Down Under

Monday October 22nd - Sunday October 28th

Our second week in Australia and this week has been all about the 3 Rs: rainforests, reefs and roasting hot temperatures.

Cairns, or Ceaaaaaans as the locals like to pronounce it, is in the tropics and has on its doorstep areas of wet tropics that are designated as World Heritage Areas. We've visited a few this week including Behana Gorge, Crystal Cascades and Lake Placid. The first two of these involve walks up a river valley to waterfalls at their heads. At Behana the waterfall had helped to create a great swimming hole that was much needed after a hot slog up to it.

The bonuses of these swimming holes, of which there were more at Crystal Cascades, is that a) they're very refreshing b) they're fresh water and c) they don't have anything in them that can eat you. The front page of the Cairns Post this week carried a photo of a crocodile that had been caught by a fisherman in a creek in town and then a couple of days later another was spotted at a local beach meaning it had to be closed. Add to that the fact that in a week or so it's 'Stinger Season', i.e. jellyfish-tastic and the beaches aren't such an exciting proposition.

We also went up to Kuranda this week, there are pretty much 3 ways of getting there; by tourist train, by a 7km long cable car or by your own transport. Luckily Zoe has been kind enough to drive us around while we've been here so we took that option. Kuranda is at the top of a winding mountain road which passes through more rainforest. It's very strange to think that it's rainforest that you're driving through when you normally associate that with places like Brazil or Borneo and access is really difficult, while here we are driving easily through it.

The main thing that Cairns is probably renowned for is its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef, if you're going to do a trip out to it here is probably the best place to go from...so we did. Zoe and Mark's friends Mark and Dawn own a company, Reef Daytripper for anyone looking for a good reef trip in Cairns!, and were able to get us onboard for a trip out to Upolu Reef this week. What a fantastic day. A lazy cruise out to the reef itself onboard the catamaran and then the chance to snorkel (my preferred option) or dive (Rach's choice de jour). We got to see all manner of fish and wildlife and of course the amazing coral reef itself.

We headed out to the reef again on Sunday, this time to Fitzroy Island. Zoe and Mark's boat was used to good effect once again, although it took a battering from the waves on the way back and after a swim (and yes that did include me!) and snorkel at Fitzroy we circled the island before heading to Turtle Bay. This is a great little spot that can really only be accessed by the water and has a fantastic golden sand beach and clear blue waters, hopefully the video below does it justice.

This isn't the only great beach we've had a chance to visit this week either. We've also spent a good amount of time at Kewarra. Another golden sandy beach fringed with palm trees that, like a lot of the places we've been to, has been very quiet.

Saturday was Rach's birthday and so it was time to indulge in one of her passions, animals. The destination was the Tropical Zoo and it was a great day out. Rach got to hold a koala, which I think was a bit of a trip highlight, we got to feed kangaroos, watch crocs from a safe distance and really get close to the other animals including another of Rach's favourites, the red panda.

So to the final R, the roasting hot temperatures. In the last couple of days the humidity has really picked up and we're now getting into the 30s easily, usually by mid-morning. It's not the heat that's the real problem, although in fairness we are both melting, it's the UV rating. In the UK there's panic when it reaches 6 or 7 and everyone thinks they're going to end up crispier than a bit of nicely cooked bacon, here the rating is currently at 15. According to the weather guys that's in the extremely extreme range. It means that you only have to think about going out into the sun to start burning so we're getting into the slip, slop, slap routine, which is actually a real pain but the alternative is not really worth thinking about. I know at this point there will be a lot of small violins being played for us but we've got to try for sympathy! We're heading south from here next week which should mean cooler temperatures at this time of year but they're having some crazy weather there and it's nearly 40° in Melbourne so camping will be a bit toastier than we've been used to.

All in all it's been a very good week but we're now ready to head off out into the countryside again and start exploring some other parts of this huge country. Zoe and Mark have looked after us really well, but it's time to leave them to some peace and quiet now.

Australia

Monday October 15th - Sunday October 21st

A change of tack with the blog for Australia, we'll do some weekly updates rather than the daily ones as we're planning on taking things a lot easier for the next couple of months and I'm sure you don't want to hear how each day we get up late, relax on the beach/in the pool/under a palm tree (delete as appropriate) so we'll try and keep things interesting and stick in some more pictures.

