Mr Hoot

Day 6 & 7

Mr Hoot — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:54:08 +0000

Up very early to catch the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver to Kamloops. The coach took us right to the carriage we were in and we found our seats. There was heaps of leg room and the clear domed roof gave great views. It was slow going until we got out of the suburbs of Vancouver and then the scenery started to change from farming land to mountains. We followed a river for a long way.
Breakfast was lovely, eggs benedict and fruit and tea and coffee. Then more spectacular views until lunchtime. Mrs Hoot had a salad and salmon and I had soup and a beef sirloin steak. We both had chocolate mudcake and lots of calories.
As the day progressed, we saw lots more mountains and rushing rivers. Nearing the end of the day we saw Bighorn Sheep and a young Black Bear down by the lake. The country near Kamloops changed to semi-arid desert. This was quite unexpected for us. Kamloops was nothing spectacular at all and the hotel was just a hotel.
Up early again on Tuesday and onto the train again. Breakfast was an omelette for me and Mrs Hoot had pancakes.
The scenery soon began to change again and more forested mountains appeared. As we travelled the mountains got bigger and bigger. There were so many great views from the train – so spectacular! The mountain ranges went on forever. For lunch we both had wild mushroom soup, then Mrs Hoot had salmon again (a different style this time) and I had a pork fillet. Sweet was an apple pie thing with chocolate stuff (very descriptive!).
About an hour out from our destination,we went through the spiral tunnels – to make a steep grade climb. And then into Banff where we detrained.
A coach took us to Lake Louise, where we were checked into the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. We have a lake view room with a wonderful view of the lake and the mountains.

Day 5

Mr Hoot — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:33:50 +0000

Up early and off in the tour bus to Capilano Suspension Bridge. I was able to cross the bridge without too much terror. I did hang on to the cable on one side and Mrs Hoot’s hand on the other though! Across the other side was forest with Douglas Firs, Cedars and Maples. Those firs are really tall and nothing like the Australian forest. Then back across the bridge, this time taking a couple of photos- hard to hold the camera steady when you’re holding on with one hand and the bridge is swaying to and fro.
Then a bus tour of the sights of Vancouver – we had already seen most of these but it was nice to see them again at a more leisurely pace.
I’m not sure if I’ll have internet access tomorrow as we are off to Kamloops on the Rocky Mountaineer Train. Real early start – wakeup call for 5am! Then brekky on the train and free food and all the beer, wine and spirits you want!

Day 4

Mr Hoot — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:05:19 +0000

Granville Island this morning where there is a huge market selling all kinds of stuff – produce, deli and cheese, arts & crafts, clothes, souveneirs etc. Then on to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Chinese Garden – tranquil Chinese gardens. Lastly Gastown – more good shops and a Steam Clock!

In the evening we had a Welcoming Dinner for Scenic Tours. Nice food! Early start tomorrow, wakeup call for 6am.

Day 3

Mr Hoot — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:16:52 +0000

Finding it hard to find time to write blog posts. Will do what I can, when I can. Stanley Park. Vancouver Aquarium in the morning. Cirque du Soleil in the afternoon (Tapis Rouge – very spiffy!). Harbour Lookout in the evening. Tired feet! Getting used to thetime difference.

Canada 2010 – Day 1 & 2

Mr Hoot — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:42:57 +0000

Wednesday 25th August 2010 saw Mrs Hoot and I catching the Bendigo Airport Shuttle down to Melbourne Airport. We checked in to the Hilton Hotel at the airport and then went to have good look around the shops there. Had a bit of a wander and then went back to the room and watched the planes taking off and landing from our bedroom window.

We didn’t seem to get much sleep as we were pretty excited. We got up at about 4am (half an hour before our wake-up call) and checked out. We caught the 6am Qantas flight to Sydney which left right on time,

At Sydney Airport we were met by a representative from Scenic Tours who checked our names off her list (good bit of service that). Then we had to wait 3 hours for our Air Canada flight. We mainly hung around in the departure lounge untill boarding time. We got into conversation with a Canadian couple and he gave us a Canadian dollar coin (nicknamed a ‘loonie’ because it has a picture of a loon (a diving bird) on it) and a ‘toonie’ (a $2 coin which the Canadians don’t like and the name just rhymed with the loonie!).

The flight to Vancouver was long. We dozed, ate meals(which were suprisingly good for airline food) and watched some movies. I was able to drink REAL Coke and the flight attendant left the can for me finish off – not one of those little cans either but a full-size can with bilingual writing on it!

We arrived feeling stiff and tired and were met at Vancouver airport by a shuttle. Arriving at the Fairmont Vancouver, our room wasn’t ready (it was about 8am) so we left our stuff there and went for a walk. We soon became tired and hopped on a hop-on-hop-off Bus Tour bus. Took a good look around Stanley Park and then back to the hotel where our room was now ready.

More later…

The Time is Nearly Here…

Mr Hoot — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 01:31:45 +0000

Only four days to go now before we begin our Grand Canadian tour. And because Chris has updated the blog (thanks), I thought I better do a test post.

A very quick photo of a few travel type things and a bit of text ought to do for the test.

Excitement is beginning to kick in now and again, packing and deciding what to take in the way of clothes has begun. Everything appears to be ready!

