So when I left you last, I hoped to have the best sleep ever, but unfortunately it was probably one of the worst on the trip so far! So loud, with drunken revellers all night, it was also super stuffy in the dorm. Although I put my headphones in, I probably only got a couple of hours sleep total.
Anyway, so I get up and get ready to meet my tour bus of the Rockies. It was called Moose Travel and was ostensibly a hop-on-hop-off bus, although I did it in the minimum time frame. There were 18 of us on the bus, and although the people changed a little bit, the number stayed the same.
Jack, our tour guide relaxingIt was a great trip! The weather, for the most part, was pretty beautiful, our tour guide Jack was pretty cool, and the others on the bus were pretty cool. And we saw BEARS!!!! 4 of them!!!! 2 Grizzly and 2 Black! Very cool.
Black Bear
Grizzly
Bear in the wild (from outside the van)
A baby GrizzlyThe first day we headed to Lake Shuswap which was a pretty little lake where, as we were walking down to the shore, a deer just happened to be wandering past some houses. It was very cool and pretty strange for me.
The next day was a highlight for me. We stopped at this amazing mirror lake in a place called Revelstoke where we kayaked, something that I love to do. It was so peaceful and just gorgeous there.
The beautiful place we kayaked
KayakingWe made our way to Banff for the night, although we didn't arrive early enough to see any of the town. Next morning it was up and away along the Columbian icefield, where the weather had packed it in a little. We stopped at Lake Louise which was pretty despite the rain, and then we went to Athabasca glacier, which as someone that has hiked Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand, was mildly disappointed with it. The area was beautiful, although the weather did put a slight dampner on the day unfortunately.
Lake Louise.
Athabasca GlacierHowever, it cleared up, and we ended up staying in this gorgeous wilderness lodge in Athabasca Falls about 30 km from Jasper. It was a gorgeous wee spot, and I had the most comfortable sleep I had had in a long time.
On the last day, on our way back to Banff, we stopped at Lake Moraine (truly gorgeous) and had lunch in a secluded little lookout spot in an area called Peyto Lake. It was beautiful!
Lake Morraine
Our little secluded lunch spot, Lake PeytoThe Rockies really were quite beautiful, and I am so glad that I got (if only a little bit) to see them. I'd like to come back and spend some more time here, as it is quite lovely here.\
Our Moose GroupWe got back to Banff, again too late to see the town, and had a bit of a goodbye drinking session with the others from the bus. Our room was incredible, with a jacuzzi in the lounge, although stupidly there was also a bunk bed in the lounge so we couldn't really use it.
The next day, I was all ready to get to my bus, and saying goodbye to a couple of people from the bus, I then hauled my pack on to my back as I'd done a hundred times this trip. Unfortunately this time I must have done something different, because as I lifted it, suddenly my entire back went into spasm, and going into a hunchback, I could barely move, and had to sit down. I was in absolute agony, as I must have severely pulled the muscles in my back. Being forced to taxi the short distance to the station, I was in a fair amount of pain, and the painkillers were just not cutting it.
I was to bus to Calgary and have 4 hours to look around the city. However, fate had other ideas (which ended up being great) as the bus was delayed by two hours, which meant that the Greyhound guy refunded our fare, and I started chatting to a cool girl from Winnipeg. Finally getting to Calgary station, I decided to just sit and wait the remaining two hours for my friend Rach to pick me up (not that my back would let me do anything else anyway).
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