Canada Episode 1

If you love big mountains, wildlife and spectacular scenery, then you’ll love Canada! It’s one of the world’s biggest countries and has some of the most amazing landscapes on the planet. My journey starts in Vancouver, before making my way into the Canadian desert. Then it’s northward through the wine growing region of the Okanagan to Jasper. Here I head down the world-renowned icefields parkway, before boarding a flight in the cowboy capital of Calgary.

From humble beginnings as a small town centred around a sawmill, Vancouver has grown into a modern and beautiful city. Today there’s around three million people living here, and it seems as though the majority of them like the outdoors. The city is a thriving metropolis with high-rise residential towers flanking the harbour.

It’s not far from the city that the office buildings and homes give way to open road and sparsely populated countryside, and you quickly find yourself surrounded by farmland. My drive took me along the Canadian border, eastward into the dry interior and to a place called Osoyoos.

I made my way to the outskirts to a place called the Nk’Mip desert cultural centre. Yep you heard me right, I said desert.  Believe it or not there’s a vast arid part of Canada called the Great Basin Desert. It’s not like the clichéd sand dune covered landscape where camels roam between oasis, but it is a true desert, complete with rattlesnakes. It was also home to a settlement of first nations or Indian people and inside the centre there are several displays that teach you about the history and culture of the original inhabitants of the area. But best of all there’s also a snake breeding and research program on site.

Apart from the desert, the Osoyoos area, or more specifically the Okanagan Valley, is well known for its wineries. The grape vines add some greenery to the hillsides. Of course there’s a trail you can drive and go to various cellar doors to taste the local drops. One of the more popular ones is Hester Creek. It actually has an Australian connection because the manager of the place comes from one of Australia’s top wine growing regions.

Leaving Osoyoos I turned northward, making my way towards Kamloops, but along the way I planned on experiencing a bit of Canada’s famous lake culture, and one of the best places for this is in Kelowna.

Canada is dotted with lakes and some of them seem as big as oceans. These bodies of water play a major part in the daily lives of locals, in much the same way as the beaches do in Australia. It’s great for holidays and for a little bit of weekend recreation, with canoeing, swimming, wakeboarding and other water sports being really popular. It’s also really nice just to sit on the lakeside and enjoy a few drinks while taking in the sunset.

The following morning I met with Ed from Moashee Adventure Tours, to go for a mountain bike ride to check out the wilderness and the old railway line that carves its way through the hills. Thankfully though, it wasn’t one of those extreme sports tours you generally think of when you see the word ‘Adventure’ in the business name of an operator. I was still sore from attempting to wakeboard the day before and a passive exploration of the mountains was more what I was after.

Next stop was the city of Kamloops, where I headed to the hills at Sun Peaks Resort. Now, this place is most famed for world-class snowfields that draw skiers and snowboarders from all over the place. But it’s now becoming increasingly popular for those looking for some summer fun, particularly downhill mountain bikers.

There are countless kilometers of trails, for every ability, though I reckon the best thing about cycling here is that the chairlifts do all the uphill, and gravity takes care of the downhill part. For those that aren’t so keen on cycling, one of the more passive activities on offer is an evening canoe. It’s actually a lot more than that. It combines a history lesson with site seeing and a delicious dinner to cap it all off!

The next morning I hit the road from Kamloops and made tracks for a place called Blue River, it’s about half way to Jasper. The drive seems to be like every other one in this country, really scenic. It takes you into the big river and forest country that the Canadian wilderness is known for. It’s also the habitat of one of the other things this place is famous for – bears!

The bear population in this area is so high that you’re pretty much guaranteed you’ll see at least one while on the water on a River Safari tour. It took us only about 10 minutes before we spotted a dark figure walking on the banks in the distance, so we powered down and gently made our way in for a closer look.

Emerging from the trees, almost oblivious to our presence, rambled a huge black bear. His bloated stomach suggested he was well fed, so I wasn’t as worried about him jumping on the boat looking for an easy feed. Black bears are the smallest and most common species of bear. They must be fairly abundant because during the course of the tour I saw at least five of them casually going about their business.

Continuing my journey I headed to the settlement of Jasper. It sits high in the Canadian Rockies, surrounded by the countries biggest National Park. It’s essentially a tourist town that provides a launching point to explore the mountains. It’s the untouched wilderness, mountain scenery and abundant wildlife that draw inquisitive travellers here. The incredible thing is, you don’t have to go traipsing through the forest to come across some of the resident animals. Because the environment here is so pristine, the wildlife practically comes to you!

Leaving Jasper, my journey took a southward turn towards Banff, to drive along one of the world’s great stretches of road, the Icefields Parkway. This 230 kilometer scenic mountain roadway links Lake Louise in the south with Jasper. Along its meandering path there are more than a hundred glaciers, turquoise lakes, rivers, waterfalls and the famous Columbia Icefield. As far as road trips go, this one rivals the best. Sopping at Lake Louise I went on a hike to learn about Grizzly bears. It was an unusual experience where I got a close look at some fresh bear poo! Continuing up the road I stopped at the outskirts of Banff, at a place called Warner Stables. They’re keeping the tradition of trail riding cowboys alive, and give town folk like me a chance to saddle up and have a look at the countryside the way the early settlers did. There are a number of rides they do, from one-hour trails to multiday backcountry trips that give you a real taste for the old west. My guide, Wild Bill as I came to know him, reckons there’s no better way to see the Rockies than on horseback.

From the trails of Banff I went from horseback to the more comfy seat of the car, making my way east to the cowboy centre of Canada, Calgary.

This is the home of the famous Calgary Stampede and around one million Canadians. While the people here might have embraced the present day, the locals still cling to their wild west past, so there’s no shortage of cowboys. They’re also known for their hospitality and while in town I was made an honorary Calgarian.