Day Four - Lake Louise to Jasper

Day four was mostly going to be spent amongst the glaciers in the Columbia Icefields. Before we headed there we stopped at Moraine Lake, a really picturesque setting and quite different from the others we had visited. It was very chilly but we got a few nice photos before going in to the cafe for some breakfast. Due to the remote and idyllic setting, they can get away with charging $5 for a cup of tea! (£3.85)

Athabasca Glacier was our next stop and it was freezing, as expected. A little hike took us up close and personal but it was incredible to see how much the glacier had receded. Apparently the glacier is as deep as the Eiffel Tower is tall and 350 million cubic metres of ice has disappeared in the last century, an unthinkable amount. We spent most of the day at somewhere between 6000-7000ft so we had a few layers on and appreciated the heating more and more every time we got back into the bus.

A couple more stops at Peyto Lake and Mistaya Canyon quickly flew by and we headed into the small town of Jasper for dinner. Once we'd all met up again we headed for our very remote accommodation in the close proximity to Athabasca Falls. Wooden cabins set amongst the trees, one outside toilet and no running water (and definitely no wifi) - Western Canada in it's purest form! It was actually really cosy and warm inside the cabins but we abandoned our campfire as the weather was appalling.

Day Four Highlight - Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake

Bow Lake

Peyto Lake

Mistaya Canyon

Columbia Icefields

Day Three - Banff to Lake Louise

A much chillier morning in Banff and it took a little while to warm up but still comfortably t-shirt and shorts weather. A lot of people were getting excited about seeing a bear as we were now deep in the Rockies and we were amused to hear some safety advice 'if a bear attacks a big group, you don't need to outrun the bear, just the slowest person in your group.' It's kind of obvious but quite funny at the same time.

Our first stop was Lake Johnston. The sun was still low and we did a nice walk around the lake to get the blood pumping for what was to come later on. Next stop was Lake Minnewanka, maybe not the best name but a lovely spot nonetheless. The famous Emerald Lake was our next port of call and it didn't disappoint. The Lake gets it's name from the emerald green colour caused by fine particles of limestone suspended in the water. Due to the high altitude, the lake is frozen over from November to June.

Our final stop was one of the premier attractions in the whole of Western Canada - Lake Louise. It's an idyllic place and even amateurs like ourselves can get a pretty decent photo. We had the option of a few different hikes surrounding the lake and we went for the toughest of them all, the four hour Big Beehive hike which ascends to an altitude of just over 7500ft. Tough terrain and very steep inclines had us questioning whether we were going to make it to the top, especially on the final ascent which was about as steep as you could walk without resorting to climbing, but we finally made it and the view at the peak certainly made it worthwhile. After a few photos and a bit of time to recover we headed back down to meet up with the rest of the tour group and headed towards our accomodation in the town nearby for a good night's sleep.

Day Three Highlight - Big Beehive Hike at Lake Louise

Lake Johnston

Emily at Lake Johnston

Lake Minnewanka

Emerald Lake

Lake Louise

On our way to the summit

View from the peak

Day Two - Kelowna to Banff

A healthier and more traditional breakfast to start the day - three slices of toast and a banana each. We have Marmite in the UK, over here it's Vegemite - very similar but thicker and more bitter; a welcome taste of home nonetheless. The group met in the foyer for 8am before making our way to the Moose Tour minibus which set off on the first mile of 300, only for us to realise a while later that the food we had bought the previous day was still sitting pretty in the Kelowna hostel fridge - not the best start to the day.

Today was to be our longest in the minibus. We made a couple of stops here and there for toilet breaks and mini food shops but we've just checked into tonight's accomodation at 8.30pm meaning we've been on the go for over twelve hours. The miles actually fly by in all fairness, especially with so much to look at out the window and we entered into the Rockies territory on the later part of our journey. Craggy peaks, snowy mountain tops and pristine lakes were all on show on our winding ascent into the historic town of Banff with tonight's accomodation sitting high up in the Rockies at 5000ft above sea level.

We did get one big break from the highway when we pulled over beside Lake Revelstoke for kayaking. Neither of us have ever done it before so we were assigned a very stable tandem vessel so we were sure to not fall in the Lake. It was a gorgeous setting, surrounded by high peaks and the mile-wide stretch of lake that we were on was as calm as an indoor swimming pool which made conditions perfect if not a little disorienting (due to the reflection of the sun on the water) It was very relaxing but a good upper body exercise at the same time and after making it to the other side we had a pitstop for some delicious homemade flapjack that the event organisers had made for us. We moored our kayaks on a little stretch of 'beach' and set about getting the feeling back to our legs with a short trek through some woodland which revealed a large waterfall - a pleasant surprise. The tour guides took plenty of pictures (below) - we didn't risk taking our phones or camera in with us ourselves.

