Sunday, August 31, 2003

Mammoth Lakes

Yesterday we drove from Tonopah in Nevada to Mammoth Lakes in California. It took us about 3 hours driving time, for around 160 miles. We drove out of high desert, across passes up to 7,500 feet high and between 13,000 ft mountains. It was a long drive, but quite straightforward – roads that were as straight as a ruler, with visibility of up to 15 miles ahead. Then we passed into the Sierra mountain range, where the desert gave way to pine forest and lakes. This weekend is a holiday weekend for the Americans, as Monday is Labour Day. That meant that the roads got very busy in the afternoon – this was a bit of contrast to the desert driving, where we’d see another car perhaps every 20-25 minutes.

We’d booked our motel two weeks ago over the Internet, because accommodation is very difficult to get, and expensive, during holiday weekends. The town of Mammoth Lakes is a winter ski resort, and used for hiking and mountain biking in the summer, and as a result has the look and feel of an alpine resort – lots of chalets and wooden-log buildings. The girls just wanted to relax, after all the time in car, and so did we, so Friday evening and Saturday was just spent swimming. The big news is that Emily learnt to swim without arm bands, and successfully went from “I’m not taking them off” to swimming the width of the pool in the space of 2 hours. And Charlotte learnt to dive (Yes, I know that it’s not the world’s best photograph, but it’s the only photo we’ve taken in the last 48 hours, so you’ll have to make do with it!).

Friday, August 29, 2003

More driving

Today, more driving. We have to relocate from Canyonlands towards Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite area. There are two ways to do this - head to Vegas, and then drive through Death Valley (in these temperatures, we'd have to be mad), or to head across miles of barren desert, and along the Extraterrestial Highway. So ET it was.

The entire journey was 450 miles, and for the most part it was just long straight roads across dry desert. Most of the time we could drive at 70+ mph, and just slow down every 30 minutes when the road bent! We stopped for a picnic at a reservoir, and kept going through village after village. In all, over 450 miles, we passed through TEN villages (they all looked like towns on the map, but most of them only had 50 houses or less). One, called Cedar City, really was big - about the size of Banbury. Can you imagine the drive - London to Aberdeen, on dead straight A-roads, passing through only 10 villages (and with only one toilet on the way!)


Anyway, the highlight of the trip was the Extraterrestrial Highway. This 98 mile long highway runs alongside Nellis Air Force base and the famous Area 51 Top Secret Area. Mainly its just more straight road through the desert, but the excitement is heightened by the fact that you're driving along the boundary of America's most secret (well not really) facility.


Quick history: Area 51, also known as Groom Lake, is a secret military facility about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The number refers to a 6-by-10-mile block of land, at the center of which is a large air base the government will not discuss. The site was selected in the mid-1950s for testing of the U-2 spyplane, due to its remoteness, proximity to existing facilities and presence of a dry lake bed for landings. Groom Lake is America's traditional testing ground for "black budget" aircraft before they are publicly acknowledged. The facility and surrounding areas are also associated -- with varying levels of credibility -- with UFO and conspiracy stories. In 1989, Bob Lazar claimed on a Las Vegas television station that he had worked with alien spacecraft at Papoose Lake, south of Area 51. Since then, "Area 51" has become a popular symbol for the alleged U.S. Government UFO cover-up (the Rosswell Incident)

The ONLY THING ON THIS 100 MILE ROAD is the 'town' of Rachel, which has loads of caravans and two permanent buildings. One of them is a petrol station (phew!) and the other is the A-LE INN. The girls loved it! Especially the fake aliens that they could sit with inside the coffee shop. They sold loads of different souvenirs - T-shirts, aliens, Alien driving licences, alien key rings, Area 51 posters etc etc. And books, lots of books telling stories about Area 51 and the various UFO encounters around the world. And on the walls, lots of photo's of UFO's. We've seen lots of tacky things in the states, but this really beats them all!

After tea at Rachel, we drove another 200 miles to Tonopah, where we crashed into a motel at 10pm, after 12 hours of travelling. Lots of people asked me "What do you do all day when you're travelling". Well, there's a good example of a whole day used up!

Thursday, August 28, 2003

Another canyon day

Today we went to Bryce Canyon, the third canyon in three days. Although Kanab is slap bang in the middle of Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyons, it doesn't mean that it's near any of them! It's 30 miles to Zion (not bad), 91 miles to the Grand Canyon (but hell, it's worth it to see one of the top 10 sights in the world), and 81 to Bryce Canyon. So these days are full of road trips.

We set off after breakfast (bacon 'n eggs) and drove up to Bryce non-stop. There are two types of roads in the US - those where the speed limit is 60-65, and you can actually travel at that speed; and those where the speed limit fluctuates every 5 minutes from 60 mph down to 15mph. Fortunately the roads around Kanab are the first type, so the drive to Bryce only took us an hour and three-quarters. When we arrived, we went straight to the Visitor Station to get Charlotte and Emily their Junior Ranger pack, and then we drove into the park. We were amazed - we'd seen photo's of Bryce Canyon from our friends, but nothing had prepared us for the awe inspiring vision that greeted us at the rim. Laid out in front of us, like an army of soldiers, were loads of upright limestone pillars (called hoodoos here). They were the colour of carrots at sunset - an awesome sight. We stayed at the first viewing point for over an hour - partly to watch, partly to picnic, and partly to hear Kevin Poe, Park Ranger extraordinaire, give a Geology talk.

The Geology Talk was part of the work for the girls to get their Junior Ranger badges - they have to attend one of the Ranger talks. Sadly, we'd missed the guided trail and talk this morning, and we were going to be gone by the time the campfire talk was ready. So we had to do the Geology Talk. Imagine how thrilled they were at the prospect of this - a 3 and a 7 year old listening to a geology lecture. However, they sat enraptured for 30 minutes - for two reasons. 1) Kevin had bought some rocks and (wow) dinosaur fossils with him. And 2) Kevin sang part of his lecture with (so bad they were good) rock star impressions. Let's face it, if you've got a group of 20 kids sitting through a geology lecture because they want the badge at the end, then you've got to do something a bit different to help you go to work in the mornings. He also explained a lot about sedimentation, using a bottle of Tang. The kids may have learnt more about Tang than about geology, but when they get to secondary school and 'sedimentation' gets mentioned, they may well be transported back in time, to remember that Neil Armstrong took Tang to the moon!

Afterwards the girls wanted to take the shuttle bus to another viewing point, so they set off with Sarah while I walked to the car park to pick up the car and meet them there. Unfortunately, after I'd put everything from lunch into the boot, I closed it - and as it closed I caught a glimpse of the car keys as the boot slammed shut on them! I got some help from a Ranger, a bus drive and then the driver of the world's largest breakdown truck, and eventually recovered them - and ended up $35 poorer. 45 minutes late, I rolled up to the next viewpoint, to find the girls playing happily (I'd rather expected that they'd be whining about "Where's Dad? Why are we waiting? Why do we have to sit here?" etc etc).

The Sunset viewpoint was even more amazing, and we decided to walk down into the canyon to view it from a different perspective. This was even more amazing - looking at the pillars towering above us, and feeling the cool air in the shady bottom of the canyon. The girls walked down the twisty track, which was narrow with very steep drops, right to the bottom. And then walked back up, despite being at 7,000 feet altitude, and being hot and tired. It was a great experience for us all.


Then, after an ice cream, we drove back to Kanab, passing through typical American mountain scenery on the way. After a while you become immune to more views of the 'same stuff' on drives, but every now and again you remember that you're not at home any more, and you've only seen this kind of scenery before in films.


When we got back to Kanab it was sunset, so I had to take this photo of a typical motel sign, with the red hills in the background. This isn't our hotel, it's Parry Inn, where the movie stars used to stay when they made Westerns out here. The rooms are named after film stars, like Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jnr (even though it appears they never stayed here - is that 'spin' or what?)


And then, after a quick bite, we went back to our hotel. I've mentioned it a few times, without saying why it's so good. Well, as the name suggests - Victorian Charm Inn - it's been built and decorated as as old-world inn, with lots of frilly curtains and table clothes. It's normally well outside of our budget ($120+), but Sarah negotiated it down to a rate that we could afford (just) of $80, and for that we get a room with two huge iron bedsteads, a jacuzzi in the room, and a cooked breakfast.


