Manitoba to Victoria

[Heinrich 8]

We had a brief trip out to Victoria at the beginning of July 2006.

We left Carberry (Manitoba) after our eldest son, Paul's grade 12 graduation. The first night's sleep was at Swift Current in Saskatchewan. (It takes a full 7 to 8 hours to travel through the province of Saskatchewan along the TransCanada.) The next morning, upon reaching Alberta, we visited the hat in Medicine Hat.

Our first real place of interest was Drumheller where the dinosaurs were dug up and are on display at the Royal Tyrell Museum:

Drumheller has the most interesting scenery and the landscape is called "badlands" and this is what it looks like:

Back to the TransCanada Highway (the # 1), we headed for for Calgary (only passed it) and reached Canmore for the next night's rest in the Rocky Mountain Ski Lodge. The "Three Sisters" were visible in the Mountain and here is a picture of their rock formation:

The next day, we visited Banff, Lake Louise and Lake Moraine, which are always a "must see". Lake Moraine is just beautiful as this picture only gives an idea of the beauty:

We then headed up towards Jasper and paid a visit to the Columbia Icefields, which is a glacier that is moving down a path. A snocoach took us up into it and we could enjoy the ice. Here is a picture of the ice in the middle of the summer:

And here is another picture showing Mount Athabasca in the background:

From there we backtracked our path and pushed on south again towards British Columbia (our first visit). At the bottom of the "Kicking Horse Pass" I took this picture of the river where we could stretch our legs.

In the next post, I will tell a little more about our visit to BC.

Edited August 10, 2006 by Heinrich

[Heinrich 8]

Here is a continuation of the previous post. After going through Golden, we had supper at Subway in Revelstoke, turned down towards the Okanagan Valley at Sicamous. In the Okanagan Valley we pulled off and had a good night's sleep in Vernon. The next morning early, we went along the scenic Lake Okanagan and reached Penticton and then Keremeos, where we could buy fresh apples. This valley reminds one of the South African Langkloof. On the # 3 highway we took a steady pace through the mountains, and it was tough having semi's (SA = long trucks) and RV's (SA = campers) along the road. The trees against the mountains and sometimes snow-capped mountains were all magnificent. By lunch we could reach Maple Ridge where we could visit only one of many other families that we would have liked to have visited.

From here on, we were in the Greater Vancouver Area and had to wrestle our way to the Tswawassen terminal where we could board the ferry. Our trip on the "Spirit of Vancouver Island" was unforgettable.

Here is a picture of the water behind the ferry:

And here is an Island along the hour and a half trip over the sea;

We slept at Victoria in the Robin Hood Motel and had a look at the beach. It was nice to smell the sea itself.

We could see the government building at dusk:

We visited the very finely built display of the Miniature Museum (quite something special to look for, on the side of the Empress Hotel) the next morning as well as the Christmas Shop in Douglas Street. We also had a look at the totem poles:

By noon we were back on the ferry and went through downtown Vancouver. It's OK to visit, but somehow, we prefer the prairies. Not surprisingly, we got stuck in the traffic on our way to Hope. There we turned off onto the Yellowhead Route (#5) and went through the Coquihalla valley (awesome scenery along the roads all the way).

Going through Merriton reminded us of some or other Karoodorpie, Kamloops must be a nice city to visit as well. We slept at Clearwater (120 km north of Kamloops) and this is a place to visit again:

Now we had two days to get home and 1900 km. We went past Mount Robson:

I expected more scenery at Jasper and was a little disappointed. In Edmonton we visited the famous West Edmonton Mall. Here are two pictures of it:

The first is a picture of the man-made sea complete with waves and the second of the roller coaster. This mall is larger than the Mall of America in Minneapolis (which I had the privilege of seeing in June this year), and is known as the largest entertainment mall in the world. Two others in China are larger, but they aren't entertainment malls.

Now we were heading back through the prairies and slept at Lloydminster (which lies in Alberta as well as Saskatchewan) and the next morning we could visit the Battlefords and Saskatoon as well as a friend in Yorkton. Before dusk we were back at home sweet home.

This was a 6½ day trip (5267 km), and I can describe it as a "whirlwind tour". We enjoyed it, but one can do it at a much slower pace (we just had to show our visitors from South Africa as much as possible). Three or four weeks for this trip would be much more suitable, but the family only had two weeks here. Nevertheless, now we know which places to spend more time at next time.

Edited August 11, 2006 by Heinrich

[Matisse 1]

Very interesting, thanks!

It was quite a lot of travelling in six days, I'm sure you felt like having another holiday to recover from this trip.

Oh, it would be so nice to smell the sea again.

[Guest Barbara]

Great photos.

Thanks for posting them.

[landi 0]

Lovely photos Heinrich. We did a part of the tour 2 weeks before you - from Saskatchewan (our town is about 20km from the Manitoba border) We also took our family from SA. I agree, one should spend more time on a trip like this, there is just so much to see and enjoy. It is difficult to tear yourself away from all the scenic sights. Our trip was also only a week - you need about a week for the mall alone! For us the trip to Jasper was amazing. Thanks for the pics, it was great seeing the familiar places again!

Edited August 11, 2006 by landi