Fish n Chips Travel the world: Lake Louise!!!!!!

Monday 23rd June

A tad emotional this morning when I realised we were heading to Lake Louise today. I know I'm a dork but that's just me. Our precious girl impacted our lives so greatly.

We ran around Jasper for just over 3kms this morning and then went to the supermarket to pick up food for breakfast. I just love those breakfasts raisin bran, banana and yoghurt simple but fulfilling! Coffee was good this morning because I made it!!

We got moving at 10am stopped for petrol and then headed to the Napa store for some oil, tools and brake fluid. It was so funny David asked for a spanner and the guy says "What is a spanner?" LOL so I said "wrench?" Hopefully our pads and oil filter will be there when we get there.

We are driving on the Icefield Parkway. The road is nowhere near as bad as the Alaska Highway but it does have it's ugly bits. Dave is becoming adept at riding on the good parts of the road.

Our first stop is Mt Edith Cavell (yes all you Newcastle University Nurses THAT Edith Cavell) they named the most majestic mountain in her honour and it is so awesome. I am running out of superlatives for the environment and scenery. It's just stunning a new, more magnificent scene around every corner. The road up to the mountain is really good with a few 15km/hr and 20km/hr hairpin bends but when we get to the top there is gravel so we park just to the side of the pavement and walk up to discover that there is a great paved carpark!! When we come back down we have started a trend oops and we inform the drivers that are still in their cars that there is a perfectly good carpark just around the corner. Maybe Parks Canada need to use some of the funds from the park entry fee which is charged per person/per day ($58.80 for us, with an annual pass $136, US Annual pass is $80!!) to post signage pointing to the parking!!!!! On the way back down the mountain there is a small black bear walking on the road much closer than the grizzly we saw yesterday as the road is really narrow with no shoulder, I got some film of him on our Olympus.

Our next stop is Athabasca Falls. It's just beautiful and we wander around on the walkways. When we get over to the other side of the falls there is an amazing rainbow due to the massive amount of spray. There is huge amounts of water tumbling over the falls every minute, what amazes me is it just keeps going and going where does it all come from and will it ever run out? ha ha

Next we stop at Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre for a late lunch. While looking for the cafe we hear an aussie accent behind the counter of the gift shop and I call out "Aussie Aussie Aussie" and she says "woohoo!!!" LOL. It is sooo crowded as there are people buying tickets for a ride up onto the glacier. They transport people up to a point in coaches and then you board 4WD tractor buses with large viewing windows. They drive up onto the glacier and you can walk on it. No we didn't take the tour, we caught a helicopter onto a glacier the other day and walked and mushed on it :P

We stop about 30 miles down the road for a drink of gatorade (the girl behind the counter is another Aussie from QLD) as we are both feeling dry and get talking to some bikers from Sasketchawan (sp?) they are amazed that we are riding so far. One is riding one of the Stratoliners I talked about a few blogs ago very cool.

We have sandwiches for lunch and we are soon back on the road. The scenery just gets better and better the further you drive. Glaciers visible from the road high on the mountains. Another bear on the road this time there is a large shoulder so he is a fair way away and OK for us but there are two cyclists trying to get by him and he is very interested in them and the large blood spray in the middle of the road. A pick up truck in front of us stops and he runs toward the other side of the road until an RV comes barrelling along and does not look like he's stopping making the bear run towards our side again. The RV slows a little and drives on the shoulder while the bear looks like it's going to run off onto our side it suddenly runs back over to the other side and nearly gets flattened by the RV which then speeds off!!! meanwhile the pickup has driven off too and as we start moving ahead the bear comes back out onto the road towards the large patch of blood and us/cyclists. Dave revs the engine and toots the horn to try to scare it over to the other side of the road so the cyclists can pass. It works and we help them pass.

We arrive in Lake Louise Village and stop for petrol and there are two young Aussie men behind the counter one from QLD one from WA. We ask them if there is a mechanic in town because if our pads and oil filter arrive Dave will have some oil to dispose of. They point us in the right direction and we drive down there the guy is a bit prickly at first but once we tell him we have all our own stuff and will just need an oil disposal option he is happy.

We are staying at Deer Lodge and the girl at the front desk is....you guessed it Aussie from VIC. No parcel yet but when I tracked it on the FEDEX site it was in Calgary at 8:30am this morning and Dave tells me this is only 2 hours away!! why is it not here! We are a bit bummed about that cause Dave was going to do the brakes tonight and the oil change early tomorrow so we would have plenty of time for exploring. Oh well hope it gets here tomorrow!!

Our room is pretty tiny but the hotel is lovely with an outdoor hot tub that we will try out later after dinner and a walk. We have laundry to do. The laundry is located right next to the games room so while the washing is being done we watch the news and Dave plays a game of pool with himself while I blog. We walked up to the lake and it is just gorgeous. We slipped into the Fairmont to have a sticky beak at the shops and of course use the facilities. Then we went over to check out the canoes we think we might go for a paddle tomorrow. The four people working the canoes have just stripped down to their swimmers and are holding hands on the pontoon. 1......2.......3 and in they go they surface simultaneously screaming and laughing it must be freezing!!! By the time we get back it is a tad late for the hot tub oh well maybe tomorrow.