Ocean Fest

Ages ago, Nimmy came up with the great idea of going to Ocean Fest in Croyde and watching some bands and some surfing. And it turned out to be a truly superlative idea!

On Saturday we watched the total lack of surf and the dualathalon (with commentary by Pam), got amazed at mountain biking, ate yummy food and saw bands. We've all seen good mountain bikers, so I think we were all surprised at how impressed we were the the bikers doing bunny hops over bars at 1.10m (handle bar height!) and back flips in tiny spaces.



Mountain bikers being impressive


The bands on Saturday evening were great. We really enjoyed the Rupert Oxlade band who were really upbeat and fun to dance to. Then Donavan Frakenreiter came on and totally blew everyone away. He did some really chilled out stuff with another guitarist and then got he Rupert Oxlade Band on with him and blasted out a couple of brilliant numbers. The whole crowd was dancing around, and Donavan walked through the mosh all the way back to where we were! It was so cool - if we had been at reading of some other giant festival a) he would never have got there and b) if he had, he would have had his mike (and no doubt half of his clothes) nicked off him! As it was, people were just hugging him and he was offering the mike to people to sing along! It was so great and apparently Ian and I were on the big screens, only we weren't looking at them - we were watching the singer hugging the audience two feet away from us! We were still on such a high when we got back to our (rather refined) caravan!

The wind got up on Sunday and although the sun was shining, the wind was so strong that it kept everything chilly, made the surf ridiculous and rendered the main stage unusable. But despite the lack of bands (some were in the beer tent, but it was a bit squashed to say the least), or surfing to watch, we had fund playing on the beach, eating more yummy food and generally chilling out. It was the most relaxing weekend for ages!


Nimmy, Ian and Rob seeing who could make the wettest splash


My rather superb new wellies

Giraffes

The problem with living in the north is that people keep insisting on moving to the south! What an error! First of all it means that they have to live with crazy motorists, and then it means that we don't get to see them all that much!

So this weekend we made the trek to Dunstable to see Neil and Emma via Sue in Fenstanton. The weather was uncharacteristically pleasant for June(!) and so after a day sat in the garden polishing off a box of wine (except me), we decided to spend Sunday at Whipsnade.

Its only just down the road from Emma and Neil, so they have a season ticket, and I bet that that means that Ethan is more familiar with hippos than I am! We saw rhinos and lions and cheetas and sea lions and red pandas and otters and elephants and bears and bison and zebras and lots of wallabees and maras and other things. Most of them were sensibly snoozing in whatever shade there was in their enclosure.

But the best bit was seeing the giraffes! I have never seen a giraffe in real life before and they were so cool! Their skin looked much tougher and leathery than I was expecting, and the grown ups had saggy bits of skin just like rhinos and hippos. They managed to look so totally aloof and superior - I was most impressed. I got really obsessed with their bendy necks which always bend in odd directions - I could have watched them for days! As it was we came back a second time and I took far too many pictures!

Small things......



My homage to giraffes


We saw some other animals too

Abbey Crawling

After the sucess of our trip to Fountain's Abbey, this year we gave Mf an abbey crawl for her birthday! First we went to Byland Abbey, which was much better than we expected. Having walked past it a couple of times, we had it down as a sort of drive-by - just a quick one with some bits of stone to look at. We hadn't realised that there was quite so much left. In the end we decided that we could quite happily go around it once trying to work out what was what, then again with the book to "see the sights" and still find it fun to run around and play in it! We spent much longer than the 45min English Heritage recommended we needed, and then retired to the Abbey Inn for the fanciest toilets in any pub ever, a very fine steak sandwich and the finest coffee this side of the channel.

After lunch we continued to Rievaulx which accomodatingly emerged from the drizzle, did the whole thing again!

Two abbeys, pretty much no groccles, some spectacular scenery and just enough bleak isolation. Couldn't ask for more really....

Click on the image below to see some more of the photos.....

Abbey Crawling

Frisbee

Its Pete’s birthday next week, so we spent today in Harrogate celebrating. It was great to see people that we only see rarely, especially Matt and Em and James and Beth who had all made the journey up from the south.

