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Well we were up before the alarm this morning knowing that we had a long drive ahead of us up to Jasper.

We loaded up the Santa Fe and hit the road. The road at first seemed to follow both the Rocky Mountaineer Railroad tracks and the Thompson River. You could feel the gradual climb in the car against the engine, always having to put your foot that little bit harder down to maintain speed.

The landscapes were insanely beautiful as they always seem to be as as we left Kamloops we first went back into farming belt land and those distinctive red barns and huge estates with private roads all hugging the river banks.

As we left Kamloops behind we also seemed to leave the

weather as it started to rain and did not stop for about the next three hours on and off. This was not good as obviously we had planned to drive this scenic routs to take in the sheer beauty and majesty of the rocky mountains but with the rain coming down it was proving harder to take in.

We listened to the radio reporting on all the terrible flooding that was happening across Alberta (exactly where we were heading) and tried to think about how this was going to effect us. The floods seem to have been caused by the melting of an exceptional snow fall at the beginning of the year and then constant rain for the last month. These two events caused the rivers to burst their banks with spectacular effect cutting off neighbourhoods and wiping out bridges and motorways systems, it is tragic indeed.

As we dove through the landscape you could see that the more we headed towards the Alberta boarder the rivers got higher and higher until pine trees were literally growing out of the river beds, clearly not how it is meant to be.

The road itself was like a battle of fits and starts. It was mainly single lane with a speed limit of 100km per hour so not that fast at all. The thing was that once you got stuck behind one of those stupidly large american style lorries or a huge RV (camper van to you or I) your journey slowed down tremendously and sometimes you had to drive another 20km for a passing lane to get by!

Outside of all this doom and gloom and the rain there were some stunning views along the road, snowcap mountains came back into view, the farmland was replaced with the pine forests and a constant supply of white water rivers flowing through the lanscape. I would eat my hat if Alberta ever has a drought!!!

We were playing a funny game of cat and mouse with a load of Harley Davidson bikers that kept passing us then we would pass them. They all had soft cuddly toys strapped to their bikes with the bear being their creature of choice. The were out there biking in the pouring rain getting very wet indeed......we played this game of cat and mouse or bike and car all the way into Jasper.

We stopped for petrol and lunch at a roadhouse, the kind of place that does everything in a town that is only there to serve the people that are passing through to the national parks. We both had burger and chips from a place that I dont think we would normally eat in but needs must . The bikers stopped there too so it was two gay guys and a load of leather chap wearing, bandana head scarf wearing Harley Riders in a burger joint in the middle of nowhere.....you could not make it up.

Back on the road and the view was owned by one spectacular mountain that filled the windscreen and we seemed to heading directly for it. Mount Robson is the second tallest peak in the rockie mountains and it is impressive! It looks like an arrow head coming out of the ground as it is very triangular and pointy and with its snow covered peak it really makes you gasp. At just under 10,000.00 feet high it owns the landscape around it and is a truly magical piece of nature.

Finally we arrived in Jasper after some five hours on the road, putting our watches forward one hour as we had crossed the timeline, and checked into our hotel. We were located right on the very edges of the town so after freshening up we took the twenty minute walk into town to get some bearing and see what this town was all about. The first thing to say is that it is a lot bigger than we thought that it was going to be but as a ski resort there is no sign of any ski pistes anywhere. They are all located about twenty minutes out of town by bus so won't be coming here to ski, far to much hassle!

Back to Jasper, the main street runs parallel with the train tracks that define the town and put it on the map. When Jasper was first established 50% of its population worked on the railroad and the other 50% must have serviced their needs. Like Kamloops, Jasper sits in a valley surrounded by mountains, only these are snow covered and much taller and larger and closer to the town itself.

To be honest though Japser was full of tourist tat shops and restaurants and bars there was nothing interesting about the town but then why should there be? You dont come here to look at the town you come for the national park that it sits in and take in the wonder of mother nature and that is exactly what we will be doing tomorrow.

Needing a plan of attack we went back to the hotel to decide on the must do's from the list of could do's and narrowed it down to about five but more of that tomorrow.

Unfortunately the flood alerts were even closer to us know and we knew that in the next 24 hours we were going to have to make a decision on where and when we were going to go in a days time. The bridges that link Banff to Calgary and make that journey possible have been destroyed by the torrents of water so our original plan is not going to be an option.

We spent a good hour weighing up the options but still no firm this is what we are doing as yet, we will leave that for when we have to go and can have the latest info.

Feeling tired at not that inspired to make the walk back down into Jasper again we headed off to the hotel steak and rib house restaurant for dinner and paid well over the odds for what we had, you can bet that we will make that walk tomorrow!

Its night from us both tonight as we have come back to the room, feels like a night to watch a movie to me and recharge a bit, that drive was hard work.

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