Got up really early as we had to get the van back to the garage. I used the toilet and washed my hair and did the dishes in the sink and we watched t.v. whilst having our free coffee. We ended up staying all day with brief visits to A&W, the Mall, and the Lake Nature Reserve. We eventually left Salmon Arm at 5pm. We have spent 4 nights in total here which is as long as we spent in Victoria, which is a long time considering we weren't ever meaning to stop there. We have come as far as Revelstoke and tomorrow to Lake Louise etc.
The bill for the work came to $500 which puts the total value of the van to $2100, bloody Alex! Hopefully the van will never break down again, they guy said that it looked pretty sound, so fingers crossed.
Saturday 8th November
Today was mostly travelling to the Rockies. We woke up really early at 6am as we wanted to make the most of the day. I drove for all of the morning and we stopped at Roger's pass to get our 3 day pass for the National Park. Then we stopped in Golden to pick up something for lunch. We drove to Mt Hunter where we ate our lunch. Claire then drove to Lake Louise stopping at Field, Natural Bridge and Emerald Lake. The temperature was certainly getting colder and when we came back from the bar my coat said it was -10 degrees C. We decided to put the heater on for the whole night whilst we camped in the Youth Hostel Car Park.
I forgot to say we stopped at a place called Spiral Tunnels where the railway track, in order to avoid steep hills, spiralled through a mountain. For some reason I am more impressed with feats of engineering rather than feats of nature. We actually timed it right and managed to see one train disappear into one part of the mountain and reappear above at the same time! Pretty impressive!
Sunday 9th November
It was my turn for breakfast duties but unfortunately I turned the alarm off and we didn't get up until 7:45am. A fact I was most chastised for! We eventually got on our way, after a quick wash in the public toilets. First of all we stopped at the Crowfoot Glacier (on the Icefields Parkway) then Peyto Lake. This was where we talked to a viewpoint of the picture on the front of Claire's book. The snow was about a foot deep and it was very cold. We made three snow angels in the closed car park. After this I drove to Mistaya Canyon which was really nice. We sat there for a while just soaking up the sun. Then we found a spot to have lunch at, this was just in view of a mountain that I liked. After we'd fed and watered we were on the road again. The road was quite icy in places and pretty stressful driving. We stopped at Waterfowl Lake where Claire and I had the most scenic pee imaginable (we are getting to pee in some very unusual places). This lake is famous for moose but we didn't see any. Then I proceeded to Athabasca Glacier. I have stood on a Glacier! It was extremely cold and quite icy in places. Claire drove on from here as I was getting quite sleepy. We stopped at the "Goats Mineral Lick" but alas there were no goats, I saw a woodpecker though! We then carried on to Athabasca falls, they were pretty impressive too. They were covered in ice and there were lots of icicles formed on them. Then we headed for Jasper, where we are now. We are sharing a car parl with a few Elk and lots of noisy trains.
<these are extracts from my diaries written whilst travelling and working in Canada and the US in '97-'98>
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