Jasper

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Once again, a particularly beautiful setting for a hotel, the Fairmont Jasper Lodge. The world famous Jasper golf course is in the grounds of the hotel. Our cabin sits near the edge of the lake and we can see a wedding rehearsal nearby. Many of the young staff here, as elsewhere in Canada, are from Australia. In fact many resorts and attractions have their employees’ name, as well as their city and country, on their nametag. The boy who delivered our luggage is from Grafton. He is particularly excited to hear that there are people from Bellingen and Coffs Harbor in our group. It is always good to hear someone from home when you are living far away. He has been here for 15 months.



Our free choice activity this morning was rafting down the Athabasca River. On the bus ride to the launching point we saw an elk and stopped for a happy snap (you have to take them when you can). We arrived at the launch spot and were kitted out with life vests and given a safety briefing. All aboard for our trip. The first 'rapid' that we hit left the people at the front of the boat very wet. The boat was guided through the rapids by a very able driver, with just two oars, who stood in the raft and guided it down river. Despite attempting to avoid the waves caused at various points on our trip, we could not avoid wet bottoms. A very enjoyable 15 kms trip.



We took an additional tour hoping to resolve the wildlife spotting issue. After an hour driving around it wasn't looking good. We drove quite a distance and apart from spotting a rarely seen Golden Eagle and a spectacular rainbow, it seemed as though the wild life was still hiding. We turned around to go back when a coyote ran across the road – exciting, but no recording by camera was possible. Then we heard the word from our driver “bear!”!!. At last, beside a railway track was a black bear. They like to graze beside the tracks because the trains drop grain there. This unfortunately can have side effects as when the grain gets wet, the bears get drunk and wander on to the tracks. This one, however, seemed to be happily grazing and we got lots of photos. Bears come down in the summer to feed on the many berries that abound. Back on the bus and travelling along, success again. This time elks that had been swimming in the river, got out and crossed the road stopping traffic in both directions. We pulled over and were able to get quite close and get some happy snaps. We returned back to the hotel satisfied with our 'rainbow tour with some animals’.

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Photos

Bear!!!
finally grazing by the railway tracks