In actual fact the days above should really not include Monday as we kind of lost that in flight. We had a brief stopover in Honolulu, airport seemed nice, and then off again on the remainder of the flights to Cairns. As you fly in to Cairns you get great views out over the Barrier Reef as the airport is right on the coast. For these first two weeks we're staying with Zoe and Mark in their very nice house a few miles out of the town centre. They've recently made a very welcome addition to the place as well, a huge swimming pool (well it's bigger than the whole of our back garden so it's huge to us!). You'll be sad to hear though that the first week's weather has not quite been what was promised to us, it's been warm and humid but pretty overcast and breezy with frequent showers. We have thawed out though after our cold Canadian experiences and the novelty of only needing shorts and a t-shirt won't wear off soon.

We've slipped into the relaxing mentality quite nicely and have enjoyed pottering around the local area seeing some of the sights. We spent a day up in Port Douglas, a kind of smaller, more upmarket version of Cairns, and enjoyed the views from the coast road on the way there. The road hugs the coastline pretty tightly for the majority of the way so you get some good photo opportunities.


Zoe and Mark, as well as having a big house and a pool, also own a motor boat and so we headed out to Lake Tinaroo to try out some waterskiing. Tinaroo is up in the tablelands region and that means that only way to get to it is via a winding mountain road, we went up through the Gillies Range. Since we are only at 16°S latitude here we're in the tropics so heading up to the tablelands you go through rainforest before coming out into a landscape that looks something like home with rolling green hills. We got ourselves set up at the lake and both Rach and I had a go at waterskiing. Now Rach is definitely the watersports fanatic of the two of us and was up on the end of the rope skiing away quite nicely. I on the other hand am not what you would call a water baby and as this was my first attempt at waterskiing used the training bar at the side of the boat with limited success. A quick masterclass lesson at lunchtime from Rach and I had some more success afterwards before wiping out quite spectacularly. We also had a good swing around in a ring behind the boat too, but the only skill that requires is to hang on for dear life! All great fun though.

The week was rounded off with a very early start (well for us anyway) at 5am to watch the rugby World Cup final. Shame about the result but amazing that we actually got to the final and means we now have bragging rights over both the Aussies and the Kiwis for the coming months. They could still be in mourning in New Zealand when we get there!

Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting

Saturday October 13th

A check of the thermometer at 7.30 when we get up shows that our bodies are telling us the truth and it's cold. We're at 0 degrees and we waste no time in getting sorted out and packed up ready to head back to Vancouver. With it being our last night in Canada we decide to treat ourselves and book an exquisite, boutique hotel in town. Now, fair enough, we haven't paid exquisite, boutique prices but you'd still expect to have some kind of quality. Sadly there's none, so the only recommendation for the Howard Johnson hotel in Vancouver we can make is to not go there.

We weren't going to let the poor hotel ruin our last day though so we headed off and explored some other areas of town including Davie VIllage and the waterfront. We've got great weather again so the stroll around town is very pleasant and the temperature is pretty much perfect. We're passing the time until the main feature of the night, which is an ice hockey match. We go with a couple of other people from the youth hostel and get a quick introduction into what we should be looking for and how the game works. The reputation of hockey games for fighting is pretty strong so we were hoping for some fisticuffs at some point and we had to wait for all of...5 seconds. Literally from the face-off (check out my grasp of terminology) there was a fight. Apparently it was leftovers from the previous day when the Vancouver Canucks played the Edmonton Oilers for the first match in the series. The game is pretty brutal but as with the baseball is governed more by the TV channels than the umpires. When the game had inexplicably stopped for a third time we asked what was going on and were told that it was an advert break. It was really good fun though and there's no doubting the North American's ability to put on a show. The fans are funny too with insults being traded as if they were in high school, the strongest one being, "Edmonton Sucks!" That told them. In the end Vancouver won 4-1 and we'd had a great night out.

24/7: Despite hotel's best efforts a good day

Sunday October 14th

So here it is, our final day in Canada. The last 6 weeks has absolutely flown by and we've seen and enjoyed so much that it doesn't feel like we've been here that long. On the other hand when we look back at photos from the start of the trip it seems like a lifetime ago we were in Halifax.

