What's a Hoo-Doo?

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R: Today is Remembrance Day in Canada and across the world, but in most of Canada it is a public holiday, not that we noticed it much in Banff, being a tourist town. It was a bit surreal to see the British national anthem being played at the Cenotaph in Ottawa on the TV and made us think about Canada's role in British history. There are union jacks flying in Banff.

We went to see the military parade in town at 11.30 which was quite small, but consisted of present and past military officers, police (Canadian Mounties from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), fire service and cadets. It was over pretty quick but Banff isn't a big place.

Cate found some Nerds in a shop - not that blog-worthy really - but when was the last time you saw Nerds in the UK?

I headed off on an afternoon hike to Tunnel Mountain, a small mountain just outside Banff with great views in both directions from the top over Rundle Mountain, the Fairholmes, Lake Minnewanka, the Sundance range... well all the local mountains really, plus the town. It's only a 6km round trip from our hotel. It's pretty cold and icy on the summit and was only a evelation gain of about 300m from the town, but really worth it.

Having done this quicker than expected, I headed for the Hoodoo lookout. What's a hoo doo, I asked? Well apparently it's an artefact of glacial action - see photo attached. They stick out of the ground as pillars in the middle of the forest. This was a good few KM out of town and it was dark and snowing when I got back. Did we mention our hotel has a 12 person whirlpool bath and sauna? Was much needed after a pretty rushed march through the forest - we haven't seen any bears yet, but I think that would have been a bad time to do so.

Incidentally, Tunnel Mountain is so called because the Canadian Pacific Railway company, who "developed" this area decided to build a tunnel through it, then decided to build round it to save time and money (makes sense) - and that's what you get from reading the signboard.



Right - back to the Mexican place for $5 litres of Sangria and hopefully this time the sombrero will be mine.

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Photos

Frozen Golf Course
With less Elk this time...