every hour or so. In terms of being able to get out and stretch my legs this was fine, but it meant that trying to get settled or get any sleep was more or less impossible. It also meant that we'd be stopping in the middle of the night for meal breaks, for example stopping in Revelstoke for an hour. At the time however, it was 4am, and if you can imagine there is very little to do in a ski resort at 4am in the summer! All I can say is thank god for Tim Horton's!

On the whole, however, the bus journey wasn't actually as bad as I had thought. Perhaps the worst aspect of the journey was the lack of space. Especially when the people in front of me kept insisting on putting their chair all the way back into the reclined position. Still, the actualy journy was quite good fun. I had been warned that I would be amazingly bored once I headed east of Calgary and out across the plains. But, I actually found it fascinating in a way. The sheer vastness of the area is impressive, not least cos I was driving through it for over a day. It was a nice evening on the way through, and the late evening golden sun warming the grain elevators and harvested fields made it very pretty. Also, the further east the bus drove, the more I noticed that in some ways the towns were becoming more and more reminiscent of English towns, predominantly due to the increased number of older buildings.

This was especially the case as the bus left the plains and got into Northern Ontario. THe landscape changed again and in some ways was reminiscent of a rockier and slightly hillier version of the Broads! THe towns began to feel more like a late 19th, early 20th Century English town, and it all felt a little more familiar.

The main difference driving across this area was the sheer size of Ontario. We crossed the Manitoban / Ontario border late afternoon on Thursday, and to be honest I presumed the predicted arrival time in Toronto of 6pm Friday must be wrong! But we were heading through the province for ages.

One thing about this trip is that it did seem to make time go quicker. I can remember when we reached Saulte Ste Marie, probably with about 4 hours to go, it really did feel like there was a only a brief 10 minute journey left to go!

Soon enough though, I was in Toronto, and probably the longest (In terms of time) continuous journey was over. After about 6 hours sleep over the last 3 days I was delighted to be able to get off the bus, and just stretch out, knowing that I didn't need to get back on in another 15 minutes!