Another cold frosty night and this time there was a thin layer of ice on the Pontiac. Glad we chose the Pontiac it takes to the mountains with a breeze and is good on petrol. The poor car needs a good wash looks like all the other cars on the highway with dust and mud from all the tracks to the different sights even the rain hasn't cleaned it.

Last day at the Old Entrance B n B we had to rug up last night seeing it was so cold. Did our downloads with photos etc have to every night to remember where we went and what we took photos of. Richard is on his ipad every night catching up on his things and seeing what is happening in Perth an Australia as we don't get any news here.

The experts are now packed with all our belongings at the door ready to load the car but breakfast first before doing that. Thanked Carol for helping find accommodations in Canmore for us and joined the two motorbike ladies for breakfast it is their last day of relaxation too before they go home. Turned out good because Jacqueline comes from the Halifax area and has a friend there that has a B & B plus a Used Car Yard. Gave us their details and sent them an email to say we were coming late October. I got our big map of Canada out and they marked some places on the way for us to see and possibly stay.

Another great day bit cool at first but we rug up for that last time for the stop light bridge crossing which can be a five minute wait letting the oncoming traffic through till it is your turn. Last time to see the surround views of Jasper National Park before we hit Highway 93 to experience the Icefields Parkway drive. It is another long drive today to Canmore which is just past Banff nearly 400kms to travel today. The Parkway Road takes you along the backbone of the continent on its 230km journey from jasper to Lake Louise through scenery you will never forget. The road passes through remote high altitude terrain and you see signs all the time saying "you are in avalanche country drive carefully". No signs to tell you what the views you are looking at and when to stop. Richard was concentrating on the road and missed the way lays to take photos, so had to resort to taking photos and videos in the car. 

The journey along Highway 93 was so picture perfect you could go photo mad and then at the end of the day you get confused with what you photographed like what happened to me. I thought I was smart by underlining the names of the glaciers, rivers and falls I took but I didn't factor in the extra shots I did seeing I was taking the photo from within the car. Got to count in the blurred shots or parts of dashboard.

I haven't put in many photos as the glaciers and mountains begin to look the same.    Stopped at the Sunwapta Falls to stretch our legs plus a rest for Richard from driving nice refreshing walk down the trail to the falls. Sunwapta is an Indian term meaning "turbulent river" which it was another river you wouldn't want to fall into unless you wanted to commit hurry curry.

The scenery is breath taking mountains, rivers by the road as you drive in the valleys you cross bridges over the rivers which start from Jasper the Athabasca River branches to the Sunwapta River then into the Mistaya River which flows into the Bow River to Banff.

We decided to wait till we reached the Columbia Icefields which is just inside the Jasper National Park (half way to Lake Louise) and the beginning of Banff National Park to have our lunch and coffee fix the last of Carol's ground coffee. Climbed up the stairs to the Icefields Centre to book a tour of the icefields. The young chap behind the Tour Counter talked us into the three attractions for $99.95 plus GST for that we do the Glacier Adventure, Banff gondola and Banff Lake Cruise. The glacier tour is every 15 minutes which is good joined the queue with everyone else and were packed into a coach. The Asians love to sit individually by the windows to take photos so Richard and I sat separately. Poor Richard had to squeeze in next to a big chap (who turned out to be a lovely chap) on the way up to the giant Ice Explorers. What a hairy ride to the up to the Athabasca Glacier. It is decreasing by a metre a year it is not as spectacular as the glaciers we went on by helicopter in Alaska.   The Athabasca Glacier is the only glacier that feeds all the oceans in the world and the fir trees on the left side are 300 years old while the trees on the right are 700 years old. Once you are out of the Explorer you are only allowed to walk on the hard ice where the Explorer goes anywhere else is at your own risk as you might fall down a hole seeing the ice is not stable. One Asian lass nearly fell in when she was trying to get water to drink from the ice water flowing from the glacier. I mentioned to the Guide the glacier is a lot smaller than what it was in 1987 when you could go and walk anywhere and there were big crevices you could look down and were a beautiful blue colour just like the ones in Alaska.

Richard and I went back to the Explorer and sat up front for the view back plus to get warm. I think I went a little overboard with the video and photos but I don't think we will be back here again. Jumped back in the Pontiac again and continued on our way to Banff looking at all the beautiful scenery. Richard is now driving like an Canadian miles too fast when there is a straight stretch of road and the canadian highways are brilliant. Left Hwy 93 at the Jasper National Park and turned to Hwy 1 the Trans-Canadian Hwy at the start of Banff National Park. What a fantastic double highway richard turned into a speed freak meant to do 90km but joined everyone else doing up to 130km There are tunnels where the animals can cross over from one side of the highway to the other which is great.

Finally arrived at Lady MacDonald Country Inn (B & B) at 5pm very tired from the long drive. The Owners are Swiss Peter the husband showed us to our room "Mount Temple" we have the unpacking down to a perfection now. The only problem here is there is no kitchen we only have a bedroom with ensuite so things are a bit crowded except we do have an extra bedroom upstairs which is now my office and charging station for all our computers, mobile, video ect. Got some ice from Peter for our esky and he put our coolers in their freezer, being a commercial kitchen we could only use the microwave in the Dining Room and BBQ on the verandah so dinner tonight was an experience.

At least with dinner we had extras as there is tea and coffee with cakes and other goodies all day and we get breakfast everyday as well. Tried to catchup on the blog but will do some tomorrow too tired need to go to bed age is catching up on us.