Holiday 2010

Mr Hoot — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 01:52:43 +0000

Mrs Hoot and I are preparing for our 2010 holiday to Canada and Alaska. We are going on a Scenic Tours extravaganza starting on August 25th. We have booked a couple of extra days in Vancouver before we start the actual tour so we can get used to the time difference.

I was going to make a map like Mike’s to show you all where we are going but have decided against that (because it looked crap), and am going with a printed itinerary instead. I will probably use maps to show where we’ve been after we’ve been there…

So without more ado, here is the itinerary:

25^th August

Bendigo to Melbourne Airport. Hilton Hotel Tullamarine.

26^th August

Qantas Flight to Sydney

Air Canada Flight to Vancouver. Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.

27^th August

Vancouver.

28^th August

Vancouver.

29^th August

Vancouver.

30^th August

Rocky Mountaineer to Kamloops. Hotel at Vendor’s Discretion.

31^st August

Rocky Mountaineer to Lake Louise. The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.

1^st September

Lake Louise.

2^nd September

Coach to Banff. Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

3^rd September

Banff.

4^th September

Coach to Jasper. Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.

5^th September

Jasper.

6^th September

Coach to Sun Peaks. Delta Sun Peaks Resort.

7^th September

Coach to Whistler. Fairmont Chateau Whistler.

8^th September

Whistler.

9^th September

Coach and Ferry to Victoria. Fairmont Empress Hotel.

10^th September

Victoria.

11^th September

Ferry to Vancouver. Board ms Zuiderdam for Alaskan Cruise.

12^th September

Scenic Cruising.

13^th September

Juneau, Alaska.

14^th September

Skagway, Alaska.

15^th September

Glacier Bay, Alaska.

16^th September

Ketchikan, Alaska.

17^th September

Scenic Cruising.

18^th September

Disembark in Vancouver. Fly Air Canada from Vancouver.

19^th September

Cross International Date Line and Miss This Day Altogether. (International Talk Like a Pirate Day. ARGH!!!).

20^th September

Arrive Sydney. Qantas Flight to Melbourne. Melbourne Airport to Bendigo.

Rambling About

Mr Hoot — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:30:02 +0000

Tuesday 5th May. ‘Twas a lovely day and so I decided to go a little further afield to do some birdwatching. I headed for the Whipstick Forest about 20kms away from home. The GPS didn’t help at all and in fact got me misplaced (note: not lost). Just as I was going to give up and go home I spied a sign pointing to Bridgewater – 28 kms it said. That’s not far I said to myself, so I headed onwards.
Bridgewater on Loddon (to give its full name) was nothing special. The riverside parkland was quite nice but they were doing some beautification work and access was a bit restricted. So after a few quick photos, I decided to head off in the direction of Inglewood. It wasn’t far and I found a lovely little town with old historic buildings. The main road was a little surprising as it was quite narrow unlike most of the other towns with their wide town centre streets. Inglewood’s local Historical Society had been busy with blue plaques on all the old buildings, describing their stories and all about the Great Fire of Inglewood on December 3rd, 1862. It is a sleepy little town with 2 pubs and an air of better days. There were quite a few ramshackle shops waiting to either be leased or fall down.

From Inglewood I went on towards a place I remembered I had been before a long time ago – Melville Caves. I drove onwards towards Kooyoora State Park where the caves are supposed to be. There weren’t a lot of signs around and I decided that I would head for home if I didn’t find any sign of it in the next 10 minutes. 5 minutes later I found a sign and in another 5 minutes I was at the caves.
Let me say from the start, they’re not really caves; just crevices between large rounded rocks. This didn’t take away from the beauty of the area though. The land around is flat and the small ‘mountain’ where the caves are stands out prominently above the forest and fields surrounding it. I spent a lovely half an hour wandering around in the sunshine photographing the boulders. I would recommend a visit here, it’s lovely.

Then homeward along country roads stopping to take photos of a Shingleback Lizard by the side of the road. A great day just rambling around. More photos and information about Melville Caves on Flickr

HANZAB

Mr Hoot — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:55:25 +0000

Today I became the proud owner of a shiny new set of books called the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds or HANZAB for short. It has long been a dream of mine to own the 7 volume set. There are actually 9 books in the set because 2 of the volumes are divided into 2 parts. I feel like I should be wearing cotton gloves whenever I open one of them!

HANZAB is the definitive work on birds of the Australasian region. There are 9000 pages describing 952 species which is approximately 10% of all the world’s birds. The books are now out of print and will not be re-printed, so it was lucky that I ordered them just before that announcement was made. As it was, the bookseller reduced the price to a lower price AFTER I had ordered them and followed up with an email reducing the price for me too.

When Auto-focus Fails…

Mr Hoot — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:01:59 +0000

I like Auto-focus. It works very well most of the time. Except today it was a complete and utter failure. The subject was a bird (what else) called a Clamorous Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus stentoreus) and as you can imagine, they live in reeds. They are very vocal little birds but very hard to see, especially when they are in a thick bed of reeds. My camera didn’t like those reeds. The focus went crazy. So I flipped my switch to manual and actually got a reasonable photograph.
It’s funny how much you rely on automation when you probably most often don’t need to. You can see what I mean in the following photo.