Canada – Alberta & British Columbia (31 May - 1 June 2007)

After a rendezvous in an upstairs room with some immigration authorities, I made it into Canada again. At first I was a little disappointed by the views and had a North Dakota flashback for the first few hours...







... but before too long the scenery changed, and it began to look more like this.






A night in Canmore and a meal with friend 'Canada De', and I woke up to this view from my hotel window, all of which made the Alberta experience very pleasant.

The next day, I drove towards British Columbia through Banff National Park. Ok, I know what I said about Grand Teton National Park... and then West Glacier National Park... but now Banff wins the prize for best view, best drive, in fact best National Park of the whole trip. Clear blue skies and temperatures in the 90s helped, but the Canadian Rocky Mountains are indeed 'awesome' as they say in this part of the world.


A quick stop at Lake Louise and I sped along towards Abbotsford, BC to stay with pal, 'Canada Da' (not to be confused with Canada De. They might share an initial and a country of origin, but they're two entirely different people).



The next day I went for a self-guided bicycle tour of the area, and I have to say that Abbotsford reminds me very much of the southwest of England. That's if the southwest of England was surrounded by mountains. All I needed was an 'Old Dairy' and a 'Seagull Cottage' and I’d have felt totally at home.