We say our goodbyes to LeeAnne and Steve. We only met them two days ago, but we feel like we’re leaving long lost friends. We both feel so much better about Emma being here in Canada now that we know that these great people are keeping an eye on our baby girl. Today we head to the Waterton Lakes National Park which is about two hours south of Lethbridge, and very close to the United States border. It’s a long weekend for Labour Day here in Canada and Steve and LeeAnne warned us that the traffic would be heavy. Steve said that we should particularly watch out for cars with Saskatchewan licence plates. It seems that Saskatchewan, which is the next province across to the east from Alberta, is renowned for being absolutely pancake flat, and ... read more

We set off from Banff on a three hour drive to the town of Lethbridge, which is about 200 kms south of Calgary, and is where Emma and Michael have recently moved to. We’ve noticed that virtually a hundred percent of the trees in the forests in the Rockies seem to be the same species of pine, and neither of us think that we’ve ever seen forests anywhere else where there’s such a tree mono-culture. Canadian pine trees must be a really mean bunch if they’re that determined to keep outsiders out. Maybe they could get a job on The Donald’s staff. We stop for lunch at the quaintly named town of Moose Mountain. The shops here all look like they belong in Main Street on the set of a western movie, and the only music ... read more

We head off towards today’s destination of Lake Louise which is about fifty kilometres west of Banff. The scenery is more spectacular than ever with the odd glacier now coming into view to supplement the standard offering of spectacular rocky peaks towering over thick pine forests. We’re on the Trans-Canada Highway which Michael tells us is nearly eight thousand kilometres long which makes it the world’s longest such road. It’s two lanes each way, and there are high fences on both sides, presumably to keep the bears out. Every few kilometres we go under bridges with grass and pine trees on them, which are there for the bears to use to get across the highway. We assumed we’d drive all the way to Lake Louise and park there, but we see signs on the highway telling ... read more

The alarm goes off at 3am, which feels like a couple of hours before we went to bed. Our mood isn’t helped by the knowledge that we have a long and tortuous day of travelling halfway across the world in front of us. Our hotel’s not all that big, but apparently big enough to have someone sitting on the reception desk at 3.30am. She doesn’t speak much English, but she treats us like royalty. She fills a large plastic container with breakfast goodies, then hugs and kisses us both on both cheeks, and looks like she’s about to burst into tears as we disappear off into the night. We feel like we’re leaving a long lost friend, and we’ve only known her for about ten minutes. We drive across to the other end of the island ... read more

Today’s destination is the town of Soller which is about an hour’s drive south west of Cala Sant Vicenc on the island’s rugged west coast. It was getting almost impossible to see through the dirt on the windscreen on the way out to Cap de Formentor yesterday morning, and our hire car came without any water in the washer. I stopped to buy a bottle of water, but after fifteen unsuccessful minutes spent trying to work out how to open the bonnet I gave up and poured the water directly onto the windscreen instead. I tell Issy that if she gets the bonnet open quickly this morning I’m going to return my two engineering degrees. I now need to work out where to send them. The road to Soller takes us through the rugged Serra de ... read more