We woke to the sound of torrential rain hammering our tent. “Oh dear” I thought, “we have to move camp today”. Jacob had made plans to go fishing in the beautiful aquamarine Bow River, just below our camp. Although the weather was truly foul, I convinced Ralph to leave the comfort of our little dome and join our son as it was one of the last chances he would have here in the Rockies.
An epic camp pack-up today. During the last three days at Wabasso in Jasper, we managed to spread ourselves and our belongings all over the place, which made repacking somewhat onerous. Adding to the difficulty, our camping gear and tents were wet from the rain, and rather than wringing it into dripping bags and having our car smelling like wet dog, we tried to dry it all out in the morning sun before repacking. During this process, we lifted a damp car mat to find a missing toy figurine and were delighted to discover an entire extra boot of space in the car beneath the seats – an absolute blessing as we could not figure out how we had managed to fit all the stuff in the first place. Like trying to fit the blow up mattress back in its box, and the sleeping bags into their pouches. We just made it by the 11am camp checkout time, filled to the brim and fitted into our seats with the precision of a giant, tightly fitting jigsaw puzzle.
Canadians sleep in really late. We decided to go against the flow, and get an early start to our day, to maximise our time here and enjoy an early morning fishing trip, but after the drama with Luke in the wee hours last night, we all couldn’t help but sleep in late. Thank goodness he was feeling fine in the morning and after a bleary-eyed breakfast, we headed to the town of Jasper to buy lunch and then off to Medicine Lake, world-renowned for its trout fishing on fly.
After a long and lazy camping morning after our first night in Wabasso, we headed into the quaint town of Jasper, stopping at the Athabasca Falls along the way. The spectacular pale blue river gushing over and through its self-made canyon is quite a sight. The potholes it has made over the years reminded me a bit of Bourke’s Luck in Mpumalanga, but the setting was completely different – lush alpine forests rather than open grassland.Continue reading…
Breath-taking beauty overload. For 6 hours straight we gazed open-jawed out of our minivan windows. Never could I even have imagined anything so beautiful. From the little town of Salmon Arm, we drove through five national parks in a row – Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho, Banff and finally Jasper. Continue reading…