We spent the afternoon in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens, a Grade II listed park. We played lots of frisbee and tried out crazy golf. There were several holes-in-one, but equally lots of cheating! After we had worn ourselves out with too much ice cream, running around and sun (yes, the second sunny weekend in a row, and this time it was properly hot!), we went for curry at the Rajput. We weren’t too put off by the bullying waiters; “You don’t want a Rogan Josh, you can have that anywhere. You want a ……. (insert unidentifiable curry here)”, and it really was a good curry!


I'm actually starting to look pregnant.....

Buttermere

The Lake District is most unfortunately named. It immediately makes me think of sailing and canoing and so I had never really considered the mountains (or are they just hills?). Roo wanted to climb Scafell Pike as part of her training for Kilimanjiro, so we spent this weekend in Borrowdale. We couldn’t have asked for better weather – driving across the Penines, the sun beat down on the car and the sky was perfectly blue.

We made good time and got to Borrowdale by about 8pm. Typically, the campsite that we had chosen was at the other end of the dale (through the most beautiful pass), so we trundled past lots of half empty campsites until we got to Buttermere and discovered that everyone else had had the same idea! Fortunately, the campsite’s owner’s father allowed us to camp in his adjoining field, so we had the advantage of flatter land, being able to stick the car next to the tent (rather than carrying all our stuff over a little stream into a rocky, but picturesque pasture), and still being close to the wonderfully clean amenities. We heated up some chilli and at 11pm gave up on Mikey and Roo ever arriving and went to bed.



Curious chickens in the campsite


Next morning the sun was still shining brightly, and although the wind was pretty strong (it’s lumpy gusts had woken us both up in the night), it was beautifully warm – sandals and t-shirts warm! We decided to make the most of the early morning quiet and see if we could find Mikey and Roo and so broke the silence by driving back over the pass too look in the other campsites. With the sun rising slowly over the mountains, the sides of the Honnister Pass were glowing and we took great pleasure in a landscape so big that any photo we took was not going to do it any justice!

Three campsites later (a good opportunity to check out the competition – ours is definitely the best – more space, less stereo equipment, fewer DofE groups, more walks straight from the site), we found Mikey and Roo thinking about breakfast. We enticed them back over the pass to Buttermere and had another pleasant drive through the scenery.

After a hearty porridge breakfast we set off on a bimble. We still weren’t sure how far/fast/high a pregnant person could walk, so we decided on something gentle up the Rannerdale Knotts. The path went straight out of our campsite, along a wood lined stream gorge and then up onto the grassy fells. It was lovely – we saw pretty much no-one, there were terrific views back across Buttermere and Crummock Water and I discovered that as long as I paced myself, I was still pretty fit! The route took us down into Rannerdale, which was full of bluebells and trees in blossom and then up the Knotts themselves. We weren’t always exactly sure of the optimum route – its all open access so there were lots of paths, and we probably didn’t go the most direct way, but even at only 355m, the top was well worth the effort. The view was great, over the lakes to the Haystacks (Wainwrights favourite fell) and eventually to the hazy blue smudge of Great Gable (we think!). It was a really pleasant way to gently see the non-lake assets of the Lake District.



Rannerdale



The view towards Crummock Water

After an afternoon sit in the campsite we wandered down to Buttermere itself, met lots of dog walkers and found a geocache. We’d have looked for more, but I had left the instructions in the tent, and having had to spend quite a while rummaging under rocks with the GPS helpfully always pointing in a slightly different direction, it seemed better to head directly for supper.

The next morning looked like it was going to collapse in on us – heavy clouds were starting to appear over Buttermere Moss, but by the time we had eaten breakfast and waved goodbye to Mikey and Roo who were off to Derwent Water (strange people!), it hadn’t rained, and so we set off to the Haystacks in good spirits. We weren’t quite sure whether we were actually going to get there – my stomach muscles were aching a bit (either from walking up hills or sleeping funny), and we weren’t sure whether 8 miles up a big hill was going to hurt. But fortunately all aches died away as we set off up the path into Warnscale Bottom and left behind a caravan of picnicers, dog walkers and over-dressed bimblers!

