Wednesday we woke up pretty sore, but rolled out of bed, and proceeded to pack and fully clean the house. It was still freezing out, but by lunchtime and packing the car it was pretty warm in the sunshine.
We said goodbye to everyone, took a last walk to the hostel, a last hug of Yogi, and headed out of town via dropping off the recycling and rubbish (on the way to Revelstoke, we had our rubbish in the car to drop at the bin on the way, so it wouldn’t be sitting in the house for 3 days, but it was early in the morning, and we forgot, and ended up taking it to Revelstoke, not ideal!). A last view of the elk by the railroad tracks, then our final wait for the train to finish crossing the tracks.
It wouldn’t have been the same, leaving Field without having to wait for the train…the trains are kilometers long, and travel slowly through Field, usually stopping for a bit – I think it is a place where they switch shifts/drivers etc, and if you need to cross the road, you just have to wait till the train has passed. It usually takes 10-15 minutes for the whole train to pass, and so many times in or out of the town, we have encounterd the train. They also toot a lot if the elk won’t move off the tracks.
Anyway, after the train had finally left, we zoomed our way out of Field, and headed down to Banff. The day was amazing, clear blue skies, and not even the thought of a cloud.
We drove to Banff, where we stopped at the hot pools, and soaked until we were thoroughly warm, then drove on to Canmore, where we had delishuz curry for dinner (we haven’t had curry in many weeks, gasp!).
Then on to Calgary in the Very Dark, on the 110km max roads. The road was pretty straight from when it left the Rockies until it arrived in Calgary, and it was quite pretty to come up over the last rise and see the lights all spread out on the plains. It was a little scary to drive in a big city at night! Especially as the biggest towns we’ve seen in the last 6 weeks have less than 8000 people.
We made it to our backpackers – we are staying at Wicked Hostel, and it’s pretty good for a hostel. The only bad thing really is the noise, otherwise, they supply breakfast (pancakes!), towels, comfortable beds, free internet, nice showers, and good shower mats. Important things, these.
We have two irish room-mates, arrived from Ireland 2 days ago, who seem lovely, but one has the most broad accent, and it is fun talking to him, but I think I need a translator…
Dale and Becca 