1st October 2016

After a comfortable night’s sleep, punctuated only once (at least as far as I can remember) by the wailing of ghost trains, we woke to another lovely day. The sun was shining down on our picture-postcard surroundings. I think we’re starting to take this scene for granted. On my walk to the shower block, I didn’t stop once to admire any feature of this pristine environment!

We drove into Banff and did a bit of shopping, with Jamie gamely limping and hopping beside me. For once, I wasn’t trailing metres behind him as he marched purposefully along the trail. Though I’ve often reminded him that it’s the journey, not the destination, that matters, it took a ‘popped’ knee to finally slow him down.

Leaving the town behind, we first drove to ‘Two Jack Lake’ for a short walk along its shore, then moved on to Lake ‘Minnewanka’, a much larger body of water where it’s possible to take a cruise along its length. We passed tourists lining up at the small dock to board one of the nifty little boats, while we made our way along the road high above. Perhaps another time.

Our next stop was Canmore. We dropped into the Tourist Information Centre to make use of the Wi-Fi and to gather details about the RV camp just outside Calgary, where we planned to stop for the night. Armed with the necessary information, we continued into town, parked up, and enjoyed lunch in the sunshine at a restaurant on the corner of Main Street. We watched the locals going about their business, savoured our meal, and then strolled down the street for a bit of window shopping.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, Jamie wanted to visit a quarry lake in the town, so we drove there next. The place was popular with dog walkers, and the lake turned out to be more of a pond, divided in two by the sort of rope you’d see marking swimming lanes at your local pool. A large sign instructed that dogs should only swim on the side shaded in green on the inset map. They must have very intelligent dogs here, as we didn’t see a single one crossing the rope!

It was striking to see so many dogs of all sizes and breeds off the leash, happily mingling with each other. When a new dog arrived, they all seemed to greet one another with wagging tails, no snarls in sight. Clearly, British dogs are more suspicious; they are packed with the hormones that scream trusty bulldog spirit, the kind that empires are made of.

Returning to the RV, we set off towards Calgary, driving through a heavy rain shower. We eventually arrived at the RV camp, located right next to the Olympic Village, around lunchtime. From our pitch, we had a clear view of the ski-jump.

After officially checking in, we parked up and took a walk along one of the many nature trails passing through the site. From one of its viewpoints, we could see the city of Calgary not far off in the distance. The rest of the afternoon was spent having our microwave dinner (sweet and sour pork) and playing cards while listening to the radio. I taught Jamie how to play Chinese Patience, and it seemed to capture his interest, as we ended up playing it well into the evening.