And the girls loved the hot tub - each night they dived in as soon as we got back to the room, and bubbled away for an hour. It was good for us too - an hours peace and quiet. The only side effect is that jacuzzi's seem to scrub off our hard won sun tans!

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Cowboys and Canyons

After a slap-up breakfast, we looked around Kanab, which used to be the centre of the Western movies business. There was a time when everybody in Kanab, from the postman to the pastor, were extras in the movie business. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, Dean Martin and Ronald Reagan all made films here. But that seems to be history – now the town is a dormitory for the Grand Canyon, with the main street full of cafes, motels and fast food restaurants.

However, just down from the hotel is Frontier Movie Town, which is a coffee and gift shop, and out the back they have a garden full of movie set buildings from the various westerns. Compared to the Calico Ghost Town that we visited, it was brilliant. Okay, so all the buildings were fake (but then, they were at Calico), but they were ‘good fakes’, and actually looked old. We spent an hour and a half there, exploring, taking photo’s and generally talking about the wild west way of life with the owner.
And the top moment was when we discovered the ‘cowboy cutouts’ – just like the seaside ones that used to be in England. Emily and Charlotte insisted on being photographed looking through everyone of the 8 face holes, as cowboys, cowgirls, saloon girls, sheriffs and outlaws. Of course, I only took part because they insisted that I should. What a cultural moment




And then it was time for the Grand Canyon. We drove the 90 miles from Kanab to the North Rim of the Canyon, passing through green forests and meadows, spotting deer, wild turkeys and chipmunks on the way. The park was really quiet – about 50 cars in the car park, and most of them were staying in the park in the cabins. Because of the time zone changes between Utah and Arizona, we left Kanab at 2 o’clock and arrived in the park at 3:30 – after a 90 mile drive with a picnic stop. We went straight to the viewpoint, which was scary to reach – a narrow 4-foot wide path with 6-inch high kerbs, with near vertical drops of a mile and a half on one side or the other. In some places, there was no side – just a direct drop on both sides. None of us are afraid of heights, but both Charlotte and I got a little nervous on this walk.

Anyway, at the end was a small fenced platform on top of a rock, with a view down, up and across the canyon. There were only 6 other people there, so we had plenty of time and space to take in the view. The weather wasn’t great – thunderstorms moved across the landscape in the distance, with huge lightning detonations happening every few minutes, but the view was still great, with really clear visibility to the mountains 70 miles in the distance. The weather also made it quite cool, with us wearing our fleeces for only the third time in 7 weeks, and Charlotte even got so cold she needed a raincoat over her fleece. Rather than feeling energised we felt a bit drained – but we soon found out that this was due to the altitude – the rim of the canyon is at 8,800 feet – well above the top of Ben Nevis. Although we were on the edge of a huge plain, we were also on top of a huge mountain range.

Charlotte and Emily love the Junior Ranger programmes that they run at the National Parks. At the Visitor Centre you collect a booklet, with lots of small tasks to complete during your visit to the park. For the Grand Canyon this included ‘See the Sights Bingo’, which was easy because we’d seen so much wildlife on our drive in. They also had to write about how she felt about different aspects of the park (Emily scrawls all over her booklet then tells me what it says so that we can write it down for the Ranger to check). And then they had to draw their own petroglyphs describing an important part of their life to somebody else – Charlotte drew a drawing pad and pencils; Emily drew a swimming pool! (Golly, they’re being changed by the travelling). Anyway, at the end they took their booklets back to the Ranger Station, where they are checked by the Rangers, (including questions to check that they did the work themselves!) and then they receive a certificate, a Junior Ranger badge, and have to repeat the Junior Ranger oath. Charlotte takes all this incredibly seriously. Emily was too tired to even hold up her hand – so I had to crouch behind her, holding up hers and mine together. Then, when Sarah took out the camera, the Ranger produced two Ranger Hats for them to wear. Again, Charlotte took her role seriously, while Emily refused to wear hers and put it on me instead. So there I am, taking the Junior Ranger oath, wearing a Junior Ranger hat, holding up my hand, oath style, when Sarah decides to take a photo, and Emily decides at that exact moment to run off. Here’s what that looks like – you’ll also understand why the Ranger was smiling in the first photo! Sometimes I wonder if this website is just career suicide – still lets hope nobody reads it who knows me professionally.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Rolling, rolling, rolling, keep that Nissan rolling

Time to leave Vegas, and move on. As always, it seems to take longer to pack up our rucksacks than it really should. In fact, its probably the job we all look forward to least. Because we have the car, some of our stuff stays in the boot permanently unless we need it – things like sleeping bags, fleeces and sheet sleeping bags (for hostels where they provide the blankets, and you provide the rest). But there still seems to be tons of stuff to load/unload at each new motel. As well as our 4 rucksacks (although Emily’s is the size of a dinner party handbag!), there’s a laundry bag, a coolbox for drinks and things like milk, a food bag, with the essential basics (cereals and cereal bars for midnight munchies for the girls, and tea bags for Sarah), and a security bag that contains the Tablet PC and our passports and tickets.

Anyway, by the time we’ve loaded all of this, and had breakfast, we tend to get away around 10:30, when the sun’s managed to really warm up. We left Vegas as the thermometer went through 93-degrees, and headed north east into the desert, towards Arizona and Utah.

We left the Interstate at one point to drive through Fire Valley, and saw this dust devil making its way across a car park. They are mini-tornadoes, that spiral upwards, lifting up dust and small stones. We watched this one for a while, as it inched past our car – it was quite fascinating, although we don’t really know how they come about, and how they move. We’re hoping somebody else will know something about them?


We then drove on, through Arizona (hmmm, dry desert), into Utah (hmmm, dry desert), and through Zion National Park to get to Kanab, a small town north of the Grand Canyon. Zion Park is amazing, with dramatic canyons alongside the road. We only drove through it, and didn’t stop too long. However, we did take a photo, as after miles of desert it was dramatic to see. Most people visit the Grand Canyon at the South Rim, but we’d read that the North Rim is as dramatic, but a lot quieter and less commercialised, and that’s why we were heading to Kanab. It’s close to the Canyon, but also in the middle of triangle with Zion, Bryce and Lake Palmer National Parks. Over the next 3 days we hope to see a lot!

We found ourselves a brilliant hotel. Although it’s more expensive than the others we could have chosen, its also much, much, much nicer. More of that later. As it was late, we ate at a local fast food place and went to bed. Today we’ve driven 250 miles, bringing the total since we arrived 12 days ago to 1,200 miles.

Monday, August 25, 2003

New York, New York, so good they built it twice

No trip to Nevada is complete without a trip to New York. It kind of rounded off our round-the-world-in-three-days trip. And again, although it was movie-set-fake, it was pretty convincing. Outside, if you isolated small parts of the scenery, it made sense. But when you put the whole thing together it became confusing. If you click here you’ll see what I mean.


When inside, you find lots of slot machines, and away from this a restaurant and café area in the style of Brooklyn and Greenwich Village. Underneath your feet is concrete, and fire escapes adorn the ‘fronts’ of the ‘buildings’. After I’d been in it a while my subconscious was being fooled – when I saw somebody rolling their suitcase down the ‘street’, holding their suit carrier, I wondered why they were outside. And then it clicked that of course they were inside, and they’d just stepped out of a lift from the hotel room tower. I can imagine that if you stay in one casino all weekend, and don’t step outside, how you can lose track of time and place. (Although when they created dusk at the Venetian yesterday, by switching off the lights at 6pm exactly, it was kind of obvious!) Presumably the disorientation is exactly what the casinos are trying to do – when I went into the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino yesterday morning to find the Starbucks, there were plenty of people at the tables and slot machines at 9.15 in the morning (and propping up the bar).

Anyway, after New York New York, we also saw Excalibur - a medieval ‘English’ castle which appeared to be modelled on an England I’ve never seen. Perhaps they did their research by going to Disneyland and reading ‘1066 and all that’. We also went to Tropicana, for a free 15 minute acrobatic display, which in true Vegas style was performed on top of the slot machines in the main casino, and we also ‘won’ a free deck of cards. This was also our big gamble, when we put our $1 each into the Wheel of Fortune. Sadly we lost our $ quickly, with no exciting lights or clattering coin sounds.

