Week XXVIII – XXX

Canada – Alberta and British Columbia

I am back. Back from the Rockies, back from wild animals and the raw Canadian bush. It wasn’t bad at all. Although, there was a lot of rain in the beginning and massive fires in the middle. Afterwards, there was a lot of water too, but I think that’s quite common when you go to an island. In the end, everything worked out without casualties, so I’ll call it success.

Now, I don’t want to bother you with a lot of text. Let the pictures talk..

The Canadian nature with amazing mountains, waterfalls, dunes (with jump)..

..perfectly and glacier-water coloured lakes (Lake Louise just one of many)..

the awesome wildlife from bears to chipmunks, moose and whales..

and other interesting stuff from bear traps to garbage cans..

I left the west coast of Canada and exchanged it for Ontario, where I’m currently in the big lake area, in Toronto.

Week XXVI – XXVII

Canada – Vancouver

Before I hit the road – or better the canadian mountains – I want to give you a small summary of the last six months of travelling:
– half a year, 26 weeks (from 2009-01-16 to 2009-07-17 – 183 days)
– Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, USA (Hawaii, Washington), Canada
– diving, snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, surfing, hiking, running, climbing
– by plane, bus, car, boat, hitchhiking, train, walking
– best breakfast: Seattle (fruits), Fiji (just everything on Beachcomber island)
– best shower: New Zealand (after days in the wild), Vancouver (just good)
– best sleep: New Zealand (in my tent in the bush and at the French Ridge Hut)
– best rocks: New Zealand (at Castle Hill), Australian blue mountains
– best food: sushi in Tokyo, fish and chips on Steward Island
I haven’t been stolen anything and lost only one t-shirt and that to the sharks while on a diving trip in Fiji. Unfortunately it was my Come-To-Pay shirt (sorry, Arvid) – you might know it from a lot of famous jump pictures.

About Canada.. I wasn’t fully healthy when I crossed over to Vancouver. Still, after a few questions at the Canadian border, everything was done. The green US passport paper (everybody makes such a big fuzz about it, cause it makes it hard to enter the States when you forget to return it after leaving) the bus driver just ripped out, after I asked about it. She told me she’ll throw it in the box at the US border on her way back – she does that all the time – aaalright.
I came across a lot of homeless people and street dealers when I walked from the bus to the hostel in Vancouver. Then on one corner an older woman in a car stopped and offered me a chicken dinner, because she bought two for one. Oh, strange Vancouver. Due to feeling not a hundred percent fit, I didn’t do much the first few days. I explored the city and went on a day tour but that’s basically all. (I saw fish again – yes, I like stating and keywording ‘fish’)

Around Capilano park, Burrard and Lions Gate bridge and Granville island..

Today, I made my way over to Calgary. I learned about distances in Canada. It was a 15-hour bus drive through awesome Canadian landscapes. I lost an hour by crossing a time zone. Tomorrow, I’ll start a 20-day camping trip through the Rockies, Banff, Lake Luise and back to the West over Vancouver Island.

Uh, before I forget.. I did an update on my domain and account. Take a look at almost.plain.at. There you’ll find a selection of my best photos in various categories (you’ll need to click them, to get to the actual gallery). Thanks a lot for keeping my plain.at account Viktor!

Week XXV

USA – Washington, Seattle/Mt. Rainier

The United States are different in many ways. It seems like people enjoy being told what they are allowed and not allowed to do. At least they accept loads of signs all around telling them about fines they’ll receive and jails they’ll have to visit for doing various things. I heard bus drivers shouting about random things, was told not to lean on walls or take pictures, had to face the most complex tax calculations when buying chocolate bars, but also went up rather random office buildings to visually document the views without being bothered by anybody.

Anyway, I stopped arguing with random people some time ago in Australia – so I was able to simply enjoy Seattle. Last Friday, I went with four fellow travellers and a rental car to mount Rainier to do some hiking. To see a volcano with glaciers, almost perfect blue skies and to wander over big white snow fields was definitely one of the highlights of the last week. Unfortunately, the weather was rather changeable and I got a bit sick soon after. If it were the air-condition systems everywhere or the rather cloudy and rainy weather doesn’t matter.
Nevertheless, I got up to Vancouver, Canada by the Greyhound bus without any difficulties and took the chance of being not a hundred percent healthy to sit back and relax my first days in the province of British Columbia.