After making it back accross the lake in one piece it was time for the final three hour leg of the journey in the minibus. This is when we really started to notice that we were climbing and the views became all the more impressive. We mentioned the smoke from the bushfires yesterday and today we actually saw some of the forest alongside the highway burning up. Helicopters were depositing huge baskets of water to try and control the flames and it was really fascinating to see as it's not something you ever really think of in the UK.

Tonight we weren't so lucky with our accommodation and we are in a dormitory with shared washing facilities but it's a roof over our heads and a comfortable enough bed to sleep in ahead of tomorrow which will include a lot more hiking as we head towards Lake Louise. We will be exploring a lot more of the Banff National Park area, visiting Johnston Canyon, Emerald Lake and the massive Takkakaw falls before a Candian campfire somewhere out in the wilderness. We still haven't seen a bear (or a moose) but we are much more off the beaten track tomorrow so we are hoping to see a bit more wildlife throughout the day.

Day Two Highlight - Kayaking on Lake Revelstoke

Perfecting our technique before heading onto the Lake (bottom left)

                                                                         

        Woodland Waterfall

             

                                                             

Our Moose Tour group

Getting the hang of things

Entering the Rockies

Rockies in the distance

Day One - Vancouver to Kelowna

We both thought we were feeling okay when we landed in Vancouver but by the time we had reached the hotel we were struggling to keep our eyes open. After check-in we popped to the shop over the road for a few drinks and snacks before climbing into bed; we were asleep by 6.30pm. An early night meant an early morning, 4am to be exact - our bodies still adjusting to being eight hours behind what we are used to. We were heading off before breakfast was served in the hotel so a bunch of strawberries and a pack of oreos had to do while we were preparing for our first day of our five day Coho Tour with Moose Travel.

With plenty of time to prepare, we were at our pick up point 15 minutes early - Cambie Hostel. The minutes passed and passed....and passed. It was now 15 minutes after our pick up time when I decided to call and see what was going on. Long story short, there happens to be two Cambie Hostel's within a few miles of eachother and naturally we were at the wrong one. Another taxi was called to take us to yet another location with the journey made all the more interesting by our exuberant driver and we finally met up with everyone else.

The first stage of the journey was spent chatting to everyone and asking about eachother's travel stories and what we'd done/had planned. After about an hour or so we arrived at our first stop, Bridal Falls. A short but steep hike took us to the foot of the falls which were really impressive. (Pictures below) Despite the warning signs, we were encouraged to climb up a bit further than we ought to have to get some really good shots and after patiently waiting for half of the Chinese population to take their photos (we saw one woman smiling, holding a leaf next to her face and taking a selfie like she'd never seen one before) we got a few shots that we were happy with before we just stood for a few minutes admiring nature's beauty. A much easier descent down the forest tracks led us back to our minibus.

Our next stop was called the Tunnels Trail, a network of disbanded railway lines that ran under massive mountains, of which the tunnels had been created with dynamite in 1915 to carve a way through the valley. They were interesting and we got some nice photos of not only the tunnels themselves but also the river and various small waterfalls running alongsides. After a very hot and sweaty hour or so back on the bus (not the best air-con) we arrived in a nice town called Hope where we stopped for a picnic.

The later part of the day was spent driving, mostly through quite thick smoke at times. There have been some vast and mostly uncontrollable bush fires all over Canada in the past few weeks - we actually saw the smoke when we were flying into Vancouver. It leaves a dense smog in certain areas which means the sky is a faded blue and you can't see quite as far as you might like to sometimes. We arrived at Lake Okanagan around 5pm for a Jetboat ride which was great fun. The speed, the serenity of the lake itself, the impressive manouveres that the boat/driver could perform and the surrounding landscape made it quite an experience.

Tonight we are staying in a hostel in Kelowna organised by the tour group but luckily we have our own room/bathroom instead of having to share which is a bonus. We had a pleasant dinner before getting into bed around 8pm ahead of an early start tomorrow where we will be covering over 300 miles on the road, driving through the Rockies before kayaking on Lake Revelstoke and finishing the day in Banff. Everyone is very friendly, especially the natives who are reknowned for being so welcoming and we have a good mix of nationalities on the tour itself. Most of us are from the UK actually but we have Germans, Australians, a Swede, an Italian and a girl from Thailand with us too so there's a nice diversity of cultures to hear and learn about.

Day One Highlight - Jetboat ride on Lake Okanagan

                

  Bridal Falls

River near the Tunnels Trail

         

Tunnels Trail and dried up riverbed where a waterfall would run in the wetter seasons

River near the Tunnels Trail

Rocky riverbed near the Tunnels Trail

We're off!

