Banff: a great little town with too many tourists
We love Banff in any weather, because it’s not overdeveloped and is very reminiscent of Queenstown, New Zealand, on a smaller scale. The natural setting is marvelous and so well-managed that we finally saw Ann Elk (for those who missed it, that was a Python joke) with fawn.
Actually, we have great respect for the general Canadian attitude to their wild country: very ‘managed’ and a great respect their national heritage. The local paper has headlines and many letters because a black bear has been killed on the highway and a grizzly on the railway: locals want speed restrictions on the trains and all the wagons repaired to stop grain leakage. We like Canadians and I think they could teach us a thing or two about good behaviour and sensible government – good wines, too, though a little expensive. They don’t have the larrikin streak but they are also less bombastic than we can sometimes be – and they are easy to tell from the Yanks, and not merely from the accent.
Banff has a great hybrid-powered bus that took us up to the gondola for the trip to the summit of Sulphur Peak. It is a bit grey today and sleeting at the top in a strong wind that made it seem colder than the existing nine degrees (it was much warmer in at the base). The views were grey but spectacular, and the interpretative stuff excellent. We finally identified some of our furry friends – red squirrel, ground squirrel and least chipmunk. All cute, all out around the peak of Mt Sanson when we walked over from the top station and all victims of tourism in one way or the other, because you could get their attention by leaning over and opening you hand. But they were cheeky: a grounded backpack was an excuse for a detailed investigation.
We skipped the hot springs: they don’t fill naturally in summer, somehow needs to sit in a slightly over-sized family pool with far too many strangers? Paula knew the answer!
Tomorrow we fly to New York, probably the only lost day in the holiday. We leave here at 7.30 and don’t get in until 6 pm, so it’s a good day for a good book. The USA will be interesting and New York an experience I’m really looking forward to. Don’t let us down, NY!
And just to finish off with a final Pythonism – and with a rude gesture to the over-voluble Scandinavian back-packers that have invaded the Western Rockies – invisible moose trained by Annnikkka Svenstromsontom…..
We never did see a moose, except on some great t-shirts (best caption: ‘bet you wish your girl-friend had a rack like these’!).
