Up early and out the door. Caught a taxi from the hostel to the village, where the bus stop is located. Put all our gear down and took out the tickets. We arrived around 9.15am for a 10.30 bus - we knew we were a little early, no worries. Checked everything was in order with the tickets and noticed that our bus was not due to depart until 1.30pm. We did not plan to be at the bus stop that early. We had coffee whilst waiting for the ticket office to open, when it did the lovely attendant said we were right to get on the 10.30 bus to Vancouver but would need to check with the ticketing office on arrival in Vancouver to see if we could change to an earlier bus to Lake Louise.
So when the bus driver woke up from his nap (not kidding) around 10.40 we packed all our stuff on the bus with the other passengers and said our goodbyes to Whistler, we were on our way....
Elona Typing
All good to begin with...arrival in the NOT so beautiful side of Vancouver. Have to say the place looked much pretty on our way to Whistler - lights - nightime-safe in a van with Rob our driver. We had 4 hours to kill and there is only so much McDonalds a person can eat and when that person is me it usually means chocolate sundaes and apple pie: sorry people NOT a big fan. So we decided to go for a walk as we do. We found Chinatown - it has been around since 1883 apparently - really quite large but we covered it and found some very interesting shops especially the ones with all the dried herbs (check out the photos) some are just unidentifiable and trying to read the label is not helpful either as it is in Chinese!!! Still very nice to walk around until we took a wrong turn and found ourselves on Hastings Street...and if anyone knows about Vancouver this is really the street to avoid...drug deals happening right in front of us - the whole black market thing happening - people asking us for money. We got out pretty quick I tell you!!! Back to Maccas!!! Tried the banana and chocolate pie - can't say I'm a fan of that either - how bad is that!!! Anyway it was safer :)
Meg's typing
We left the safety of Maccas to join the other passengers heading east. Backpacks safely stowed under the bus and hand luggage in the overhead compartment. We were informed by the bus driver we could have the front seats - excellent birds eye view. Everyone on, Ken the bus driver welcomed us to the journey ahead, and off we set. Nothing really noteworthy to speak of other than an interesting tour of Greyhound depots from Vancouver to Revelstoke. Except we did try our first Tim Hortons Coffee - Canadian tradition we have been told. The coffee and pastries were very nice and after our 20 mins stretch of the legs, we were back on the road. Now Ken was due to leave us in the capable hands of another driver at Revelstoke (this being about 10 hours into our scheduled 15 hour journey). We rolled into Revelstoke at around 4am and were informed that we would go no further as the roads had all been closed due to avalanche. Yes avalanche!
Elona Typing
So off we set on another walk ( as you do) knowing that this time we should be alright - no Hastings St that and we had company this time. We met up with a wonderful lady by the name of Jullianna who was on her way to her mother's funeral in a place about 4 hours out of Calgary - the last stop. She shared some magnificent stories with us and we basically chatted about two hours away at another Tim Hortons. From there really guys it was touch 'n' go as to whether we were going anywhere or if we were staying the night until the following morning. We had a chat with Julianna re staying the night at local motel - the three of us shared the cost of a room. Megs and I showered and felt like humans again - we even managed to watch a Vampire Diaries show when Julianna informed us that the bus was heading off as the road had reopened. Woo hoo - all good we would rather be moving forward - most expensive shower I've had but hey we were on the road again. We travelled for about an hour when we saw 2 cars and people waving for us to stop (there is a huge advantage to being at the front of the bus!) We stopped right next to a sign that said: END OF AVALANCHE ZONE and no kidding less than 100 metres up the road was an avalanche that had taken a few trees with it and dumped it right across the highway!!!! John the new bus driver is having a panic attack and us tourists are thinking its a wonderful photo opportunity - he's just like - we can't just sit here we will get caught in an avalanche. After a few attempts to turn round were unsuccessful, we did just that: we sat until the Avalanche crew came to clean up - they had just sent in bob cats and realised that the job was a little bigger than expected and then in came the front end loader - well that got things moving and in no time at all (which is saying something when you have been on a bus as long as we had!) we were on the road again.
Megs Typing
John (the new bus driver) was not the most up beat, look on the brighter side of life, optimistic person you are ever likely to meet. Comments said to the entire bus of passengers in his care (for who knows how many more hours) , were common abuse of civilian drivers and especially tow truck drivers, which were often permeated with sentiments of, "should never have left Revelstoke" and "we are all likely to die on this highway". John was fairly adamant that he would get us to Golden (the next stop) and then he was not going any further - it was just tooooooo dangerous. We arrived just outside of Golden, where the roadhouse was to find the entire highway turned into a BIG RIG parking lot, conservative estimate would be around 500 Big Rigs.
Elona Typing
Dinner time!!! We shared a lovely dinner with Julianna and again shared some lovely stories and then shock horror it was all on!!! We are leaving let's go says John and off we went - he was almost chipper - I didn't think the man had it in him - honestly!!!! Have to say we napped a little on this one but were awoken just before this lovely town called Radium Hot Springs - just a gorgeous town; if we were going to stop anywhere this would be it - just picturesque. Would love to come back here one day to investigate! But on we went and wasn't our John a little cranky pants that he had to do an extra hour or so and to back track a tad because we had to go the long way round to avoid another avalanche (!!) He dropped us off at an info centre at 1am and said it was nice to meet us - you might want to head up to that pub and call a taxi - see ya later!!! Fantastic - I threw that blasted backpack on my back again vowing that maybe a suitcase with wheels would have been better for me...and we headed to the bar when a number of lovely (no really they were) boys came out and actually rang a taxi for us and had a chat. So apart from being dumped, this was a nicer welcome!! Having said that the taxis here charge by the person so to go 6 km up the road cost Megs and I $12 each!!! Interesting
Pacific Central - Industrial side of Vancouver
strange bird - cross between duck and dodo
Chinatown Vancouver
same
dried herb shop
funky dried herb
banana and chocolate pie
Megs and Ken
some major ice happening
look glitter in the air
see
pretty
Asian Car - this is for you Dana
No Maccas today
oh dear - it has been a long trip
We are ready
but no where to go
stuck truck
This is the highway after the avalanche
too deep for a bobcat and too many trees
they lied
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