In the evening we’d planned to go to the Stardust casino for the $11 Steak and Lobster meal (okay, it wouldn’t be quality, but it would be steak and lobster for £6.80, and probably better than you’d get in England for three times the price). But instead, we found tickets for the Michael Flatteley dance show at half-price (about $40 each), which Charlotte and Sarah really wanted to see, so I dropped them there for the 8 o’clock show, and took a complaining Emily back to the hotel, via ‘Long John Silver’s Shrimp Shoppe’ Drive Thru (21 crispy shrimps, Coke and fries for $3 – how could a guy and gal resist).

Yep, Vegas sure is weird, but somehow it’s got a kind of charm ;-)

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Las Vegas – well, it kind of grows on you.

Anybody who knows us (and especially Sarah) would know that Las Vegas isn’t our kind of thing. Tacky, crowded, booze and gambling-tastic, and a pale imitation of the real world. But somehow, when Vegas has got you in its grip, its becomes a little more charming. And I don’t mean ‘gambling grip’.

We arrived Friday, and saw a few of the casinos, and today (Saturday) we devoted to seeing a few more.

We started with the free continental breakfast at the hotel – examining this gave us an insight into why Americans are fatter than your average world citizen. On the buffet there was Cereal, French Toast with Syrup, Choc Chip muffins, Raising Danish, Cinnamon Danish, Apricot Danish, and doughnuts (sugar, cinnamon, lemon-iced, chocolate, hundreds-and-thousands with icing). Oh, and a bowl of fresh fruit that was so ignored it had been relegated to a completely different buffet table! Of course, the girls loved it, and so did I, stoking up on as much sugar in a morning as we normally manage in a couple of days. I’m sure that rather than losing weight backpacking, I’m putting it on!

Then a swim by the hotel pool, before getting in the car and heading to the casino hotels. We chose ones that had a free show that the girls would like, or something else that the girls would be interested in (after all, when you’ve seen one casino gambling areas you’ve seen – and heard - them all).

Today was the turn of Circus Circus, which promised a lot on paper, but delivered very little in reality. We went there for the buffet lunch (as though any was needed after breakfast). It was quite good, and a bargain at $7, but it was difficult to eat in the presence of so many overweight people. There were family groups where you could see the family similarity running through everybody. I know it’s rude, but I just had to take a picture to share with you. And this chap wasn’t exceptional, he just happened to be sitting nearby! Then we went to the “clown show” in the “big top”, which turned out to be two guys who been dragged off the street, on a small stage inside the amusement park. So what do I think of Circus Circus? Well, it’s got a cheap buffet and lots of parking


Then we decided to go to the Venetian, one of the newer casino hotels. We claimed our car from the huge free car park alongside Circus Circus, and drove the ½ mile to the Venetian car park. This is the amazing thing about the States – everybody drives everywhere, no matter how short the distance. However, in 100-degree heat its madness to walk around in the middle of the day – the sun is absolutely blasting on the pavements. The Venetian is amazing outside, with a canal of gondolas, and a replica of various Venice buildings and bridges (I managed to completely omit the Bridge of Sighs from this photo).


And the scene inside is even more amazing. Like the Alladin, they’ve recreated a street scene inside. After you’ve been inside for a while its easy to forget that you are inside a building, 2 stories in the air. (‘Yeah, yeah’ you say, but could you have told which photo was inside if I hadn’t told you?). Anyway, the replica St Marks Square was just like the real thing too – expensive restaurants around the outside, and lots of tourists milling in the middle!



The other thing at the Venetian was the gondoliers. They steer their gondolas around the (second floor) canals, singing to their passengers, who all look suitably embarrassed. Some couples were getting married on the Wedding Bridge, just off St Marks Square, which was a joy to behold. Because it was a busy Saturday, the couples waited outside the Gucci shop while the couple in front got married, and then they had their turn, and the group outside Prada got to move to the outside-Gucci stop. I completely failed to get the photo of two brides queuing up to get their gondola trip tickets (wedding gondola extra $50). And this being America, there was an obvious paranoia about security. Look at the photo on the left and you’ll see what I mean – the bride and groom had to wear their seatbelts for the whole trip. And the special wedding gondola didn’t have white silk seat belts! (Handy for the fourth wedding we saw, where the wide wore black. And the fifth, where the bride for a Stetson and cowboy boots!).

By the time we left the Venetian it was 7pm, so it was straight back to the hotel for a quick snack and bed. Not a typical backpacking day for sure!

Saturday, August 23, 2003

Aiming somewhere or drifting?

The day started with a swim for the girls, and a quick visit to Starbucks for me to upload to our website and pickup email (and, importantly, the latest virus updates for Sophos – viruses are big news here at the moment). Then it was off to Calico, an old mining village that is now a real, original Ghost Town. Well, we were pretty disappointed. It had been restored to the point of a theme park. All of the original buildings had been rebuilt in new wood and it had all been made to look brand new, rather than looking a few hundred years old. And every single building was now a shop or a café. So we’d paid $15 to visit a shopping arcade. Most of the things we saw were pretty tacky, but we all enjoyed the cowboy gunfight, and the gold panning. But half an hour there was enough.

On the way out we called into the cemetery, which was outside the theme park areas, in which were buried original inhabitants of the town from the 1800’s. There were simple wooden headstones, still standing and legible 150 years on. This was probably one of the most interesting parts (although it wasn’t mentioned in the literature or guide – we’d read about it in a newspaper!).

Then it was on the road again, heading to and through Las Vegas. Our aim was to reach southern Utah, within a 100 miles of the North rim of the Grand Canyon. We did have worries about finding reasonably priced accommodation, because Kanab (where we were heading) has a weekend long cowboy festival, which means all the motels are full. But we knew that rooms are really expensive in Las Vegas at weekends, and the town is pretty busy. We wanted to be there when it was quieter (relatively!). When we stopped at the first tourist office inside Nevada (at Primm, which is a vast casino built 10 yards over the state line!) we found out that a huge conference was due into LV on Monday, taking 90,000 hotel rooms (yes, NINETY THOUSAND) and we’d have no chance later in the week. So we changed our plans, and decided to do LV first, then the Grand Canyon etc. (This has to be a good plan, because we can then go to Kanab when the cowboys have all gone home!).

We arrived in Las Vegas around 4pm. Boy, is it an odd city. After driving 3 hours across the desert, with no trees, buildings or roads apart from the Interstate 15, you suddenly see this big city right in the middle of the desert, surrounded by more desert. And slap bang in the middle of the city is a pyramid, a bundle of famous New York buildings, including the Statue of Liberty, plus an medieval castle and a spire with a roller coaster round the outside of it. Oh, and the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. You suddenly wonder if you’re seeing things. We checked out a few hotels – the big ones were $100 up (Friday night!), and the motels were from around $60, but seemed a bit tacky. And then we found St Tropez Suites. We had a voucher for $49.99 a night rooms, but this excluded weekends. Somehow Sarah’s negotiating worked wonders – the front desk guy came down from $89.99 to $49.99, even though he was charging everybody else $90 and up. So we got a great room, looking out over a great pool, including breakfast, for £35. And it is very modern and spacious. As soon as we’d checked in we hit the pool, to wash away the 98-degree heat and dust of the day.This is definitely NOT a £35 a night hotel – you’d pay a fortune for this elsewhere. Oh the joys of Vegas! We did discover a small flaw – that its right under the flightpath for the airport, but as the airport is only ½ mile out of town, then I guess every hotel is. In fact, it was quite exciting watching the private jets flying in for Friday night gambling. There was even a Tomcat (yes, a fighter plane) which landed – I’d heard that really, really rich people (like those who work for Microsoft) own fighter jets, but to actually see one landing at the airport made the story a bit more real!

Later we went to the strip – we walked the three blocks (we shouldn’t have done that in the early evening, in that heat, with hungry girls) and went to the Aladdin Hotel. It was great, a shopping arcade inside the hotel resembling an Arabian souk. We’ve been inside a few real souks in Egypt and Morocco, and this was a convincing copy (except that it didn’t have the smells, all the shops were American, and I’m not sure if the rickshaw rides were really in keeping!). The other impressive bit was the indoor monsoon, every half-hour. We sat eating dinner, watching the rain falling inside a shopping arcade – with lightning and the sky turning dark.


Then outside, to join the throbbing throng on the pavements, moving across the roads in a wave (it was like Oxford Street at Christmas). We saw the fountain display outside the Bellagio, and wow’d at the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe outside Paris. We made the mistake of thinking it was realistic, so we went to look at the hotel inside. Big mistake – it was jammed full of slot machines and casino equipment. What a let down. But still, the outside was great to look at. And very convenient, because they’ve rebuilt all the big sights of the world within a few hundred yards of each other. Today, Arabia and Paris. Tomorrow we’re thinking of going to Venice and the Pyramids!