Our flight isn't until the evening so we decide to head back to our favourite part of Vancouver (once we'd found it) Granville Island. Enjoy the market again and buy a few supplies for the flight(s). Before we know it it's time to head to the airport and endure the nonsense that is American customs. We have to stopover in Honolulu so have to fill out American visa waivers and customs forms, etc. We also get funnelled into a separate part of the terminal and for a moment think that we've missed the chance to enjoy the Air Canada lounge that Andy had given us passes for. Thankfully we find the door to the promised land and have a good 90 minutes prior to the flight relaxing with some glasses of wine and free food. Well it's rude not to isn't it? Then that's it, time's up and we're boarding the flight. We can't recommend Canada highly enough and in particular the more out of the way places. Highlights have definitely been Algonquin Park and the walking in the Rockies, but we've surprised ourselves and enjoyed Toronto and Vancouver too, which for non-city people was a surprise. There's still plenty of things we'd like to do here so will be back at some point in the future. For now though the next stop is Australia...

24/7: 6634km, 6 provinces, 4 timezones. Canada...done!

Making the Most of

Wednesday October 10th

We'd hoped to spend a few days on Vancouver Island to round off our time in Canada, but sadly there were both high wind and rain warnings out for the areas we wanted to go to so rather than hang around in the city, nice though it was, we decide to head east to a place called Harrison Hot Springs. You'll never guess what the main draw here is. That's right, a beautiful lake, oh and some hot springs.

Before we head out of Vancouver though we're determined to find the real part of Granville Island that we'd been looking for yesterday and succeed. It's tucked underneath the bridge that you drive over and contains a great public market that has amazing amount of fresh fruit, veg, fish and meat. There's also some great places to eat and other studios and workshops that you can look around so we spend a happy couple of hours taking it all in before heading to a place just north of the city called Capilano Dam. Again this is on the salmon spawning route so what they've done here is construct a salmon ladder and you can watch all the salmon trying to jump their way up. We also see a couple of bald eagles as well flying around which is pretty impressive.

Harrison is another pretty unassuming place on the outside that gets better as you look around. We pitch our tent in an RV park on the edge of town. The lady at the park does look a little surprised when we ask for a tent site, she's even more amazed when we see her the next morning and ask for another night. It's not raining though and we've got a good pitch so why not.

24/7: Three more days of open country Canada

Thursday October 11th

We investigate the lake a little more this morning by having a stroll around and discover the source of the hot springs. The water reaches the surface at 70 degrees here so unsurprisingly its cordoned off but you still get the stench of sulphur and can also feel some of the warmer runoff in a pool next to it. After warming our hands in there we go and hunt for conkers and find loads, well quite a few and then Rach finds a big stick which helps her out a little more to persuade some from the trees. Luckily I wasn't the end of that kind of persuasion!

There's a main hotel complex in the town that you can enjoy hot pools and the like in, but for the greater unwashed you can go to the public pool that is also heated by the hot springs. Spend a very pleasant couple of hours dipping in and out of the warm water before we spend the night with the locals in the pub playing some pool and enjoying some really good food, again!

24/7: Perfect symmetry: sleep, eat, relax, eat, sleep

Friday October 12th

We begin to head back towards Vancouver after a lazy start to the day. We're pretty close to the American border at this point and a quick look at the map shows that there is actually a road, 0 Avenue, that runs right along it. Curious to see if there are rednecks patrolling the border with pitchforks and banjoes we head down. It turns out to be a very non-descript road that has a ditch separating the two countries. There's no way of driving across but if you were so inclined you could just stroll across, or if you had a 4x4 drive, into the USA. Decide to avoid the offroad option and drive along the bottom of Canada to a place called White Rock. Turn up at an RV site and get ourselves a campsite for the night. It's only when we ask why the gate to the field is shut that the lady realises that they're actually closed for tents but she's still happy to take our money and let us stay, so gracious! Anyone would have thought camping out in freezing temperatures was strange.

