Today’s plan was simple – late breakfast, washing clothes, late lunch then a wildlife tour with a guide.
After breakfast, we stopped at the supermarket for snacks, and came across some enormous peaches. Next stop, washing clothes. After getting some cash and working out how the machines worked Jo and I had coffee, tea and cake to celebrate (or rather, whilst we waited). I watched the women’s Euros penalty shootout then updated the holiday spending accounts!
It wasn’t long before it was time for a late lunch/early dinner as our wildlife tour left the hotel at 5.15pm. We shared pizza and poutine.
The wildlife tour was led by a local guide who thought she was funnier than she was, and maybe didn’t realise she was as rude as she was. We weren’t the victims of her chatter as she failed to pick up people, received phone calls, then had to return to collect one particularly angry passenger who’d been to the toilet and missed being collected. Serves him right for being late!
The tour itself focused on the road into Jasper we’d travelled in on (where we only saw the elk we’d already seen) and the area up to Maligne Lake. The guide shared a literally constant stream of information for the 5 hours we were with her about wildlife, geology and the history of the area. Once on the road to Maligne Lake we saw a lot more – mule deer, bald eagles, a hoary marmot, a nesting osprey, and a pair of moose.
The views were pretty good too, especially as we were travelling back at sunset.
We arrived back after 10pm and ended the day with snacks, before bed.