2007/12/04 Tuesday
Up early and breakfasted early, then went down to our hotel beach, and with little wind had a great 1-1/2 hr snorkel around the whole cove and right out into the ‘open sea’ past the rocky ledges forming the mouth of the cove. Didn’t have to fork out $150 either!!
Saw everything that we saw at Xel-Ha (except skate), plus a few others including a little ‘box-shaped’ fish that I call a puffer. The reefs and corals are in fact vastly superior to Xel-Ha, but you need a calm day to be able to enjoy them. Since the tide was low, we were snorkelling in less than 18” of water sometimes, even though we were quite well out from the beach.
Spent the rest of the morning lazing by the pool, then headed to our ‘local’ lunch room and then to our room, which (thankfully) had been made up. The culprits had left a flower adorned towel-dog on the bed, obviously aware that our ire had been raised, and probably fearful that their daily $2-Gracias notes might disappear!
It is clouding over, and the swallows (swifts?) were swooping en mass by the pool when we left, so I expect it will rain this afternoon.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Grand Sirenis
2007/12/01 Saturday
Breakfast
09H30 - Waited for the Snorkel Adventure bus. Arrived a little late, but not too bad for Mexico! Picked up a few more on the way to Puerto Morales.
Sat around for an hour or so while the rest of the buses/people arrived, then went through the ‘get your equipment’ process; we only needed life-vests (mandatory).
Finally, (about 12H30), we get on the boats and head for the barrier reef. First snorkel was in fairly deep water, with not much to see, and rough water due to increasing winds.
(Should have gone snorkelling yesterday and sailing today!)
Second snorkel was on shallower reef, but even rougher water due to the breaking swells. Despite this, saw more fish in this session. But nothing spectacular, and the damage done to the reefs by the hurricanes is evident.
Back to base camp for lunch, which was surprisingly good (considering the site and circumstances), and again sat around for quite a long while before setting off on the final snorkel session. By now we were down to 2 boats, as many of the people declined the opportunity.
Again on shallow reef, with a lot of fish around in schools due to the late hour, as they apparently come back onto the reef to feed before it gets dark.
Saw a skate and a fair sized eel as well as the many fish.
Back to base camp, and sat around again waiting for the excursion vans to be ready to cart us back to our hotels. Eventually got on the road and got back to Grand Sirenis at about 19H00.
Bathed/showered and hit the main buffet. Mariachi Band playing in the buffet. Nicely kitted out (clothes and instruments), but not particularly good musicians! Glad to get back to the room!
STILL NO INTERNET!!!!! They gave me yet another ‘complimentary’ 60-min ticket, but when I gat back to the room the LAN connectivity was lost!
2007/12/03 Monday
Up early and breakfasted, then walked up to the road and caught the collectivo to Xel-Ha.
At the gates, we were parted from our funds by a band of robbers! We had been told that you could get a simple ‘entrance only’ for about $37, but this was not the case and we had to bring out the credit card and pay $150 for our ‘all-inclusive’ entrance!!
Cycled up to the start of the river, and floated down. Not particularly exciting.
Did get to see quite a lot of the normal run of local fish, and eventually skate, barracuda and ribbon-fish. Also saw schools of what must have been hundreds of thousands of ‘hatchlings’, about 5 to 8 mm in length, close to the shore/riverbank.
After about 2 hrs, Denise felt quite ill, so we left the water and eventually went to one of the patios and had a light lunch with beer/shandy to drink.
Decided to head for home! Caught the collectivo, walked down the road and returned to find that our room had again not been made up (at 14H00)!! Complained to the ‘concierge’, who promised to attend to it immediately, but it was over ½ hour before someone actually pitched up to do the job, while we sat and waited.
Had a nap, then headed off for a light dinner. Definite increase in the population, with many families with school-aged kids now in evidence.
Breakfast
09H30 - Waited for the Snorkel Adventure bus. Arrived a little late, but not too bad for Mexico! Picked up a few more on the way to Puerto Morales.
Sat around for an hour or so while the rest of the buses/people arrived, then went through the ‘get your equipment’ process; we only needed life-vests (mandatory).
Finally, (about 12H30), we get on the boats and head for the barrier reef. First snorkel was in fairly deep water, with not much to see, and rough water due to increasing winds.
(Should have gone snorkelling yesterday and sailing today!)
Second snorkel was on shallower reef, but even rougher water due to the breaking swells. Despite this, saw more fish in this session. But nothing spectacular, and the damage done to the reefs by the hurricanes is evident.
Back to base camp for lunch, which was surprisingly good (considering the site and circumstances), and again sat around for quite a long while before setting off on the final snorkel session. By now we were down to 2 boats, as many of the people declined the opportunity.
Again on shallow reef, with a lot of fish around in schools due to the late hour, as they apparently come back onto the reef to feed before it gets dark.
Saw a skate and a fair sized eel as well as the many fish.
Back to base camp, and sat around again waiting for the excursion vans to be ready to cart us back to our hotels. Eventually got on the road and got back to Grand Sirenis at about 19H00.
Bathed/showered and hit the main buffet. Mariachi Band playing in the buffet. Nicely kitted out (clothes and instruments), but not particularly good musicians! Glad to get back to the room!
STILL NO INTERNET!!!!! They gave me yet another ‘complimentary’ 60-min ticket, but when I gat back to the room the LAN connectivity was lost!
2007/12/03 Monday
Up early and breakfasted, then walked up to the road and caught the collectivo to Xel-Ha.
At the gates, we were parted from our funds by a band of robbers! We had been told that you could get a simple ‘entrance only’ for about $37, but this was not the case and we had to bring out the credit card and pay $150 for our ‘all-inclusive’ entrance!!
Cycled up to the start of the river, and floated down. Not particularly exciting.
Did get to see quite a lot of the normal run of local fish, and eventually skate, barracuda and ribbon-fish. Also saw schools of what must have been hundreds of thousands of ‘hatchlings’, about 5 to 8 mm in length, close to the shore/riverbank.
After about 2 hrs, Denise felt quite ill, so we left the water and eventually went to one of the patios and had a light lunch with beer/shandy to drink.
Decided to head for home! Caught the collectivo, walked down the road and returned to find that our room had again not been made up (at 14H00)!! Complained to the ‘concierge’, who promised to attend to it immediately, but it was over ½ hour before someone actually pitched up to do the job, while we sat and waited.
Had a nap, then headed off for a light dinner. Definite increase in the population, with many families with school-aged kids now in evidence.
Mexico - Grand Sirenis
2007/11/26 Monday
Started with the sparrows (probably well before them for that matter), getting up at 04H00 to get to the Victoria Airport for our 06H00 flight.
Angus was pottering around when we got up, having been up all night writing a term paper!
Loaded stuff into the car, drove to the airport and booked into the ‘staff parking lot (thanks to a magical ‘pass’ which had been procured by Kenny Podmore).
Check-in was smooth and easy (as it SHOULD be in Victoria at 04H30 AM!!). We were first through the ‘security check’, and for once it was Denise rather than yours-truly that was ‘randomly selected’ for the whole ‘pat down’ rigamarole.
Got a couple of coffees when the kiosk opened at 05H30 (-ish), and boarded Horizon Air soon thereafter. Bit of a bumpy flight (resulting in no ‘in-flight service’ at all), but no serious issues.
Landed at SeaTac (Seattle) uneventfully, cleared US Customs & Immigration, re-checked our baggage and took the shuttle trains to the Alaska Air terminal. Sat around for quite a long while, as our Cancun flight was only scheduled to depart at 08H50. Denise had a juice and I had a ‘sausage breakfast biscuit’ and coffee. OK to keep the wolf at bay, but nothing to really write home about! (Pardon the pun?).
Flight to Cancun long, bumpy air, and uncomfortable (despite lots of leg room because we were in the ‘emergency exit’ row, but for some reason those seats don’t ‘recline’?). But the ‘direct flight’ from SeaTac to Cancun is still definitely the best option.
Very quick through Mexican C & I, then ‘hit on’ by timeshare sales people as we exited, but dodged them as soon as we realised the guy was NOT an official Cancun Airport visitor information representative (as he claimed).
Found our ‘shuttle’ group (Best Day) and were almost immediately bundled into a 8-passenger van with 2 other couples and hit the road South towards Tulum. We were very impressed with the ‘transfer’ people! Good driver; didn’t talk as much as they usually do.
We (of course) had the furthest destination, and had to drop the others off first, but still arrived at the hotel pretty quickly.
Check-in was fast and efficient, except that we had been booked into the ‘Mayan Beach’ side of the Grand Sirenis rather than the ‘Riviera Maya’ side, which I had thought we were going to. After some discussion they offered us a room in the ‘other side’, but it was close to the ‘Theatre’, so we stayed with what they had assigned us. (Room 2509)
The property is HUGE, although we could not see a lot because it was already getting dark. We were driven to our room in a big golf-cart. Big ‘1-bed suite’, very clean, nicely appointed, with a double whirlpool bath plus separate shower! Only minor ‘complaint’ about the room is the slight musty odour (caused by the humidity, which is common to ALL these coastal hotels, regardless of rating!).
Local time was now 19H30, so we unpacked and set off for the buffet dining room! We will almost certainly not gain weight here! The walk over a raised track/bridge through a mangrove swamp) to get back to the Reception/Restaurant/Lobby Bar/Theatre area is quite substantial (about 0.5Km each way)!
