We left Banff on Monday 18^th August and drove back up past Lake Louise and followed Route 1 out and into Yoho National Park.

Saw the Spinning Tunnel in action – in essence it’s a spiral shaped tunnel cut into the mountain for trains. I can’t make it sound any more exciting than that I’m afraid…. Exciting stuff eh?

More stunning mountain scenery and once again a gorgeous lake sat empty waiting for us to dive into. No warmer than the last one but just as refreshing.

So finally we arrived in BC. I think if we’re honest we have been reluctant to get here too quickly, knowing that this is the last Canadian Province we will visit. We have loved our time in Canada so much and really don’t want it to end. The one very exciting thing in BC is John’s cousin Barb and her lovely husband Norb who we are so looking forward to seeing. The kids have been asking almost daily when we will get there. So arriving in BC we were at least pleased to be closer to them.

We were headed to a place called Golden, located between the Rockies and the Columbia Mountains. We had read that it had some of the best biking terrain in North America and John & Will were desperate to do some down hill biking.

Out through the Rockies and we marveled at the road construction – literally just carved the way through he mountains!

I absolutely hate mountain roads for obvious reasons and John lives in fear that Frankie’s brakes will fail us (we once had a very hairy trip down a mountain in France where we had to stop half way down and have an impromptu picnic while we waited for the brakes to cool down). Saw this wreck half way down which did nothing to alleviate our fears.

We had heard from one of our neighbours at Lake Louise that the Municipal Campground in Golden was great but busy. We hadn’t managed to get hold of them to make a reservation so just rocked up with our fingers crossed. We were in luck and got a pitch next to the Kicking Horse River.

Brilliantly located next to a swimming pool, splash park, SKATE PARK and a short path way along the river to town. Only down side was just the other side of the river was a railway line. Luckily we appear to have become immune to the sounds of trains and their whistles so barely noticed them!!

We ended up staying 3 nights and spent a day doing some planning. As I said we had been avoiding arriving in BC knowing this meant the beginning of the end of our Canadian stay but now we needed to work out how we would spend our last few weeks here.

We were all keen to experience some of the hot springs so found a place en-route to Vancouver called Nakusp which we booked for a few nights. Then down into the Okanagan Valley to a place called Osoyoos – known for vineyards and sunshine, my kind of place!! Then after that we will finally head to Barb and Norb’s for some time with them. Kids are looking forward to Barb’s amazing cooking and have started their 10 day fast in anticipation. I’m looking forward to a Girls Day Out and John is looking forward to sleeping in a proper bed. (They may have to throw us out as we might not want to leave again!).

On Tuesday John and Will got to do some cross country biking in the driving rain up on Kicking Horse Mountain while Charlie and I kept dry and cooked dinner on the mountainside. For some reason I massively over catered and had thought maybe I would freeze the rest of our sausage casserole. John and Will returned caked in mud and dripping wet with the widest smiles!! We wrapped up our dinner and drove back to the campground.

Once back there John and I walked together up to the campground office and suddenly spotted 2 English motorbikes parked up in a pitch just down from us. We couldn’t believe our eyes as we had been convinced we wouldn’t see another English number plate on our travels – in fact John had bet Charlie $100 that we wouldn’t. We got chatting and Petra and Anders are in fact Swedish but have been living in the UK for 10 years and are now doing a mammoth expedition Ewan McGregor & Charlie Boorman style round the world.

Suddenly my over catering felt like fate and they joined us for dinner. The kids were beside themselves with excitement about our first ‘dinner party’ and set the table with candles and table cloths and everything!!

We had a really lovely evening hearing about their incredible adventures so far. They are into their 15^th month and anticipate being on the road about the same again. John was totally sold and is now trying to persuade me to dump Frankie and buy some bikes with side cars….

Turns out they are also on their way to the little town of Nakusp not for the hot springs but for a travel convention called Horizons Unlimited where they are due to do a presentation about their travels. Check out their website http://www.twobikesoneworld.com to see a bit of what they have been up to. Suddenly our adventure feels very tame – although 3 years in a tent is certainly beyond me – Petra is an amazing woman!!

Then just like with buses, another English couple appeared. Also on a bike. Also headed to Nakusp. Crazy. So we will try to meet up with them all there hopefully. I was slightly concerned as we packed up to leave that John might disappear off with them and leave the kids and I behind in Frankie…

Wednesday was a dramatic day. Cycling around town on one of their many brilliant bike trails. Along the Kicking Horse River and round to where it meets Columbia River and William suddenly fell off his bike. Well I say suddenly fell off, in truth he was cycling one handed and decided to change gear on the other side with the one hand. Bike went from under him and he was down.

Blood pouring out of his chin ,which had a gaping hole you could put your finger in. Luckily I always carry steri strips (thanks Mum – good advice) so I taped him up best I could then cycled off to find help. Two lovely British chaps, one a retired doctor from Manchester University, were a mile up stream and they drove round to rescue us. Ian took Will and I to the local hospital and then vanished before we really had time to thank him. What a hero!

Will went all funny when we got to the hospital so was whisked away in a wheelchair while I sorted the $920 bill to receive medical attention – arghhhhh, NOT on our budget sheet. Having spent so much we were determined to get our monies worth so spent the next 4 hours with Will being showered down, mopped up and stitched up. He was very brave!! (Fingers crossed the insurance company will reimburse us!!).

So lucky we are headed to some healing waters next stop eh?