The path started very gently, and for a while I was disappointed that we hadn’t set off up the steep edge of Fleetwith Pike – the same direction, but climbing 550m in less than a kilometre up a ridge shooting out of the end of Buttermere. Nevertheless, the scenery was worth the route we took and soon we were gently climbing up alongside a stream and admiring all the random bits of rock. As we neared the top, the number of people increased exponentially until there was no point at which we weren’t in sight of a big crowd. The Fleetwith fell wasn’t as I expected at all. Despite looking at the map, I still somehow expected to be on a ridge with a dale on either side. Actually we were on a flattish plateau broken by giant bits of rock (the sort that are 50m tall and wide), marshy tarns and criss-crossed by pebbley paths. One edge was the drop into Buttermere, the other was a smudge of rocks of increasing size and then Great Gable and Kirk Fell rising up into the sky. We had to resist the temptation to totally replan the whole route to try and take in (far too) distant hills!



Innominate Tarn

The wind was incredible – I have never been blown off my feet before, but up here there was more than one occasion when I had to take several unsteady stumbles until I sat down on a rock or was grabbed by Ian. Good thing that the wind was blowing us away from the edge! It wasn’t exactly cold, but the wind chill definitely stopped us feeling like we were taking a summer stroll! You could hear it rushing up the side of the fell – it sounded like the roar of waves at Polzeath. We nestled down in a crevice between boulders and watched squalls career over Innominate Tarn. There were white horses across the whole of the tarn and every so often there’d be constructive interference between the waves and spray would soar up from the far bank.

We clambered up to the trig point on the Haystacks and started to descend the other side. Time was getting on, now that it was a case of scrambling rather than walking, and so we gave up our hope of walking along the ridge alongside the lake, over High Crag, High Stile and Red Pike before descending to the campsite. Suddenly the paths disappeared and we found ourselves having to spend some time peering over rocks to see whether we were on target for meeting the track at the top of Scarth Gap. We got glimpses of people who had been on the same path as us, sometimes far in front of us, sometimes behind (had they stopped to eat?). Sometimes there was a made path which totally disappeared as we clambered over sheer rock faces, only to appear in the distance several tens of meters from where we had come out. When we got to the track and looked back up, it all looked so simple. I can only assume that the well used routes are more obvious in that direction!

The walk back down to the lake’s edge was rather boring in comparison, and slower than we had imagined as what looked like a well made path actually had quite a few sections of biggish rocks to jump over/round. Back along the lake to the campsite and then to the pub for supper. We were too late for The Bridge – there was no-where left to sit by 6pm! But we had a very passable bar meal and pint of Lakeland ale at The Fish and were pleased we had got there when we did because a giant queue had formed for both the bar and tables by the time we left.

We had a relaxing evening watching people come and go around the campsite, and appreciated the wisdom of our tent. It was very civilised being able to sit inside it and keep out of the gusty wind while still being able to look straight out and feel like we were still outside. The wind was still very odd – there were times when the air was totally still, and then you would hear the gust start, several fields away. Slowly it would build and then the trees around us thrashed loudly for a few minutes. Then it would die away to nothing again.

On Monday morning we packed up in the sun and enjoyed the drive back to York in plenty of time to have a sit and eat some cake before Ian’s gig in the evening.

Sailing

At long last the Wednesday evening sailing season started today, and our boat got to see the river for the first time since August! Typically, it was a standard summer Wednesday evening - warm and balmy and with a slight breeze in our yard. But on the river there was little to no wind, and a couple of boats didn't really get over the start line!

We made the wise decision of not going very far downstream of the start line and so we were able to inch up towards the upstream/upwind buoy. It only took about 25 minutes and we only covered each tack on average 3 times! An expert in Rule 42 may been slightly put out, but our roll tacking was second to none! The drift back down stream was remarkably fast and I blame the position of the RS200 (stationary by the mark) for us not then returning upwind at the same speed! As it was, we joined the RS in slowly drifting backwards until the idea of having actually rounded the buoy was but a dream!

