Up early military style showered, dressed for the day, lunch and coffee flask made, packed and ready for our long drive to Jasper. Only one way in to Sun Peaks I think so lovely winding drive back to Hwy 5 to the Heffkey Creek Store petrol station (none in Sun Peaks 38 kms away) $126.9 better than Whistler plus you get a free cup of coffee with every $25 of petrol. The tank only took $47 but the lady liked Richard's accent and gave him two cups.

On the road again first stop we pulled over the side of the road at McLure for a bag of fresh apples and some vegies. Hwy 5 snakes along side the North Thompson River and so does the railway line. I thought we were going back to Kamloops which is quite a large town to restock the esky and go to the Two Buck Shop to get a couple of cups for our coffee but the take away cups from Heffkey Creek Store will have to do pity Hwy 5 completely by passes the town.

The scenery is pretty much the same as yesterday driving to Kamloops in one section the mountains were a bit sparse but then nearly also the way it was picture perfect views. At least this time the roads were a lot straighter and flatter land traveling through the valley between the mountains. The highway is very busy lots of RV's, 5th wheeler's, the famous big pickup utes that like to speed past us on the two lane take over sections, motorbikes and semitrailers. Also see a lot of goods trains on the railway line next as we travel next to the line. Not many cyclists and when we do see one we yell out there goes Glen.

Many small interesting towns, B & B's, hotels, motels, cabins and even golf courses.   At least if you get tired of the long drive you have many places to stay and things to do with the river on your door step (rafting, horseback riding, zip lining, plane/helicopter rides). In between are lupin farms harvesting the hay which they do about four times the year, some cattle and dairy ranches as they call them in Canada.

The highway speed was 100km nearly all the way and Richard wasn't feeling tired so we kept on going till we reached the turn off at Tete Jaune Cache crossed the one way bridge over the Fraser River the worlds greatest salmon river. A very fast flowing river had lunch and coffee here plus a twinkle under the wooden bridge. Richard got a fright when a car went over the bridge nearly wet his shoes. I picked some berries for dessert and we were off again only a 100 or so kms to Jasper now. The drive doesn't seem as long today probably because the highway is flat and not so winding as yesterday going to Sun Peaks.

The drive to Jasper took about 5 hour and a bit hours including lunch so that gives us an idea for driving across the prairies. When you enter the Jasper National Park you pay a fee for the amount of days you spend in Jasper and Banff six days cost us $99.60 with GST. I must say Jill did a good job getting us to Jasper parked right outside the Information Centre where we wanted to stop first of all. Got the usual info brochures and direction for the grocery shop for meat for the next four days.

Stretched our legs had a walk around Jasper (just another tourist town to us) took a video and photos. The North Face and Columbia clothes are just as expensive as in Perth and they are trying to say they are having a sale HA! HA!.    Keyed in the directions for our next stay at Old entrance B n B in Hinton pity it is 70kms outside of Jasper but it was the only accommodation I could get. Just as we were on the outskirts of Jasper there were a lot of cars parking on the side of the road we thought there was an accident but everyone was out of their cars taking photos of the female elk grazing and then further on down Hwy 16 there were male elks. We became tourists and joined in looking and taking videos and photos. The first animals we have seem seen leaving Vancouver on the 28 July. Watching the male elk cross the river was fantastic.

At long last we finally reached the Old Entrance B n B what a lovely property on the Athabasca River and the hosts Carol and Mary make you feel so at home. We are staying in the lower section of the main house you aren't allowed to wear shoes inside so it is a bit of a bother when you are going in and out all the time such as taking all your things downstairs that you need for three days. Enjoyed our walk around the property Richard was playing indian next to the tee pee accommodation in the camping area. You can go horseriding here as well and there are four cabins near the main house which we missed out on but then you can only get WIFI in the main house.

The only comeback is to cook your meat you have to go outside to the BBQ as there is no cooktop in the kitchen only a microwave which is a challenge to use. Thankfully Carol is a lovely host gave me some glass dishes to microwave the vegies (had to use her microwave the first night) as she didn't know how to use the one downstairs.

Early night as we are very tired will try tomorrow morning to find accommodation in Bannf bugger the kids school holidays.