I rose early at 5.15am for my full day tour from Calgary through the Rocky Mountains to Jasper. I was excited! I had hardly slept the night before, going to bed late, and finding it hard to settle my restless mind chatter, turning my iPad on and off at least 3 times before I could settle.

My evening had been so eventful, a relaxing and enjoyable yoga class and a visit to a spiritual church where the Medium for the night connected with my Fathers Mum Lisa. She described her perfectly, her distinct large boned, solid European frame and square jaw line was a clear indicator she was communicating with my Paternal Grandma, a lady I never had the chance to meet. My Dad spoke very highly of his Mum and loved her dearly, he was very sad to lose her at his young age of 21. It was thrilling for me to receive a message from her, I was hoping my Mum or my Dad would come through and connect, let’s face it, there are lots of options!

As I sat up the front in eager anticipation for the adventurous day trip ahead of me, a young Aussie girl named Pip climbs aboard and I welcome her to sit with me. She was really chatty and friendly and a real go getter. I liked her immediately. She had swam the English Channel and had been a dedicated swimmer since she was 6. She had worked all sorts of jobs; Travel agent, Property Management, Bar tending and Surf Life rescue. After completing her Marketing degree she sold everything she had and moved to Canada, good on her! Now there is a girl living her truth! We exchanged information, so she may just read about herself here. Thanks for the inspiration Pip!

Our first stop was Banff, which was really only a coffee stop. It was too early in the morning to explore the shops because nothing was open, but we still managed to stroll around the quiet town.

Our next stop was Lake Louise, one of my favourite places on this Earth. I hurriedly walked out around the edge of the lake to take advantage of the photo opportunities. I even made a little video you can see on my Facebook page called ‘Live your Truth’.

Peyto lake was next on the scenic tour, and it did not disappoint. I was so impressed by the aqua blue lake and forest scene, and so was a million other tourists! Sometimes it is annoying to be on the tourist merry go round, but as a solo traveller, bus tours are one of the most efficient and social ways to travel.

We then carried on to the Athabasca Icefields, where we took another massive tank of a bus onto the glacier. Now that was cool! Hard to imagine we were on 40m thick chunks of ice and rock, it seemed treacherous in places. I made sure to stick to the right areas, crevices and hundred metre falls through the ice could be a risk, if you went out of the safe zone. Scary! I am not sure we were practising sustainable development with the hoards of tourists stomping and massive tyre trekking buses driving around the glacier. But the scenery was nice!

We then went on a really cool skywalk, a purpose built tourist attraction, to give non mountaineers an authentic mountain experience. There you could see great visuals deep into the Ice fields, 100m shelfs of ice capped the peaks of the mountains providing an ongoing water source. And I even spotted a mountain goat and her baby.

I had an interesting chat with a lady in her early 70’s as we were waiting for the other tourists to get back on the bus. I don’t know how we got onto it, but she told me that she liked to smoke pot! Have ‘a little choof’ so to speak. Ongoing from what I wrote about in my last post about Marijuana, the laws here are relaxed for the medicinal use of the drug. She told me that it really helped her deal with pain in her body, it helped her sleep and it was relatively accessible, even without a medical certificate. She smoked it straight without tobacco, she also gave up drinking alcohol years ago way back in 1987. Mixing the two she knew would be bad news, so she no longer drinks alcohol. Interesting eh? It never ceases to surprise me the people I meet and what I can learn from strangers, this is one of the reasons why I love to travel.

Our last stop was this magical place with a large waterfall, similar to Niagara waterfall, but not as big. I enjoyed this final stop and liked the power of the water as it cascaded ferociously down through to the rocks below.

By the time we made it back to Jasper, after 13 hours of being on the road touring the Rockies, I was ready for a hot shower and a rest. The scenery was spectacular, but you start taking it for granted after awhile, one more waterfall, one more glacier, which is terrible! The good news is, after a restful night, I will be ready to go again and absorb more awesome inspiring natural places and continue my global gallivant.

Thanks for reading!

Anita xx