We head to the coast and have a good stroll along Crescent Beach to a wdillife sanctuary at Blackie Spit. With the migration for birds in full swing there were a lot of different species enjoying a rest and a drink before continuing their journey to warmer climes, much as we will do in a couple of days time.

24/7: Bright sun, blue sky, red sunset, curry!

Parklife

Monday October 8th

We follow the Sea to Sky Highway all the way to Vancouver to drop off the car and check ourselves into a hostel for a couple of nights. The journey is slightly more fraught than it should have been thanks to the slight miscalculation on the amount of fuel needed for the journey, trying to be too thrifty for the sake of £2 apparently not the done thing. The road, as the name suggests is pretty spectacular as it hugs the mountainside for most of its route taking you back to the sea from Whistler or into the mountains the other way. The weather's cleared up too so we get some great views out across the water.

It's Thanksgiving Day today so town is pretty busy and as the sun's out we take the opportunity to hire a couple of bikes and go for a ride around Stanley Park. The park is on a headland of the coast right in Vancouver. We spend a very pleasant couple of hours cycling around looking at not only the flora and fauna but also some of the sculptures and features in the park, including the totem poles that represent some of the native roots of Canada. There are some huge sequoia trees in the park, where some have fallen you really get a sense of the size of these things, the fact that the trunk is a good few feet wider than I am tall means you don't want to be close by when it's coming down. To round off our good afternoon we find a great shop selling cakes, well you have to balance the exercise out don't you, and enjoy those sat in the sunshine looking out on English Bay. The evening's food is just as good as we discover a Belgian restaurant that does us some fantastic food, and of course, beers. Only afterwards do we find out it's been voted in the top 10 restaurants in North America, and top 50 worldwide.

24/7: Sun, cycling and good food. Pretty perfect

Tuesday October 9th

Decide to investigate Vancouver a bit more today and start by catching the SeaBus across to North Vancouver. Find a good quayside market to look around and enjoy the sights and smells of this before heading back to the main city and heading south to Granville Island. We find out later that we actually manage to miss the main part of the island, it's very easily done (!), and instead end up in a coffee shop accidentally enjoying huge cinnamon buns and tea. Note to self, must exercise to avoid excess baggage charges at airport!

We haven't spent that much time just sitting around and reading papers and books so it was nice to be able to do that with the world passing by outside. Could quite easily get used to it too. Vancouver seems like a pretty good place too, not as big as Toronto maybe but still just as easy to get around and pretty friendly too, apart from one particularly dodgy area near the Chinatown part of town.

24/7: Too full for dessert, completely new territory

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Saturday October 6th

After a night sleeping on grass for a change and a cracking breakfast in a German bakery we're full of beans and ready to go. Whistler is our next stop and we head on south. The weather though doesn't quite feel the same as we do and by the time we get to Whistler it's a pretty grey day. Nonetheless the tent gets pitched again just out of town and we go in search of things to do. Whistler is the outdoor capital of Canada in many ways as there are so many things to do no matter what the season. It's going to be playing a big part in the 2010 Winter Olympics when they go to Vancouver but at this time of year it's more biking and the like. However, when its teaming with rain and there's a good deal at the local internet cafe the warmer, drier option becomes instantly more attractive. Whistler is pretty packed as its Thanksgiving weekend in Canada but the majority of people have opted for indoor activities. Maybe the rain will disappear tomorrow...

24/7: Our luck with the weather ends spectacularly

Sunday October 7th

...then again maybe it won't! When you go to sleep in a tent with it raining the sound you don't want to hear in the morning is the continuing drops of rain on the canvas. Sadly that's what we had. This has been the first really bad spell of weather we've had in just over 5 weeks so we can't complain, well we can but I think it will fall on pretty deaf ears. Neither of us are up for doing much so we pack up the tent and head out of Whistler. I'm sure it is a great place, and its reputation suggests it is, but I don't think we saw it in its best light, struggled to see it at all really, so we head on south. We make our way towards Vancouver but stop the night in a place called Squamish. As with a lot of the towns we've been to in Canada it doesn't look like much when you arrive but when you start looking around it you find all sorts of interesting things. The river that runs through it, the Squamish, is a salmon spawning route so if you are lucky you can see them swimming their way back upstream and as they're easy prey you'll then see bald eagles on the lookout for a bit of food. Thanks to the rain of the last couple of days the river was flowing very fast and wisely the wildlife had obviously holed up somewhere. It was still an interesting walk along the banks. We also discovered a beach, accessed down a back road and through an industrial wasteland, that gave great views out into Howe Sound. Very fjord-esque and hopefully similar to the sights we'll see in New Zealand. All the better as well for finding it when you least expected to. Tomorrow we head to Vancouver.

