Had breakie at the hostel - bit of a regular occurance but its so yummy and fills us up!
We decided that today was the day that we tackled the big mountain - Mount Sulphur! I was a little unsure as i was really aching still from the bike ride, climbing tunnel mountain and horse riding yet when we got to the base of the mountain it seemed lazy to go up in the gondola and it is so much more rewarding when you've hiked it! So off we set! First part was tough but once we set our pace it was reasonable most of the way. The trail zig zagged up the mountain and in parts we were beneath the gondola going up- we had a chuckle about the lazy people! The last quarter of the way begun to get really steep and quite tough in places but knowing your near the top was really motivating! Anyway, it is advised that the trail should take 2-5 hours to complete, we did it in 2 hours so were very chuffed with ourselves! We mooched around the peak for a bit and Mark headed over to Samsons peak while i rested my sore hips! Was quite cold and windy up top considering that it was so warm when we started. We took the gondola back down the mountain, was a lilttle scary as the pods were very small and moofed quite a lot in the wind! Was an 8 minute journey down and it felt good to see the trail we had just done! Once at the base of the mountain we had another 45min walk back to the hostel - where we both collapsed in a heap!
To recharge our batteries we headed to McD's for some grub! You get free refills here! Not that you need them as the regular size cups are the same as the size of our large cups at home! Unfortunately - while eating grub we had noticed that Marks hand had swollen around where he was stung by a wasp the previous evening. The area was really read and twice the size of his other hand! He has also been bitten loads by bugs and flies and these keep swelling up even thought they are weeks old. We headed to the nearest 'drugs store' (chemist) where the pharmicist confirmed that he had had an allergic reaction. She seemed quite concerned and gave him some strong antihistamines and advised of a hospital/doctors visit in the morning if it didn't improve. Still waiting for tablets to kick in - his hand has swollen even more! Have drawn a line around the swelling so its easy to monitor. Fingers crossed for the morning. We mooched a bit in town before catching the bus upto the base of Mount Sulphur and to the hot springs. These springs are formed by rain water seeping through the mountain rocks all the way to the core where it heats up. The water then shoots back up to Sulphur Mountain from all the pressure that was built up. It then flows out of the Mountain in the hot springs area. They say that the water in the springs hasn't seen daylight for hundreds of years! It was amazing! It was just a giant outdoor bath tub with soothing properties. They advise spending no more than 20 minutes in the hot springs as its about 39C, but that was plenty. Just outside you can see the hot water falling down the mountain and gathering in another little pool. We then headed back to the hostel feeling very relaxed for an early night as we have the early bus to Lake Louise tomorrow.

Both very sad to be leaving Banff but looking forward to coming back sometime!