Friday, August 22, 2003

Joshua National Park - and driving

This morning we packed up after our overnight in Indio (sad to leave the Best Western in Indio - it had free movies on DVD, which meant that we were up till midnight watching them!) and headed to Joshua National Park. It was a nice drive, but after a while desert gets a bit monotonous. Anyway, this desert was broken up by lots of Joshua trees, like the one on the left, and a few glimpses of wildlife. We saw birds, butterflies, about a million dead bees, lizards and a coyote. Oh, and quite a few Joshua trees and other cactii. From the viewpoint in the park, we could just make out the San Andreas fault through the haze. Although Charlotte didn't really get gripped, I was excited because I've got an O-level in Geology, so I know about these things ;-)



Anyway, after that we headed through flash-flood city (Yucca Valley, population 3 1/2) as they were pushing all of the mud off the Interstate, and across the desert to the lovely town of Barstow (not!). The drive was very monotonous, broken up by comedy moments like the picture above. Fasten to a post in the middle of nowheresville, desert, was this sign saying "We are a Neighborhood Watch Area". Sure, there was a dirt path next to it that probably led somewhere, but when you're 100 miles from civilisation, is it really going to make a difference to put up a sign?

We also passed lots of these by the road - postboxes for mail deliveries. Although they are all over the place, we thought we ought to photograph them, as they make part of the trip.


And this is the picture that probably represents our drives across America (and Canada) best. It's the "Roadtrip Soundtrack", as performed by Charlotte and Emily every 20 minutes. There are 2 lyrics, one goes "Are we there yet", with a chorus of "When are we there", and the other track goes "I need the toilet", with a chorus of "Oh no I don't" when the car has stopped.


The girls are amazing - they are getting used to being locked in the car for hours, and today the highpoint was the following conversation after 6 hours in the car:
Charlotte: "When are we there?"
Dad: "About an hour"
Charlotte: "Is that all? Great"

Wow!

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

San Diego Zoo
Today we had a great day. We went to the 'world famous San Diego Zoo'. Okay, it was a bit of a surprise to start with that it was going to cost us $100 for the family ticket (£65), but once we'd bitten the bullet (London Zoo was £25 for the family last time we went) it was good inside. The zoo is HUGE, or at least it is to 2 small children! We took a guided tour bus around the zoo to get oriented, and then set off to see what the girls had decided in advance.


Number One was the petting zoo, to see the exotic animals like goats and sheep! Then we saw the Seal Show - which was a huge delight for the girls. We sat in an amphitheatre that would probably seat 1,000 people - which gives you an idea of how many people they can squeeze into the zoo on a weekend. Thank goodness we went on a Monday, rather than at the weekend. Somehow during the rest of the day we saw bears, tigers, gorillas, polar bears, elks, bison, tapirs, giraffes etc etc. And another animal show. We arrived at 10am, and by 3pm the girls were flaking a bit, so we left the zoo (after getting our re-entry hand stamps) and headed into San Diego for a McDonalds (okay, I know I harangued them earlier, but it seems a guaranteed way to re-inject the girls with energy), and then we went for a drive along the beach isthmus. By the time we reached the end of the beach, we were within 10 miles of the Mexico border. Hmm, maybe that's something for later in the week - a bonus Country!

Anyway, we turned left instead of right, and went back to the zoo at 6. Then we went to see the orang-utans. We couldn't get the girls away. They (the orang-utan) were having playtime before bedtime, so they were chasing and teasing each other, and Charlotte especially loved watching their playfullness. Like almost every part of San Diego Zoo, the landscaping was green and lush, for the visitors as well as the animals. We hope to see orang-utan in the wild in Indonesia, but with the security situation in Indonesia at the moment, it's unlikely that we'll be able to get there. If we don't, at least the girls have seen their Number One animal.

Then we saw the panda - only one was out. One of the others was pregnant with twins and under "24 hour birthwatch" indoors. The third panda was having a phantom pregnancy, and was nesting inside too.


And then we ended up with the late night show, at 8:30, which featured human acrobatics in an incredible display. It really rounded off the day for the girls, who stayed awake right through until we got into the car at 9:45pm. And then they slumped straight into sleep.

It was a packed day, which we all really loved, and it was definitely worth (a) the money and (b) coming back in the evening. Our top moment in the US so far.

LA to Carlsbad to Escondido

We left LA on Friday, and headed down the coast to find somewhere to have a bit of a break and catch our breath for a few days, and especially to allow the girls time to swim and play. Unfortunately the whole of LA had the same idea, and although we had a few hours head start, the drive down on Interstate 5 was slow going at times. And then, of course, we couldn't get into any of the motels. We specifically wanted to find one with a pool, but their weekend rates shot up from $50-70 to $100-150 - and most were full. Eventually we found a Motel 6 in Carlsbad, which had a pool, and was $70.

Unfortunately it was beside the InterState rather than beside the beach, but it was fine for the night, and the girls loved swimming. They didn't have space on Saturday, so we had to move inland, and ended up in the town of Escondido (see, they even name the towns in Spanish!).

On the way there we drove through the town of Rancho El Paso, which looked lovely. Sarah stepped out of the car to ask for directions, and spotted an estate agency. She came back with a smile on her face - the cheapest house for $1.4M, and the most expensive was $11.6M. Nice town.

Anyway, at Escondido we checked into the Comfort Inn, which has a nice pool, so the girls were very happy. It was expensive, at $100, because it was Saturday night, but then drops to $60 from Sunday. We're likely to stay for a few days, as its handy for San Diego Zoo, it's relaxing, and we don't want to keep moving every two days at the moment.

So we're now bedded down in an edge-of-town motel, with a huge room and TV etc, and a pool outside the window. Somehow this seems more like a holiday than anything else - but then I guess that would be inevitable because of the girls. I don't know how we'd have done America without the girls - there are very few hostels, and they are in the main cities, so it would have been expensive to do it as independent backpackers, without spending all of your money on motel rooms. And we'd never have been able to do it without a car.

As a holiday destination, the combination of cheap motels, cheap car hire and cheap fuel make it ideal, although there are long distances to cover between each of the 'sights', which would mean long driving days. I think we'll have days when the girls are trapped in the car for the day, but at least we'll be able to stop for a few days at a time in places, rather than having to move on every day.

Having realised that accommodation is scarce and expensive at weekends, and knowing that we've got the Labour Day holiday weekend coming up on 1st September, we've used the Internet do look ahead for some places to stay. Within an hour, we'd booked a motel for $90 a night for the holiday weekend, at Mammoth Lakes - near a National Park, and with a pool. We've also booked tent at Yosemite for 4 nights following that - something the girls are really looking forward to!

Monday, August 18, 2003

Friday, August 15, 2003

LA, LA, so bad they named it once.

(I know, its a bad headline, but it kind of makes the point!).
So we're in LA. On Monday, when we were trying to book a hostel on the phone from Canada, we found two types. Type 1 was full. Type 2 said "Yes, we've got rooms, but this isn't the kind of district you should bring kids to Sir". So in desperation, we went to Laterooms.com, which sent us to Hotels.com, and we booked a 3-star hotel in Little Tokyo, for 2 nights at £50 a night. We didn't want to end up with no accommodation, and £50 seemed a small price to pay to end up in the right part of town! Anyway, when we got to the airport, we jumped in a cab (surprise, surprise - the cabby was 'resting' from show business. He was an actor/agent/soundman/literary agent/magician, and he hated driving cabs, and didn't make any money from it. Is it me or is this odd?)

The hotel was full of Japanese people, who'd obviously paid a lot more money - we got some strange looks as we trooped through reception with our rucksacks. And so ended yesterday.

Today we saw a bit of LA, including a weird diner decorated as a forest, and then went to LA Public Library for email access, and for some quiet reading time for the girls. When we got there I realised I'd seen the library before - it was used as police headquarters in Beverley Hills Cop! The building was as amazing inside as it was outside - murals, galleries, painted ceilings all over the place. Its everything that Oxford Central Library isn't.

LA isn't a welcoming place - there's plenty of homeless people wandering the streets, and there are certainly times when we hold on to the girls hands very firmly walking around the streets. Perhaps we've just heard too many bad stories, or perhaps we're making ourselves unsure, but whatever the cause, we're ultra-careful here.