It wouldn't be a Wednesday afternoon if there wasn't a good bit of paddling!

The South

This weekend we took the car on its first trip to the South! We dropped in on Sue and Drew, and saw Alex and Juliet's new house. Then on Saturday we continued down to Hook to see James and Beth and bask in the sun.

We decided to indoctrinate them into the wonderful world of geocaching, so after lunch we headed down to the South Downs Way, just east of Winchester, to do some finding. It’s a very pretty area – all rolling hills divided into a giant patchwork of multicoloured fields, the edges studded with little copses. Very pastoral. Though to be honest in the first sun of the summer pretty much anything looks appealing! We wandered along the South Downs Way for a bit to find cache 1. It was along a little stream which confused us for a but until we remembered that we were using the 1:50,000 map rather than our usual 1:25,000, and so the stream was too little to appear! Cache 1 was not too hard to find once we used the clue, and we dropped one of the travel bugs and gained an apple shaped hole punch! Cache 2 was along a disused railway line and was full of books and CDs. We started to feel a bit bad that we hadn’t brought any treasures apart from the squashed coins that we liberated from Beth’s wallet. After cache 3 (on a windy hill where we gained a bug that wants to go to India), we called it a day and drove leisurely back to Hook.

Cache 2
On Sunday we decided to explore the New Forest as I, despite growing up about an hour away, had never been there. It turned out to be very nice, full of biking paths that reminded me of the American national parks. We went for a bimbley walk that we’d got out of a book and enjoyed the ponies, crazy budding conifers and a reptile park that we stumbled along. I can now identify an adder more reliably and we saw a natterjack toad. After lunch on a log we found a great climbing tree and it only took Ian and James about 10 minutes to work out how to get up it!!

Success!
We decided to have a look for one last cache which took us up onto a beautiful down (onto beautiful downs?) where there were very few people. Despite only being a few miles from Southampton, we couldn’t see anything apart from thick trees from the top – it felt properly wildernessy- something I wasn’t expecting at all. We added cattle to our list of animals for the day, and tested their tameness by walking right through the middle of them to get to the cache (not very responsible!). I think that they must have been made in the Milton Keynes style!

New Forest pony
I’d definitely love to come back to the New Forest, sometime when it is warm and dry enough to explore by bike, but not in the summer, as I imagine that it’d be way too busy. There are so few woods left in England that I really can’t remember the last time that I stood amongst trees, what weren’t a plantation, and couldn’t see out. It is most calming and serene.

Woods!

The quantum physicist decorates his house

Not strictly true, but the gist of this weekend. A couple of parents came up for the weekend to help demolish the hallway. It seemed slightly silly, as it's the "room" that gets used least, but hence the area that we were most unlikely ever to tackle without moral support, and to be honest I think that we were both afraid that it was the wallpaper that was holding the house together. We were partly right.

On Saturday we spent a happy day stripping the delightful wood-chip wallpaper with the help of the parents' wallpaper beast, covering ourselves and most of the house with sticky glue. The cracks in the wall weren't as bad as we had imagined, but it was slightly dissapointing to discover that in putting in the window, the barbarians had managed to destabilise a large area of plaster and half of the ceiling. The piece de resistance (I can't find how to do accents!) was on getting the wallpaper off the ceiling to find that the plaster board that was the ceiling above the stairs was only joined to the actual ceiling in a couple of places and the gaps had just been covered with stretched wallpaper. Definitely sub-optimal. We were pretty tired after all that, so we ate dinner, the parents retired to their B&B, and we, in a fit of not knowing what to do with ourselves, went to see In Bruges, which is offically one of the best (and funniest) films that I have ever seen!

