Day 7- Ever westwards, on rails!

Today and tomorrow we are traveling on the “Rocky Mountaineer”, a train which crosses the Rockies from Jasper to Vancouver. There are loads of British folks on the train, it travels at a really leisurely pace, often stopping to pass or be passed by freight trains – which are up to 120 carriages long! The route is often just a single track, and so passing only happens at infrequent sidings.

Each carriage is nice and roomy, and has it's own “hostess” who serves meals and gives out info about the journey. It's very relaxing, and air conditioned – there is a heatwave outside, and it is expected to be 40 degrees in Kamloops, (our overnight stop.)

Day 6 – Hot water and wild life....

Another good day, we went north on the Edmonton road, to visit a hot springs site at a place called Miette, we've never been to natural spa before and it was a real experience! We had a hot, warm or cold pool to choose from, the water was “sulphuric”, and the morning was very relaxing – just soaking in the shadows of the Rockies, the weather was glorious and the café served nice blueberry scones too!

We returned to Jasper for a late lunch early tea, because then we went on our first, (and probably only!), organised tour - “Discover wildlife”, it was a bit like a Rockies safari, we encountered two black bears, a deer and a couple of elks! It was good to see the animals, but I don't like sitting in coach being ferried about....

Looking forward to tomorrow when we board the train!

Day 5. North to Jasper, over the Ice fields

The long drive day, 230km to Jasper, along the "Ice fields Parkway". This is meant to be one of the most picturesque roads in the world, and yes it is!... You see a glacier or a lake an think "wow that is incredible", and round the next corner there's more! the pictures speak for themselves...

In Jasper now, and Jan "is hungry", so I might check out an elk burger....

Day 4, Just moseyin' around the lake

We have spent the day at Emerald Lake, very relaxing, we did the “round the lake trail” in the morning – just over 5 km, and very pleasant, the weather was great.

After lunch we tried out the hot tub jacuzzi! It was actually too hot, like a very hot bath.... a bit of reading by the pool next, very chilled.

In the afternoon..... a childhood ambition realised! A Canadian canoe across an open like in the style of Davey Crockett! Really good and it's surprising how far you can get in an hour!

A storm has brewed up now, really dramatic, you could hear the wind coming through the mountains, and the mill pond lake now is very choppy, we got out just in time.

Day 3, Lake Louise and a “bear” encounter.....

Again we took to the back roads, driving to Lake Louise on the old Route 1, an amazing journey, huge mountains on either side and few other cars. At Lake Louise village we headed up the valley to the actual lake and guess what....

A Black bear appeared at the side of the road! We pulled in and watched, the bear peered over the roadside barrier, seemed to look left, right, and left again, and then crossed in front of us! No more than 4 yards away! A great sight!

At the lake we “sightseed” - a wonderful beauty spot, the water is very green – all to do with the minerals apparently. We then set off to walk a trail up to Lake Agnes – 4 km, and fairly steep... At this little lake was a “Tea lodge”, where you can have...... tea, and a bun or two, we duly followed this custom. The folks who run the lodge actually live at the site, and stock is helicopter in on a weekly basis. It rained a lot during our hike, but as it was fairly warm the rain was actually welcome.

After Lake Louise we moved on to our overnight hotel, at Emerald Lake, but en route we stopped at a place on Kicking Horse river called “Natural Bridge”, a place where the river flow has eroded the rocks and formed a ….... natural bridge, because of minerals from the hills the water is almost pure white – strange.

Our hotel at Emerald lake seems good, we have a lakeside cabin, unfortunately there a 5 or 6 whacking great trees between us and the water's edge, but I suppose that's just being hyper critical!

Day 2, onwards and westwards! Calgary to Banff

A strange night last night... due to the flight yesterday and the time difference, we both slept well, but were wide awake at 1:00 am! Down for breakfast for 7 o'clock – on a Saturday! (Breakfast was great.)

Collected the car from Hertz and set off, we wanted to avoid the main “Trans Canadian “ highway, and so opted for the quieter(!) 1a, which took us to Cochrane and Canmore, before reaching the main Highway and entering Banff National Park. Roads are great and scenery is already wonderful – apparently it gets better!

We got to Banff by lunchtime, (it's only 120 km), and so we headed for Sulphur mountain to ride up on the cable car. The views were good as the weather is warm and sunny, at the top I continued up a board walk to an historic “Weather station” type hut thingy, whilst Jan sat at the peak-top cafe and relaxed....

On the way back to our hotel - the “Caribou lodge”, we actually saw a caribou! At the roadside munching the grass and causing a traffic jam!

Heathrow delay! - UK to Calgary

We were sat on the plane at Heathrow for almost 2 hours because the weather was so bad! - low and heavy cloud! Never mind, eventually got away and the flight was no problem – except for the selfish woman in the seat in front who reclined her seat for almost the whole 9 hours...... Why do people do this? Don't they know that someone behind them has no leg room?

Calgary is weird, it's obviously a commerce centre, not really anything for tourists, tall anonymous office blocks all over the place, and not a bar or diner anywhere! Any way, because of the time difference, going to bed at 9pm, but it feels like 3am!

Humber Bridge..

I went for a bike ride into Lincolnshire a while ago, and stopped off at the Humber bridge, I had to ride onto the footpath to get this pic, but I think it was worth it.... I've tweaked the image using an effect called "tiltshift". After this stopp I went on to Hull and then the coast - good day!