When we got back to our hotel in the evening, and enjoyed our cheap japanese take-away meal, we were astounded to watch the TV reports of electricity shutdowns in the North East. It didn't affect us at all, so we were able to watch complete and total chaos break out on the other coast. It's amazing isn't it - the worlds most powerful nation completely without power. We've got a growing question in our minds, from this and other things - how on earth can this be the most powerful country in the world? But more of that emergeing thought later through our trip.

Tomorrow we hire a car, and head down the coast to the beach, so we'll keep you in touch when we can.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Leaving Canada

Today's the day that we left Canada, and its a good time to record our thoughts. We've enjoyed Canada enormously, and it has been a great month for Charlotte and Emily, as their introduction to Round the world backpacking.

Charlotte and Emily have been busy collecting souvenirs of Canada, and the ones on the left are their most important ones. There's Jasper the bear, that they both got, which was given to them by Casey, the tourist office intern from Jasper. They also each got an Ogopogo (like a Loch Ness monster), from Patsy in Kelowna. Before they went whale watching in Victoria, they got a fluffy toy each - Charlotte got Chip the Beaver, and Emily got Snowy the Polar Bear. Sadly only Chip lasted the month - Snowy was left on a ferry! They also both collected a piece of driftwood from the beach in Vancouver, and a bed ticket from the Squilax hostel caboose. And finally they got a yo-yo ball each at Granville island. So they are chuffed to bits with their collection. We packed them all up today, and sent them home from the airport post office, along with lots of little things they'd also found along the way.

We also said goodbye yesterday to our friendly TV crew. Because we've not really shown them close-up before, here's a quick run down of the team.

Here's our major friend, Doodles the sound boom. You'll see him in lots of our pictures - he just wouldn't go away. But he was also great for navigation - look across a crowd and you could see exactly where he, and the rest of the crew were.


This is Steve the soundman. As befits his job, he's quiet and reflective, so we failed entirely to get him hyped up much - which was helpful at times!

And just in case you wondered, yes he does share his eyeballs with Doodles.


This is Patsy, who works for the tourist boards of British Columbia and Alberta. She was an all-round fixer, who did everything from arranging our days, to changing our accommodation, to driving cars, to looking after Emily when she was in "I don't want to in this shot" mood, to all-round sweet buyer. We certainly couldn't have done what we did without Patsy, especially when the days were so long and intense for the girls to cope with easily.


And finally, Mat the director and camera man (Mats on the right in this photo - I've got no idea who the 2 Stevie Wonder impersonators are alongside him! Maybe its because Steve the soundman took the picture. He confused us by not counting to 3 before taking the photo - instead it was "1....1.2....1.2.testing..."). Mat was very driven to get what he needed for his programme, which hopefully means that over the ten days that he got enough for the 8-minutes in the programme. All I can say is that after working with somebody so energetic as Mat, we definitely need a holiday!


So we leave Canada feeling on a high, with a small trepidation about arriving in LA (nobody we've met yet has a good word to say about it!), but we have had a fantastic time in Canada, and hope that the rest of the world is as friendly as everybody in Canada is. (My personal theory is that everybody in Canada works for the tourist board, because they all act as ambassadors for the country).

Vancouver at warp speed

Today was "the Vancouver day" for the BBC. We had to pack in a complete filming section for the whole of Vancouver, and boy, did we pack it in.

We started at 8.00 outside our favourite coffee shop, being filmed walking down the street, and then buying/drinking coffee and updating our website via the wireless internet. We also picked up our emails ("thanks" to everybody who keeps in regular contact!).


Then it was down to the hostel for a shoot of us walking out, which we did three times, and then filmed inside (the kitchens, the lobby, the 'speaking to camera' bit, the bedrooms etc etc). Then we all walked down to the beach, to catch the False Creek Ferries across to Granville Island.
We had to do the ferry trip twice (of course), and then we went to the Children's Market in the island, where the girls got to paint pottery, play in a fun zone and spend some money on small toys.

Then, after a magical lunch looking over the marina and under the arches of one of the city bridges, we then took another ferry to Science World. As the girls had already been there, we just filmed, then shot off on the Sky Train to the harbour.

This was the big high of the day - the floatplane, taking off in the harbour and flying around North Vancouver. What a buzz!

Then back to the beach for some final thoughts (to camera of course) and then a quick bite to eat and drink, before packing.

Phew, what a day!

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Monday, August 11, 2003

Kelowna - nice but wasted time

Today we woke up in Kelowna. The hostel, which is much more friendly and informal than the others we've stayed at, had a keg party last night (think of the old Party 7 cans and make it bigger). Anyway, although it was on the deck outside our bedroom window, everybody had kept really quiet because of the two small children (seemingly an unusual occurence hereabouts!). So we weren't disturbed, and this morning we were up with the larks. Unlike everybody who'd been at the keg party.

Matt, Steve and Patsy turned up at 10.00, intending to go straight off with us for some filming, but they thought the hostel was too good to believe. So out came the camera and sound boom, and they filmed us cooking pancakes for breakfast, and then us buttering sandwiches for lunch, all the time asking questions about different hostel experiences etc. And then they got some footage of the other hostel guests in their various states of composure. One of the staff members, Rodney from Bath, woke up pretty late, and walked into it unawares - but played the role of a hungover backpacker brilliantly for us (imagine the conversation "Mum, I'm going to be on TV" ; "Wow" ; "Yes, on BBC Holiday" ; "Wow - what are you doing, running the hostel? Tour guiding?" ; "Aah, well actually Mum, they kind of caught me on a bad morning" etc)

Then after an hour of chaos in the hostel (it's pretty small and compact inside), we went down to the city park, which had a fantastic water park, with pipes spraying water all over the place. The girls loved it (Matt didn't like it quite so much, because of the limits on filming he can do around children and swimming pools). Then we hit the beach for a picnic, but not just any beach. Patsy 'the fixer' had friends at a resort beach in town, so we gatecrashed that beach, had a paddle in their kayaks and generally relaxed. Unfortunately Charlotte got some sand in her eye, and it put her on a downer for a while.

Then it was off to the winery, to film a tour. It's not really a typical backpacker thing, until you remember that a winery tour ends in a free tasting, so maybe it is! (The hostel runs a 5-winery minibus tour, which is pretty popular!). By sadly, it was too dark in the winery to film (because this is supposed to be 'reality TV' it's just a camera and sound, no lighting), so we ended up just having a glass of wine and admiring the view from the deck (although it started to rain, so we had to move indoors). Anyway, from the picture on the left you can admire the view too - it's kind of mid-west America meets France!

Then it was back to the hostel for a quiet night - Charlotte went to sleep at 7, although Emily managed to hold out until 9. The girls are really whacked after 7 days hard work with the crew, and we're amazed they are holding out so well. Tomorrow is a quiet day too, just driving 5 hours, which is good as it encourages them to sleep. Then we've got a jam-packed full day in Vancouver as our last Canada day!

Sunday, August 10, 2003

Revelstoke - a spiffing city

Today we woke up in Revelstoke in the SameSun Hostel (it's good - a wooden building with solid oak floors, nice staff and friendly guests). The original plan had been to drive across to Kelowna today, without doing any filming. But Revelstoke cries out to be filmed, as it's full of old wooden buildings, and it's got a fantastically rustic atmosphere. So over dinner last night we hatched a cunning plan with Director Matt.

First off, Sarah was filmed with the girls in the Farmers Market - everything from trying on hand-made jewellery and trinkets, to buying and eating sweetcorn and hotdogs. All in all it'll probably make up 30 seconds of the whole programme, but it took 2 hours to film, with lots of 'walking towards the camera'and 'walking away from the camera' shots. But the girls enjoyed it, and their reward was a trip on the horse drawn buggy around town.

Charlotte even got to man the hot dog stall for a while, which chuffed her to bits, but she was praying that nobody would actually buy a hot dog from her!

