Chief Running Butt, and White Witch meet Bob and Karin Bittner

“You should never meet up with strange men you meet on the Internet when they invite you over to a foreign country”. There is an exception to every rule and you may end up having a spiffingly good time. Chester’s photographer friend from the Digital Camera Magazine website, Bob Bittner and his comedian wife Karin met up with us in Banff. A weekend of photography ensued with a drive down to Windermere where we he had booked some amazing cabins surrounded by beautiful orchards and countryside.

Chester received First Nation name from Bob having led group through dangerous bear infested trail. Chester warn group about approaching grizzly’s when he make contact with “Spirit of Bear” who tell them run like hell. Chief Running Butt is now his official Canadian name.

Chester is offered a Job in Canada

Serendipity or fate, call what you will but Chester has been offered the opportunity of a lifetime. Whilst at Fort Steele a restored a town and fort dating from 1864 Chester met Norm a kind of weird looking character – you know the kind of look that you get when you emerge from the wilderness 3 mths later with nothing but a toilet roll - the long haired, fought with a bear and survived look.

Anyway Chester got chatting with Norm and they got on like a house on fire. Conversation got serious and before too long they started talking GOLD! Norm is a national gold panning champion and wanted Chester to try his hand – “we need guys like you up here, there’s gold in them mountains Chester. I got some grit, you find me some gold.” Chester was a natural and found 5 pieces of gold in his first pan. Norm was astounded – “took me years to move that pan like you do. You sure got a way with grit.”

Anyway to cut a long story short, Chester signed the contract and lease to pan for gold in “Long Forgotten Valley”, which apparently he has exclusively for the next 100 years – a good investment for the kids (?). $5000 dollars later he was last seen up in them valleys shaking his pan like a man possessed.

UPDATE: Chester’s poor navigational skills have landed him in a spot of bother. Instead of Long Forgotten Valley he ended up in the strangely named Argos Valley – the guys up there got wind and dealt with him swiftly. That’s the way out here – no muckin’.

Our most successful day.

The aim of this blog is to keep you fully informed of the workings and whereabouts of the two travelling Tugwells so today we were headed for Banff. First stop: a ‘gas’ station. It took Chester three attempts to align the fuel tank with the pump by which time Kate had crawled into the glove compartment. Next stop: the world’s longest free car ferry trip across Kootenay Lake. The queue was short, the little ferry was already boarding, we hopped on. Ten minutes later we reached the other side. Realising our mistake we turned around to join the queue returning back to the other side to find the bigger ferry. This we did ten minutes after the bigger ferry had left, leaving us the luxury of an hour and a half to spend in a greasy spoon café where Kate experienced the toughest bacon on the rubberiest pancakes in all of Canada, but the maple syrup helped (thanks for the recommend David & Carrie, I’ll try others!). On finally reaching the other side of the highway, the light was so fabulous we stopped many times for photos before heading for Fort Steele, a well restored heritage town which closes at 5pm. The time was now 5.30. We booked our grottiest accommodation yet – a $45 motel room in Wasa - and then travelled 60kms to find our most expensive meal yet – Bavarian wiener schnitzel (ick!). What country are we in?

Paws for thought…

Forgetting life on the road with its perpetual threat of bear attacks for a moment we would like to send a few good wishes across the pond:
Happy Birthday to Cathy on the 15th and Jane on 21st Sept and George on 1st Oct; Ruth & Greg – hope you’re enjoying your 1st Wedding Anniversary in the Lake District and congrats to Adrian & Madeleine for getting married at the weekend (assuming you did)!!

Bearly made it!

Instead of four hours it took us four days to get to Nelson as we headed over the valley into the Kootenays. We drove alongside and crossed lakes so long that free ferry rides form part of the highway. As the mountains got higher and the temperatures got lower we found time slipping pleasantly away as we stumbled across ghost towns left over from the booming gold and silver mining days of the 1890s, historic steamboats, museums, art shops, coffee shops, spa resorts built around hot thermal springs and big mounds of bear poo!! Here Chester is ascertaining how fresh this specimen is and therefore how fast we may need to skedaddle.

Weekend - Canadian Style!

After a day of painting doors and power tools, helping Scott and Vanessa with their house renovations, Chester became even more of a man by learning the art of fishing. We joined their friends Keith and Lisa on some of their land on the banks of the Shuswap River, driving off road for miles into wilderness until finally spotting the campfire. As night fell and the owl started hooting, the only thing Chester caught was a slight chill from standing in the water so long. Fortunately our hosts had the foresight to bring hot dogs and marshmallows to roast in the absence of fresh salmon. As we put out the fire the black night sky was punctuated with lightening flashes and then rain, the first rain we have seen since leaving Blighty, and the Tugwells had chosen to spend the night camping!

Willie Royal

The last time we were in Penticton we ate at a gypsy style restaurant called Dream Cafe. By chatting to the proprietor, who sported a moustache the size of an Indian canoe, he wangled free tickets for a 'sold out' gig the following Thursday night. So never to look a gifthorse in the mouth we enjoyed (and dozed a little) through a rather unique blend of folk, middle-eastern, gypsy music. We told him we'd come all the way over from England to see him and as a result have a signed copy if anyone would like to start bidding!