24/7: Just one more week left in Canada

The Long and Winding Road (part I)

Wednesday October 3rd

Well the tent has officially seen it all now. We awake at 8am to temperatures of -4°C (see how much fun you can have with a cheap thermometer!) and gently falling snow. We pack up the tent and head into Jasper in search of something warm and wet. Whilst making tea on the stove is eminently possible we would have had to melt our water (ice) first and one could have died of thirst and/or hypothermia whilst waiting! Once defrosted and hydrated (and fed, of course) we head off on an 11 mile walk to Saturday Night Lake. This was a low level walk so not much snow but still cold so we made it there and back in record time, including a lunch stop at the lake. On the way back I (Rach) detour off the path to take a look at a beaver dam but see no furry creatures - not sure what you could tempt them out with and anyway, it's illegal to feed creatures in the National Park, it certainly is if all you've got left are Chips Ahoy cookies and bananas!

From Jasper we head west and into British Columbia gaining an hour as we did so. We took a brief look at Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at 3954m, although sadly its summit was in cloud today. Tonight is being spent in a surprisingly good motel (for the money!), with takeaway Chinese in front of the first TV we have seen in over a month - bliss.

24/7: Walks, lakes, snow, wildlife, mountains. Goodbye Rockies.

Thursday October 4th

After a busy 10 days in the Rockies it seems strange not to have any real plans for the next week or so. We leave the motel and head south. Our mood today seems to reflect the grey skies and for the first time we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves. We pitch our tent near Clearwater which is the entrance to the Wells Gray Provincial Park, supposed to be as spectacular and as wild as the Rockies. After a quick trip to tourist info we head into the park and stop at the first set of waterfalls. As we walk to the viewing area we can hear the water but still can't see it, and for good reason - the enormously deep, and unexpected gorge, that the water has carved out is full of cloud. All very damp and eerie, we were almost expecting Pterodactyls to come swooping through. We continue up the road a little and encounter cloud like pea soup and decide to come back tomorrow. A short trip to the supermarket results in proper spag bol for dinner, amazing what you can do on a camping stove! Fingers crossed for a relatively mild night.

24/7: Feeling warm and cosy is so cliched.

Friday October 5th

The mild night started off fresh and was indeed a positively balmy 2°C at 8am. After pancakes for breakfast (on the campstove) without the Bangra music in the background we set off in the general direction of Whistler. We start off with another trip to the provincial park but are disappointed when the clouds are even lower than yesterday - we have to leave some things for next time. By the time we stop for lunch the scenery is arid brown hills and the temperature is in double figures. We're in a town called Kamloops which is considered to be the northern extent of the Mojave desert. An hour or so further on we're in different landscape again, this time agricultural land, the first we've seen in Western Canada. By the time we reach our overnight stop in Lillooet we've driven along the spectacular canyon created by the Fraser River, not a bad range of scenery for one day. Lillooet seems a strange place, with a surprising amount of facilities for a small town, and the first place we've really seen Native Canadians.

24/7: We feel warmer, can that be right?

Walking in a Winter Wonderland (part II)

Monday October 1st

The start of our second month away and to mark the occasion we move on from Banff National Park into Jasper National Park. We head back onto the Icefields Parkway from our campsite and before long we're at the Columbia Icefield. This is the largest of the icefields along the road and home to the largest glacier too, the Athabasca. We'd hoped to take a guided walk onto the glacier itself but continuing the theme of the trip we were a day too late. It was pretty breezy outside so we took it as a good omen and on the recommendation of the info chap at the icefield made tracks to Mount Edith Cavell further north.

