Blogs from Banff, Alberta, Canada, North America - page 3

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

Friday 7th June 2019 On Wednesday evening, our last in Canmore, we took our washing to the local laundromat and then we treated ourselves to a really nice Italian meal. One great thing across North America is the proliferation of laundromats; something we don’t have in most of Europe. It makes getting the washing done so easy for the traveller. Whilst waiting for the laundry we took a stroll along the Bow River footpath and a large female elk was in the river paddling along. We were so delighted, she made our total of Canadian mammal-spotting to eleven species: bison, black bear, moose, elk, deer, rabbit, squirrel, ground squirrel, chipmunk, prairie dog, beaver and fox. We managed to creep fairly close to the elk to take some photos (not too close, cow elk can be vicious ... read more

Day 28 2/06/2019 Banff – 2 Jack Lake We started the morning with freshly made cappuccinos from our resident barista Ron and hot croissants. We loaded up Scott’s truck and we headed off for Banff. We drove via Calgary and then stopped in Canmore to buy some supplies. We dropped into the Bagel Store for freshly made Bagels of choice with toppings/fillings of choice. We travelled on to the campsite and it was perfect. We had a view of the lake through the trees and the shore was only 20 metres from where we were going to pitch the tent. We unloaded the truck and Scott and Ron went to collect the fire wood. On their way back they noticed an Elk just down the track from the campsite. It was young male as its antlers ... read more

Groundhog day - up early, bags out, buffet breakfast, onto the bus, mountains, forest, waterfalls, lakes, sun, rain, clouds. Started the day back on the Icefields Parkway on our way from Jasper to Banff, and because we are on a bus tour, and that means seat rotations, every morning is "find where we are sitting today". Because we were on the "good" side of the road when we travelled to Jasper, we had to be on the other side today. First stop after we left Jasper this morning was Athabasca Falls. A little walk to the falls, viewing area fairly crowded, but very nice waterfall. We see lots of waterfalls, on sides of mountains, and near the road as we are driving, guess we stop at the special ones! Then a coffee stop at Sunwapta Lodge ... read more

After a full Western breakfast, Ann and I drifted along Banff Avenue to the Bow River. The warm sunshine encouraged us to take the riverside path, just to see what people were doing. When the pedestrian bridge loomed over us, we crossed it. The shady path enticed us further along, as we joined other tourists on the gentle trek. Where the river narrowed, the sound of rapids drew us up stairs and down stairs, up the path and down the path. Our reward was the crashing water of Bow Falls, and the placid beach where boaters launched onto the river.... read more