Driving western Canada

□ Day 7 (18 Feb) Jasper → High Level

Early in the morning, while the room was still quiet, we got up and gathered in the kitchen. Another long drive today. We quickly ate cereal, savoury bread, salad and so on, and left before sunrise. The temperature outside was −13 °C. Being a town in the Rockies, it really was cold.

After driving for a while the sun slowly rose. The sunrise and the Rocky Mountains made a magical atmosphere. The road was almost straight, with no snow left on the surface, and easy to drive. A fast road with a limit of mostly 100 km/h went on. We kept looking around the roadside in case wildlife like elk or moose appeared, but sadly we didn't see any. Going straight on along Highway 16 would take us directly to Edmonton, but after leaving the national park we turned left onto Highway 40. On this stretch there are no petrol stations for over 100 km. We drove on and on through gentle hills where nobody lives at all. Oncoming cars came only occasionally. Moving away from the Rockies, there are hardly any high mountains. For how cold it was, there wasn't much snow. We could see the road stretching far into the distance through the forest that covers the land.

Past the town of Grande Cache, as we came to the city of Grande Prairie, a plain so vast you could see the horizon spread out. Grande Prairie is a fair-sized city, and for the first time today we were stopped at a traffic light. Leaving the city for the outskirts, vast farms filled the plain. With no trees, the snow had piled up and everything was pure white to the horizon. Under a blue sky we headed north along a dead-straight road across the silver-white plateau.

We crossed the great frozen Peace River and stopped for lunch in a small town called Grimshaw. The restaurant we went into was called Sammy's. Burgers were the main thing, but there were some distinctive dishes. Naoto ordered the "3 Cheese Calzone": three kinds of cheese wrapped in dough and baked. He raved about it. KEN ordered the "Chicken Supreme": fried chicken and fries topped with melted cheese and thick gravy, and the gravy was the best.

With full stomachs, we resumed our crossing of the continent. About 300 km to our destination, High Level. On this stretch there is only one town with more than 1,000 people. The northern half of Alberta has a very low population density; most people are concentrated in cities in the southern half like Edmonton and Calgary. Heading ever north on a single road through the forest, settlements and snow-covered fields and ranches appeared here and there. There were hardly any junctions either. When we stopped to change drivers at a settlement called Twin Lake, a dog came out of a house, so we played with it. It's amazing how lively dogs are even somewhere this cold.

Just before High Level, we spotted something lying on the left side of the road. Stopping the car and going closer, we found a dead deer-like animal. Was it hit by a car? After this, we saw the same kind of thing twice more.

We arrived in High Level, a town of about 4,000 people. Restaurants and lodgings line the main street. Tonight we stayed at the "Best Canadian Motor Inn". A motor inn (motel) is lodging for people travelling by car, and there are lots of them along Canada's main roads. But today too the location we had looked up was wrong, and we had to ask a local. When we checked in, the room had two plush double beds, was quite spacious and comfortable. It even had a TV, fridge, microwave and coffee maker, and of course a bathroom. Wireless LAN was free too. All this for just over 100 dollars a room is cheap! For four people it's a great deal.

Dinner was at a nearby Chinese restaurant. Chinese food for the first time in a while. But the fried spring rolls were cinnamon-flavoured, and the sauce on the fried chicken balls was apple jam of all things. Chinese food in Canada is interesting. We also stopped at a supermarket and bought a chocolate cake on sale at half price. We ate it in our room. So full!

At night light snow started to fall. Our first snow since coming to Canada. It was so cold that it didn't melt at all when it hit the ground. After a while everything was white. The Jeep was covered in snow too.