Food was ‘so-so’. Meats/Calamari somewhat overcooked, main fish dish cold. Certainly not ‘5-star’, but acceptable. Lots of choice and the fresh fruits, desserts and cheeses were good. Since we will probably stick mostly to cold servings, fruits and salads for the duration, it should not present a problem. Waiter service for drinks sporadic!
Only ‘cerveza clara’ available in the buffet and the bars!! NO DARK BEER available!!!! Definitely not 5-Star!!! The beer is supposed to be Corona, but I don’t think it is. It is most probably the lighter, lower alcohol ‘Modelo’ which is produced by the Corona factory.
2007/11/27 Tuesday
Breakfast was OK. An ‘appy’ on the egg-frying service, but it is pretty much the same even if the yolk has been broken on the way over! Only white bread on the toaster station! (5-Star??). Coffee is hot provided you get it yourself from the urn! (Cool if you wait for a waiter to bring it round.)
Went down to the beach & had a nice swim (thanks to the water-shoes!). Water a bit rough, so we didn’t try snorkelling.
My feet are in bad shape, with blisters on the pads under the toes. I think the sandals I have are not fitting properly, and the amount of walking is making it worse!
Lunched at the pool-snackbar close to our room. Fairly good selection of foods.
Still had to walk up to Reception, as the RJ45-Internet service in the room is not working, and the ‘concierge’ in the hall of the ‘habitations’ can’t handle it. NO INTERNET!! Their room network system is not working!!
Spent a quiet afternoon and walked over for supper. Better this evening than last. Waiter more attentive and found that there is a chef preparing both fish and meat ‘freshly cooked’ at the service counter, so you can get ‘fresh & hot’ there if the offerings in the warming trays don’t catch your fancy. They have a great flan for dessert, which pleases Denise.
Decide to hit the sack rather than do the ‘Nocturnal Activities’ at the Theatre. Both read a book and did a Soduko or two.
2007/11/28 Wednesday
Breakfast.
Down to the beach, and tried snorkelling. Still a bit rough, so the visibility was poor, but did see a few interesting things.
There are 2 HobiCats, not very much in use, so I signed the ‘waivers’ and we went for a spin. Difficult getting in & out of the cove, but pretty good fun once out on the open ocean.
Lunch.
Met with our ‘Best Day’ rep, confirmed our return flights and booked our return shuttle to the Airport. Booked for a snorkelling trip to the barrier reef (Saturday).
Ate at the Steakhouse (speciality restaurant). OK, but a limited menu, so you actually get a wider choice at the main buffet! (No flan!).
Tried to organise Internet; still inoperative!
2007/11/29 Thursday
Breakfast.
Walked up to the road and took the ‘combi’ (12-seater van bus service) to Tulum. Cost $2 each, each way. (Tulum Express van service from Hotel is $20 each way!!).
Walked from the road to the Tulum heritage site. Bought tickets ($4.50 each) and walked around the site for about 1 ½ hours. Very nice area, with great ocean view from the ruin’s ‘ramparts’! Pretty nice beach, which is open for public swimming! (If we’d known, we would have worn our swimgear!).
Looked through the ubiquitous tourist traps on the way out and actually bought a few things (hammock chair, dresses), then walked out to the main road and were ambushed into the ‘collectivo’. (Also a $2 fare multi-passenger minivan service, but run by the ‘govt’ rather than private enterprise. We had to sit on our hands waiting for the driver to finish his lunch!! But he had our cash already, so we couldn’t just get out and go catch the combi!).
Back at Grand Sirenis for lunch.
Tried to organise Internet; still inoperative!
Went down to the beach and had a swim. Read/Soduko’d/napped.
Suppered, then went to the Theatre for ‘Mexican Night’ show. Mostly the ‘standard’ local dancing troupe, but also had an excellent rope-twirling-act (lariat/riata). Good service from the waitresses in the theatre too!
Tried to organise Internet; still inoperative for the ‘weekly use’ option ($50), but apparently working for the ‘1-hour’ option ($10). Supervisor gave us a free ‘1-hour’ ticket because the other was still not available. Managed to send off a few emails (I think?), but service was spotty and it didn’t seem to like the ‘@shaw.ca’ addresses.
2007/11/30 Friday
Breakfast.
Down to the beach. Had a good snorkel session as the water was smoother and not so much fine stuff in suspension. Didn’t see anything particularly ‘special’, but did take in a good selection of fish and covered most of the cove.
Sat around the pool for the remainder of the morning. Soduko & reading.
Lunch.
Internet! STILL unavailable!
Denise napping. Me typing! Shortly I will do see if I can get a HobiCat for a while.
Got one, and had an hour’s sail, but the wind was dropping off (uncharacteristically for the Mexico coast, where it normally rises in the afternoon/evening), so not as fun as it could have been with a better wind.
Washed the salt off in the double whirlpool tub. Then finished off a soduko and got ready for supper.
Lost my door-card in the surf while snorkelling, so went to the lobby on the way to get a new one. There was a supervisor there, so I cornered him on the Internet issue (which is STILL supposed to be being ‘fixed tomorrow’), and demanded another complimentary ’60-minute’ ticket. He treated it as a non-issue until I asked whether the bars were going to be shut down and the restaurants closed because of ‘technical difficulties’?
After he had told me for about the fifth time that the ‘technical expert’ had assured him it will be ‘working tomorrow’, I explained to him that I had been programming computers before he was born, and that his ‘technical expert’ had been wrong on the same issue every day of this entire week! When I pointed out that he and his fellow managers were either very gullible, or that they had not worked out that the expert was lying to them, the ‘free ticket’ was forthcoming.
Had supper in the ‘Brazilian’ speciality restaurant. After being seated, they brought us a special Brazilian drink (which is supposed to consist of pineapple juice, sugar, lime sections, ice & rum). I didn’t hear the description, and thought it a bit ‘tame’, but quite nice. Denise kept commenting on how strong it was, so I tasted hers. They had put two shots of rum in her drink and none in mine! Swiftly corrected, and we continued with the meal.
Main course dishes arrived, with only the ‘accompanados’ (brocolli, cheesed potato, rattatouis, ??)!! Then, about 8 different ‘meat courses’ were presented one at a time, at the table. The waiter would explain what it was and cut a piece off (rare, well done) if said you wanted it. It was quite a ‘different meal’, and we ended up enjoying it a lot. Denise even got her flan for dessert (one of the choices), and I had a slice off (whole) hot pineapple, baked with a sugar & cinnamon coating. I was scared to ask for seconds because I might have become addicted on the spot! We had debated going to this speciality restaurant, but were glad that we did.
We decided to give the ‘Lion King’ a miss, and headed for home base.
2007/12/01 Saturday
Breakfast
09H30 - Waited for the Snorkel Adventure bus. Arrived a little late, but not too bad for Mexico! Picked up a few more on the way to Puerto Morales.
Sat around for an hour or so while the rest of the buses/people arrived, then went through the ‘get your equipment’ process; we only needed life-vests (mandatory).
Finally, (about 12H30), we get on the boats and head for the barrier reef. First snorkel was in fairly deep water, with not much to see, and rough water due to increasing winds.
(Should have gone snorkelling yesterday and sailing today!)
Second snorkel was on shallower reef, but even rougher water due to the breaking swells. Despite this, saw more fish in this session. But nothing spectacular, and the damage done to the reefs by the hurricanes is evident.
Back to base camp for lunch, which was surprisingly good (considering the site and circumstances), and again sat around for quite a long while before setting off on the final snorkel session. By now we were down to 2 boats, as many of the people declined the opportunity.
Again on shallow reef, with a lot of fish around in schools due to the late hour, as they apparently come back onto the reef to feed before it gets dark.
Saw a skate and a fair sized eel as well as the many fish.
Back to base camp, and sat around again waiting for the excursion vans to be ready to cart us back to our hotels. Eventually got on the road and got back to Grand Sirenis at about 19H00.
Bathed/showered and hit the main buffet. Mariachi Band playing in the buffet. Nicely kitted out (clothes and instruments), but not particularly good musicians! Glad to get back to the room!
STILL NO INTERNET!!!!! They gave me yet another ‘complimentary’ 60-min ticket, but when I gat back to the room the LAN connectivity was lost!
2007/12/02 Sunday
Denise went for a walk before breakfast. I tried the Internet for the umpteenth time, and ‘lo & behold’, I’m online!
Posting this lot before it fails!
Started with the sparrows (probably well before them for that matter), getting up at 04H00 to get to the Victoria Airport for our 06H00 flight.
Angus was pottering around when we got up, having been up all night writing a term paper!
Loaded stuff into the car, drove to the airport and booked into the ‘staff parking lot (thanks to a magical ‘pass’ which had been procured by Kenny Podmore).
Check-in was smooth and easy (as it SHOULD be in Victoria at 04H30 AM!!). We were first through the ‘security check’, and for once it was Denise rather than yours-truly that was ‘randomly selected’ for the whole ‘pat down’ rigamarole.
Got a couple of coffees when the kiosk opened at 05H30 (-ish), and boarded Horizon Air soon thereafter. Bit of a bumpy flight (resulting in no ‘in-flight service’ at all), but no serious issues.
Landed at SeaTac (Seattle) uneventfully, cleared US Customs & Immigration, re-checked our baggage and took the shuttle trains to the Alaska Air terminal. Sat around for quite a long while, as our Cancun flight was only scheduled to depart at 08H50. Denise had a juice and I had a ‘sausage breakfast biscuit’ and coffee. OK to keep the wolf at bay, but nothing to really write home about! (Pardon the pun?).
