The Big Adventure: The Rockies adventure starts...

After a very very long 3 day bus journey from Ottawa to Banff we had finally arrived in the Canadian Rockies, a long life dream of ours. To be able to run and explore in some of the most amazing and famous set of mountains in the world.

As we had been stuck on the bus for so long we decided to take a stroll to take in our new surroundings and look at potential jobs and accommodation whilst we were doing this we bumped into some of Banffs local wildlife Elks. Banff is also home to deer, black bears, cougars and grizzly Bears , I wonder how many of these we will spot hopefully non of the latter too close!

Which one first???

Less than 24hours of being here we decided to have a little hike up 'Sulphur Mountain' standing at 8,140ft high. The weather was great very cool but the sun was beaming, with little cloud in the sky. On reaching the top we were over come by how breath taking the views were all around us, stunning doesn't even come close! With unusual high temperatures around at the moment a lot of the snow on the grounds had gone but it made the snow peak tops on the mountains stand out even more. We both just stood there for a couple of minutes taking it all in. As it was our first day here we decided not to do too much at once and started to head to back to the village of Banff where we are staying for the mean time. 3 hours after starting we were up, down and in the local coffee shop warming back up on a nice warm hot chocolate.

Enjoying the natural hot springs.

With so much to in and around this area I don't think we are going to be stuck for things to do at any minute of each day. Today we decided to have a relaxing morning and have a soak in some of the 100% natural hot springs they have here at Banff. It felt so good on the body, it was so surreal as the air temperature was -19 and the springs were at 40 degrees. It was a great way to get your 'Hot - Cold' treatment.

Later on in the afternoon I noticed free ice climb sessions being given to the general public, well I couldn't just walk past could I? Gemma had said she didn't fancy it but I just had a stomach feeling to give it a go. You only live once right? WOW it was one of the hardest things I have ever done..... My arms were screaming after 5minutes of climbing. But after being on the wall for around 45 minutes it was time to call it a day as my whole body was screaming and the temperatures had plummeted with the heavy snow fall we were having at the time.