Around Seattle – Pike place market, the place where grunge was born, the locks around Ballard (with fish) and at mount Rainier (with lakes and jumps!)..

Week V – VI

New Zealand – Picton to Invercargill

Right, I rent a small car in Picton and went up to the northernmost part of the South Island (Abel Tasman Park, Golden Bay, Cape Farewell). I did an awesome track at the top of the Abel Tasman Great Walk and earned sunburns on my legs. The weather changed from the best to the worst and it was mostly just rain and clouds. So I headed on to the west coast and downwards. In between in the middle of nowhere I got a dead car battery. Thanks to the couple of Switzerland who helped push-starting the car again.
Then I had my failed river-crossing and another track I could not do caused by too much water and too strong currents. I saw closed roads at the glaciers and not much else. But, you know – tell an Austrian about glaciers. When the weather changed again for a few days, I did one of my best walks into the Mt Aspiring national park. Awesome valley, nature, climbs, mountains, huts and people.
Afterwards I drove over to Milford Sound. Interesting roads, but when I finally got there on a boat it started raining again. So I didn’t get a very good sight and mostly pictures of raindrops. I headed further south on the west coast and did a track at the Green Lake, which got me into pretty deep mud and a night-walking experience that was quite dangerous and stupid I guess. Well, no achievements without risks ..and don’t ask me what the achievements were!

So to summarize..
~ walking at beaches I had all for myself – check
~ driving with no traffic along stunning roads – check
~ river crossings – check (failed only once)
~ walk through deep mud – check
~ stay in a hut surrounded by awesome mountains and glaciers – check
~ do a night search-the-track – check (although unintentionally)
~ tramp alone through the bush – check
~ get bitten by sandflys – check, check,.. (at least 200 times)
~ do something really stupid and dangerous – check, check and definitely check (not what you might think – mac)

But it’s best I’ll describe the South Island with some pictures.

Then February suddenly ended (totally true, on the 28th to be specific!) and it got Autumn. My next stop was Steward Island.

Gesucht wird Verstand

Die meisten Dinge die wir gerne besitzen würden haben Nachteile die wir nicht sofort erahnen. So könnten zum Beispiel im Handbuch der Jungfräulichkeit – Achtung: kann leichte Gebrauchsspuren aufweisen – folgende Hinweise stehen. Unerfahrenheit kann zu falschen Hoffnungen führen; ungebrauchte Teile können den Spass erheblich bremsen; volle Motorleistung erst ab einer bestimmten Verwendungszahl; kann bei falscher Handhabung zu ungewollten Nebeneffekten führen;
Warum wir nun trotzdem nach bestimmten Zuständen streben, die kaum erreichbar sind kann den Grund haben, dass ehemalige Erwartungen nicht erfüllt wurden (siehe Lolita – Film). Die vorgelebte Vorstellung von bestimmten Ausprägungen kann lebensbestimmend wirken (siehe Barbie und Barbie Syndrom). Einflüssen die uns prägen können wir kaum entgegenwirken. Was jedoch den Unterschied ausmacht ist die Möglichkeit sich selbst zu hinterfragen. Jedoch erst, nachdem eine Entscheidung getroffen wurde und bevor noch mit der Ausführung dieser begonnen wurde. Das ist Intelligenz. Das ist unser persönlicher Kampf gegen Faulheit und Meinungslosigkeit.

Unser Denken vermag es nicht Berge zu versetzen, aber unser Handeln. Doch genau dieses Denken sollte verhindern, dass wir für unseren eigenen Vorteil anderen Schaden zufügen; unsere Verantwortung beim Empfang abgeben; die Fenster von aussen verschliessen; oder uns von einem temporären Fussballgott (siehe Fussball EM Zensur) Gedächtnisverlust verordnen lassen.

Audio:
FM Belfast – Lotus (Killing in the Name of) ~ at Last.fm
Porcupine Tree – Blackest Eyes ~ at YouTube