Flight to Cancun long, bumpy air, and uncomfortable (despite lots of leg room because we were in the ‘emergency exit’ row, but for some reason those seats don’t ‘recline’?). But the ‘direct flight’ from SeaTac to Cancun is still definitely the best option.
Very quick through Mexican C & I, then ‘hit on’ by timeshare sales people as we exited, but dodged them as soon as we realised the guy was NOT an official Cancun Airport visitor information representative (as he claimed).
Found our ‘shuttle’ group (Best Day) and were almost immediately bundled into a 8-passenger van with 2 other couples and hit the road South towards Tulum. We were very impressed with the ‘transfer’ people! Good driver; didn’t talk as much as they usually do.
We (of course) had the furthest destination, and had to drop the others off first, but still arrived at the hotel pretty quickly.
Check-in was fast and efficient, except that we had been booked into the ‘Mayan Beach’ side of the Grand Sirenis rather than the ‘Riviera Maya’ side, which I had thought we were going to. After some discussion they offered us a room in the ‘other side’, but it was close to the ‘Theatre’, so we stayed with what they had assigned us. (Room 2509)
The property is HUGE, although we could not see a lot because it was already getting dark. We were driven to our room in a big golf-cart. Big ‘1-bed suite’, very clean, nicely appointed, with a double whirlpool bath plus separate shower! Only minor ‘complaint’ about the room is the slight musty odour (caused by the humidity, which is common to ALL these coastal hotels, regardless of rating!).
Local time was now 19H30, so we unpacked and set off for the buffet dining room! We will almost certainly not gain weight here! The walk over a raised track/bridge through a mangrove swamp) to get back to the Reception/Restaurant/Lobby Bar/Theatre area is quite substantial (about 0.5Km each way)!
Food was ‘so-so’. Meats/Calamari somewhat overcooked, main fish dish cold. Certainly not ‘5-star’, but acceptable. Lots of choice and the fresh fruits, desserts and cheeses were good. Since we will probably stick mostly to cold servings, fruits and salads for the duration, it should not present a problem. Waiter service for drinks sporadic!
Only ‘cerveza clara’ available in the buffet and the bars!! NO DARK BEER available!!!! Definitely not 5-Star!!! The beer is supposed to be Corona, but I don’t think it is. It is most probably the lighter, lower alcohol ‘Modelo’ which is produced by the Corona factory.
2007/11/27 Tuesday
Breakfast was OK. An ‘appy’ on the egg-frying service, but it is pretty much the same even if the yolk has been broken on the way over! Only white bread on the toaster station! (5-Star??). Coffee is hot provided you get it yourself from the urn! (Cool if you wait for a waiter to bring it round.)
Went down to the beach & had a nice swim (thanks to the water-shoes!). Water a bit rough, so we didn’t try snorkelling.
My feet are in bad shape, with blisters on the pads under the toes. I think the sandals I have are not fitting properly, and the amount of walking is making it worse!
Lunched at the pool-snackbar close to our room. Fairly good selection of foods.
Still had to walk up to Reception, as the RJ45-Internet service in the room is not working, and the ‘concierge’ in the hall of the ‘habitations’ can’t handle it. NO INTERNET!! Their room network system is not working!!
Spent a quiet afternoon and walked over for supper. Better this evening than last. Waiter more attentive and found that there is a chef preparing both fish and meat ‘freshly cooked’ at the service counter, so you can get ‘fresh & hot’ there if the offerings in the warming trays don’t catch your fancy. They have a great flan for dessert, which pleases Denise.
Decide to hit the sack rather than do the ‘Nocturnal Activities’ at the Theatre. Both read a book and did a Soduko or two.
2007/11/28 Wednesday
Breakfast.
Down to the beach, and tried snorkelling. Still a bit rough, so the visibility was poor, but did see a few interesting things.
There are 2 HobiCats, not very much in use, so I signed the ‘waivers’ and we went for a spin. Difficult getting in & out of the cove, but pretty good fun once out on the open ocean.
Lunch.
Met with our ‘Best Day’ rep, confirmed our return flights and booked our return shuttle to the Airport. Booked for a snorkelling trip to the barrier reef (Saturday).
Ate at the Steakhouse (speciality restaurant). OK, but a limited menu, so you actually get a wider choice at the main buffet! (No flan!).
Tried to organise Internet; still inoperative!
2007/11/29 Thursday
Breakfast.
Walked up to the road and took the ‘combi’ (12-seater van bus service) to Tulum. Cost $2 each, each way. (Tulum Express van service from Hotel is $20 each way!!).
Walked from the road to the Tulum heritage site. Bought tickets ($4.50 each) and walked around the site for about 1 ½ hours. Very nice area, with great ocean view from the ruin’s ‘ramparts’! Pretty nice beach, which is open for public swimming! (If we’d known, we would have worn our swimgear!).
Looked through the ubiquitous tourist traps on the way out and actually bought a few things (hammock chair, dresses), then walked out to the main road and were ambushed into the ‘collectivo’. (Also a $2 fare multi-passenger minivan service, but run by the ‘govt’ rather than private enterprise. We had to sit on our hands waiting for the driver to finish his lunch!! But he had our cash already, so we couldn’t just get out and go catch the combi!).
Back at Grand Sirenis for lunch.
Tried to organise Internet; still inoperative!
Went down to the beach and had a swim. Read/Soduko’d/napped.
Suppered, then went to the Theatre for ‘Mexican Night’ show. Mostly the ‘standard’ local dancing troupe, but also had an excellent rope-twirling-act (lariat/riata). Good service from the waitresses in the theatre too!
Tried to organise Internet; still inoperative for the ‘weekly use’ option ($50), but apparently working for the ‘1-hour’ option ($10). Supervisor gave us a free ‘1-hour’ ticket because the other was still not available. Managed to send off a few emails (I think?), but service was spotty and it didn’t seem to like the ‘@shaw.ca’ addresses.
2007/11/30 Friday
Breakfast.
Down to the beach. Had a good snorkel session as the water was smoother and not so much fine stuff in suspension. Didn’t see anything particularly ‘special’, but did take in a good selection of fish and covered most of the cove.
Sat around the pool for the remainder of the morning. Soduko & reading.
Lunch.
Internet! STILL unavailable!
Denise napping. Me typing! Shortly I will do see if I can get a HobiCat for a while.
Got one, and had an hour’s sail, but the wind was dropping off (uncharacteristically for the Mexico coast, where it normally rises in the afternoon/evening), so not as fun as it could have been with a better wind.
Washed the salt off in the double whirlpool tub. Then finished off a soduko and got ready for supper.
Lost my door-card in the surf while snorkelling, so went to the lobby on the way to get a new one. There was a supervisor there, so I cornered him on the Internet issue (which is STILL supposed to be being ‘fixed tomorrow’), and demanded another complimentary ’60-minute’ ticket. He treated it as a non-issue until I asked whether the bars were going to be shut down and the restaurants closed because of ‘technical difficulties’?
After he had told me for about the fifth time that the ‘technical expert’ had assured him it will be ‘working tomorrow’, I explained to him that I had been programming computers before he was born, and that his ‘technical expert’ had been wrong on the same issue every day of this entire week! When I pointed out that he and his fellow managers were either very gullible, or that they had not worked out that the expert was lying to them, the ‘free ticket’ was forthcoming.
Had supper in the ‘Brazilian’ speciality restaurant. After being seated, they brought us a special Brazilian drink (which is supposed to consist of pineapple juice, sugar, lime sections, ice & rum). I didn’t hear the description, and thought it a bit ‘tame’, but quite nice. Denise kept commenting on how strong it was, so I tasted hers. They had put two shots of rum in her drink and none in mine! Swiftly corrected, and we continued with the meal.
Main course dishes arrived, with only the ‘accompanados’ (brocolli, cheesed potato, rattatouis, ??)!! Then, about 8 different ‘meat courses’ were presented one at a time, at the table. The waiter would explain what it was and cut a piece off (rare, well done) if said you wanted it. It was quite a ‘different meal’, and we ended up enjoying it a lot. Denise even got her flan for dessert (one of the choices), and I had a slice off (whole) hot pineapple, baked with a sugar & cinnamon coating. I was scared to ask for seconds because I might have become addicted on the spot! We had debated going to this speciality restaurant, but were glad that we did.
We decided to give the ‘Lion King’ a miss, and headed for home base.
2007/12/01 Saturday
Breakfast
09H30 - Waited for the Snorkel Adventure bus. Arrived a little late, but not too bad for Mexico! Picked up a few more on the way to Puerto Morales.
Sat around for an hour or so while the rest of the buses/people arrived, then went through the ‘get your equipment’ process; we only needed life-vests (mandatory).
Finally, (about 12H30), we get on the boats and head for the barrier reef. First snorkel was in fairly deep water, with not much to see, and rough water due to increasing winds.
(Should have gone snorkelling yesterday and sailing today!)
Second snorkel was on shallower reef, but even rougher water due to the breaking swells. Despite this, saw more fish in this session. But nothing spectacular, and the damage done to the reefs by the hurricanes is evident.
Back to base camp for lunch, which was surprisingly good (considering the site and circumstances), and again sat around for quite a long while before setting off on the final snorkel session. By now we were down to 2 boats, as many of the people declined the opportunity.
Again on shallow reef, with a lot of fish around in schools due to the late hour, as they apparently come back onto the reef to feed before it gets dark.
Saw a skate and a fair sized eel as well as the many fish.