Day 2 was assigned to trying to deal with the mess that we had made, so we had an exciting trip to B&Q to which I was allowed to drive (and no-one seemed shaky-legged due to fright!), and then played with expanding foam! This was definitely the way to deal with bits of wall that no longer met other bits of wall - much easier than crafting carefully cut pieces of wood in wedges! And it made a wonderful mess - a cross between really light meringue and something from a Dr Who episode. Then we learnt how to plaster and started to fill up some of the more alarming holes in the wall. It was at this point that we started to doubt the relevance of our education and considered that maybe some practical skills might have been a useful foil to quantum theory and nuclear physics. Nevertheless, we were able to prove that removing wallpaper definitely causes the probability wave of the walls to colapse, and that knowing the rate of movement of a wall was no help in establishing its position.

Now we have a very narrow, long hall way which is almost very beautifully plastered. We only have to deal with the ceiling before we can re-wallpaper. But considering that we don't have a weekend free now for about 6 weeks, it looks like it might just be a lick of paint for the time being.

Geocaching

For his birthday, Nimmy bought Ian a GPS and a cryptic card which just said Geocaching.com on it. So this weekend, we went out to find out what the point was! Its basically a treasure hunt for grownups. You use your GPS to locate a “cache”, normally a tupperware contatiner hidden somewhere interesting, and inside it find a log book and some treasures. You sign the logbook to say that you found the cache and exchange one of the treasures for something you have brought with you. Some caches are quite easy to find, some very hard.

We thought that we’d start with an easy one, up on the moors on Rudland Rigg. We drove up to the suggested parking spot, walked about a mile up the track (ian will be able to say exactly because the GPS told him (along with our speed and favourite colours!)!), and then left the path following the GPS to find the cache. It was hidden between two large rocks, and was pretty easy to identify once we knew what we were looking for.

Ian and Nimmy find their first cache
As the hail loomed closer we carried on up the track to the next cache, and fortunately only got hailed on a little. In this cache we found a Kansas Geocoin. Its basically a metal coin (this one from Kansas), that can be tracked. So you update the website to say where you found it and where you moved it on to, and the owners can watch its travels. We pocketed this to add to the travel bug (same idea, just a bug rather than a coin) that we picked up at the first cache, and wandered back towards the car in the sun.

Another cache
After lunch we found two more caches, and then decided to head back to York via a cache that wasn’t on the map. Bit more difficult, because you can’t work out what public footpaths are going to lead you from the road to the cache, but we thought it would be a bit of adventure. We drove for a while with Nimmy shouting out the distance to the cache, and when it started going up again we abandoned the car and set off in the right-ish direction along the nearest path. After about half an hour we reached a lake behind Gilling Castle which we had never seen before, and then set off up the clay-iest, muddiest steep hill into plantations that we had ever trudged. We spent quite a while in the woods trying to find the cache, but in the end gave up as we weren’t entirely sure whether we were on public land or not, and we were looking for a cache in a wood “under a log”! It was probably just as well, as when we reached the main path again, the GPS was off by 200 yards – it must have got confused under the trees. Never bodes well for finding caches with that sort of accuracy!

And another

It had suddenly got really late, so we drove sleepily back to York and had a roast dinner with Mikey and Roo before sleeping very soundly!

Gunnerside

What a lovely holiday. We did nothing apart from eat and sleep and read and walk and watch DVDs. It was wonderful! Our cottage was in the middle of Gunnerside and we could just walk straight out onto the dales and up into gills and across moor. To be honest, we didn't walk as much as I had hoped - we just kinda collapsed, but it was a good collapse. We watched the whole of the first series of Battlestar Galactipus and I read loads (even more after we found a second hand book sale). When we did walk, it was brilliant and wuthering, and we found all sorts of Tolkein-esque industrial ruins miles up in the hills. It was all rather fine!


Old lead mines


Funky field boundaries

Inglebrough

It has finally been proved - the summit of Inglebrough is in the same world as the bottom! Having never seen anything further than 3 feet ahead of us at the top, we were in doubt that it was actually in the same reality - it could quite possibly have been some misty no-mans land between our world and another! But today, the sun the shining the forecast was good, and so we headed up.

We can see it!

It was pretty exciting just to be able to see where we were going for a change, and we discovered lots of things about the trail from Horton like, the stone we stop to eat at is pretty much right at the bottom of the last climb up to the top (not a good walk away as we thought!), you can see the ribblehead viaduct and it looks very fine, Penyghent has cool stryations all the way down the side.