Then Sarah went to a children's pool with the girls, while I went to the Railway Museum to do my bit of filming alone (well, without Sarah and the girls, but of course I still had Matt, Steve and Patsy with me - but I was alone in front of the camera). I know nothing about steam trains, so trying to ask the right questions, in the right way, with a camera a few inches from my face was a testing experience. And then it was into the back yard of the railway museum to summarise the last week to camera, and explain what its like travelling with the children (Sarah and I compared notes later - we'd both been asked similar questions, so we hope that we'd given the same answers - very Mr & Mrs). Probably the most difficult thing was the walkies - walking around a train on a path, being filmed. It's nerve wracking, because you think that at any moment you're going to trip on the stairs or something equally dumb. And you also become incredibly self-aware - what happens if I walk like an idiot, and 8 million people laugh? And what do I do with my hands? And does my bum look big in this? etc etc

Anyway, all of that meant that we didn't leave Revelstoke until 2pm, but as the girls had been swimming it meant they fell asleep in the car, which helped to get the 3 hour drive over without too much trouble (we did, of course, reward them with a McD's meal when they woke up).

And now we're in Kelowna, in the International Hostel, two blocks from the beach. Emily and Charlotte have settled into trhe travelling lark easily, and quickly suss out what's the best thing to see and do in a new hostel. It took them 5 minutes to find the TV and VCR, and find the stock of Disney videos. The hostel is a bit more of a 'party place' than others we've stayed in, which means that the grown-ups are a bit surprised to find that MTV is off, and Disney is on, but their all relaxed about it!

Anyway, another day done, and counting down our last four days in Canada. We can't believe its gone so quickly, and we've enjoyed it so much, but we've got a back breaking schedule ahead of us for the last 2 days, so tomorrow will be great - a visit to a vineyard for filming, and that's it. And the girls have spotted that there's a water park down the road, with huge slides, so that might feature in their afternoon too!

Saturday, August 09, 2003

On the road with Auntie Beeb - Day 5

Today was a day of moving, and not moving. The plan was to leave Banff and end up in Revelstoke. Along the way we were stopping to see Kicking Horse resort. As soon as we met the crew we changed the plan - we definitely wanted to see Lake Louise, and so we said that as we were driving within 4km of it, we'd stop for a "Kodak moment" (oops, have I just broken somebody's copyright. And actually, as we've got a digital camera, it's really a "Compact Flash moment".

Anyway, we went to Lake Louise, and it is A-W-E-S-O-M-E. It's everything it looks like in any photograph you've ever seen of it...and then some. The colour, which is a turquoisey-blue-green, was stunning against a backdrop of mountains, some still with glacial ice and snow sticking to them. And around the bowl of the lake, the slopes are covered in dark green fir trees. The view takes your breath away as you walk around the corner from the car park. Even the canoes on the lake, full of smiley Japanese tourists didn't spoil it, because their scale was minute compared to the lake and mountains. (Closer inspection of Japanese paddling a canoe yields many comedy moments - it certainly looks like they don't have canoes in Japan, because the way that they hold their paddles looks more like a Kendo stick fight than a graceful glide across a lake!)

Anyway, did I mention it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E? Some things you see in real life are nowhere as good as the photo you saw somewhere else (eg National Geographic), but Lake Louise is a million times better in real life than any photograph you've seen of it.

And Matt and his crew agreed, so we spent half an hour at the Lake being filmed going "wow". Matt even filmed us taking photographs of ourselves, and other tourists started taking photo's of Matt filming us taking photo's of ourselves (Confused? Well that kind of sums up our experiences with the filming this week!)

Anyway, for an unplanned 3 mile detour, it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E. (Did I already mention that? Charlotte thought everything was "awesome" last week, but then decided it was so 'yesterday' and that now everything is "wow"). As you can see from the photograph, Charlotte has also adjusted well to the omni-present crew, even when the lens is pushed right up to her. It may ruin the view, but we've got our fingers crossed that it will make good TV for you all!

We did feel a little bit cheated, because our time there was so short - reflecting afterwards we'd have liked to do the corny tourist thing and go out in a canoe, and also walk around the lake for a while. But at least we got there, saw it, and got a great photo for our memories.

Then we headed off to Kicking Horse Resort, near Golden. This involved a 2 1/2 hour dash through the Rockies, stopping once for a photo (we were already an hour late for our pre-booked 'PR opportunity'. But still, when we arrived we found that we were being filmed taking a gondola to the top of the mountain, and then being hosted for a free lunch at the highest restaurant in British Columbia. It was really nice food (and well worth the $25 - 10 pounds - that everybody else had paid for the ride & lunch!). If I was putting together a schedule for somebody, I'd put it on the list - it's a good day trip, with great views and hiking from the peak, and it's a good break in the middle of a long drive.

Then we went down the mountain and caught the BearBus (is it me, or have the Canadian marketers gone marketing word crazy, what with the BearBus - an 8 seater Hertz minibus- the SnoCoach - a bus with big wheels- and the Jasper TramWay - a cable car). I think I'm going to rebrand our trip around the world, but I've got to find the right combination of words to stick together!

Anyway, I digress (again).

The BearBus took us up to a 22 acre enclosed area where two rescued grizzly bears live. Charlotte and Emily were enraptured by the sight of them (although they'd had to sit on the minibus a little too long, waiting for Matt to line up the first shot, so when you see them on TV they'll look less excited than they were when the first saw them from the bus). But it was a great moment, standing four feet away from a baby grizzly bear.

By the time we left, it was almost 5 o'clock, so another day had gone - and we still had a 1 1/2 hour drive to Revelstoke, our next destination. So we put the car on the road again, and drove through our last bit of Rockies to arrive hot & bothered. But a wonderful icecream soon solved that for all of us, and later a nice meal with the crew capped off the day.

Friday, August 08, 2003

Banff - Expensive, tacky and beautiful

When we arrived in Banff last night, we found out that the hostel is about 50% more than on the coast (around £40 for a family room, compared to £20 in Vancouver). On a budget of 120 Canadian Dollars a day, spending $95 on accommodation would blow away the daytime options. But fortunately, although we're paying for our own accommodation and most of our food, the BBC, working with the local tourist boards, are organising all of the daytime activities. It means that yesterday we saved $100 on the Icefield trip. (If we'd been doing it ourselves, we may have done the coach trip, or walked onto the glacier from the car park at the foot of it. But we'd have missed the commentary, which did tell us a lot about what we were seeing).

This morning we went to Minniwanka Lake, and took a boat trip between the mountains. Again, another tourist moment, with a commentary from the onboard guide. Although it was obvious that Dillon the Guide had done it 20 times a day for the whole season, it was still informative and told us things we wouldn't have known without the trip. This is a lesson we'd learnt in India a long time ago, that the guides tell you things that help to bring what you are seeing alive in your mind. Unfortunately we haven't yet found a guide who really excites Charlotte and Emily, but we'll keep looking!

The bit that did get the girls laughing and giggling was when Matt blew them kisses from his boat. We had the opportunity to sit and relax, and admire the view, while Matt whizzed all around us in his speedboat, taking film of the boat, the views, and the girls pulling funny faces at him. I think he was disappointed that the BBC budget wouldn't run to a helicopter for him, but he had fun in the speedboat!

In the afternoon we filmed inside the hostel, which takes ages (a couple of hours, for probably a minute's worth of film), with Sarah explaining about our accommodation, and Charlotte showing Matt how she does her Maths lessons on the Tablet PC. And then we all went of to Banff Upper Springs, which was like a swimming pool, but at bath temperature (40 degrees). This was probably the moment we'll have plenty of time to regret! They hired 1920's swimming costumes, and when in Rome....

So there I am in a 1920's swimming costume, walking out of the changing room, to find that nobody else was wearing them. And then the lifeguard makes an announcement "Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a BBC film crew at the pool today, who are going to be filming. If you don't want to be filmed please move to the other end of the pool..." And there I am, standing there in a stoopid costume, with 150 pairs of eyes all watching me as Matt made me walk out of the door half a dozen times. God, I've got no chance of ever getting another serious job if my prospective employer has seen that! By the time the girls had changed, the excitement had died down a bit, so Sarah was able to walk out semi-inconspicuously. And then we had the typical 'hot tub interview' bit, but then Matt finished and went back to his hotel, and we could relax and pretend to be normal (except that we were still the only people in the pool wearing 1920's swimming costumes). You will have noticed that this paragraph doesn't have a photograph alongside it. Well, now you've read it you know why!

Thursday, August 07, 2003

Down the Icefields Parkway


Before I write any more, I have to say "WOW". Today we drove down the most amazing road, the length of the Rockies from Jasper to Banff. It was around 150 miles, and it took us 10 hours, because we had a couple of long stops, but also because we didn't want to rush past all of the scenery (This is going to be tricky, I've just realised that I'm going to write something too superlative-laden, so excuse me if I repeat "amazing" and "beautiful" too many times!).

