Jasper to Toronto

By this stage of the trip we had been travelling for 2 weeks. We were getting tired, but the adventure was pushing us on. Today was the start of an interesting week for our honeymoon. We had no idea what was in store for us, but that is half the fun of travelling.

We had a very early start on Monday the 4th of October, as we had to drive to Edmonton to catch a flight to Toronto. I knew when I woke up that I would be doing the bulk of the driving to Edmonton as Kim didn’t sleep well. I apparently was talking in my sleep and continually woke her. I have no memory of this, but that isn’t surprising.

It was raining and dark when we left. We had just come down from Patricia lake and into Jasper when I saw the big shadows of Elk in the middle of the road. I slowed down so as not to hit them and we looked on in awe. Then out of the darkness to our left the HUGE bull Elk appeared. He was massive. I tried to get a photo of him, but he was too far away for the flash to be effective. I didn’t want to stick around antagonising him with my camera. We were told on our cruise at Maligne Lake not to get between the bull and his women. There were reports of a bull Elk charging and attacking a bus load of Germans that stumbled in between them. We didn’t want to test that theory so I moved between the women as quickly as possible and headed on our way.

The rain and dark conditions made for difficult driving. It was made worse by the insane driving of the locals as they would come tearing up behind us and pass at dangerous places. While we couldn’t see much of what we were driving past on the way out of the national park we could tell by the shadows that it was impressive. Unfortunately once we were clear of the national park and heading towards Edmonton the scenery changed to unimpressive flat land. We made a couple stops before we got to the airport at some gas stations and grabbed some food and drinks.

Me looking very tired after driving from Jasper to Edmonton

At the airport we filled the car up before returning it. The petrol here was 89 cents a litre. That was the cheapest we found throughout our trip. The car return was very easy. A guy went around with some electronic device and logged the information quickly as we unpacked the car and that was it. We left the keys and were off into the terminal.

We had made it to Edmonton very early so we had quite a long wait for the plane. We just sat there watching people go by and tried to stay awake. We had some food and drinks while we waited, but it was a very long and boring wait.

Kim also looking tired, posing with our friends photo.

I can’t remember what we did on that flight but I know we were going to be getting into Toronto on time, which was late in the evening. As it was a domestic flight we were able to get off the plane and get our gear quickly. We went through the departure doors to meet Marion and Andrew Shirra. Marion is a relative of Kim’s. They had offered to put us up for our stay and to show us around.

So starts the Toronto experience.

Back story to our friends photo. She is a lovely young girl who sees Kim as her work mother (so I am her work father by default). She wanted to come with us on our trip, like most people, but she was inventive with the idea. She took a photo of herself and gave it to us to travel with (it is double sided with different poses). She asked if we could take some photos with her image in them so she could feel like she was there when she saw them. An interesting idea, and that is why we are posing with here photo at Edmonton airport.