Banff is beautiful. A small township with the Main Street just two blocks long is just the launchpad for nature's majesty. And the day was sparkling under clear blue skies and bright sunshine. It was warm!

The morning served up the promised and needed sleep-in and by 10 we were out and about exploring the back yard of The Castle .

The 15th hole of the golf course tees off from the ridge, across the Spray River onto the meadow below. The golfers rocked up in their buggies and with what seemed like effortless swings were launching their golf balls high into the sky and safely across the river. This 18 hole course in pristine forest shared with the local wildlife was postcard perfect.

As we rounded the next corner, there it was, the Bow Falls. It is a break between the mountains that the force of the water thunders through. It is not what you would expect as a waterfall....it is short and wide (just 9 metres wide and 30 metres long). It was running and wild on our visit as the spring sunshine was ensuring a huge volume of water from the Bow Glacier just 100 kms upstream. It is hard to imagine that in winter this volume of water is a frozen slippery slide join in the narrow pass. But we have been reassured that it is!

We walked along the river path to the township and strolled down Banff Avenue and up Bear Street previewing the menus of the upstairs restaurants and avoiding the shops at road level . We didn't have the train team to look after our meals so we had an apple and juice for breakfast as we walked and then settled for Asian delights in Banff for lunch.

Our appointment with The Rocky Mountaineer team was at 1.10 pm and the coach was there on the dot to pick us up and begin the tour of Lake Johnston, Two Jacks Lake and Lake Minnewanka - all dazzling blue green glacier fed lakes. Mac assures me they are cold and that the water tastes great!

All travellers were on the lookout for wildlife and we spotted deer and sheep and one traffic stopping black bear in the pristine forest (this is the Canadian descriptor for National Park) of the Fenland. We took a birds-eye view of The Hoodoos, sculpted by the forces of erosion from a vantage point on Tunnel Mountain Road.

And finally we boarded the Sulphur Mountain Gondola for the 8 minute ride up the mountain to savour sweeping views of the Canadian Rockies . Rundle Mountain, Castle Mountain, Brewster Mountain, Princess Mountain, Cascade Mountain...,wherever you looked, there were mountains either covered in forest or stark and barren and each perspective was beautiful. To get this vista you needed to complete a 50 minute walk that combined steps and boardwalks to reach the summit of Sanson Peak, the old weather recording station.

We could only imagine what this would look like in winter totally blanketed in snow. And of course, did not want to even think about how cold it would be.

There are some mysteries that remain unsolved. We photographed a very furry animal and despite asking a few fellow travellers, still have no idea what it is. And our second mystery was " where are the ski runs?" We thought Banff would be like Whistler with chair lifts and gondolas at the back gate of every hotel and at every street corner.....but other than Sulphur Mountain we didn't spot one! Have to say we were surprised that you have to travel 20 minutes down the road to get to the ski slopes.

There were buses and cars everywhere all day. But somehow, despite the mellee of people, there were enough views and spaces and spots to visit that you do get your own elbow and viewing room.

A quite night in at The Fairmont and after looking through what each of the 16 restaurants on site had to offer we enjoyed dinner from the Italian Castello Ristorante in the beautiful Ramsey Lounge.

Time to reassemble our life in a suitcase and to prepare for the next leg of the journey.

Sunday
Temperature: 21
Pedometer: 15 334
Bear Sightings = 1

Total Bear Sightings = 8