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Megsy on the go...
Well its day 8 and I'm here in Banff and planning to never come home - just kidding obviously, but am definitely falling in love with Canada - well the west side anyway!
Just trying to think what's happened since my last posting...well after Whistler we headed out of the coastal mountains and into the desert/arid lands. Still saw some absolutely brilliant falls and lakes on the way through and had another 'dreadful' lunch spot on the bank of a lake. Drove through lots of little towns like in the movies, with the ranches etc and stayed at a town called Kamloops in a hostel which was an old courthouse - complete with judge's chair and jury seating area. Bit of a redneck town full of cowboys! We went to an ice hockey game which was fantastic and had seats right up close to the action - and it is as rough as it looks on tv! Great to watch though. The local guy next to me was giving me a run down on the game and there was plenty of high fives all round when the home team won! We had a few drinks at the pub after the game but a couple of the girls wanted to carry on so they found themselves a pub which turned out to be a cowboy pub - lots of line dancing, cowboy hat, tight jean, bright shirt wearing blokes!
Th next day we made our way to Valemount, a little town on the edge of the Rockies, where the 'hostel' (again I use this term loosely) was in the middle of a forest in a valley between snow capped mountains! We had the hostel to ourselves, complete with free internet, a huge flat screen tv ( which tuns out didn't work), pool table and huge living area - very nice indeed. A few of us went for a hike in the late afternoon to the base of Mount Robson - it took about an hour each way to hike there but the biew at the end of the trail was sensational - Lake Kinney surrounded by Mount Robson and many other mountains. It was so quiet and peaceful, I could have stayed there all night, but darkness was setting upon us so we had no choice but to make a move - turns out we had to walk the last 20 minutes in the pitch black - and suddenly I wasn't so keen to see a bear!
Sunday we drove into the Rockies......wow is all I can say!! I'm not even going to try to describe it - hopefully the photos help a little! We stopped at lots of lakes and a mountain that looks like an Indian chief - Roche Bon Nomme - and had a wander along Maligne Canyon. It was hard to concentrate on the canyon views as the first sign on the track warned of recent Cougar attacks in the area and provided instructions on what to do if you encountered one!
We stayed about 20kms outside Jasper in a 'rustic' hostel - it was in the middle of the forest, with no running water. The toilets were long drops in small outhouses away from the cabins which mad the middle of the night toilet stop a bit scary (see notes above about bears and cougars!!) Good fun though, we sat around the bonfire and I was introduced to Smoors - a biscuity, chocolatey marshmellow delight - yummo!
The next day we drove from Jasper to Banff - and I thought the scenery to date could not get any better - I was so so so wrong! The mountains were all around, more beautiful lakes than those we'd seen before. We even stopped off for a very slippery stroll on a glacier, very cool indeed! We were on a mission to spot some wildlife - we came up with Big horned sheep and lots of Elk and even some white mountain goats - but to everyone's disappointment, no Moose or Bears still!
Arrived in Banff on Monday afternoon and I've decided to jump off here for some extra days, which unfortunately means leaving some of the group who are continuing on, luckily a few are also staying on and hope to catch up with some of the others back in Vancouver. As it was our last night together we hit the town after many beers at the hostel and ended up at this nightclub where we were expecting good cheesy music to boogey too, but were dissappointed. Nevertheless spirits were high and flowing and a boogeying we were doin! After close of play at the club we continued the southern comforting at the hostel until the wee hours.
Feeling suprisingly well the next day, I hiked to the top of Sulphur Mountain with a couple of others which took us nearly 2 hours - we were knackered by the end but the view was unbelievable - surounded by mountains!! But still no bears to be seen! We cheated and got the gondola down the mountain - it was free, how could we resist - it had nothing to do with not being able to walk another step!
Anyhoo, done pretty much nothing today and really need to get off the internet as its costing me a fortune, so bye for now.
Hope everyone is keeping well.
Love to all
Melissa
xxx
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