Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Road Trippen Rockies'

James and Jen the crazy adventure lovers that they are decided there was no better way to spend their honeymoon than with 16 friends (plus 3 babies) and a road trip of about 1500 kilometers. We set out on a sunny summer day in 5 cars and were later joined by a 6thvehicle. Our first mission was to board the ferry to Vancouver and then head east for our first stop – the Dairy Queen at Hope. The weather was hot, the air conditioning broken, the speedometer broken, the automatic transmission almost broken but we were on the road. Our car companion Blue, who hails from the Canadian town of Revelstoke gave us a running commentary on the scenery and entertained Maya in the backseat. The first night we camped on lake Okanagan the highlights being our first camp dinner - a Thai feast and swimming in the lake after a hot day while looking out to the snowy mountains. Steve Curtain also put on a dazzling display of Pink Floyd induced synchronised swimming, complete with head-torch lighting special effects. Some described it as graceful. The next day our destination was Nakusp where we spend a couple of days chilling by another beautiful lake. Many hours of entertainment was found in the humble game of balancing on logs that were floating in the water - a few injuries resulted from this activity and there was some stiff competition from local kids but I think Blue ended up being the champion of the logs. Again the camp cooks excelled and there was some impressive tarpology practiced under pressure when a storm blew in. We also had bush fires in the background and Canada's version of Elvis the helicopter working hard to put it out. Our next stop was Rogers Pass via Revelstoke - hometown to our travelling companion Blue. Here we stopped at the famous (well Blue said it was famous) Frontier Restaurant for some large beers. The weather was really heating up and at every opportunity we stopped to jump in a freezing lake and marvel at how we could be feeling so hot when looking at snow on the mountains. Rogers Pass was incredible, we stayed in a fabulous hut and did a steep but amazing walk up to Abbots ridge which gave us an incredible view of the glaciers. After two nights here we headed homeward and spent our final night of the trip camped on another lake at Nicola. All in all it was a blast, wonderful company, loads of food, Frisbee and fireball and a good look around the interior of British Columbia.The Gang - Gavin, Querida, Kat, Sarah, Scotty, Richo, Blue, Maya, Jen, Pete and James. Steve, Nellie, Maggie, Natalie, Anna, Steve .C. Leonie, Mary, Dustin and Brett are absent from the photo.

One of the first things to be packed for the road trip - The Doctor.



Our traveling companion Blue.


Camp Tucker at Nukusp.

Early morning reflections


Juvenile Bald Eagle with nest



Log walking
James not impressed with his efforts
Blue showing how its done


10 points for style Richo


Better luck next time Pete
nice holding of nose though
if you look closely


James has the vibe
"concentrate grasshopper"


The Canadians love their wide-arsed pick-ups.

An old barn


Maya and Teddy cracking a joke at the Frontier.




Bloody big beers cheers Jimbo



A mounted moose



A cougar feeling stuffed like the moose



As the sign said we waited




Scotty and Stevie C.



Cooling off outside of Revelstoke - spot the snow on the mountains.




Heading up into the mountains.



A Columbian Ground Squirrel
Cheeky little things


Rogers Pass Interp.


Our first sighting of big mountains


Wheeler Hut at Rogers Pass


Dinner time


Marrion Lake


We hiked up to Abbotts Ridge....

Dad carried Maya all the way to the top, I was puffed

Half way rest stop
time for some snacks


Blue our guide to the top


......and this is what we saw! Bloody big Glaciers !


We made it to the top Maisey





High altitude cuddles


Pete and Leone


James the mountain man


Time for lunch


The gang at the very top



3 wise monkeys



Stevie boot skiing passed the only quartz rock



Richo and Querida



Mum and Maisey having Lunch in the mountains



Maya enjoyed the snow after her hard days hiking in the backpack.


The waterfall fairy


The last nappy change of the trip on the ferry home



Bear


Patriotic Bum

Bye Bye

That was an amazing trip
Thanks everybody

1 comment:

Cinema Minima said...

Hi Scotty,

Richo here.

How come your photos are sooo much better than mine? Oh, maybe having a $6000 camera and a good eye has something to do with it.

Well I guess I'm outing my secret blog life with this comment. You are the third person to know...just don't tell my mum or sister, in case I want to bitch about them one day.

Hope all is well in Canada. When do you come back? If you ever need a place to crash in Melbourne, we're going to have a our own place in Carnegie soon. It would be great to catch up.

And by the way, at the moment only people with a blogger account can put a comment here. You can let anyone comment by changing the settings in dashboard - settings/comments/who can comment...

Give Anna and Maya a big hug for us and we'll hopefully see you back in Orstraya soon!

Cheers,
Richo