Oh deer! Can't bear any more!

  Jasper, Alberta, Canada
Wednesday, May 2, 2007

I made my escape from Lake Louise this morning just as the Australian tourists were descending. Busloads of retirees with loud Strine accents (or is it that my ear is just more finely tuned to it amongst all the other accents?) The breakfast cafe was a sea of ruddy-faced men and ladies in polar fleece or track suits. Please, if I ever book myself on to a Scenic or Trafalgar tour, will one of you shoot me?

Today has been a long bus trip from Lake Louise, through the alps and icefields to Jasper - a town of about 5000 people to the north. We spotted deer, elk and mountain sheep, but no bears. We drove through towering mountains passes, alongside glacial rivers and frozen lakes. I have had my fill of snow, spruces and geography commentary though. Six days has been about right.

We travelled through the Icefields National Park and climbed to around 7000 feet - just below the treeline. The highlight of the day was a snowbus ride on to the Athabasca Glacier. Our witty driver said the ice was reported to be 1000 feet deep at it's deepest. The weather was cloudy most of the day, but the clouds lifted long enough to see the gree/blue tinge of the ice packs. The photos show it better - and look for the little specks which are the snowbuses on the track up to the turnaround point.

Jasper is a small railway and winter sports town about three blocks long. There is a gondola to a mountain lookout, but otherwise, not much for tourists.
Dinner was spent with Helen and Paul - a pig pellet manufacturer and his wife from Northern England keen to hear ALL about the Australian agricultural industry from me! Monica, meanwhile, has firmly latched on to me where possible and I envisage spending the next 3 days on the Trans-Canadian train locked in my little cabin to avoid more ear-bashings...