12 July 2007, 16:42 in Travels
Canada update
Jules and I have been in Canada for some time now and seen and done a lot, so it’s time for an update! In this post I won’t cover everything that we’ve done up until now, but I’ll make a start. Note that some of the photos that appear below are mine and some were taken by Jules.
Jules captured some great photos of the views from the flight over from Australia to Canada.
Despite a long time flying we arrived in Vancouver at the same time and same day as we departed Sydney, due to the 15.5 hour time difference…
Initially we were in Vancouver for a few days. It’s a beautiful city and I think it has a similar kind of feel to it as Perth, being of an open kind of design, located on the water, and very multicultural, although it is a lot bigger.
We met up with some of the people from the office over here, including Joe, John, Steve, Alan, and Janine. Alan and Dan from the Perth office were also currently here in Vancouver. John had us over for a BBQ at his place, and we had an absolute feast!
From Vancouver we flew to Edmonton where we had some contacts. We didn’t get to see a lot of Edmonton because we were staying in an industrial area near work stuff. However we did check out the West Edmonton Mall which is said to be the largest mall in North America! We both went on a bit of shopping spree there and spent a lot of money!
The main purpose of being in Edmonton was to visit a coal mine which was about a 3.5 hour drive away in the mountains. On the way there we saw plenty of pen meadows and plains, lush green forest, and fresh water lakes and streams. The minesite was located in the most beautiful spot in the mountains with breathtaking views.
It turned out that the haul trucks on site were not of the correct type to allow us to perform our testing. It was arranged for us to visit another minesite located near Elkford, which is a small town in the Rocky Mountains. We booked a hire car and drove south from Edmonton down past Calgary and then west into the Rocky Mountains, to the tiny town of Elkford. Our hire car was a Mercury Grand Marquis, a kind of retro luxury V8 saloon car. While the mechanical design and technology is primitive and it handled like a boat, it had a nice interior and was a good comfy cruiser for eating up lots of miles.
After around 8 hours of driving, with some spectacular clouds and a beautiful sunset along the way, we arrived in the tiny mountain town of Elkford. We arrived there late on a Friday night, and it happened to be the Canada Day long weekend, so we were greeted with fireworks upon arrival!
Elkford seems to exist mainly to serve the nearby mine sites. There was a softball tournament on in Elkford so half the people there were softball players. The main restaurant there is Chinese, so for a couple of nights we ate Chinese food in a remote town in the Canadian Rockies of all places! In the rural areas, just about every car on the road is a big Ford F150/F250/F350 or Dodge Ram 1500/2500/3500.
We drove out to two nearby coal mines, again located amongst the most beautiful mountains.
As you can see from the photos, the forests and mountain scenery around Elkford are stunning. The weather was warm and sunny and it was nice to have a bit of time to just chill out.
On Canada Day (July 1st) we went down to the pub where a Queen cover band from Germany was playing. They were called MerQury and they were really good! Had a bit of chat to them in broken (drunken) German. Let’s just say I had a bit too much to drink that night and someone’s sink ended up clogged… Jules also had an interesting experience but I will let him tell you about it.
All the photos so far have been uploaded to the gallery. More will be added over time.
I have lots more to write about the rest of the trip so far, and will do so soon!
