The trip from Whistler to Kelowna was fascinating. It is a Geography teacher's dream. The end result is we left a clear sky and traded it for the smoke haze we endured earlier in the week. The rain we had in Whistler which cleared much of the smoke, has not eventuated in Kelowna.
Canada is the second largest country in the world and coming from the sixth largest, Australia, we understand the tyranny of distance better than most. Today we spent almost six hours driving. Large, yes; similar to Australia, not so much.
We left Whistler and drove further into the mountains so the alpine features continued. Eventually this gave way to glacial valleys and massive scree slopes. They varied, as we drove, from huge rocks, the size of small cars, to fine gravel, and at times, sand or dirt. The river we followed snaked its way across the country. At one point it was almost blocked by a log-jam. It was almost a text book picture. The river flowed on, but the surface debris was captured. I'd never seen anything like it before.
The valleys carved by glaciers were complemented by those made by rivers. The differences were obvious. The U shape of the glacier that carved the landscape as opposed to wider V shape of the river valley. The river valleys had the usual flat land where lucerne was grown, or fruit and vegetables. There were many road side stalls selling what ever produce was local.
What was interesting as we drove, were the smaller settlements - those spaces where there were intermittent clusters of dwellings. The houses seemed to be temporary in nature, mobile home style, and invariably were accompanied by several derelict cars. A scene that was repeated over and again along the road we travelled. It reminded me of the abandoned cars on the Sturt Highway in Australia. Back home these communities would have been signified by a name on a sign - not so here.
At one point looking across the lucerne paddocks and the mobile irrigators, I mused that we could have been in Australia, except for those massive mountains of pine trees in the background. And then we were ascending again, back into the fir trees and alpine climate.
In the midst of the landscape there were occasional sites where logging had occurred and we drove behind several huge logging trucks along the way. Hence today's title dear reader. Uninspiring? Perhaps. But at some point it had to make an appearance. It is, after all, quintessentially Canadian - via Monty Python. They didn't seem to be as rabid as the cowboy coal truck drivers who intimidate other road users on Appin Road. Going uphill, we actually managed to pass a couple of these trucks and not get mown down subsequently on the next downhill section.
And so we wended our way from Whistler through Lillooet and then Lytton, Merrit and finally onto Kelowna. We stopped once at Lytton to get petrol having ascertained what grade fuel we needed, what side the petrol tank was located and how to open it. All seemed well until it became apparent that you had to pay for the petrol before you pumped it into the tank. An interesting concept since you might ask how one is supposed to know how much petrol one needs until one has actually filled the fuel tank???
Jayne fronted the counter staff on this conundrum to be told we had to nominate an amount - $40 was the agreed sum which in fact diddled them out of additional revenue as we actually would have purchased more fuel than we did, if we had known how much we needed to fill the tank ...
The road was generally good all the way through, so my concern about driving such a large car on the wrong side of the road was largely unfounded. For most of the journey the road was carved into the side of a mountain which followed the river below. On the more major roads overtaking lanes were reasonably frequent, although not on the minor ones.
There was one section just out of Lillooet where the road narrowed to one lane and was scratched onto the side of the mountain. Thankfully we didn't meet anyone coming from the other direction since the roadside instruction was to give way to whoever arrived first. Again, not sure how the sequence of arrival would have been determined but shortly after this, a passenger bus came the other way so probably size would have been the telling factor in the contest had it occurred on the one lane stretch and we would have lost.
The hotel in Kelowna is on the lake and we were upgraded to a lake view room. Nice. And given a complimentary wine tasting in their tasting room in the lobby. Better. Finally, dinner prices returned to a more reasonable level after the inflated prices of Whistler. Best.
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| Sunset through the smoke |
After dinner we went back to our room, turned off the air-con and opened the doors to enjoy the breeze and the evening. Sounds pleasant doesn't it? It was delightful, until the bugs invaded and covered the ceiling. Jayne called reception and asked them to send up some spray to dispatch them to the nether world. Instead we got Ryan and a vacuum cleaner. He proceeded to vacuum the bugs up, carefully and painstakingly whilst giving us a lesson in the entomology of the region - sand flies are apparently called fish flies here. Whatever they are called, Jayne and the little flies don't get on, as we found out on North Stradbroke Island many years ago. So she assisted Ryan in the bug spotting till all were sucked away. In all my travels, I can't say that I have experienced that before. The doors will remain closed tomorrow evening no matter how balmy the weather.
Until tomorrow ...
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