Back to base camp, and sat around again waiting for the excursion vans to be ready to cart us back to our hotels. Eventually got on the road and got back to Grand Sirenis at about 19H00.
Bathed/showered and hit the main buffet. Mariachi Band playing in the buffet. Nicely kitted out (clothes and instruments), but not particularly good musicians! Glad to get back to the room!
STILL NO INTERNET!!!!! They gave me yet another ‘complimentary’ 60-min ticket, but when I gat back to the room the LAN connectivity was lost!
2007/12/02 Sunday
Denise went for a walk before breakfast. I tried the Internet for the umpteenth time, and ‘lo & behold’, I’m online!
Posting this lot before it fails!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Heading Home
Jasper or Bust
Radium is NOT a big town. But, SURPRISE, it DOES have a free 54 MbpsWiFi network for residents, businesses and visitors!
I used the network to catch up on email (mainly deleting stuff so my account doesn’t get locked up) and post my blog for the previous few days. Denise caught some Z’s and did her Soduko in the back.
Then we walked around town. Took all of about 10 minutes (for both sides of the road).
So we repaired back up the road to the Hot Springs and went for another swim. When we had had enough we went back to town and ordered a pizza, having ‘happy hour’ in the van while we waited the 20 minutes for the pizza to be ready. Then we headed for the campsite.
Ate pizza instead of ‘chunky’ for a change. Watched ‘For a Few Dollars More’ and retired for the night.
Tuesday 18 Sept 2007
Drove up toward Golden (outside the National Park) and then angled back into the Park heading for Jasper.
As far as Denise is concerned, the stretch of approx 250 miles from Banff to Jasper is the most spectacular contiguous scenery we have encountered. Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Teton are all spectacular in their own right, but they have a limited local ‘range’. The Banff/Jasper Park just goes on for miles and miles, with these humungous peaks bordering a vast range of valley substrates and rivers ranging from small creeks to major maelstroms.
There is a dearth of wildlife on the road, despite frequent signs warning us of ‘Elk Crossing next 20 Km’. I think they have taken a leaf out of their human counterparts books and gone on strike for better benefits or something? I keep on saying ‘Here Elky, Here Elky’, but it doesn’t seem to help?
But, there are plenty of glaciers to see on this leg. One around every corner! But they are all ‘receding’ due to global warming (Crowfoot Glacier, which apparently had 3 ‘toes’, hence the name, now only has 1-1/2 toes!), so if you ain’t see ‘em yet, better get up here soon!
And Denise has been adding to her ‘rock collection’. By the time we get home there should be a few bucketfuls (or is that buckets full?). I’ll have to do a trip up here with the excavator and the trailer!
As we come into Jasper, we decide to book in at the campsite first, and, as we turn into the road leading to the campsite, there are a bunch of elk, a few does and a big stag! I got a few pics, and we head on into the camp to locate our spot, then drive out again and go visit Annette Lake and the Jasper Park Lodge (where we see more elk), then Jasper ‘town’. Not much bigger than Radium, but plenty of ‘tourist shops’, all expensive!
We go to the supermarket for some fresh supplies, and head back to the camp for a supper of re-heated pizza and Chunky Chicken & Sausage Gumbo! On the way we see another bunch of elk on the roadside.
Wednesday 19 Sept 2007
We consider going further North to Miette (supposedly the ‘hottest hot springs in the Rockies’), but decide that the extra mileage is not justifiable, so we get on the road ‘out’, heading for Tete Jaune Cache (the junction with Hwy 16 South to Kamloops).
Adjacent to Mt. Robson we stop at the ‘Robson Café’ for gas for the van and coffee & muffins for us. Quite a great view of the mountain itself from the table.
We get going on the road Southwards. About 2/3rds of the way to Kamloops, just before Clearwater, I see a ‘small dark moving dot’ on the range on the driver’s side of the van, which rapidly grows into a ‘large moving dark dot’ as we get closer, and we realise it is actually a BEAR, loping cross country between the highway and the river.
While it is quite clearly a bear, and quite a large one at that, it is still along way away, so we stop and get out of the van to get a good look from the roadside. Denise grabs the binoculars for a ‘close up’, and I take pics with the camera as the bear heads closer to where we are, angling toward a clump of trees e few hundred yards ahead of the van.
Our BIG MISTAKE was to get out of the van. If we had just stayed inside, the hordes of other onlookers that arrived would have probably have unknowingly passed us by at 120 Kph and we would have had the bear sighting to ourselves! With them seeing us on the roadside with binocs, we soon had 2 tour busses, various and sundry RV’s, cars and motorcycles stopped all over the place!
The bear, seeing and hearing all the activity, stopped moving our way, stood ‘on guard’ for a while, and eventually ran off directly away from us (when the motorcyclists started their engines, revving up of course for the sake of the attending crowds).
I think it was probably a ‘Black Bear’, despite it having a brown coat, but it was BIG, definitely bigger than a cow when on all fours, so it could possibly have been a Grizzly?
After that excitement, the rest of the trip to Kamloops was uneventful, other than stopping to buy fruit. When we get to Merritt, we pull in for gas, and go to the Walmart for some supplies. Walmart seems to have adopted a strategy of buying a farm on the outside edge of town, paving a huge lot, building their shop and waiting for the crowds to arrive, which they do!
On the other side of Merritt we get on the Coquihalla Highway and rip down South very rapidly, despite numerous ‘roadworks’ activities, arriving in Hope just before 17H00. Not bad considering we left from Jasper this morning?
We check into the riverside campsite in Hope, have our standard fare and take a walk around town, then retire to bed.
Thursday 20 Sept 2007
We look around Hope a little, then drive to Harrison Hot Springs, then drive on towards Vancouver.
Radium is NOT a big town. But, SURPRISE, it DOES have a free 54 MbpsWiFi network for residents, businesses and visitors!
I used the network to catch up on email (mainly deleting stuff so my account doesn’t get locked up) and post my blog for the previous few days. Denise caught some Z’s and did her Soduko in the back.
Then we walked around town. Took all of about 10 minutes (for both sides of the road).
So we repaired back up the road to the Hot Springs and went for another swim. When we had had enough we went back to town and ordered a pizza, having ‘happy hour’ in the van while we waited the 20 minutes for the pizza to be ready. Then we headed for the campsite.
Ate pizza instead of ‘chunky’ for a change. Watched ‘For a Few Dollars More’ and retired for the night.
Tuesday 18 Sept 2007
Drove up toward Golden (outside the National Park) and then angled back into the Park heading for Jasper.
As far as Denise is concerned, the stretch of approx 250 miles from Banff to Jasper is the most spectacular contiguous scenery we have encountered. Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Teton are all spectacular in their own right, but they have a limited local ‘range’. The Banff/Jasper Park just goes on for miles and miles, with these humungous peaks bordering a vast range of valley substrates and rivers ranging from small creeks to major maelstroms.
There is a dearth of wildlife on the road, despite frequent signs warning us of ‘Elk Crossing next 20 Km’. I think they have taken a leaf out of their human counterparts books and gone on strike for better benefits or something? I keep on saying ‘Here Elky, Here Elky’, but it doesn’t seem to help?
But, there are plenty of glaciers to see on this leg. One around every corner! But they are all ‘receding’ due to global warming (Crowfoot Glacier, which apparently had 3 ‘toes’, hence the name, now only has 1-1/2 toes!), so if you ain’t see ‘em yet, better get up here soon!
And Denise has been adding to her ‘rock collection’. By the time we get home there should be a few bucketfuls (or is that buckets full?). I’ll have to do a trip up here with the excavator and the trailer!
As we come into Jasper, we decide to book in at the campsite first, and, as we turn into the road leading to the campsite, there are a bunch of elk, a few does and a big stag! I got a few pics, and we head on into the camp to locate our spot, then drive out again and go visit Annette Lake and the Jasper Park Lodge (where we see more elk), then Jasper ‘town’. Not much bigger than Radium, but plenty of ‘tourist shops’, all expensive!
We go to the supermarket for some fresh supplies, and head back to the camp for a supper of re-heated pizza and Chunky Chicken & Sausage Gumbo! On the way we see another bunch of elk on the roadside.
Wednesday 19 Sept 2007
We consider going further North to Miette (supposedly the ‘hottest hot springs in the Rockies’), but decide that the extra mileage is not justifiable, so we get on the road ‘out’, heading for Tete Jaune Cache (the junction with Hwy 16 South to Kamloops).
Adjacent to Mt. Robson we stop at the ‘Robson Café’ for gas for the van and coffee & muffins for us. Quite a great view of the mountain itself from the table.
We get going on the road Southwards. About 2/3rds of the way to Kamloops, just before Clearwater, I see a ‘small dark moving dot’ on the range on the driver’s side of the van, which rapidly grows into a ‘large moving dark dot’ as we get closer, and we realise it is actually a BEAR, loping cross country between the highway and the river.
While it is quite clearly a bear, and quite a large one at that, it is still along way away, so we stop and get out of the van to get a good look from the roadside. Denise grabs the binoculars for a ‘close up’, and I take pics with the camera as the bear heads closer to where we are, angling toward a clump of trees e few hundred yards ahead of the van.
Our BIG MISTAKE was to get out of the van. If we had just stayed inside, the hordes of other onlookers that arrived would have probably have unknowingly passed us by at 120 Kph and we would have had the bear sighting to ourselves! With them seeing us on the roadside with binocs, we soon had 2 tour busses, various and sundry RV’s, cars and motorcycles stopped all over the place!