An emotional goodbye yesterday evening and a restless night's sleep in our Gatwick hotel last night was probably to be expected and we are up bright and early this morning ahead of our 11am flight to Vancouver. It's a ten hour flight so we'll land at 9pm UK time, though it will only be 1pm over there, which means our bodies will almost be ready for bed when we land. We'll get an earlyish night tonight but it's important to adjust to the new timezone ASAP. We are due to be picked up at 8am tomorrow morning to embark on our five day tour through the Rockies, but more about that over the coming days. We are both hugely excited but quite nervous too, just hope the first flight goes smoothly and we can settle into our Vancouver base pretty quickly once we've landed.

This seems as good an opportunity as any to introduce our travel companion. He is one of many wonder ponies throughout the country from the cancer charity: Hannah's Willberry Wonder Pony - a name that will be very familiar to those in the equine world. For those who don't know and would like to find out more, please take a minute to visit the website  https://www.willberrywonderpony.org/ Emily had known Hannah from quite a young age and it is a charity that is very close to our hearts. We have named our Wonder Pony 'Exploreberry' and we are looking forward to showing him the world.

   

One Week To Go

With just seven days remaining, we are in the last stages of our preparation. There are lots of things you don't initially think about such as travel insurance and plug adaptors but we are very nearly set to go. We have one or two last jobs to do such as buying some currency for the countries we are visiting so we have some cash in case of emergency (50GBP of each) and we are going to do that this afternoon. We've also been saving every coin we've both come across for the past couple of months and need to count it all and cash it up, probably won't be much but every little helps! Flights, accommodation and some activities and tours are all booked and ready to go and now it's a matter of counting down the days. We are opting to stay in an airport hotel overnight on Tuesday otherwise it will be a very early start before the 10 hour flight to our first port of call, Vancouver.

Trip Highlights

We have a lot of big ideas but many things will be left unplanned so there will probably be many more to add to this list along the way. For now though, here are some of the sights and activites we are both most looking forward to:

Canada

Travelling through the Rocky Mountains
Jet boat ride on Okanagan Lake
Kayaking in Revelstoke
Lake Louise, Emerald Lake and Takkakaw Falls
Columbia Icefields, Mistaya Canyon and Athabasca Falls
Banff town and hot springs
(Hopefully) seeing a wild bear
Eating in the rotating restaurant at the top of Calgary Tower
Luging at the old Olympic Park site in Calgary
Rocky mountaineer railway journey

USA

Universal Studios
Hollywood walk of fame
Venice Beach/Santa Monica Pier
Hike to the Hollywood Sign
A drive down Beverly Hills
Downtown LA
Hiring a convertible Mustang for 7 days
Big Sur coastal drive
Yosemite National Park
Visiting Las Vegas
The giant trees of Redwood Forest
Potential helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon
A drive along Route 66
Watersports and activities on Colorado River
Hoover Dam
Driving through Death Valley
Golden Gate Bridge
Tour round island prison Alcatraz
A walk along Pier 39
Baker Beach
Lombard Street
Ordering lunch at Eatsa - automated restaurant
Times Square
Fifth Avenue
Freedom Tower/World Trade Center site
Climbing the Empire State Building
Watching a Broadway show
A walk round Central Park
Seeing the Statue of Liberty
Visiting Wall St

New Zealand

Pretty much everything! We've noted down a few places of interest such as Queenstown which is supposed to be a pretty special place and also downloaded the brilliant Campermate app which has campsites, good places to eat, notable attractions and must visit locations. As well as this it shows you where you can get wifi, the location of cash machines, shops, hospitals, dump stations plus some great discounts too. And all that for free! Our journey in New Zealand will be very unplanned giving us the freedom to drive wherever we fancy but we are likely to spend around three weeks on the larger South Island before catching a ferry up to the smaller North Island for our final week before heading to Oz.

Australia

Visiting Melbourne
Hiring a 4x4 to drive down The Great Ocean Road
The beaches and jungle of Fraser Island
Byron Bay
Sydney Opera House
Possible Skydive, landing on Mission Beach
Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Fiji, Bali & Singapore

Fiji will likely be a relaxing break, something more of a convential holiday by the beach on one of the smaller islands, isolated from the rest of the world and our accomodation in the shape of a luxury beach hut nestled just yards from the sea. We need to do a lot more research into Bali and Singapore but Bali looks like being a proper backpackers experience if we were to go there, well off the beaten track for the most part. Singapore looks exciting but not somewhere we'll spend too much time and we aren't ruling out any other country too. (except North Korea!)