The longest day

Cam was taking us to the icefields Parkway today. So we had to be up and out early. But first we had a football match to watch. Unfortunately the TV channel we have been watching it on was  showing baseball today. Aagghhh! Luckily the BBC came through and we managed to watch it on iPlayer and Ian's iPad. Although it wasn't so lucky at half time when Wales led from a Gareth Bale freekick and a helping hand from Joe Hart. I took the opportunity to pop down to the lobby to see if the match is being shown on the TV in the bar. But no. So we ordered room service instead. The Alpine parfait was very nice. With layers of yoghurt berries and granola. 

Roy Hodgson must've heard the nation shouting at the TV because he substituted Stirling and Kane for Vardy and Sturridge at half time, and of course both scored to give England a famous victory and to set us up for the day. 

We quickly packed and checked out and headed for the hills. It was another cold day so we were both wrapped up. Indeed Ian had bought himself a nice Canada beanie hat to protect his ears from the chill. We headed out of Banff and up towards Lake Louise where we took the icefields parkway towards Jasper, but not before seeing a beaver swimming in the river beside the trans-Canadian highway and an osprey flying above us. First stop was Peyto lake, another beautiful blue coloured lake with fantastic views.

Just look at the colour. Here is a panoramic photo I took.

A bit wobbly I know but it was windy up there. 

We then stopped beside this other beautiful lake whose name I can't even remember. 'You don't have to stop here' said Cam, of Mistata Canyon, but we are really glad we did. The short walk down the hill brought us to an amazing canyon and waterfall with superb views of mountains in the background.

We needed to take our bear spray for that one as we kept getting told they were in the area. In fact not long after we'd started driving again a group of cars alerted us to the fact that there was a grizzly prowling along by the side of the highway. We didn't manage to get any photos of that one. Next up was Saskatchewan crossing, where we, along with hundreds of Japanese and Chinese, decided to have some lunch. Hot dogs! The first time I've had one for years and I very much enjoyed it. I was a bit worried about the conversation of the two men on the table behind me, which involved the merits of lots of different types of gun Automatic versus semi etc. 

As we continued on, another group of cars by the side of the road alerted us to another bear. This time we stopped and I took loads of photos with Ian's camera. Plus this one with my camera. There is a black blob in the middle, that's the bear.

Honest! 

The highlight of our day, Cam informed us, was to be a visit to the Athabasca Glacier. 'Very few of you will have walked on a glacier before' he informed us. He doesn't know us very well obviously as we have walked on glaciers in Europe and New Zealand. We entered the visitors centre and bought our tickets, we had an hour to wait until Our tour so we decided on a coffee. Hundreds of Japanese people had decided the same thing, so it was a little crowded in the cafe. It's funny how the same people kept cropping up throughout the day. Perhaps Cam has a fan club. One couple with orange blazers and the word China on the pockets were everywhere, although they were difficult to miss. Eventually it was our time to do the tour. We all queued for a bus which soon became full, so we had to wait for another. This too was overfull, however the driver didn't care and we set off for the glacier. This caused a problem when we arrived at the ice explorer, as our driver refused to leave because he was overloaded. He asked if any couple would like to wait, of course no one did, so he had to check everyone's ticket and found four people had the wrong time. Eventually we were off, climbing onto the glacier in our giant trucks. We didn't have long on the glacier which was a good thing as it was freezing and snowing sideways.

I for one was glad to get back on the truck.

Next we were whisked off to The Athabasca skywalk. A glass bottomed walkway above the river below. It was still freezing, so I whipped around sharpish.

I was glad to get back in the Jeep with its lovely heated seats. It was getting quite late so we were glad that Cam told us it was only one hour to Jasper. We still felt the need to stop off at the sunwapta falls and were very glad we had. 

And there were still the Athabasca falls to come.

All waterfalls may look the same to you, but us waterfall watchers can tell the difference between the different types. 

As we we wearily arrived in Jasper, we spotted a group of Elk by the side of the road. 

Around 8 PM we rolled into the Best Western Jasper inn and suites. Dumped our luggage in our two bedded room and headed for the hotel restaurant for tea.

A glass of wine and a double brandy complimented the meal perfectly then it was off to bed. Cam is taking us on a tour of Jasper tomorrow. 

Food watch. 

Ian - 7/10. Mongolian shrimp stir fry, very pleasant

Jackie - 8/10. Bison meatloaf. Very tasty.