Day 6

Kelowna to Banff.

A really late start to the day as we left at 9.00am this morning.

It was a long drive to Banff, arriving at 4.30pm in the afternoon. We had a couple of stops to take photos but there are not a lot of places where you can pull over to take photos. Most photos were taken by Margaret through the windscreen or out the side windows. She managed a couple of great shots of her knee on the iPhone camera. (It was difficult feat "9.9" but she managed it!) When it came to using the "real" camera she was good at pushing the on/off button rather than the take photo button. (It is hard to get good help. Lucky she cooks better that she uses a camera!) By which time we had driven past the photo opportunity moment. Hopefully before the end of the trip she will have mastered the art of using the camera!

Just as an aside, we will need to report that the speedo in our car is not working correctly. It appears to be at least 20kms/hr below everyone's else's speedo. The only time that it appears to be working correctly is when we are stopped at a red light or when we are the lead car. Margaret did suggest that the locals could be speeding but I would be surprised if that was the case!!

It is incredible how tall the mountains rise into the sky. It seems even more awe inspiring on the occasions when the distance you are looking up is matched by the distance you look down into the valley. Having been to Kosciusko, the chairlift there pales into insignificance to the heights these mountains reach.

The lakes that we drove past on our trip are so beautiful. The clean colour of the waters is beautiful. You could certainly call the first half part of the trip the Lakes district as there are so many; often only separated by not even 100 metres of land.

Banff is a pretty town with an alpine design. It is tidy town and at this time of year very multicultural with tourists from all over the world (listening to the many languages spoken by those we pass on the street of in the stores.).

We purchased our national parks pass as you are not allowed to stop here without one. As we were going to be in the NPs for more than 7 days it made sense to purchase an annual pass. Looks like we need to stay on for the 12 months to get our money's worth (comment from Marg!)

We are staying at Hostels International (HI) Banff. We thought that we would be the "grandparents" here but we found a French family (who are young at heart as well!) who are on the top side of 40. As we feel under 40 at present we win! (Let's see how we feel tomorrow after our treks)

Tomorrow we venture around Banff and the surrounding area. There are gondola rides and trails to trek. Anyhow we are heading off for a good night's sleep to tackle the new day.