First stop was the Columbia Icefields, which is huge, and invisible over the horizon. But the bit you can see is one of the six glaciers that descend from it. There's a centre beside the road where you can take a SnoCoach to the glacier. Basically, we all piled into a coach which took us up to the side of glacier, where we all transferred into a special bus with HUGE tyres. This drove onto the ice, and to a parking area in the middle of the glacier. It was tacky and touristy and absolutely brilliant. The driver gave an awful pun-laden commentary, but as soon as Charlotte and Emily touched the ice, they came alive as though they'd been hit by lightning.

They were running around, dipping their toes into slush pools, throwing ice-balls, and basically laughing until they ran out of air. Of course, Matt and Steve were around too, filming from a distance, and then they had to try and get the girls to stand still long enough to find our why they liked it. But Emily wasn't having any of that - she just took off to play on the ice again whenever she wanted (that's my girl - no respect for authority!).

On the way back down Emily fell asleep (lots of running + thin air (3,000m) = whacked child), and when we were waiting for the transfer to the other coach, I sat down with Emily on my lap, taking in the glacier view. What I didn't see was the scene on the left - Charlotte being interviewed by Matt, our budding Jeremy Paxman, about her thoughts. Charlotte can be quite shy with new people, but after three days with Matt and Steve, and a few meals with them, she's become completely relaxed around them, and she obviously loves the camera!

Then we carried on driving down the parkway, which turned into miles and miles of long straight road, with huge mountain views either side. Without anything man-made in the view, we found it difficult to comprehend the scale of it all - in the picture on the left, there's a car on the road in the distance, but its barely visible because of the scale of the landscape around it.








And then after a picnic lunch, time for another stop, at Peyto Lake.
(I'm sorry if this web page loads very slowly, but I just couldn't bear not to include some of the amazing photo's we've taken so far. I can't describe this in words properly.)
Anyway, Peyto Lake is labelled "The bluest lake in the Rockies". (Fred Dinage moment: The minerals in the mountain on the left of the photo, get picked up by the glacier meltwater, and it turns the lake the weirdest blue. It's because the other colours get absorbed by the water/minerals, and the blue gets reflected back up at us). Anyway, whatever, it's a beautiful view.

As we left the lake the weather closed it, and it began to rain. Even in this kind of weather, the view was beautiful - the blue sky had gone, to be replaced by dark clouds, with tempting glimpses of sunlight in the distance. This picture is the view of the right hand end of Peyto Lake as we were leaving. As you can see, 10 minutes had changed the view completely, but it was still amazing.

And then onwards, towards Banff.

As we drove from Lake Louise down to Banff, we suddenly turned a corner and saw another huge smoke plume. We were downwind of the fire we saw 2 days ago, and although we were perfectly safe, and the highway was open, we were obviously much closer, because we had small pieces of ash and burnt tree landing on the windscreen. I've tried to capture it in the photograph, to show the blue sky in the distance, and the brown smoke drifting over the road. It was dramatic, and yet another reminder that we're here at a bad time for the Rockies. This fire is believed to have been started by lightning - there have been 5 or 6 different lightning strikes this week that have started fires, but most get put out quickly. They have one of the world's largest helicopters here, flying water bombing missions over the fires, and every now and again dashing up the valley to put out a new, smaller fire, before it can take hold. It's the number one subject on the news and in the papers, and there's no sign of rain for most of the park, so the risk is getting higher all the time.

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

May the force be with you

Today was our first full day with the BBC crew, and because of last night's late finish, we had a lie-in until 9.00, then met them at 10:30 at the Parks Visitor Centre in the middle of town. They'd already been busy, and had completed an interview with a park ranger on the state of the fires, and had mused around town. They'd also arranged support from the Jasper Town Tourist Office, and we had Casey with us for the day as well - a veritable caravan working our way around town. The first bit was the worst - sitting in front of the Visitor Centre, being interviewed. It was made worse by people standing behind the camera, to stare at what was going on. There are times when being the centre of attention is definitely a very bad thing. Then we had to walk across the green to the centre, with our packs on, being filmed from in front. Then again from the side. Then from behind. And then close up, with the lens inches from our face. And then we had to go and check out the latest fire situation - on camera. The poor girl behind the information desk got no warning ("Its better that way..."), and had the camera shoved inches from her face too.

All of this took a measly two hours, and by the end of it we were all mental wrecks. Emily got tired about half way through, and just walked off and sat on the grass (which is where Patron Saint Patsy came in, wandering off with her and bird spotting on the grass).


Then we saw Jasper the Bear over the green - he was heading to the railway station for the launch of a new train service to the coast. And off we went, gatecrashing the train launch, and the girls taking every opportunity to cuddle Jasper (not, of course, a real bear, but a guy in a suit - apparently well known in this area!).

We also found chocolate cake and coffee, so all the children and grown ups were very happy. And we met the train manager, and the General Manager of the five star resort in town, who invited us up for a swim later! But everywhere we were, so was Matt with his camera, Steve with Doodles, and somewhere in the background, Patsy "fixing".

Then suddenly we were late for item 2 - a trip up the Jasper Tramway (actually a cable car) to the top of the mountain. We had a mad dash across town to the cable car, which had been specifically reserved for us at 1:20, and rushed straight inside (phew, only had to do that once because they'd already held it up for us!). Then up the mountain. As we climbed the temperature dropped, and the views became more magnificent. Within 7 minutes we were over 2,500M above the town, looking down on the roads, railways and lakes. It was weird, standing in a cable car, looking out at the view, knowing that Matt was behind us, beside us, (and in front of us if we weren't pressed against the glass), trying to film what we were seeing, our expressions, and anything we might say. And above our heads, or below our chins, sat Doodles (our name for the furry boom mic), capturing everything. We now know what a claustrophobic experience it is (and at this point we've started wondering why we agreed to this!).

Anyway, at the top of the mountain, we hopped around the rocks, enjoying the air (Jasper in the valley was a bit hazy from the smoke of 2 nearby fires), and trying to forget that everything was being filmed. Matt occasionally asked questions, or got us to rock-hop in a particular place/direction, which made it a bit strange. But we were at the top of a mountain, and we'd got there for free. So I suppose we couldn't complain!

And then it got better - the PR lady for the tramway had reserved us tables in their restaurant (burgers etc but with the most amazing view for any restaurant!). We sat at the front of the restaurant, surrounded by glass, with a huge drop below our feet and relaxed (Matt was eating his lunch, so no camera moments!). And then an ordeal - out onto the observation deck to be quizzed about what we were doing and why, and what all our friends thought etc etc. It was a nightmare, because you have to answer instantly, even though everybody else will have lots of time to analyse what you say. Its at times like this you can't help thinking about the fact that 8 million people may see this, and if you say something dumb, your friends - at least - will spot it.

While we were doing this (Sarah and I) we had to amuse the girls somehow. Which is where the three PR ladies scored top marks - we got the nail varnish out of the packs, that we'd bought yesterday, and the girls got their toe nails varnised in the restaurant (still over the amazing view). They were chuffed to bits, and I bet it's the first time that the PR team have done that in order to promote the Rockies! A brilliant moment for everybody.

Then we had to rush down the mountain for item 3 - to whizz across town in a minibus with a tour guide and see Maligne Canyon. The original plan was to see the canyon, and then head out to Maligne Lake, but unfortunately a fire had broken out the day before, and the lake was off limits. The canyon was okay, but the girls were quickly bored, so we walked, filmed and headed back to town (Murray, if you're reading this, it was not to do with your guiding - it was just the end of a long day).

So we left the crew behind, with an arrangement to see them later for dinner, and jumped in the car with our swimming gear to head to the Fermont Jasper Lodge Hotel (5* happiness). When we got there, the General Manager Jan had already briefed his assistant Manager, Ralph, who greeted us, gave us a quick tour and took us down to the pool. All of the staff had also been warned that we were coming too, so they settled us in, gave us towels, and offered us complimentary food and drinks for us and the girls. This has got to be the upside of having a camera shoved in your face at every opportunity! It was fantastic hospitality, and after a while the girls were offered ice creams and more drinks. We were treated like royalty, and everybody was very chatty and seemed to know us. It was a contrast to ten years ago, when we'd sneak into an hotel in India/Thailand/Malaysia to use the pool, often for a few dollars a day, but we'd have to take our own drinks, because we couldn't afford the hotel prices. This might seem like a small thing to you, but its these kinds of things that make us all human again after a days travel!

