Sorry it's been a while for an update but it's been quite an eventful month to say the least. So this post could end up being a bit of an essay, sorry....
It started in June when Alberta was hit with massive floods which saw Canmore (the next town to us) suffer massive devastation with many losing their homes , part of the highway was completely destroyed also calgary suffered badly too and therefore caused us in Banff to be completely isolated as both ways of the highway closed no one could get in or out. This caused initial panic buying with the supermarkets running out of the essentials bread, milk etc within hours. The outskirts of Banff also started to flood and the whole town experienced a huge blackout that lasted for hours on the flipside to this it was the night of the supermoon so got some great pictures. So as you can see it was quite an experience unfortunately this all happened the week leading up to my ultra and you can guess where the location was (Canmore) and you can also guess the outcome (cancelled). Even though I am gutted that I didn't get to compete im very lucky that was the only real affect the floods had on me personally it could of been a lot worse.
 |
| Supermoon in Banff! |
Next stop is Paul's ultra race in the Wild Mountain Fernie 80k, which saw him go away for the weekend with work where they hired a cabin in the beautiful surroundings of landscape of Fernie. Paul's race was on the Saturday with the day being a scorcher and a hard course with climbs over 10,000ft to conquer it was going to be a challenging race. Due to Paul's ever present hamstring Problems and a bad case of sickness he was forced to pull out after 56k , for all that know Paul you will know that he is his worse critic and therefore he was devastated how the day ended playing out but I am as proud as ever at what he managed to accomplish. Fernie is also where Paul had his first run in with the Canadian mosquitos they seem to love him and his body seems to hate them as each bite was coming out the size of golfballs,ouch! But as we all know you can't keep a good guy down for long, under a week after the ultra he raced in the kanakankis3 trail race which saw him come 2nd overall after taking a nasty tumble which saw him busting up his leg pretty bad , took the sting out of his disappointment, quite literally.
 |
| Fernie Ultra Start Line |
 |
| Paul's leg the day after his race. |
Over the last few weeks Paul has been fortunate enough to experience more amazing scenery that the Rockies has to offer with his good friend Marie which has seen him visit Emerald Lake, Natural Stone Bridge, Lake O'Hara, Moraine Lake and Plain 6 of Glaciers, Johnston Canyon and the Ink Pots, I have been super jealous that I couldn't go due to work as the pictures look truly breathtaking. I managed to get on outing today whilst Paul was in work where I visited Wapta Falls and Takakkaw Falls with Marie, Alex and Rachel, Again the Rockies didn't disappoint .
 |
| Lake Emerald |
We were both lucky enough to get a day off together last week so we decided to visit Lake Louise it started off as such a rainy day which was slightly disappointing due to the really good weather we had been having but we both had good waterproofs on so we weren't going to let some bad weather spoil our day after all we are Welsh we are use to it! After exploring the town and walking to the lake we treated ourselves to dinner out as the town is made up of a handful of shops & cafes and doesn't take long to cover. It was still raining once we had finished our lunch but we decided to walk out to the gondola which is suppose to be one of the top places to see a bear in the wild. We sat at the bottom of the resort debating on whether or not to go up and as we were sitting discussing we spotted a bear! So we decided we had to go on the gondola by the time we had brought our tickets the rain had stopped and the clouds lifted. So we eagerly got on the chair praying we would get to see another and it didn't disappoint we spotted 4 bears up and 4 Bears down. Clearly buzzing from finally seeing bears we decided to head back to the lake now that the weather had improved drastically to take some good pictures. As we were walking towards the lake we were heading to a road crossing when all of sudden we could see orange flashing lights and at a closer inspection a group of people with cameras pointing in our direction the other side of the trees with one hand on the bear spray we tried to quickly and quietly see what the fuse was about and you will never guess what it was grizzly bears we were literally a few meters away I was in awe finally the wait was over and boy was it worth it a perfect end to a perfect day.
 |
| Grizzly's ! |
We only have a month and a half left in Canada now and we plan to get out as much as possible too see as much of the landscape This beautiful place we have been lucky enough to call home for the last several months has to offer before we have to say bye for now too, including the Canadian Death Race. Before we land in New Zealand for a year we have just finalised our itinerary from the time we leave Canada to the time we board the plane to Auckland. It includes Las Vegas, a trip to Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park and Lake Powell , a week away in Hawaii and a few days in Los Angeles with a pit stop to Fiji on our way to Auckland, I personally can't wait.
Thanks for reading
Gemma & Paul x
 |
| Johnston Canyon |
 |
| Looking over Lake O'Hara |
