We picked up our car from Seattle Airport, loaded up and drove into our 11th country in the space of 11 months. The Canadian border was only 2 hours from Seattle and we really didn't have much of an idea of where to go! This is probably our least researched country maybe because its our last!

A visit to the information centre got us on our way and we had a rough route planned. Deciding to bypass Vancouver for now we drove up the coast as far as a little town called Squamish. It was here that it hit us - Canada is too expensive for budget travellers. Motels start at around $80 (£40) per night and hostels, which are few and far between charge way too much for dorm beds - some of them over $40 per bed!!

We decided to spend two nights in Squamish just to find our feet and plan out Canada a little. We also realised that food is a bit more expensive than the U.S so even that will cut into our budget a bit. This was all a little depressing and dis-heartening to begin with and stayed with us until our next destination a short while up the road - Whistler.

We ended up camping near Whistler which eventually inspired us to stop sulking and get on with it! We realised that if we continued to camp, we would save enough to be able to afford to enjoy Canada comfortably.

Whistler, a very pretty town and a world famous ski resort, will host some of the 2010 winter olympics along with Vancouver. Theres still a little snow way up high but not enough for winter sports although we did see some kids kitted out in all their ski kit. There's a few nice lakes and the weather was really nice so we spent some time relaxing in the sun!

Our next stop was in Kamloops, a good few hours drive from Whistler and we stayed just one night en route to Jasper National Park. It was about 40°C here which totally surprised us as we didn't think Canada had a desert region!

We turned up in the town of Jasper with no accommodation but we luckily found a campsite with vacancies. It was the night before "Canada Day" so everywhere was filled with Canadian holiday makers. This made July 1st a fun and well celebrated day for us in Jasper.

Firstly we had a $2 pancake and sausage breakfast along with free mini flags and hat-pins in canadian colours to get us in the spirit of things. There was then a flag raising ceremony with speeches and mini mounties! They then cut the two huge cakes and gave them out to the public. The cue was enormous so we didn't bother. Just after lunchtime was an impressive parade down the main street where they threw lots of sweets out to the crowds!

Elsewhere in Jasper there's a national park to be explored! We spent a day visiting Maligne and Medicine Lakes, Maligne Canyon, Athabasca Falls and Mt. Edith Cavell. The latter has a glacier hanging off of it that seems like it should fall imminently but its been that way for some time. Along the way we encountered more wild animals including elk, bighorn sheep and a coyote, still no bear though!

We got lucky again. The day after we drove into Jasper, the road we took had been closed because of a serious mudslide and there's no other road in. Our plans would've changed completely due to either a huge detour or a 2 day wait for the road to re-open.