The bear, seeing and hearing all the activity, stopped moving our way, stood ‘on guard’ for a while, and eventually ran off directly away from us (when the motorcyclists started their engines, revving up of course for the sake of the attending crowds).
I think it was probably a ‘Black Bear’, despite it having a brown coat, but it was BIG, definitely bigger than a cow when on all fours, so it could possibly have been a Grizzly?
After that excitement, the rest of the trip to Kamloops was uneventful, other than stopping to buy fruit. When we get to Merritt, we pull in for gas, and go to the Walmart for some supplies. Walmart seems to have adopted a strategy of buying a farm on the outside edge of town, paving a huge lot, building their shop and waiting for the crowds to arrive, which they do!
On the other side of Merritt we get on the Coquihalla Highway and rip down South very rapidly, despite numerous ‘roadworks’ activities, arriving in Hope just before 17H00. Not bad considering we left from Jasper this morning?
We check into the riverside campsite in Hope, have our standard fare and take a walk around town, then retire to bed.
Thursday 20 Sept 2007
We look around Hope a little, then drive to Harrison Hot Springs, then drive on towards Vancouver.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Cross Country to Banff
Cross Country
Saturday 15 Sept 2007
We leave Drumheller and head East towards Banff and Jasper, following Hwy9, which also drops down South at times towards Calgary. At some stage we miss a turn Eastwards and end up much closer to ‘civilisation’ than we want to be in the ‘Country Hills’ area Northwest of Calgary, fighting through road construction and traffic jams.
We drove through this area 12 years ago when moving from Ottawa, and it was ranch and some ‘hobby farm’ population. Now it is a sprawling mass of thousands of cookie cutter yuppy homes in huge developments, not that they aren’t nice, as most have a fair-sized lot and 2 double garages!
We get onto Hwy1A and follow that for some while, rather than Hwy1, and drive through some nice country and a few reserves. Eventually get back onto Hwy1 just before Canmore. We drive through to Banff and head straight up to the Hot Springs on Sulphur Mountain.
We find that today they are celebrating their Centenial, and they have a huge cake floating around the pool! It appears that it was meant to have 100 ‘candles’ which the kids were given squirt-guns to ‘put out’, but the candles did not light up at all, so the kids just followed it around squirting water at the cake in general.
They also had a ‘guitar and singer’ combo performing poolside, which we could hear as we approached from the parking lot. Thankfully, they finished their act just as we got to the pool terrace, as the singer was chronically BAD (a female singer trying to sing well known ‘three tenor’ operatic pieces that she could not do justice to, if you will forgive the dangling participle.)
We luxuriated in the pool for a while, and then I got out and read the Parks pamphlet to plan what we would be doing. (The hot pools send my blood pressure soaring, so I can’t stay in for too long).
Then we head off to look for a campsite for the night. The only one in the Banff area that is located on a lake is ‘Two Jack Lakeside’, on Lake Minniewakka, a few miles back along Hwy1. When we get there they have only 2 ‘tenting sites’ available, which the Parks attendant says are too steep for RVs. We go take a look, and decide that we can fit in, and return to register. We fit in quite nicely, thank you, due to the relatively small size of the Roadtrek, which I back up the slope into the tent site, with only a slight ‘downward sloping angle’ once in position.
Denise wants to ‘walk around the lake’ and sets off. I follow after grabbing the parks pamphlet, which I seem to remember shows a somewhat bigger body of water than we can see. As it turns out, a stroll around the lake will probably take 3 or 4 days (!) as we are only seeing a little thumb-spur where the campsite is located. So we take a walk alongside the lake to a point where there is a public, grassed park with a boat ramp and facilities, which is obviously used by ‘locals’ rather than visitors. We return to the campsite and consume our standard fare of ‘bread & marg with chunky soup’ which is supplemented by potato chips and cheese to taste.
The plan is now to do ‘brunch’ at the Lodge hotel in Banff, gas up and head out of Banff National into Kootenay National to get to Radium Hot Springs, where we hope to spend the night, as I was unable to reserve a camp site there because they work on a ‘first come first served’ basis.
Plans change.
We drive back up Sulphur Mountain to see the more ‘historic’ Hot Springs Hotel, which, paradoxically, is not where the public Hot Springs pool is located, and does not appear to have any springs closely associated?
It IS a grand old building, and more recent additions appear to have been made with keeping the original architecture and stonework in mind, although it is fairly easy to spot the difference in the newer stone and stonework.
We decide to ‘have a fine dining experience’ for breakfast and head on into the imposing edifice of the Hotel, which just oozes ‘rich class heritage’! As we get to the entrance of the ‘Grille’ (which is, according to the Events and Happenings board, the only place which serves breakfast, the finer dining establishments being reserved for ‘Dinner’ only), the people in front of us are advised that the Grille is ‘FULL’ and they will NOT be taking reservations as they have to start preparing for serving Lunch.
However, the girl at the reception desk intimates that we ‘might’ be able to get a buffet breakfast in the ‘Rundle Room’, another level higher. We get into the elevator and head upstairs, only to find that we are definitely looking at one of the ‘finer dining experience establishments’ of the complex!
Although we admit that we are ‘interlopers’ when asked whether we are staying at the hotel, we explain that the Grille personnel have referred us here, and the Hostess (Supervisor/Maitre’D/Lady) at the desk says she will admit us, and asks for our names (which we find a little odd, but comply).
After making an entry in her register, we are bid “Welcome Mr. And Mrs. Currie, will you come this way?”, and follow our hostess to our table, at which at least one of us has a fine view! I look at the front wall of the next wing and the bowling green. Denise looks out at the mountainside scenery.
Our serving waitress arrives ‘toot-sweet’ and again addresses us as ‘Mr. And Mrs. Currie, giving us orange juice & coffee fillips and fetching a glass of water for Denise (who does NOT drink OJ). It is a buffet service, with the food servery in a small room adjacent to the lounge in which we are ensconced.
The cold food (fruits, breads, muffins, etc) is all displayed on silver platters and the hot foods (scrambled egg, sausages, bacon, potatoes) in silver covered, heated pans, with a Chef on-duty to prepare to-order omelettes. We help ourselves and return to the table to eat. Constant checking from our server, Renee, that we are enjoying everything?
When we have both ‘had our fill’ we indicate to the server that we are ready to depart and she takes the bill-fold (with our credit card inside) and returns it a minute later. When I check the bill, she has not run it through the Mastercard system? The Hostess sees me looking strangely at the bill and hurries over, takes the bill-fold, goes to the front desk, does her thing and returns with the expected credit-card slip for Denise to sign (my card having been left in the ‘tray’ in the van after paying at the campsite). What has happened is that our server is obviously ‘new’, and it is equally obvious that this lounge does not normally accommodate non-resident guests, so she had not ‘run the card’, expecting that our room-number would be on the original bill-slip!
Although most likely the most expensive breakfast we have ever had, it was undeniably a ‘fine dining experience’.
We take our leave of the Hotel, and head on up to Lake Louise, where we first go to the campsite and register, then head up to the Lake itself. The Lodge here, which we did visit in 1994 (for a beer for me and ginger-ale for Denise & Angus), is imposing, but not as impressive as the old Hot Springs establishement.
We do the lakeside walk (4Km roundtrip) and head back to the van to visit Lake Moraine, a few Km further up the road. Still quite a few Km from Lake Moraine, the traffic is stopped head-to-tail. We wait a while, then I get out and walk ahead about 0.5Km to find out what is going on. It appears that all the cars and RVs are actually PARKED on the side of the road. Since this is a fairly narrow, twisting, mountain road (from which oversize RVs and 5th-wheels are supposedly barred), I find it odd, but walk back to the van, get in and then negotiate down the hill to the lake (having to pull over to avoid the oncoming traffic, since MY lane is full of parked cars!!).
When we reach the lake, it is obvious that the parking issue is as a result of too many visitors and not enough parking spaces! We are lucky to snag a spot, which has a BIG sign saying NO RV’s, which I ignore, since the section reserved for RV’s, which aren’t supposed to be up here anyhow (??), is FULL OF CARS!
We take a look at the lake, spend some money in the ‘Shop’ and retire to the van, returning to the campsite. Since it is quite quiet at the moment, we take the opportunity to ‘dump the tanks’, since there is usually a long lineup for the sani-dump(s) when people are leaving in the morning.
At our site we park and organise, and Denise heads for the bed to do a Soduku while I sit at the bench and write this log.
By the way, Nan says ‘WRITE MORE’, while Denise says ‘You spend too much time writing’? Angus says ‘Post more pictures’ while I find that the network sites that I can hack into usually choke when I try to upload images! ‘Two Bars’ seems to support accessing Webmail, but not anything more intensive?
Tomorrow, we will head for Radium (which is just outside the Kootenay National Park) and the Radium Hotsprings (just inside the park), after which we will return to Banff National and head North to Jasper National Park.
Pretty noisy camp site! Trains, cars on Hwy1, sirens, …. But we still slept and are up, ready to get going towards Radium.
The road to Radium is covered with signs warning you not to hit the elk! We don’t see a single elk the whole trip, but we do see 3 deer on the way and a couple of goats (right in the campsite at Radium).
The good weather that we have enjoyed to date has packed up and left! Clouds, cold and quite heavy rain at times, but the sun comes out tentatively after noon, just as we have left the Radium Hot Springs pool to have a bite of lunch in the van. We have day-passes, so we can go back later, not that there appears to be anything else to do in Radium!
