We took a coach from Toronto to Banff. Below is our mighty metal steed, and was to be home for the next two days and 8 hours.
For the first leg from Toronto to Sudbury, and Sudbury to Thunder Bay, the view was mostly trees...
...and lakes of various sizes. Very cool landscape to journey through.
So far it seems long distance coach travel is good, until everyone starts taking their shoes off.
We passed through lots of sections of Canadian Shield, blasted in half for the road the pass through. On lots of these crops of rocks travelers had stacked little Stonehenge-style piles of stones of all sizes – we saw tons of little rock statues of people called Inukshuks, probably over 200 along the way, it was a bit creepy like in Blair Witch Project.
Lucy sleeping at Winnipeg Airport (next to the bus station). The bus arrived late at Winnipeg, so we had to wait around a few hours for the next connecting coach. One reason for the delay was we got pulled over by the police along the way, and a policeman came on board and walked down the centre aisle, looking everyone in the face. But then he left without arresting anyone.
The landscape from Winnipeg to Regina changed a lot, and was now very flat and mostly farmer's fields.
Jon judging Moose Jaw.
There were fairly regular stops for food and bathroom breaks, so you could try to avoid using the coach toilet, but if you absolutely had to (which I did once) it was an experience - basically a big open bowl of everyone's wee that sloshed and splashed with the movement of the coach, and you added your own contribution to top it up some more.
On the long stretch towards Calgary we passed lots of little agricultural towns, and stopped at a couple for breaks. They sold dyed diesel as standard at the petrol stations.
A short stop in Medicine Hat.
Mountains in the distance approaching Calgary.
The mountains grew larger as we got towards Canmore and Banff.
For the first leg from Toronto to Sudbury, and Sudbury to Thunder Bay, the view was mostly trees...
...and lakes of various sizes. Very cool landscape to journey through.So far it seems long distance coach travel is good, until everyone starts taking their shoes off.
We passed through lots of sections of Canadian Shield, blasted in half for the road the pass through. On lots of these crops of rocks travelers had stacked little Stonehenge-style piles of stones of all sizes – we saw tons of little rock statues of people called Inukshuks, probably over 200 along the way, it was a bit creepy like in Blair Witch Project.
Lucy sleeping at Winnipeg Airport (next to the bus station). The bus arrived late at Winnipeg, so we had to wait around a few hours for the next connecting coach. One reason for the delay was we got pulled over by the police along the way, and a policeman came on board and walked down the centre aisle, looking everyone in the face. But then he left without arresting anyone.
The landscape from Winnipeg to Regina changed a lot, and was now very flat and mostly farmer's fields.
Jon judging Moose Jaw.There were fairly regular stops for food and bathroom breaks, so you could try to avoid using the coach toilet, but if you absolutely had to (which I did once) it was an experience - basically a big open bowl of everyone's wee that sloshed and splashed with the movement of the coach, and you added your own contribution to top it up some more.
On the long stretch towards Calgary we passed lots of little agricultural towns, and stopped at a couple for breaks. They sold dyed diesel as standard at the petrol stations.
A short stop in Medicine Hat.
Mountains in the distance approaching Calgary.
The mountains grew larger as we got towards Canmore and Banff.
