Mark Smith

Today started early as we were on the 10am cruise on Maligne Lake (pronounced male leen). Alarm went off at 6 and were down for breakfast just before 7, to find a large queue of elderlies on a bus tour ahead of us. They were on an 8am departure and were all over the place literally and figuratively, not knowing how anything worked etc! Breakfast was nice some hot sausage patties, little egg omelettes and pancakes., The first two weren like the stuff in a Sausage and Egg McMuffin. Was also, pastries, toast, cereal, juice and tea and coffee. We ate ours and grabbed a couple of muffins for morning snacks then hit the road. The Maligne Lake road is a haven for wildlife spotting - sadly we didn't see any. We stopped at Medecine Lake, which is porous at the bottom and is totally empty in winter, only filling in summer when the inflow of melting snow is greater than the ourtflow through the bottom. Realised it was cold currently, the car temp said 2 degrees. But sky was blue and sun rising so it was going to get hotter. We drove on and reached the car park about 8.30. The restaurant was open and we grabbed coffee and more pastries to eat. Took some great photos of the mist still clearing from the lake - mountain tops were visible but not the bottoms. Early bus trip cruises had had to be delayed due to the mist being much thicker. It cleared as we drank our coffee and the Lake looked beautiful.

We lined up to board the boat, second in line and were let on about 9.50. Bagged seats at the back as I'd read you could take better photos as the back window slid back and you had easier access to the outdoor standing deck at the back of the boat. 31 people on the boat, but there was talk of a Chinese group of 6 that were very close by. We were literally just casting off when they came running down, so they all hopped on. Tash and I were grateful we had moved to the double seat in front of Ed and Sam at the back as the other side were triple seats, filled with two people until the Chinese arrived and had to sit one on the end of every row.

We were off, slowly at first to avoid capsizing any folks who had hired canoes, as the boat created a 3 foot wake, then we sped up and were going pretty fast. Our guide gave us some interesting facts and stories about the lake and the surrounding mountains. We saw a helicopter picking up water to help manage forest fires and a bald eagle in flight. Apparently another nests near Medecine Lake and had survived a fire there a few years ago with his tree intact and hiding deep in the next when he was a baby so the smoke didn't get to him. One mountain range was named Queen Elizabeth and had been given to the Queen by Canada as a coronation present.

We sailed on through great scenery to our landing spot - Spirit Island (actually a small peninsula). This has great views back across it to the mountains that surround it - on all sides in an unusual box valley formation. It has featured on lots of calendars and banknotes and hung in Grand Central Station in New York promoting Canada for a couple of months - a copy of the picture was passed around together with some rock samples of the surrounding mountains. We took lots of pics and also visited the toilets installed here at cost of C$250k - very eco friendly but very expensive. Tash tried the doors of the cubicles and declared them occupied so we waited outside. An elderly Chinese man came and walked straight past us trying to get into one as the person came out. Tash was indignant and having none of it and said excuse me, there's a queue and slipped in before him. The lack of queuing etiquette from Asian folks irritates her! The fact when I tried the other door it was unlocked irritated me. Our kids just not good with doors!

The ships horn went calling us back to the boat after about 20 minutes viewing the island. A spear on it was put their last year by a First Nation tribe to whom the island was sacred and they blamed a forest fire near them recently on a lack of attention paid to the island. On the way back our guide asked everyone where they were from for the company stats. Some elderlies in front were from Florida and were doing a float tour in the afternoon. We had a chat with her about wildlife around the lake - they sometimes see moose swimming across or bears at the side, but rarely. The Lake freezes in the winter, but no skating as it is too deep in snow - cross country skiing and snow shoeing are the order of the day.

We landed back just after 11.30, pretty much as expected and went to the cafe for lunch - soups, stews and cake were had including a Nanaimo bar, bit like millionaires shortbread with extra custard and coconut. Jenny at work had told me about them, a lady from Nanaimo had won a competition years ago to device the best recipe using custard powder. Was ok but not my favourite dessert. Not much for Sam to eat so she had a banana. We headed back - no wildlife again, stopped again at Medicine Lake and Ed and I walked down to the lakeside and threw some rocks in. Sam stayed with Tash who was asleep!

Just before the end of Maligne Lake Road is Maligne Canyon and we called in. Got a lucky parking space as it was busy. Tash still asleep so Ed and I went off. There is a long walk that takes in 6 bridges across the canyon, but we went for the shorter first two bridges. The canyon was probably 200 feet deep- could barely see the water in the bottom in parts, but was only 20 foot wide at its widest and sometimes only a few feet at the top. The walk took about 20 minutes but was very spectacular and not too busy. We went to the shop and got some magnets and Ed got bit grumpy as I said no to ice cream until later when Tash was awake. Back to the car and she was and we headed to the Jasper Skytram about 20 minutes on the other side of down. A big James Bond style cable car that went up and down every 7 minutes or so, one side going up as the other came down each holding about 35 people/. We got tickets for the 3.12, leaving about half hour wait so had a drink and looked in the shop.

On the way up there is a guide in the car (from England) and he told us a few facts about Whistler's Mountain - named after whistling marmots that lived on it. It was the clearest day they had had for weeks and Mount Robson, the highest in this part of the Rockies was clearly visible with snow on top in the distance. We made for the cafe and decided to eat there and cancel our reservation in town until tomorrow night. Kids had burgers, and I had an elk meatloaf sandwich - very tasty. We decided to skip dessert and have ice cream later in the 50 flavours shop in town. We then walked around looking at the view and Ed and I went for the walk to the summit. The guide coming up had said out was 20-30 minutes but it was more like an hour to an hour and half and much further than we thought. We took our time and took some of the easy paths and saw lots of stone piles people had made. Ed did a small one on the less trod path, then decided he didn't want to go further so I left him building another and carried on. I went almost to the summit, pretty much the same height but not as far across the plateau. Took me about 15 minutes and decided to go back as didn't want Ed to feel lost. Got back to him and he was fine had just finished his rock tower - had been an engineering feat finding the right stones to balance on top of each other. We hope it will stay out there for a while at least. We walked back down and met Sam and Tash and took some more pictures, While we had been walking they had been acting as unofficial photographers for people, taking pictures of them. We joined the queue down, quite long and it took about 50 minutes or so to board. Encountered various rude people in the queue - an Asian chap who kept touching his girlfriends leg and also Tash's sitting next to her and an American guy who would not make space for anyone else in the cramped car down. Obviously not used to public transport. A 93 year old lady was on tour with her daughter - both sharing the driving around Canada!

At the bottom we headed back to the hotel, 10 minute or so drive. Sam did some washing when we got back, washing machine didn't empty and she had to get help from reception to sort it out and also managed in the melee to drop her room key under the tumble dryer!

Tash and I ventured into town to visit the 56 flavours ice cream shop. Ed was feeling full and so didn't come. I got a triple scoop dish, with Rolo, Kit Kat and Spumoni flavour (chocolate and pistachio). Each scoop was about 2 normal scoops so had sooo much ice cream. Managed to eat it. Tash had two scoops, rainbow sorbet and chocolate flavours. Managed them too. The ice cream parlour was full of cuddlies. We got back feeling rather sick.Baca selengkapnya