En route to see Edith we stopped at the Sunwapta Falls, a classic tale of the struggle between water and rock and the ensuing battles that have raged since time began...well the info boards went something like that, made us chuckle anyway. The falls were pretty impressive even though the river levels aren't anywhere near as high as they can be as it's the end of summer.

So to Edith Cavell and the three glaciers that surround the mountain, Angel, Ghost and Cavell. The mountain is named after a British nurse who helped out soldiers from both sides in World War I and was then executed for her troubles, nice. It was a short walk to a good viewpoint to see all three glaciers and again we were in a good amount of snow, so much so that there were opportunities for some impromptu sledging - well what else are waterproof trouser meant for?! The Cavell glacier is retreating leaving behind a lake with icebergs floating in it (the lake itself was frozen too). Once we've sledged our way back to the car we make for the end of the Parkway and into Jasper.

24/7: Elks in rutting season, stay well clear.

Tuesday October 2nd

The bonus of having a good amount of time to see this side of Canada is that we can switch plans easily. The weather in Jasper today looked pretty poor, well it was chucking it down to be precise, so we headed east to Miette Hot Springs. The weather here was much better and we decided to attempt what was described in the Rough Guide as a short, sharp walk. This walk was only around 5km in length each way but gained over 700m in height. We started off in wet forest and rapidly climbed through slushy sub-alpine areas to very snowy alpine areas. A final scramble to the summit at 2200m rewarded us with amazing 360° views of all the surrounding summits. However, it was a bit parky and so we paused for a quick photoshoot before descending to warmer climes.

These warmer climes were actually very much warmer climes as part of our cunning plan was to do the walk and then relax the bodies in the hot springs. The hottest of the pools is at 40° and when it is snowing there's nothing quite like it. We soaked ourselves for a good hour until we resembled prunes and decided it might be time to get out.

On the way back down from the springs Rach spotted a black bear on the far side of the valley. As it pottered along foraging for berries we took the opportunity to admire from a safe distance.

24/7: Cold summit, hot pool, black bear, perfect!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland (part I)

Friday September 28th

Start the day off in spectacular fashion by inflicting serious, and very painful, damage to myself. The modelling contracts with both TK Maxx and Primark have been put on hold as a result of door hook to face injury. In fact it wasn't as bad as I've hammed it up (quite a bit!) but it was painful nonetheless. Anything for a bit of sympathy.

(Rach decides it's time to take over and tell the story as it really was!)

So, after that drama it was time to head north from Radium. We made it as far as Golden before needing refuelling, ourselves that is, not the car. In the rain we come across a real gem of a cafe, hidden in a bookshop. We rest here a while and whilst eating chose some new literary works from an excellent selection of second hand books. Our lunch over, we head east and on into Yoho National Park. It's still wet and cold so we head to the tourist info in Field for some help finding drier accommodation for the night and walks in the area. We're pointed in the direction of the Fireweed hostel and book ourselves in for the night. One look at the feather duvets and open log fire and the credit card is back out and we're now staying for two nights. The place is total luxury after many nights of camping in freezing conditions (that's not to say that it hasn't been fun!) and as we relax into the sofas with a beer we wonder if we will ever be able to go back to sleeping under canvas!

24/7 (the last 24 hours in 7 words): Can we take this hostel with us?

Saturday September 29th

Today we plan to head to a lake that was recommended to us by a random Canadian lady we met a few days ago at Lake Minnewanka. Lake O'Hara is just up the road from the hostel but they control the number of people visiting it so we're up well before dawn to see if we can get on the bus as stand-by passengers. The recent wet and cold spell meant that lots of people had cancelled (you normally have to book months in advance) so we were in luck and were soon bumping up the track in a yellow school bus. We arrive at the lake some 40 minutes later and disembark into a winter wonderland - rain falling at lower elevations has fallen as at least a foot of snow here and as we were the first arrivals of the day we start off our walk round the lake in pristine snow. It's stunning but we can't help but wonder if our trainers will be up to the job! As we slowly potter on, pausing to look at animal tracks (and hypothesise on their makers) we're caught up by 6 well kitted out Canadians and allow them to overtake us and clear a trail ahead of us (just good honest English politeness!). Further round the lake they start making their way up the mountain on the track we had planned to do but initially but wouldn't had been able to do with our current footwear. We feel obliged to follow and for the rest of the day they find themselves with two very cheerful English hangers on, who quite clearly hadn't banked on there being this much snow ("Are they really wearing sneakers?!") We climb the mountain, first through forest and then across a rocky valley (covered by 2-3 feet of snow) to Lake Opabin. The scenery is spectacular, made better by its covering of snow.

