at the campsite we encountered the grumpiest campsite receptionist we’d ever met, who seemed to find his job a real chore - strange given how many people would do anything for such a chilled job in a beautiful environment!! Our first site was already occupied, but eventually we found a couple that fitted our relatively modest requirements of being somewhere near the playground!! By the time we’d got everything set up and had tea it was time for a pretty early night.

The next morning we went into Jasper, a fairly small and quaint town, and sorted out some “real world” things like washing, posting a parcel and checking out the internet. It was the first time we’d had internet for a while, and we were shocked to find an email from the people we’d booked our Antarctica trip with saying that we owed the balance of our payment by tomorrow!! We fired off panicky emails to our bank and to

them and hoped for the best!! After lunch by Lake Edith we went to explore Malign Canyon, an impressively deep gully cut into the rock after a huge glacier left a hanging valley. We did a good walk down the canyon and back up.

Another chilled night in the vans was in order, and in the morning we were treated to the sight of a wolf sauntering past our vans while we were having breakfast!! We hadn’t seen too much wildlife up to this point, other than a few elk and big horned sheep, so this was a definite bonus. We checked our emails in the town and found that our Antarctica problem was pretty much sorted, while Russ and Ruth had a look around the town. Russ had been checking out mountain bike hire, and since we’ve been away he seems to have become something of a bike expert, so we were in good hands. After another lunch by Lake Edith, we picked up the bikes and Russ and I went for a tougher