Day One. Fernie to Waterton National Park

We finally left Fernie at 4pm on Friday to begin our two week jaunt in the Rockies. A lovely surprise in the form of Hammo and his girlfriend Suze arrived on Wednesday night amidst Jethro and I dashing around trying to sort out electricians, cleaning, packing, leaving shindigs etc… We’ll only be in Fernie for two days when we get back, so we have to make sure that everything is pretty much ready for our departure *sniffle*


Hammo and Suze help us pack. It was great to see them one final time before we left and we had a sneaky feeling that Adrian would be pitching up at some stage on his travels around Canada.


Our deluxe accomodation for the next two weeks - the back of a Dodge Caravan!

It was surprising how quickly the fraught nerves evaporated when we drove through the Crowsnest Pass and entered unchartered territory. Making great progress, we got to the outskirts of Waterton National Park in about three hours. The views on the drive across the plains were just breathtaking. However, there was so much snow on the mountains ahead of us that we were a teeny bit worried about how cold it would be. More on that later.


We get a first proper look at Waterton National Park - check out the snow-covered peaks!


Me looking back at Jethro with the binnies.


The sun breaking through the clouds.

Having stopped at numerous scenic points on the way to take too many pictures, we went past a sign for a bison (buffalo) field. Pretty cool, we thought, so we pulled in to take a look. I’m glad we did, as we drove around a perimeter road for 3km before coming across five huge bison crossing the road in front of us. You’re not supposed to get out of your car as they can be aggressive so we took pictures from the front seat. A bit like Windsor Safari Park but the Canadian version!


The buffalo grazing on the plains - an impressive sight.

Realising that it was getting late, we arrived at the Waterton park gate at 6.30pm. Hammo very kindly gave us his National Parks of Canada pass (by way of Tony and Sarah – so thanks to them too!) which saves us a bundle on admission. Every time you drive into a National Park it costs you $17 or something ridiculous like that, so it can be an expensive business.

We drove through the park gate and the first thing we saw was a herd of elk on the plains below us – we stayed and watched them for a little while. About ten minutes down the road, we saw more wildlife in the form of Mule Deer – really, really cute little things. Jethro got out of the car and one of the baby ones was brave enough to come and have a sniff. They make really funny noises – a bit like chirping!


The large plains behind Jethro were full of grazing elk - they're just too small to see in this picture.


Jethro makes a new friend *meep!*


Middle Waterton Lake. I think you'll agree that the view is better than a smack in the face with a wet fish any day...


Us ruining a perfectly good bit of scenery.


Upper Waterton Lake, just next to our campsite. Half of this lake is in Canada and the other half is in the US. How do you even start patrolling that kind of border?!

We made it to the campsite just as it was getting dark so we set about making some food with all the marvellous equipment that Karen and Jay lent us (thanks guys!). I am proud to say that our first camping dinner consisted of cheese and brocolli pasta and moose steak. The older couple next to us noted with envy that we didn’t just eat. We dined.

Oh yes, we’re down with this whole camping vibe.

We got steadily more cold as the night wore on and decided to test the bed in the back of the van at 11pm. There were showers and toilets on site, so we weren’t roughing it entirely. Doing the dishes in the dark was kind of funny though. We’ve decided to try and cook when it’s still light for the remainder of our trip!

Needless to say, it was actually bloody freezing in the back of the van. We had thermals, socks, flannel PJs, jumpers, a thermal sleeping bag and two duvets and we were still cold. We did manage to get some sleep in the wee small hours as we did warm up eventually.


We look snug as bugs but really we were shivering profusely. Honest.