On the way down we meet more friendly Canadians so we stop to chat and leave with their trail mix, cookies and brownies (given to us willingly although 2 less hungry looking people you're not likely to meet!). Back down at Lake O'Hara we head to the Lodge - the only accommodation at the lake and the place to be at 3pm for High Tea! Full of tea and cake we get back on the bus and head back to the hostel via the Spiral Tunnels (one for you train buffs) where the railway takes a 360° loop within the mountain so that it can climb/descend safely. If timed right you can see the head of the train emerging from the mountain as the tail end is disappearing. Dinner and more beers in the hostel and we sleep like logs.

24/7: Snow, great views, free food, tea, cake!

Sunday September 30th

The opposite of yesterday morning and it's a slow start but we're still out of the hostel before 11 bound for Lake Louise. For such a small place it's heaving with people and we're more than slightly dismayed after the peace and beauty of yesterday. The scenery is stunning so long as you're looking up the lake and not at the monstrosity that is The Chateau - a huge hotel right on the shoreline. We escape the crowds and walk a trail that takes us up 500 metres to Little Beehive via Mirror Lake. From here we get more fantastic views and a bit of peace and quiet! We head on to Lake Agnes and then back to the car.

The only campsite open in Lake Louise is uninspiring and closing tomorrow so we decide to make a start up the Icefields Parkway, the road that will eventually lead us to Jasper. The Parkway is a high mountain road that takes you through amazing mountain scenery complete with lots of snow and glacier after glacier. It's often placed within the top 5 drives in the world for its scenery. We stop and look at the Cowsfoot and Peyto Glaciers at Bow Summit before heading to our campsite where we're the only people staying. The day ends with hot chocolate round a campfire.

24/7: Lake O'Hara, Lake Louise, Sublime to ridiculous.

Cry Wolf

Wednesday September 26th

So, it was time to head into bear country proper and hope that our complete lack of preparation would not stand against us. After a faff and some lunch in Banff we got ourselves to the start point of the walk, a walk which, according to the information provided had no elevation gain. 25 minutes later and about 150m higher than when we started we'd decided to completely ignore any information that we'd been provided. The maps and signs for the walks here are pretty sketchy with distances having a +/- 5km accuracy. Keeping Lake Minnewanka (pron. Wonka as in Willy!) on our right we climbed on and the walk soon levelled out before descending towards the shoreline once more. Around 3km before our campsite we walked past an area that had been cordoned off because of bear activity, perhaps this was a real threat after all. We reached our campsite for the evening alongside the lake, the campsite was in one area, the food preparation in another and the food storage in a third location. This took the form of a series of cables that you used to haul the food up out of the reach of the bears, and more cruelly me! The wind coming off the lake was bitterly cold and I think we worked out the wind chill temperature was around -8°. We settled ourselves into the tent early and hoped we'd wake up in a bear-free zone...


24/7: It'd be warmer sitting in a freezer


Thursday September 27th

Not sure if it was the cold or the howling of wolves that woke us first, but either way we were fully awake as the howls rang around us. Fortunately there were no encounters with them, but it's an interesting feeling knowing that you're in the middle of nowhere with no-one nearby. A quick word on the facilities here compared with Algonquin. As the picture will show they are fairly luxurious with privacy and some space!




The wind doesn't get up until after we've had breakfast on the beach and we get some spectacular views across the lake. We head back to the start of the walk and notice some evidence of wild beasts but no actual sightings. We decide to head on from Banff and check out another national park, Kootenay. This involves an overnight stay in the snappily titled Radium Hot Springs. No prizes for guessing what the big draw to this place is. We're dipping our toes into British Columbia here but not enough to gain an hour yet. We find, shock of shocks, a really nice RV park to camp the night in, it's also a good deal warmer too.


24/7: What a difference a hot shower makes