Olaf the snowman? Nope, it’s Lewgi.

The drive from Jasper to Banff deserves an entry of its own.

Holy snowflakes is the only polite way I can phrase it, and I feel the videos that I took of sections of road cannot be published due to the obscenities forcibly used by the driver (I was not the driver). Although I think I was using worse language in my head.

We set off early one morning from Jasper along a very simple road with no junctions or changes that would take us all the way to Banff. Easy right? Wrong.

I think it was only 40 minutes into the journey we past the first set of snow gates, which I would like to point out were open at the time… only to be closed an hour after we went through.

Could have been a very bad diversion...

In the first and second hours, we were laughing and joking about the weather and lack of snow trucks to clear the road. It was absolutely stunning and it really looked like a winter wonderland with glittering snow and festive trees every which way you looked.

By the third and fourth hours we were driving though a continual sludge of at least 6” of snow and our tyres were starting to get clogged with ice around the rims. There was not so much laughing as there was a weird whimpering that was meant to sound like a breezy light-hearted chuckle. 

It was the most extreme weather I have ever witnessed and the intensity lasted a mere five hours.

Now, I never tend to talk about pee breaks but I feel it has to be mentioned as I was hysterical by this point (I laugh when nervous) and this just pushed me over the edge. Being somewhat influenced by the fight-or-flight instinct I was in desperate need, so Lewis the ever caring driver pulled over to the side of the road in the safest place we could find. I do not exaggerate when I say the snow came up past my window. Try getting out of the car when there is a wall of snow, I dare you.

Somehow, in my full-bladdered state I gained super-human strength and opened Scooby’s right wing (the door). It was here, between a mixture of galloping-jumping-leaping-head-first-tumbling that I dove into a pile of snow and landed in a weird mangled knot that I couldn’t fathom how my body could twist itself into such a position. Thankfully the effort and movement that I had to perform in order to untangle myself had made a delightful 4ft high open-topped igloo. The snowy ice-toilet.

The journey to Banff was phenomenal in all senses of the word and we have never been so thankful to see cars again. It was like re-appearing from an ice-age.

Funnily enough, it was only a 1km from the Banff snow gates, aka civilization, that we saw two snow ploughs beginning to clear what we had just driven. Great timing yet again.

Casper the friendly Cougar?

On our drive to Jasper, I think we just about tested Scooby’s abilities to the limit. The roads were horrific with potholes every few meters and then after about three hours of driving the introduction of snow was thrown into the mix.

I honestly think we lost track of time as I cannot remember how long the drive actually took us, I just remember it was looooong.

By the time we arrived in the village of Jasper it was very quiet and few people were out on the streets. However it was so quaint and peaceful with the mountains surrounding us we absolutely loved it. Lewis in particular was in awe as this was the Canada he had read about and wanted to experience. The wonderful, never-ending, gigantic mountains!

We stayed at the Pocahontas Cabins on the outskirts of Jasper National Park, which were a delightful little cluster of wooden cabins with cozy fireplaces.

The best part about staying at these cabins was the phenomenal karaoke alarm. This ‘alarm’ would go off at about 7am every morning, regardless of whether we wanted it or not, and came in the form of four young girls under the age of ten singing at the top of their lungs a collection of Miley Cyrus and Carly Rae Jepson songs. One morning they even treated us to Jon Bon Jovi – livin on a prayer. Yaowza!

Other than our delightful wake-up call quartet, we loved Jasper and spotted even more wildlife.

When driving along the main road into the village we spotted two wolves on the other side of the road. We pulled over, keeping our distance and began taking photographs, and when one looked directly at Lewis he (very calmly and in no way yelped) “That’s it, we’re off” and proceeded to accelerate away, leaving the rather large wolf wondering what had just happened.

However, the slightly more daunting feeling of “that can eat me” was yet to happen.

It was after dinner one evening we decided to go a walk up behind our cabin and see where the road would take us. It might help to explain that Lewis, in his wisdom, has signed up for a quadrathlon with his bestie and needs to run every day and thought this road would be ideal for a morning jog. Pah!!

Anyway, realizing we better head back before dusk, we proceeded to return to our cabin only after 30 minutes of walking along this road. It was here, retracing our own steps that we came across some rather large and extremely new paw prints in the snow leading across the path. I cannot describe to you the nauseous, pins-and-needles, where-is-the-bloody-big-cat-hiding feeling that encompassed my body.

Lewis on the other hand thought that this was a great photo opportunity to compare hand sizes. Suffice to say I took the photo thanks to my very persuasive other-half.

Very calmly and slowly, so as not to tempt the great cat predator into chasing us, we walked back to the chalet and locked the door and didn’t leave again until the next morning where we practically ran to the car and locked its doors behind us.

And that is the story about how I do not care to see a cougar in the flesh…. ever.

The Adventure Begins

A mere 5 days after moving into the apartment in Oak Bay, we decided that now would be the best time to set off on a road trip to discover more of Canada.

Before jobs, before commitments, before our money runs out. 

With our first destination decided, we caught the 7am ferry to Tsawwassen, Vancouver, and started heading to Hope – a location we believed to be a significant distance away. At 10.30am, we arrived in Hope. Not so far away and not so much to do.

“Hmmm… I think we should just keep driving.”

“Ahm, yes.”

And off we began on our road trip, not knowing where we were actually intending to go.

Always having an affinity to warm weather and summer it came as no surprise to Lewis that I chose to follow signs to Summerland. Just past Peachland. I am not joking, these places actually exist. They are lovely and you expect pixies to live there.

We drove up to a hotel (I honestly think it was the only one we saw) and checked in. We ended up in a Junior Suite at Summerland Waterfront Resort and Spa with stunning views over the lake and a bottle of wine to welcome us. All for a fraction of what we had budgeted for.

During our two-day stint in the land of summer (which was still a tad chilly), we visited SumacRidge Estate Winery, walked up Giant’s Head Mountain and pondered around their little town. It was delightful.

From there we drove to Kelowna, a place my Dad had been swooning about before we left Scotland. It was his location of choice if he moved back to Canada and I can (slightly) see why. It hugs the side of a beautiful lake, with cute cowboy and western style buildings that you feel Clint Eastwood may appear out of at any time. For some reason though we were not entirely taken with it and decided after a couple of days to jump back in our faithful Scooby and begin what seemed like a never ending drive to Jasper.

Scooby The Car

Upon moving to Victoria we decided it was about time to buy a car, especially to enable us to begin our South Western Canada road trip.

We started scouring usedvictoria and kijiji for hours a day trying to find a ‘young’, low-mileage car. What began as a search for a truck soon became the hunt for anything that had four-wheel-drive, a necessity if we were going to make it to Jasper and Banff on our trip in Spring.

Google, search, hunt, scour, reset criteria, change search word, scroll, edit, expand search… oh hello Subaru Lagacy. And here we finally find Scooby. A delightful red estate car that comes with two sets of wheels - winter and summer. It’s as if it knew we were wanting to take him to snow-capped mountains.

If only it were going to be as easy to actually buy him. Oh how simple things could have been. What we believed to be a straightforward money transaction between our British account to our pre-paid travel Credit Card, became a frantic money chasing fiasco that caused us significant grief.  It took almost 10 days to have our money moved, transferred, accepted and available from British to Canadian banks and Lewis was living in constant fear that he was going to lose his beloved “Scooby”.

Finally, with a cheque in hand we got Scooby and drove away with him eleven days later than imagined.  Epic.