Kelly and I spent completely different days in Banff today. There is a guy here from Montreal and we call him the French/Canadian Bruce Willis!! :) Well he's into hiking and mountain/ice climbing etc- very much the outdoors type. Well he got a few people together a few days back and they walked/climbed Mt.Rundle. We were talking to him yesterday and he had plans to get the group together and climb Mt.Cascade today and asked if Kelly and I wanted to do it too. We were asking him questions about it and then Kelly said "I might do it!" whereas I remained rather silent as he said it was 18km and would take roughly 9-10 hours!! It was an effort for me walking the one hour uphill to Lake Louise! Also the fact that I'm scared of heights (even when I know I cannot fall anywhere, but up a steep mountain there is nothing to stop you from falling!) kind of put me off.

I did consider doing it, and at one point Kelly almost persuaded me. I think physically I would have done it. I'd have just pushed myself because I'm a determined person and find it difficult to give up on something once I start.

It took me a few hours to decide but eventually I made my mind up that the sheer drops and uneven ground would have just been too scary for me and it wasn't something I would regret not doing, so Kelly got up at 5.50am to get ready whereas I had a nice lay in until 11am! Then I got ready, caught the bus into town, had a little walk around the shops, and then caught another bus to the Banff Hot Springs! The hot springs was something I wanted to go to before I came here and I knew that Kelly didn't want to do it so it was the perfect time for me to go as we weren't spending the day together. It is so relaxing and calming. It is 39 degree mineral rich waters that come from "deep, deep beneath the scenery". The Banff Upper Hot Springs has just celebrated it's 125th birthday!!

You've got the view of the mountains all around you and you just completely relax- it definitely takes away any tension. So there I was relaxing in the best possible way while Kelly was sweating and slogging up a mountain!!

They say the recommended maximum stay is 20 minutes (this must be due to the water temperature) but I got out and sat on the side a couple of times to cool down. I was there for around 30 minutes. I felt completely chilled out afterwards. I then caught the bus back down to town and popped to get myself something for dinner. I actually bumped into Kelly back at the bus stop. She was so tired. She did really well though. She was out for 7 and a half hours and made it to the first peak which was around 2500 metres. She did say though that at some points there were just sheer drops and one girl who wasn't even scared of heights had to come back down, so there was no way I'd have been ok doing it.

The mountain in this photo is the actual one Kelly walked up and the peak in the middle is where she got to. I'm really proud of her though, she did really well. I bet tomorrow she'll be in need of a dip in the hot springs!

I think tomorrow we're going to sort out how much longer we want to stay in Banff and what's happening with where we're heading to after.