Doug the cougar

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I’m not sure who was more excited for our roadtrip, Nic and I who had seen pictures of the beautiful Icefield Parkway and had been looking forward to seeing it in person, or Mum and Dad who hadn’t been camping in tents in 20 odd years. Either way, we were all psyched and once we’d packed our gears into our rental car we set off.

Our first port of call was Banff, we found the campsite and set ourselves up. Once done we headed into town to check out the river, Banff hotel and then onto the shops. Nic headed straight to the rock shop that she is addicted to. Dad and I found something more to our taste - the fudge store, we watched them preparing a batch, I drooled until I was dizzy with dehydration. Maybe this light headedness explained why I splashed out and bought a t-shirt, living out of a back pack has its drawbacks; I have hardly purchased any material possessions in the last 3 years.

The afternoon was spent driving around the local area checking out Mt Rundle, on the way we spotted a coyote. I really want to see the local cougar, which my friend Rick tells me goes by the name Doug, although I’m not sure whether the phrase ‘Sit Doug, good kitty’ would come in too handy.

After a pub dinner we headed back to the campsite and hunkered down for the night. Hoping the bears, cougars, wolverines, coyotes and killer squirrels would leave us be.

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