The hot pool is located in a nice setting at the base of a steep cliff (with a few chain link fences higher up to stop falling rocks from diminishing the enjoyment of the patrons). Not as hot as the pool at Banff, but OK, and much bigger.
There is a ‘cool pool’ next to it, but nobody is in there. Must be a summer thing? There is also a 5 degree C ‘surprise plunge pool’ next to the hot pool. A few people try it, but not us!
We are going to go look around Radium, which should not take too long. After that, we’ll probably hit the hot pool for an afternoon swim before retiring to the campsite for the evening. I’ll have to see if there is a network available in Radium to post this and check emails.
Saturday 15 Sept 2007
We leave Drumheller and head East towards Banff and Jasper, following Hwy9, which also drops down South at times towards Calgary. At some stage we miss a turn Eastwards and end up much closer to ‘civilisation’ than we want to be in the ‘Country Hills’ area Northwest of Calgary, fighting through road construction and traffic jams.
We drove through this area 12 years ago when moving from Ottawa, and it was ranch and some ‘hobby farm’ population. Now it is a sprawling mass of thousands of cookie cutter yuppy homes in huge developments, not that they aren’t nice, as most have a fair-sized lot and 2 double garages!
We get onto Hwy1A and follow that for some while, rather than Hwy1, and drive through some nice country and a few reserves. Eventually get back onto Hwy1 just before Canmore. We drive through to Banff and head straight up to the Hot Springs on Sulphur Mountain.
We find that today they are celebrating their Centenial, and they have a huge cake floating around the pool! It appears that it was meant to have 100 ‘candles’ which the kids were given squirt-guns to ‘put out’, but the candles did not light up at all, so the kids just followed it around squirting water at the cake in general.
They also had a ‘guitar and singer’ combo performing poolside, which we could hear as we approached from the parking lot. Thankfully, they finished their act just as we got to the pool terrace, as the singer was chronically BAD (a female singer trying to sing well known ‘three tenor’ operatic pieces that she could not do justice to, if you will forgive the dangling participle.)
We luxuriated in the pool for a while, and then I got out and read the Parks pamphlet to plan what we would be doing. (The hot pools send my blood pressure soaring, so I can’t stay in for too long).
Then we head off to look for a campsite for the night. The only one in the Banff area that is located on a lake is ‘Two Jack Lakeside’, on Lake Minniewakka, a few miles back along Hwy1. When we get there they have only 2 ‘tenting sites’ available, which the Parks attendant says are too steep for RVs. We go take a look, and decide that we can fit in, and return to register. We fit in quite nicely, thank you, due to the relatively small size of the Roadtrek, which I back up the slope into the tent site, with only a slight ‘downward sloping angle’ once in position.
Denise wants to ‘walk around the lake’ and sets off. I follow after grabbing the parks pamphlet, which I seem to remember shows a somewhat bigger body of water than we can see. As it turns out, a stroll around the lake will probably take 3 or 4 days (!) as we are only seeing a little thumb-spur where the campsite is located. So we take a walk alongside the lake to a point where there is a public, grassed park with a boat ramp and facilities, which is obviously used by ‘locals’ rather than visitors. We return to the campsite and consume our standard fare of ‘bread & marg with chunky soup’ which is supplemented by potato chips and cheese to taste.
The plan is now to do ‘brunch’ at the Lodge hotel in Banff, gas up and head out of Banff National into Kootenay National to get to Radium Hot Springs, where we hope to spend the night, as I was unable to reserve a camp site there because they work on a ‘first come first served’ basis.
Plans change.
We drive back up Sulphur Mountain to see the more ‘historic’ Hot Springs Hotel, which, paradoxically, is not where the public Hot Springs pool is located, and does not appear to have any springs closely associated?
It IS a grand old building, and more recent additions appear to have been made with keeping the original architecture and stonework in mind, although it is fairly easy to spot the difference in the newer stone and stonework.
We decide to ‘have a fine dining experience’ for breakfast and head on into the imposing edifice of the Hotel, which just oozes ‘rich class heritage’! As we get to the entrance of the ‘Grille’ (which is, according to the Events and Happenings board, the only place which serves breakfast, the finer dining establishments being reserved for ‘Dinner’ only), the people in front of us are advised that the Grille is ‘FULL’ and they will NOT be taking reservations as they have to start preparing for serving Lunch.
However, the girl at the reception desk intimates that we ‘might’ be able to get a buffet breakfast in the ‘Rundle Room’, another level higher. We get into the elevator and head upstairs, only to find that we are definitely looking at one of the ‘finer dining experience establishments’ of the complex!
Although we admit that we are ‘interlopers’ when asked whether we are staying at the hotel, we explain that the Grille personnel have referred us here, and the Hostess (Supervisor/Maitre’D/Lady) at the desk says she will admit us, and asks for our names (which we find a little odd, but comply).
After making an entry in her register, we are bid “Welcome Mr. And Mrs. Currie, will you come this way?”, and follow our hostess to our table, at which at least one of us has a fine view! I look at the front wall of the next wing and the bowling green. Denise looks out at the mountainside scenery.
Our serving waitress arrives ‘toot-sweet’ and again addresses us as ‘Mr. And Mrs. Currie, giving us orange juice & coffee fillips and fetching a glass of water for Denise (who does NOT drink OJ). It is a buffet service, with the food servery in a small room adjacent to the lounge in which we are ensconced.
The cold food (fruits, breads, muffins, etc) is all displayed on silver platters and the hot foods (scrambled egg, sausages, bacon, potatoes) in silver covered, heated pans, with a Chef on-duty to prepare to-order omelettes. We help ourselves and return to the table to eat. Constant checking from our server, Renee, that we are enjoying everything?
When we have both ‘had our fill’ we indicate to the server that we are ready to depart and she takes the bill-fold (with our credit card inside) and returns it a minute later. When I check the bill, she has not run it through the Mastercard system? The Hostess sees me looking strangely at the bill and hurries over, takes the bill-fold, goes to the front desk, does her thing and returns with the expected credit-card slip for Denise to sign (my card having been left in the ‘tray’ in the van after paying at the campsite). What has happened is that our server is obviously ‘new’, and it is equally obvious that this lounge does not normally accommodate non-resident guests, so she had not ‘run the card’, expecting that our room-number would be on the original bill-slip!
Although most likely the most expensive breakfast we have ever had, it was undeniably a ‘fine dining experience’.
We take our leave of the Hotel, and head on up to Lake Louise, where we first go to the campsite and register, then head up to the Lake itself. The Lodge here, which we did visit in 1994 (for a beer for me and ginger-ale for Denise & Angus), is imposing, but not as impressive as the old Hot Springs establishement.
We do the lakeside walk (4Km roundtrip) and head back to the van to visit Lake Moraine, a few Km further up the road. Still quite a few Km from Lake Moraine, the traffic is stopped head-to-tail. We wait a while, then I get out and walk ahead about 0.5Km to find out what is going on. It appears that all the cars and RVs are actually PARKED on the side of the road. Since this is a fairly narrow, twisting, mountain road (from which oversize RVs and 5th-wheels are supposedly barred), I find it odd, but walk back to the van, get in and then negotiate down the hill to the lake (having to pull over to avoid the oncoming traffic, since MY lane is full of parked cars!!).
When we reach the lake, it is obvious that the parking issue is as a result of too many visitors and not enough parking spaces! We are lucky to snag a spot, which has a BIG sign saying NO RV’s, which I ignore, since the section reserved for RV’s, which aren’t supposed to be up here anyhow (??), is FULL OF CARS!
We take a look at the lake, spend some money in the ‘Shop’ and retire to the van, returning to the campsite. Since it is quite quiet at the moment, we take the opportunity to ‘dump the tanks’, since there is usually a long lineup for the sani-dump(s) when people are leaving in the morning.
At our site we park and organise, and Denise heads for the bed to do a Soduku while I sit at the bench and write this log.
By the way, Nan says ‘WRITE MORE’, while Denise says ‘You spend too much time writing’? Angus says ‘Post more pictures’ while I find that the network sites that I can hack into usually choke when I try to upload images! ‘Two Bars’ seems to support accessing Webmail, but not anything more intensive?
Tomorrow, we will head for Radium (which is just outside the Kootenay National Park) and the Radium Hotsprings (just inside the park), after which we will return to Banff National and head North to Jasper National Park.
Pretty noisy camp site! Trains, cars on Hwy1, sirens, …. But we still slept and are up, ready to get going towards Radium.
The road to Radium is covered with signs warning you not to hit the elk! We don’t see a single elk the whole trip, but we do see 3 deer on the way and a couple of goats (right in the campsite at Radium).
The good weather that we have enjoyed to date has packed up and left! Clouds, cold and quite heavy rain at times, but the sun comes out tentatively after noon, just as we have left the Radium Hot Springs pool to have a bite of lunch in the van. We have day-passes, so we can go back later, not that there appears to be anything else to do in Radium!
The hot pool is located in a nice setting at the base of a steep cliff (with a few chain link fences higher up to stop falling rocks from diminishing the enjoyment of the patrons). Not as hot as the pool at Banff, but OK, and much bigger.
There is a ‘cool pool’ next to it, but nobody is in there. Must be a summer thing? There is also a 5 degree C ‘surprise plunge pool’ next to the hot pool. A few people try it, but not us!
