Edmonton, Alberta – Arminius behind barbed wire

In the very early morning a thunderstorm is starting. Also in the following hours we hear again and again rolls of thunder and scatters pelting down. Not a good day for a hike above the tree-line. It is chilly, even in 1500 m elevation it is just above zero, you’ll get soaked and above tree-line you don’t want to repel flashes like a magnet. We are cancelling the hike to Sulphur Skyline. We are driving the few kilometres up to Miette Springs anyway, the actual trail start. Clouds are hanging so deep to entangle in the treetops. Scatters are accelerating to strong continuous rain, there is even hail. Miette Hotsprings are sulphur containing thermal springs, the hottest in the Rockies. Not astonishing on a day like that and a glance over the parking lot is revealing: There are too many people in a single tub. I’ relinquishing.

We are leaving the park to the east, direction Edmonton. You can safely mark up the drive as “boring”. We are going through a plane, slightly hilly prairie landscape of meadows, just interrupted by few forests and canola fields. Edmonton is capital and second largest city of Alberta with 730,000 inhabitants in city area. In the beginning of the 19th century the town came from branches of the two big fur trade companies and profited in the end of the decade by the Klondike gold rush. Later on Edmonton continuously developed as traffic junction in western Canada and province’s capital.

Now we stand here in 10° and ugly continuous rain penned in a barbed wire fenced area, surrounded by many different Mercedes Benz models of many different years of manufacture, and a couple of Hägglunds caterpillar vehicles. It is the plot of Prestige Auto Repair, and that belongs to Al. Al deals with Mercedes and repairs them. He owns one of the Canadian agencies of Hellgeth Engineering in Germany that have adapted our Unimog. No, we don’t want to try curing Arminius again. But Hellgeths brought us in contact with Al; he warmly welcomed us and allowed us to camp on his fenced company plot to remain undisturbed. Well, then: Good night!

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