View from the top

It was a lovely walk - the sun was warm (easy to forget it is February), and everything looked shiny and colourful. There was hardly any mud (apart from the bog which I sunk most of my boot into), and not too many people. Perfect.

I can ski!

Its true! We spent the weekend with Ian's dad and Jacy in their new home near Tarbes, and spent two days skiing in the Pyrenees at La Mongie. It took me a while to get the hang of it (this picture is after about an hour), but by the second day I was relatively convincing!

Starting to ski, a bit
I was most impressed with the whole area, and not just because of the wonderful weather! It was pretty cold - below zero everyday when we left the house - but the sun was so warm that at lunch time we could sit outside without lots of coats and gloves.

The whole region is pretty beautiful - there is a giant flat plateaux covered in little villages and small market towns and then the Pyrenees suddenly appear. The foothills are really rounded and green and studded with elongated traditionally french villages which look like they haven't really been touched for the last 100 years! I don't suppose I'm ever going to be a great fan of ski resorts - after all they are giant lumps of metal and plastic and concrete and nasty hotel blocks plonked down on the side of what could be a beautiful mountain. I'd love to go up to a bit where there aren't ski-lifts and hotels and see the actual mountains. And walking here in the summer would be great - there are loads of trails marked to little lakes and gullies. Its pretty untouristy here at the minute - mainly french people - I wonder what the summer is like....

The view from the edge of Pujo

Wuthering around

Its official – I no longer believe the BBC weather – or any weather forecast for that matter. It promised sun today – a big yellow, round sun on the forecast with hints of high cloud here and there if you looked at the satellite picture.

As Jim and Vicki and Ian and I drove around the Leeds ring road, the sky was leaden and big fat raindrops fell on us! Mikey and Roo walked from Keighley train station to Haworth, so we escaped the rain with a cup of tea in a good old traditional tea shop and salivated over their menu – beans on toast, Yorkshire Pudding filled with sausages and onion gravy.

When Mikey and Roo arrived we set off up onto Haworth moor and had lunch in a sheltered spot in the Penistone Country Park. Then we strode across to the Bronte waterfalls and up along the Pennine Way to Top Withins, supposedly the inspiration for Wuthering Heights. It was a really good wuthering day – not really raining, just spitting occasionally, but a good thick layer of monochromatic cloud. The light was really good and all the heather and grasses stood out in colour.

Penistone Country Park in the drizzle
When we got back to Haworth, 7.5 miles later, we bought lemon bon bons, strawberry sherbets and sour apples from the brilliant sweet shop, and had a good pint of Deuchers and Fine Fettle. Not exactly a long walk, but very pleasant!

Climbing up from the stream as the sun goes down

Christmas

What a fun Christmas!

Christmas 2007

Snow!

We went on the walk on Sutton Bank again, this time with Mikey, and this time in the snow! It was threatening sleet, but we thought that it would be fun anyway, and although it was very cold, it was very fun!


Highland Cattle


The White Horse


A proper snowy Christmas tree!

More mist

The BBC lies! They said that it would be white cloud with sun, and it really wasn't!

But first thing in the morning, we didn't realise that they were being so unrealistic and so decided to go for a walk at Sutton Bank (a steep inland cliff-thing). We managed to forget the camera, which means that we have no more pictures of us disappearing into the mist, but if we had remembered it, we would have taken pictures of:

- highland cattle with big horns and shaggy fringes looking at us in a bemused fashion
- gorse bushes covered in millions of spiders' webs glittering with water droplets
- the ruins of Byland Abbey emerging from the mist
- the lack of visibilty on Sutton Bank
- tiny little chapel built in the middle of nowehere to commemerate four Ampleforth students killed in the war
- the white horse eclipsed by the mist
- several rather nice looking pubs

Our walk:

Canada!

We went to Canada!
(a brief synopsis)




We flew into Seattle, checked into the hotel and then went swimming in the deserted swimming pool, which was particularly welcome after a 9 hour flight, even if our body clocks did think it was 4am!!!

