Icy, Icy White Water Rafting

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Woke up looking forward to another awesome day in Canada - we are white water rafting the Kicking Horse route and then going to Lake Louise to stay at the famous Fairmont Chateau, the hotel that is always used in the postcards.

So we got up early (6am, way too early for Tim) to check out of our hotel and then drive to the rafting place. Because it was so early we had a really good run (so much for the roadworks holding us up as and could have slept in for another hour - sorry Tim!

Went to the very exotic McDonalds for breaky on the run, I think it was too early for the guy working there too, because he was none too please when I asked for a Bacon and Egg McMuffin minus the bacon, sorry to have messed your day up fella…

WHITE WATER RAFTING

The directions we were given sounded simple enough, but they weren’t ‘early morning’ simple. So we drove up and down the road looking for rafting company, only to find them right on the corner of the highway and the road we were going up and down, duh. I’d like to say it was because they were hidden behind trees, or they had no sign, but there was really no excuse…

So we got there really early, about 7:45, about 45 minutes too early, an extra 45 minutes sleep that Tim missed out on. So much for road works holding us up, sorry ‘bout that.

Surprise, surprise, there are more Aussies working here too, but at least these ones were nice and friendly.

So we had a bit of nothing time until it was time to get ready so we had a chance to meet the others in the group. Big mish-mash of ages, nationalities and experience; pretty interesting group really.

We had the obligatory safety briefing and waivers signed, they even made that pretty funny. Especially as it was done by a guy called Juan from Equador and some of his English interpretations were somewhere between a little and waaaay off the mark. It was worth the impending freezing temperature just for the talk!

We got all kitted out - wetsuit, booties, TWO fleecy jumpers (okay, just for me, one for the rest of the normal people), big yellow raincoat, life jacket and helmet (kiddy one for me).

Got going in the bus (a cool yellow school bus) about 9:30 then a 10 minute drive to start point.

The rafting was great. Water was FREEEEEEEZING when it first hit you, which was a lot, and then you were toasty warm again. Except when the water went down your wetsuit, then it felt like someone had dropped an ice cube down there until it warmed up! Our guide gave us gloves as well, yay!

In our end of the raft there was an English mother and daughter, Julie and Erica. Tim and the daughter paddled, while I took photo’s and Julie held on for her life. But everyone had fun, smiles firmly set on faces, maybe they were just frozen on because that’s the only part of our bodies left out in the cold.

Some of the rapids were long and wild, others were short and just a little rough. At these times our guide would turn the raft so we all got soaked! Had quite a few mouthfuls and trust me when I say it was like having an ice cold glass of Mount Franklin bottled water, in fact it tasted even better!

There was a lot of time when we could see the rail line that we had come down on the Rocky Mountaineer, unfortunately it wasn’t Rocky day, but we did see a few freight trains. What a geek I am!

When we reached the end everybody helped to heave these huge rafts onto the trailers. These things were soooo heavy especially as we were all perhaps not quite as strong as we were at the start of the day. On the neat side though, considering how wet we got our fleecy jumpers were all mostly dry, so those big yellow Winnie the Pooh raincoats certainly did their job.

After the ride we were bussed back to the base, getting there about 12pm with hot chocolate and warm cookies waiting for us.

LAKE LOUISE

So after the rafting was all done and dusted we drove about 50km to Lake Louise. It didn’t take long and again it was like driving through a postcard, beautiful, but still no animals to be seen! And what do we find when we get there? More Aussies! It’s good we have a reputation as good workers, and it is nice talking to people from ‘home’, but it would be equally nice talking to Canadians while we are holidaying in Canada. Must be what it’s like for people from China visiting Perth and being served by Chinese in souvenier stores.

We are staying at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. It’s a pretty impressive hotel and looks like every picture we have seen of Lake Louise. The guys who valet park the cars (also Aussies) wore uniforms that made me think of Pinocchio, half leg pants, long socks…

Our nice sized room was on the top floor on a corner so we were lucky enough to have 2 windows so we had a view of the entire lake and the mountains.

Tim wasn’t as taken with the hotel as me, he said it was too up market and sterile, he didn’t like the ye old worldy atmosphere that it had and much preferred the smaller hotels, with exceptions like Shangri-la Sentosa of course! But all the staff were so friendly and charming that bit by bit he was being won over, the view and room helped too! Although for the price he still expected a lot more, but I guess it’s all about location, locaction….

Explored the hotel and walked to lake. The colour is beautiful but I’d say that Emerald Lake was a nicer when it comes to colour. There are mountains at the far end of the lake with snow and glaciers on them, reflecting in the water making that postcard look we are so familiar with.

We bought lunch from the deli and sat by the lake to eat. It is really busy with lots of people walking, jogging, sitting, looking, just taking it all in like us. There is a lot to take in.

Tim has nice long afternoon nap, since we had such an early start it is well overdue for him.

We had a nice quiet dinner in our room, enjoying the view (which we could keep enjoying till it got dark at nearly 10pm!) then afterwards Tim was good and went to the gym.

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