Phew, where’s that Pong ?

well the heavens opened during the night, with a tremendous rainstorm,although I didn’t hear any thunder, the electricity on the complex was knocked out, so it was eerie listening to the rain thundering down in the blackness, although by dawn the rain had eased, and as the morning wore on it brightened up (and the electric came back on !)

Me and Thomas went for a spin round in the morning sunshine, whilst we decided what to do – we had planned to go to Lake Louise, but with the uncertain weather decided against it

Finally approaching mid day we decided to do a local hike, and went down into Banff, where we parked at the foot of the Gondola…and then chose to walk up Sulphur Mountain, rather than go by Gondola ! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulphur_Mountain_%28Alberta%29 The overnight rain had left snow on the top of the higher mountains, which looked good in the early afternoon sunshine, and we all set off upwards, on a quite steep trail, which seemed to just shoot upwards immediately from the start, and hardly eased off all our way up. We entertained the people on the passing Gondolas,waving to them as they passed overhead  , and smelling the sulphur springs on the air as we climbed higher and higher, eventually cresting the top of the mountain after about 2 hours, during which we realised Thomas’ dummy was still in the car,much to his distaste,and Mum had to end up carrying him most of the way, so it was a great relief as we came out into the sunny top..and surveyed the town of Banff below. We then had a great bit of grub at the Panorama cafe, before moving across the boardwalks to Sanson’s Peak, 2 mountain tops in a day for Thomas (and the rest of us) in the sunshine, and not too much wind..and then it was time to trundle across the tops and make our way down – the easy way ! – on the Gondola http://www.explorerockies.com/banff-gondola/?utm_source=BLL&utm_medium=PkgListings&utm_campaign=BLL_Web12 not cheap, but good fun (as can be seen…) perhaps someone may have inherited Granddad's love of Danger…??? although everyone else had a good journey down as well

As we got to the bottom we were all worn out and headed straight home for dinner,baths and bed..Goodnight !