Early next morning, we met our group and set off. Our group was actually doing the Trek in parallel with another group, so we has two vans of people staying in the same place each night and doing a lot of the same activities in the day. Having two vans did mean however that the groups had more flexibility over what we did as there was effectively more options, which was good.

First day was a long drive from Seattle up into Canada to get to Pinantan Lake in British Columbia. To set the scence for the whole trip, the lake looked like this first thing the next morning:



Next day we went on towards Yoho National Park, via Revelstoke. We camped at Beaverfoot Lodge, which is on the floor of a wide valley, with the steep mountains climbing up at either side. It was a really atmospheric location.



This was further increased by the LOUDEST thunderstorm we've ever experienced which happened during the night! The thunderclaps actaully made the ground shake (we noticed as we were obviously sleeping on the floor) but the noise went on for literally 20-30 seconds each time - basically because the sound was bouncing back & forth between the two sides of the valley.

The next day we went on a hike from Takakawa Falls through Yoho pass. It was a spectacular day and we saw some of the most fantastic scenery.

View as we came out of the pass:


to the left as we came down...


and across the lake at the bottom:


Having compelted this hot trek, we jumped back into the van to head back to the camp to go horse riding. This took along the side of the valley, but ended not quite as expected when the guide's horse got stung by a hornet and freaked out all the other horses, who decided they were going home, regardless of what people wanted them to do!! Taz & I weren't too phased by this, but that wasn't the case for some others in the group who found the whole thing a little too exciting. We just thought it added to the interest!

The next day we went on to Lake Louise, where we did another hike. This started of with a steep climp up to the tea house by Lake Agnus.

Lake Agnus, with the teahouse just visible:


We then went round the lake and up the Big Beehive. This is the view from the top down over Lake Louise and the famous Chateau:



We then decended down the other side (at a gallop in our case) which brings you out half way down Lake Louise. We then made a very brisk dash to the far end of the lake, up towards the Plain of Six Galciers. We got as far as we could before time meant we had to head back, which we did via the medium of running the length of the lake. (We'd already decided to do this when on the Beehive to give us maximum time to get up to the Six Glaciers - the others thought we were crazy!!)

At the end of the Plain of Six Glaciers, with Lake Louise behind:




To be continued....

More Canada

On leaving Lake Louise we headed for Banff and returned to the Tunnel Mountain campground (6 years on!), where we would spend three nights. We set up camp in the sunshine and revelled in having returned to such an idyllic setting.

This looks like a pic from the brouchure...




We spent a happy evening around the campfire and then had the next day to mooch around banff. The next morning was simply beautifu; clear, crips, still and quiet. This was the view out from our camp:





It was a beautifully sunny day and we had a most relaxing day.


Banff


In the evening we went back into town for a meal, where I had an Elk Burger, which was very fine. We then went to another bar for a few beverages, before calling it a night.

The next day we went to Johnstone Canyon in the morning and took a short(ish) walk up to the waterfalls. It was another beautifully sunny day (this was now a theme which continued for the majorty of our trip!)





In the evening we went to the hot springs and then spent the evening around the campfire again. The next morning we started with a great breakfast of bacon & eggs and Tassy excelled at cooking perfect scrambled eggs for 24 people! I think the trek leaders expected it to be a big lump of rubber, based on previous experiences!

We loaded the vans and headed off north...





The roads up through alberta we're superb and run past numerous stunning bits of scenery. We also saw an enormous moose wading across a river.




The Majestic Moose...






Probably the most famous stretch is the Icefields Parkway, which runs past the Columbia Icefield. This is the edge of a huge mountain ice feild, which you can walk a little way up to on one of the galciers. This is pretty cool, although it has now become a little touristy. It was ok when we were there but I'd hate to be there in season.







We happened to be there as the sun was going down as well, so it diappeared behind the nearby mountain whilst we were on the glacier and it was amazing how quickly the temperature dropped when we were plunged into the shade!

Once we were off the glacier we made a leisurely return to the van (despite it being already quite late in the day) and header off further north up to Jasper.

To Be Continued...