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

BBC Day 1 - Revelstoke

Well, the day finally arrived. First the BBC director Matt phoned. As a result of the forest fires we were in a different town to the original plan - some 150 miles to the east of where the crew were standing! But we'd warned them already, so while we were able to have a relaxing morning, they had a drive through the smoke area to meet us.

We arranged to meet them at 12:00, and at 11:30 popped around the corner to the local 'drugstore' to get nail varnish for the girls (special treat: alternately coloured toes!). Anyway, those of you without two daughters would have thought that would take less than half-an-hour, but of course it had to be strung out until the veins in my forehead were ready to explode (red/silver/green/purple/metallic/non-metallic/dark/light/gloss etc etc etc. And where do they get all those different names for shades of red from, let alone convincing girls that "cherry red" and "maple red" are actually different colours). Anyway, when we finally wandered back around the corner to the hostel at 12:20, we found the BBC crew, and Matt had his veins popping out of his forehead too! Apparently, the hostel had no idea who the "Fleming family" were, because we were booked in by the researcher, Amanda Egbujo. So the hostel think we're the Egbujo family, and despite us being the only family in the hostel, the Japanese chap behind the desk insists that there's no Fleming family in the hostel. So Matt was just about to explode having a mysterious disappearing family on his hands. It was a good start - nobody has ever been so relieved to see us walking up the street!

Anyway, because their going to be a feature of our lives for three days, let me introduce you to: Matt (Director and cameraman, who holds the camera about 12 inches from our faces), Steve (Soundman, who holds a huge fluffy microphone on a boom about 24 inches from our faces), and Patsy (Tourist Board guide, who also holds onto Emily when she does a runner mid-shoot!).

We had lunch and a "get to know yoU", and then jumped into the cars for the five hour drive to Jasper. Sadly, we'd chosen exactly the wrong day to do that - the forest fires had caused lots of traffic to be diverted onto the Trans-Canadian Highway 1 we were on, it was a public holiday ("Heritage weekend"), and it was very, very hot. We finally arrived at the half-way point at 8 o'clock at night, after 6 hours driving. It was an amazing drive, but when we'd driven for 3 hours at 3 kilometres an hour, we'd stopped being wowed by the scenery. The picture on the left is a fire cloud - it grows rapidly above a forest fire, and because of the speed it grows, its quite distinctive. This fire was about 80 kilometres south of us, and had caused one of the road closures. Its really amazing to watch, as well as depressing.

After a dinner stop at the services at Lake Louise town (not to be recommended) we then drove up the 230km of the Icefield Parkway, the world's third most beautiful highway, AT NIGHT! In total darkness, no moon, no glittery starlight. Just total pitch black. DOH. Anyway, we finally arrived at our B&B at 1am. (We had to stay in a B&B because the hostel was full. It's the first time on the trip where the girls are in a separate room, and it's really nice, especially after such a horrible day).

Monday, August 04, 2003

Fire, Smoke and Evacuation

Well, we've had our first bit of real tense-excitement now on our trip. The area that we are in has been declared a "National Emergency Area", because of raging forest fires. It started with a single trail of smoke on the northern horizon, which grew and grew into an ugly streak across the sky. Then another one started - a plume of smoke, and a huge plume of cloud growing above it as the air was heated and forced upwards. On the radio we learned that there were 243 forest fires in the area, and 2 big ones had gone out of control. Suddenly, towns were being evacuated, and roads closed.

On Saturday morning we looked out and the skyline had disappeared. A dense smoke had descended over the whole area, for hundreds of miles, which caused the sun to become very hazy, and the air had a pungent smoke smell. The fires were now covering up to 4,000 hectares, and 8,500 people were evacuated.

And then another one started, south of us (the other two were north), and in 24 hours this covered 4,000 hectares. 800 firemen were working on the three fires, and the army were called. In total 10,000 people were evacuated, and our hostel was triangulated between all three! Fortunately the closest one was 20km away, but it certainly ruined the air, and made us a bit nervous.

Three major roads were closed, and instead of heading west from Squilax to Kamloops, we had to head east to Revelstoke. This was because the Kamloops - Jasper highway was closed by the fires, and so a 200km detour is in hand!

"Phew, what a scorcher" turns into "Phew, what a burner"

Saturday, August 02, 2003

Squilax, Shuswap Lake

Our current hostel (HI Shuswap Lake at Squilax) is exciting because most of the accommodation is in "cabooses" - these are the carriages that you see on the end of the long trains in the old westerns, where the guard sits, and the baddies always meet their untimely end. And, if my memory is right, always the one they detach from the train just as the rest goes plunging into the ravine. Well, anyway, it looks like the picture! In the early 90's Canadian railways decided they didn't need them anymore (they were principally for braking and observation), despite the size of their trains. (We counted a train yesterday that had 110 wagons behind 2 engines. And when you're at a level crossing, that's a very long, very slow moving train.) But I digress...

The hostel bought three cabooses, laid them on some railway track in the gardens, and turned them into six-bed dormitories. They have a small dining area and kitchen, as well as a desk (originally where the guard watched the track disappear - or the indians charge, if he was in a movie), and the 'window box' on top, which is where I'm sitting now, typing this diary.

It's got two seats, one each side of the carriage, and windows looking forward, sideways and back. You're reminded that it was a railway carriage everywhere you look, as well as by the engine-grease smells. As you can imagine, the girls are very, very excited about this all.

The rest of the hostel consists of an old storefront (just like the Westerns too!), a campfire and a native sauna. This is basically a 4-foot high circular mud building - it looks like one of those cheaper 'stand on the lawn' rigid swimming pools, with a roof. Inside is a small pit, where red hot rocks from the fire are placed, and then water is splashed onto it. The temperature goes skyward, and five minutes later everybody cramped inside is sweating tons! The first time I tried this it was very hot - in fact, so hot that I went straight to the lake and jumped in at midnight. I don't like swimming in cold water, but this was easy after such a roasting, to get my body to a normal temperature. Anyway, if you get the chance, try it - but make sure you listen well, and don't mishear 'native sauna' for 'naked sauna' (another story, another time)!

On the lake shore, sitting on the swimming jetty today, we saw bald eagles, beavers, deer and a small brown bear on the opposite shore. Its a sure sign that we're starting to get closer to the Rockies, and the National Parks.

Although it all sounds idyllic, we couldn't recommend the hostel to others, because its nowhere near the same standards of cleanliness and order as the other HI hostels in Canada - if you come here, be prepared for a shock. One of the oddest things is that the hostel keeps two llama's in a pen, and the eating area is pungent with the smell of hot llama poo!
(Update: Now they are grazing on the lakeside - and the lake nearby is now full of llama poo - Charlotte has stopped swimming, and instead both Charlotte and Emily are using life-saving rings in a game of "Hoop the Poo".)

Roasting to the Rockies


We've left the coast, and are heading towards the Rockies. Today we completed the first part of the journey, from Squamish (right on the coast) to the village of Squilax, on Shuswap Lake.

We started off on Route 99, the Sea to Sky Highway, which winds up from Vancouver, through Squamish and Whistler following the river valley, surrounded by snow capped mountains. It's an amazing drive, with beautiful vista's on every turn.

From Pemberton, we turned true East, heading directly inland, and up across the first of the passes. As we climbed, the temperature, which had been rising from the coast, started to fall, and by the top of the drive we had clear air, and a pleasant temperature. We stopped to look at lakes, and saw a classic log jam at one.

Then we drove down, and the landscape turned from grass and trees, to dirt and desert. At Lilloet we met our match, as the heat soared to 36 degrees plus. By this time we'd confirmed that the air conditioning was definitely not working AT ALL! :-(

After lunch in what seemed like the world's most god-forsaken town (the greatest thing that I can say is that the A&W restaurant had air conditioning that chilled you to the bone), we went up higher again, and had a swim in a lake, before hitting the hottest part of Canada (39.5 degrees yesterday) at Cache Creek. Somehow I hadn't imagined Canada would be like this - the pictures you see of snow covered peaks give you the impression that its temperate, but even in Jasper & Banff (near glaciers) its 32 degrees today.

So, we're hot and travelling, but we've now got 3 days on lake side, with swimming a top priority!

More interesting news on the hostel tomorrow (before then, I'll let you do your homework on what a caboose is).