Of sickie-ness and skiers

En route to the ski resort of Banff, we stopped off in Canmore. For the first time, I felt we could actually live here. Towering mountains, rushing river, beautiful sun and some superb real estate …still cheaper than the UK, though not cheap as chips. Me and Rowan might have moved tomorrow, but Joe and Rhys were less keen. They pointed out practicalities like six months of snow, hours away from the airport, and what on earth would we DO there? Quite right too.

Still, we had a lovely day mooching round the second-hand bookshop and identifying ourselves readily as tourists by gazing up at the mountains and the crystal clear creeks in delight.
We also checked the weather forecast, bearing in mind Pete’s prediction, though still sceptical. This was suntan weather, with no sign of freezing conditions. But Pete was borne out by the visitors centre, which confirmed that we were due 3 degrees and rain for the next few days. Feeling ridiculous, we bought the girls fleeced lined jackets – we simply hadn’t come prepared for winter. Jenna felt a bit warm as we tried these on, though we put this down to the factit was way hot. It became clear when we reached our campground on a hill above posh ski resort Banff, however, that Jenna was not well – and the thermometer confirmed – over 39 degrees with rash to boot. I wasn’t feeling too great, and we finally read one of the leaflets we were given on entering Alberta: on a pleasant little mosquito-borne infection called West Nile Fever. Now, we’d all been bitten stupid, so it was a real possibility. Jen and I hunkered down in bed, dosed up to the eyeballs, and waited to see what happened.

Joe, Rowan and Rhys were fine, and so headed off next morning to Banff in search of thrills and pharmacist advice. You can see from the photos they had an ace time on the cable cars scaling a massive mountain, and I don’t honestly think I’d have made it up there anyway! Jen and I slept until 1.30pm and we decided to stay another night to see if she improved. Well, luckily we both did – and we headed off to Lake Louise.

Now, the Rockies are just fab, infact so consistently beautiful you get a bit immune to it after a while. Each bend you drive reveals soaring high peaks and brilliant aqua rivers and lakes, all framed by acres and acres of pines. Rich elderly tourists rule, with enormous winnebagos (really like rock band tour buses) especially now school is back in. Towns are immaculate and designed for the wealthy – hence the acronym for Jasper: Just Another Silly Place Extracting Money. Not that we’re complaining. From our campground, and in the absence of any public transport (grrrrr) we walked some 5k along Louise Creek, all up hill, through bear territory: for once I was encouraging Rhys to shout and sing as loudly as possible to warn any wildlife we were coming. We were rewarded by one of the most famous Canadian sights – the breathtaking Lake Louise – which we have been riding along advertising on the back of Doris for 3 weeks. It is such an amazing colour, and framed by a stunning backdrop of peaks and a small glacier. It was a real achievement for the kids to make it up there, and an idyllic photo opportunity! The kids reward was extortionate sweets at the v plush Fairmont Hotel and a taxi back down the hill. It was a perfect clear, bright afternoon after a morning of rain, and the peaks were dusted with snow.