Keith's travelogue

Greetings all, this will be my last travel blog for a few weeks and here I'll be covering off the last few weeks of my trip.

After Montreal we headed up to Quebec which, not surprisingly, had a lovely European feel with lots of French inspired buildings, like Montreal. Unlike Montreal it has a walled citadel and city walls built in the 1700s to keep those nasty British imperialists out. It was interesting to wander around and look at these fortifications and historic sights and ponder the history. It's one history area I must read some more on. The Last of the Mohicans and Pocahontus don't tell it all unfortunately!

After Quebec it was back to the US, and on to the Arcadia National Park on the wild Atlantic coast of the state of Maine. This was ruggedly beautiful and a pleasant couple of days walking in the wilds was good after the hustle and bustle of the cities. Then it was off down the I-95, which runs through 14 States as far south as Florida, to New York. Here I had the misfortune to have trouble with my flights over to Seattle where I was to start my trip through the Canadian Rockies.

I only had an hour or so between arriving in Las Vegas and leaving for Seattle, but the flight leaving New York was delayed by a couple of hours. So I had to change my Vegas-Seattle flight for a Vegas-Phoenix-Vancouver trip. The lady at the US West counter did an amazing job with this ticketing, and I reached Vancouver in a somewhat knackered state around 2pm. Why Vancouver, well because that was the first stop for the tour through the Rockies. Amazingly it all worked out well, even to the point that the tour leader on the Canadian trip was the same one I had from my trip in Mexico in Jan 2005. Twilight Zone material.

Vancouver is a great place, and I want to go again. But then I probably think that about most of my destinations. I took a ferrry ride along tyhe back waters of the harbour and saw a different view of the city at the maritime museum, strollled around Gastown, an historic area chock full ot tourists and homeless people, and had time to see an IMAX film on Mars. (if only I could go there!)

From Vancouver we headed up to Jasper and Banff, the hear tof the Canadian Rockies, with spectacular mountains and glaciers along the Icefield highway, lovely glacial lakes, the highest mountain in the Candian Rockies, the conitental divide and a unique point where the snow melt waters flowed to three oceans (Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic), and concluding the chateau at Lake Louise.

In Jasper there was lots to see and do, including a few hikes. At Banff I had a very active day, with a 12km walk along the river valley, followed by a 13km hike up & down the Sulpher mountain track, and followed this with an hour long soak in the hotsprings next to the gondola. Pure magic, so i wasn't stiff or sore the next day at all, although the two people who cycled the flat river walk were sore for three days!

From Banff it was off to Glacier National park, whch had the best view of all of the places I've stayed, except perhaps the EBagle Channel, and Torres del Paine. It was superb, by a surging ice-melt stream, under a large rocky crag. Ahh, that's what camping is about. From Glacier we headed back to territory I'd covered before - Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons at Jackson, and Craters of the Moon - in Oct last year. From there it was "Go West young man" as we followed the Missouri and Snake rivers along the Lewis and Clarke trail, and the Oregon trail.

Then it was north west to get to Mt Rainier and Mt Olympic national parks in the Cascade mountains of Washington State. Here it is temperate rain forest territory, with wild rugged coastline battered by heavy swells, and strewn with large driftlogs and stony beaches (like the west coast of the South Island). Mt Rainier liveed up to its name as it was wet and rainy but we still got out and walked in the forest. Lots of elkj were about and to walk in the forest and breathe in the air was quite spirit restoring, another joy of travel.

Then it was back to Seattle to stay the night, where I had to get up very early the next day and fly to San Francisco. This is where I pick up my flight back to Melbourne. So after all this time, and all the miles underneath my feet, its with a smile on my face that i look forward to my favourite destiations, the places I call home.

Regards all,
Keith