We are going to go look around Radium, which should not take too long. After that, we’ll probably hit the hot pool for an afternoon swim before retiring to the campsite for the evening. I’ll have to see if there is a network available in Radium to post this and check emails.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Dinosaur Country
Dinosaur Country
Thursday 13 Sept 2007
Spent Wed night in Cut Bank, Montana. We were not ‘moved on’ from the Rest Area, but from the continual ‘traffic’ it is obviously the chosen night-time meeting place of the local ‘youth’! Freight trains also made some considerable noise during the night, but they don’t squeal, or curse and swear quite the same?
Drove on to West Glacier, and proceeded up the ‘Going to the Sun’ highway, which runs through the park from West to East. Driving this road is a harrowing experience for one who hates ‘heights’, as I do. The situation was exacerbated by the massive roadworks being conducted on the worst stretches, in a number of places requiring a 15-minute stop while a pilot car guides batches of single lane traffic through the ongoing reconstruction.
How those guys built the original road back in the 1920’s is beyond belief. There are sections where the side of the road, generally bounded only by a small stone wall about 6” high, literally ‘falls away’ vertically for a 1000’! One of the ‘visitor blurbs’ by the roadside said that labourers and equipment were suspended over the cliff face on manila ropes in order to drill the rock for blasting charges to create the initial ‘bench’ on which the road was laid.
Most of the roadworks being conducted were replacing said ‘stone walls’, many of which have either been ‘washed away’ or suffered subsidence. Lovely feeling, driving next to a 1000’ drop on a sinking piece of roadway with a massive ‘camber’ tilting you the WRONG WAY!!! And that was on the ‘good’ pieces that weren’t being repaired!
As luck would have it, the traverse from West to East put me on the ‘outside lane’ all the way!! Nevertheless, I persevere to the summit, and then spend the next 12 miles ‘Going Away from the Sun’, on the downhill equivalent of the earlier uphill. Heart palpitations and sweaty palms aside, the scenery and towering cliffs are magnificent and the water in the lakes is crystal clear.
Although the general ‘speed limit’ for the park appears to be 45MPH, I find that travelling that fast is either totally unnerving for me (on the steep parts) or too fast to see anything (on the ‘other’ parts). So, I set my cruise control for ‘25’ (when on the ‘other’ parts, not on the ‘steep’ parts), and pull over often to let the ‘idiots in a rush’ get past & on their way to see nothing at all. It amazes me that people will drive thousands of miles to not see what they came to see?
On one stretch of flatish road, being closely followed by an ‘impatient minivan’ (no joke, you should have seen him fuming and pacing around when we were waiting for our turn to get through one of the construction roadblocks), we saw a ‘fox’ (later re-identified as a coyote) on our side of the road, but obviously looking to cross the paving. As I slowed down to let the little critter get across safely, ‘The Idiot’ tries to pass me on a section of ‘No Passing’ road!!
Seeing him accelerating up behind me in the rear view mirror, I hit the horns and the brakes simultaneously, which resulted in disrupting ‘The Idiot’ in his passing manoeuvre and in the coyote removing himself rapidly from harm’s way, avoiding ‘The Idiot’ running him down, which would have been inevitable if he (‘The Idiot’, not the coyote) had been left to his own devices!
Despite the pandemonium, I managed to stop the van, open the window, grab the digital camera, turn it on and take a fast snap of the coyote, which was by now heading up the steep bank on the opposite side of the road at a rapid pace. Before I could adjust for a second ‘close-up’ shot, he disappeared in the undergrowth and his progress could only be determined by the swaying of the grasses and brush as he headed up the hill.
After leaving Glacier National, already a ‘detour’ from our originally intended path, we decide not to detour further to Waterton Park, and get back on track to Drumheller, reaching the USA/Canada border in the early afternoon. The border guard seems to be interested only in whether the Roadtrek belongs to us and is ‘Canadian’ (He is obviously unaware that they are actually made only in Canada!!), and whether I have had any ‘repairs or modifications’ made in the USA?
On the next leg of the journey I encounter one of the little complexities of life that can be encountered by trusting too fully in computers! Although I am vaguely aware that you can ‘tell Microsoft Streets & Trips what sort of roads you want to travel on’, one assumes that ‘it’ is clever enough to know what you should be doing?
The upshot of this is that we leave the main road North and end up driving towards Drumheller on a series of ‘secondary roads’ that change gradually from ‘double-lane, paint-marked asphalt’ at the turnoff from the highway, to ‘single lane asphalt’ to ‘oiled gravel’ to ‘compacted dirt’! This is not really a huge problem, since the roads are actually far from the worst I have driven, particularly if compared to some of the dirt tracks we have followed in our previous life’s travels in SA (like going to Cob Inn or Mazeppa Bay, in the Transkei) and our Roadtrek is built on a full 1-ton truck chassis.
HOWEVER, the trail which we are so faithfully following winds through very rural Alberta, with only a few little dorps (Afrikaans for small towns) along the way, all with ‘No Services’, specifically, NO GAS!!! With the needle having been hovering on ‘E’ for some while, we eventually reach the intersection of our dirt road with the Canada-1, and find a very welcome gas station right there!! We fill up and press on North.
If the guys in Montana think they have the monopoly on ‘Big Sky’ country, they obviously haven’t been directly North to Alberta!! In Montana, there is generally a fairly close ‘horizon’ bounded by some form of hills/mountains. Between the USA border and Drumheller, Alberta is literally as flat as a pancake, and you just see ‘rolling wheatfields’ for miles & miles in a full 360 degrees! (With the occasional oil/gas derrick!!).
Reaching Drumheller fairly late in the evening, we locate an RV/Camp operation on the outskirts and ‘self-register’. We drive around and pick a site to park, which is quite easy since there is literally nobody else there! (One other small car arrived some time later and tented around the corner from us).
Friday 14 Sept 2007
We head for the Royal Tyrell Museum, the world’s premier Dinosaur Research facility and we tour the exhibits for a few hours. The whole facility is ‘excellent’ (probably with voluminous thanks due to huge dollops of public funding).
Then we watch a short documentary and follow that with a 1-hour guided hike through the surrounding ‘badlands’, covering ground typical of where fossil remains are found. There have apparently been ‘finds’ in this very area, but they have been ‘worked’ a number of years ago. Interesting, but not exciting!
Back in Drumheller, near to the Visitor Centre is a Parking Lot designated for RVs and Buses. It adjoins a public park with tables and benches, backing on the local stream. There are again no ‘No Overnight Parking’ signs, so we elect to push our luck and stay the night. Since the Roadtrek is fully self-contained, not being in a serviced RV-site does not present a problem for us, even if we want to watch a DVD or read till the late hours, or use the loo!
I had put some rechargeable batteries in the digital camera yesterday (not being in places where reasonably priced replacements were available), and it suddenly ‘froze’, then indicated that the memory card was corrupted and must be reformatted. By some stroke of luck, I had downloaded the last 3 days worth of pics to the laptop just after breakfast this morning, so I only lost 3 pics which had been taken right there at the Museum!!
In order to justify exhorbitant expenditures on planned meals in the Banff and Jasper “Lodge’s”, Denise decrees that we will feast once again on ‘Bread and Chunky’, and we park in the Bus & RV lot near to the Visitor Centre, which again, like Cut Bank, has no signs saying ‘No Overnight Parking’.
While I am writing this log, parked in the back of the RV lot, sitting in the front seat of the Roadtrek with a beer next to me, after having eaten already, a local RCMP car comes across the lot, takes a slow pass in front of the van, stops, hesitates, then moves on again. I think we may yet see them back later tonight? Still, I doubt they will do worse than tell us to ‘Move On!’.
On the other hand, if you can camp out in tents in Beacon Hill Park with impunity, or on Parliament Hill for that matter, why not in our van in the RV Lot in Drumheller?
Thursday 13 Sept 2007
Spent Wed night in Cut Bank, Montana. We were not ‘moved on’ from the Rest Area, but from the continual ‘traffic’ it is obviously the chosen night-time meeting place of the local ‘youth’! Freight trains also made some considerable noise during the night, but they don’t squeal, or curse and swear quite the same?
Drove on to West Glacier, and proceeded up the ‘Going to the Sun’ highway, which runs through the park from West to East. Driving this road is a harrowing experience for one who hates ‘heights’, as I do. The situation was exacerbated by the massive roadworks being conducted on the worst stretches, in a number of places requiring a 15-minute stop while a pilot car guides batches of single lane traffic through the ongoing reconstruction.
How those guys built the original road back in the 1920’s is beyond belief. There are sections where the side of the road, generally bounded only by a small stone wall about 6” high, literally ‘falls away’ vertically for a 1000’! One of the ‘visitor blurbs’ by the roadside said that labourers and equipment were suspended over the cliff face on manila ropes in order to drill the rock for blasting charges to create the initial ‘bench’ on which the road was laid.
Most of the roadworks being conducted were replacing said ‘stone walls’, many of which have either been ‘washed away’ or suffered subsidence. Lovely feeling, driving next to a 1000’ drop on a sinking piece of roadway with a massive ‘camber’ tilting you the WRONG WAY!!! And that was on the ‘good’ pieces that weren’t being repaired!
As luck would have it, the traverse from West to East put me on the ‘outside lane’ all the way!! Nevertheless, I persevere to the summit, and then spend the next 12 miles ‘Going Away from the Sun’, on the downhill equivalent of the earlier uphill. Heart palpitations and sweaty palms aside, the scenery and towering cliffs are magnificent and the water in the lakes is crystal clear.
