Canada: oot and aboot with Jimmy Ray, Helmut and ze mountains (11 May)

Soon the call of the road was too much so James and I set ouselves to planning the great adventure north. We decided to head to the Rockies and set our sights on the town of Banff, which is actually in Alberta. We spent ages trying to find a huge SUV/pick-up but after second thoughts based on cost and emissions, we settled on a bright blue Toyota Matrix - not in Australia yet.






We left on Fri 11 May on yet another glorious day and sped north towards Whistler which would be our first brief stop. Whistler is one of Canada's best known ski resorts and you will meet plenty of Aussies in bars and cafes around Vancouver and the rest of Canada who are either making their way to Whistler or waiting for the season to start again. Given that it is the northern spring, we arrived just after Whistler had closed so our search for snow would take us much much further north.



After Whistler I dozed off and half an hour later awoke to the sound of James cursing, "the farken highway has ended!!" and he was right, the road had basically just ended. We cruised around the small hamlet where we had ended up and spied a genteel woman in her garden. I jumped out to ask directions and as we chatted, I noticed a man making a rapid pace beeline across the paddock. He turned out to be her husband, who was obviously glad to have visitors, and had a thick German-French accent that we decided meant he was from the border area of Alsace-Lorraine. His name was Helmut and little did we realise the profound impact he would have on our trip - if not the rest of our lives. Helmut told us the road we were on did continue but that the road was so bad that our car wouldn't make it and if we tried would most likely join the pile of car carcasses at the bottom of the valley. His manner, expression and eager disposition captured our imaginations and soon we were talking like Helmut as we gunned the Matrix back on the road.


We passed through some of the most amazing countryside, with towering mountains topped with snow flanking deep valleys and rolling plains. Unlike Australia, Canada is lush and green with not even a hint of water supply problems - in fact they have 75% of the world's fresh water supplies. I was inspired to want to try to drive, having never attempted the "wrong" side of the road before. I was nervous but after a few hundred metres and causing the odd heart attack it was like second nature. Soon darkness fell and the temperature dropped and we focused on making it to Banff.

A total of 12 hours later (including getting lost/finding Helmut and a few stops) we arrived in Banff. Given that it was past 1am, the only place that had beds for us was the YWCA. We were stopped at the door by two young Quebecois women posing as bouncers who were soon impressed by our Alsace-Lorraine accents and told us they had spare beds in their dorm. James looked at each other with cocked eyebrows and accepted the offer. But one girl was rather drunk and soon we were asked to leave so she could throw up in peace. We settled into another dorm and soon crashed out.