Although the general ‘speed limit’ for the park appears to be 45MPH, I find that travelling that fast is either totally unnerving for me (on the steep parts) or too fast to see anything (on the ‘other’ parts). So, I set my cruise control for ‘25’ (when on the ‘other’ parts, not on the ‘steep’ parts), and pull over often to let the ‘idiots in a rush’ get past & on their way to see nothing at all. It amazes me that people will drive thousands of miles to not see what they came to see?
On one stretch of flatish road, being closely followed by an ‘impatient minivan’ (no joke, you should have seen him fuming and pacing around when we were waiting for our turn to get through one of the construction roadblocks), we saw a ‘fox’ (later re-identified as a coyote) on our side of the road, but obviously looking to cross the paving. As I slowed down to let the little critter get across safely, ‘The Idiot’ tries to pass me on a section of ‘No Passing’ road!!
Seeing him accelerating up behind me in the rear view mirror, I hit the horns and the brakes simultaneously, which resulted in disrupting ‘The Idiot’ in his passing manoeuvre and in the coyote removing himself rapidly from harm’s way, avoiding ‘The Idiot’ running him down, which would have been inevitable if he (‘The Idiot’, not the coyote) had been left to his own devices!
Despite the pandemonium, I managed to stop the van, open the window, grab the digital camera, turn it on and take a fast snap of the coyote, which was by now heading up the steep bank on the opposite side of the road at a rapid pace. Before I could adjust for a second ‘close-up’ shot, he disappeared in the undergrowth and his progress could only be determined by the swaying of the grasses and brush as he headed up the hill.
After leaving Glacier National, already a ‘detour’ from our originally intended path, we decide not to detour further to Waterton Park, and get back on track to Drumheller, reaching the USA/Canada border in the early afternoon. The border guard seems to be interested only in whether the Roadtrek belongs to us and is ‘Canadian’ (He is obviously unaware that they are actually made only in Canada!!), and whether I have had any ‘repairs or modifications’ made in the USA?
On the next leg of the journey I encounter one of the little complexities of life that can be encountered by trusting too fully in computers! Although I am vaguely aware that you can ‘tell Microsoft Streets & Trips what sort of roads you want to travel on’, one assumes that ‘it’ is clever enough to know what you should be doing?
The upshot of this is that we leave the main road North and end up driving towards Drumheller on a series of ‘secondary roads’ that change gradually from ‘double-lane, paint-marked asphalt’ at the turnoff from the highway, to ‘single lane asphalt’ to ‘oiled gravel’ to ‘compacted dirt’! This is not really a huge problem, since the roads are actually far from the worst I have driven, particularly if compared to some of the dirt tracks we have followed in our previous life’s travels in SA (like going to Cob Inn or Mazeppa Bay, in the Transkei) and our Roadtrek is built on a full 1-ton truck chassis.
HOWEVER, the trail which we are so faithfully following winds through very rural Alberta, with only a few little dorps (Afrikaans for small towns) along the way, all with ‘No Services’, specifically, NO GAS!!! With the needle having been hovering on ‘E’ for some while, we eventually reach the intersection of our dirt road with the Canada-1, and find a very welcome gas station right there!! We fill up and press on North.
If the guys in Montana think they have the monopoly on ‘Big Sky’ country, they obviously haven’t been directly North to Alberta!! In Montana, there is generally a fairly close ‘horizon’ bounded by some form of hills/mountains. Between the USA border and Drumheller, Alberta is literally as flat as a pancake, and you just see ‘rolling wheatfields’ for miles & miles in a full 360 degrees! (With the occasional oil/gas derrick!!).
Reaching Drumheller fairly late in the evening, we locate an RV/Camp operation on the outskirts and ‘self-register’. We drive around and pick a site to park, which is quite easy since there is literally nobody else there! (One other small car arrived some time later and tented around the corner from us).
Friday 14 Sept 2007
We head for the Royal Tyrell Museum, the world’s premier Dinosaur Research facility and we tour the exhibits for a few hours. The whole facility is ‘excellent’ (probably with voluminous thanks due to huge dollops of public funding).
Then we watch a short documentary and follow that with a 1-hour guided hike through the surrounding ‘badlands’, covering ground typical of where fossil remains are found. There have apparently been ‘finds’ in this very area, but they have been ‘worked’ a number of years ago. Interesting, but not exciting!
Back in Drumheller, near to the Visitor Centre is a Parking Lot designated for RVs and Buses. It adjoins a public park with tables and benches, backing on the local stream. There are again no ‘No Overnight Parking’ signs, so we elect to push our luck and stay the night. Since the Roadtrek is fully self-contained, not being in a serviced RV-site does not present a problem for us, even if we want to watch a DVD or read till the late hours, or use the loo!
I had put some rechargeable batteries in the digital camera yesterday (not being in places where reasonably priced replacements were available), and it suddenly ‘froze’, then indicated that the memory card was corrupted and must be reformatted. By some stroke of luck, I had downloaded the last 3 days worth of pics to the laptop just after breakfast this morning, so I only lost 3 pics which had been taken right there at the Museum!!
In order to justify exhorbitant expenditures on planned meals in the Banff and Jasper “Lodge’s”, Denise decrees that we will feast once again on ‘Bread and Chunky’, and we park in the Bus & RV lot near to the Visitor Centre, which again, like Cut Bank, has no signs saying ‘No Overnight Parking’.
While I am writing this log, parked in the back of the RV lot, sitting in the front seat of the Roadtrek with a beer next to me, after having eaten already, a local RCMP car comes across the lot, takes a slow pass in front of the van, stops, hesitates, then moves on again. I think we may yet see them back later tonight? Still, I doubt they will do worse than tell us to ‘Move On!’.
On the other hand, if you can camp out in tents in Beacon Hill Park with impunity, or on Parliament Hill for that matter, why not in our van in the RV Lot in Drumheller?
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Heading North Again
Heading North Again
Wednesday 12 Sept 2007
Spent the night in a very nice little (private) campground, on the Yellowstone River, just outside of Gardiner. I’m glad now that the Mammoth Hot Springs site was ‘full’. Very clean washrooms, nice hot showers, nice parking spot backing on the river, cable TV, Internet, Sani-connect, power all included in the rate, plus 10% off because I had my CAA card! Dumped & flushed holding tanks and filled up with fresh water.
Up the road Northwards, with a side trip to Chico Hot Springs, an upscale resort in the middle of nowhere, with a private airstrip, fishing facilities, ‘dude ranch’ activities. We decided not to use the hot-spring, as it was just a smaller pool alongside the hotel swim pool, and did not look that ‘inviting’. Headed on up one of the minor roads via Pray and Pine Creek, passing through obvious ranching & ‘hobby farm’ area to Livingstone, where we get back onto the I-90, heading West & North.
The land is flat and/or rolling hills for as far as the eye can see. Not a particularly interesting vista, other than the remoteness, dryness and scarcity of population. Mainly wheat farming as we get more North, although earlier there was a region which looked like cattle ranching.
We bypass Helena (the State Capital, or Capitol as they seem to call them here) and continue Northwards through Great Falls, stopping for gas in a little ‘wheat town’. Nice old truck in the back yard next to the gas station. Looked like it might be an early 30’s IH.
At Shelby we turn West on Hwy2 toward Glacier National, and stop at a Rest Area in Cut Bank (on the edge of the Blackfeet Indian Reserve). Since the town boasts it is in both the Wheat and Oil & Gas territory, did they get the name Blackfeet because of the Oil?
The Rest Area seems to permit overnighting. It doesn’t say so, but there are other signs saying what you can’t do, and ‘Overnight Parking’ is not one of them! So we will see how we fare.
I’ll probably post this now if I can hack a wifi network, since there is unlikely to be anything else until we get up to Drumheller.
Wednesday 12 Sept 2007
Spent the night in a very nice little (private) campground, on the Yellowstone River, just outside of Gardiner. I’m glad now that the Mammoth Hot Springs site was ‘full’. Very clean washrooms, nice hot showers, nice parking spot backing on the river, cable TV, Internet, Sani-connect, power all included in the rate, plus 10% off because I had my CAA card! Dumped & flushed holding tanks and filled up with fresh water.
Up the road Northwards, with a side trip to Chico Hot Springs, an upscale resort in the middle of nowhere, with a private airstrip, fishing facilities, ‘dude ranch’ activities. We decided not to use the hot-spring, as it was just a smaller pool alongside the hotel swim pool, and did not look that ‘inviting’. Headed on up one of the minor roads via Pray and Pine Creek, passing through obvious ranching & ‘hobby farm’ area to Livingstone, where we get back onto the I-90, heading West & North.
The land is flat and/or rolling hills for as far as the eye can see. Not a particularly interesting vista, other than the remoteness, dryness and scarcity of population. Mainly wheat farming as we get more North, although earlier there was a region which looked like cattle ranching.
We bypass Helena (the State Capital, or Capitol as they seem to call them here) and continue Northwards through Great Falls, stopping for gas in a little ‘wheat town’. Nice old truck in the back yard next to the gas station. Looked like it might be an early 30’s IH.
At Shelby we turn West on Hwy2 toward Glacier National, and stop at a Rest Area in Cut Bank (on the edge of the Blackfeet Indian Reserve). Since the town boasts it is in both the Wheat and Oil & Gas territory, did they get the name Blackfeet because of the Oil?
The Rest Area seems to permit overnighting. It doesn’t say so, but there are other signs saying what you can’t do, and ‘Overnight Parking’ is not one of them! So we will see how we fare.
I’ll probably post this now if I can hack a wifi network, since there is unlikely to be anything else until we get up to Drumheller.
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