5th last day in Banff

White water rafting. No pictures due to unavoidable wetness. I met Aaron and we got picked up by the big yellow American-style school bus about 8am (so EARLY!). There was an extremely talkative Irish guy who decided to talk to me, or at me, for the entire journey. I just sat there and nodded occasionally. He didn't even notice that I was still dozing.

The beginning of this rafting morning was on the Bow River, 20 minutes east of Canmore. There were meant to be mountains, but they never appeared out of the mist, and the rain. It is beginning to behave like autumn here because the summer is so short.

Anyway, on the river, there were a few really nice rapids at the beginning. Everyone in our boat was young and fit so we could do some pretty fun stuff, like surfing in places. Half way through, we drew all the boats up onto the bank because we were doing an optional cliff jump. The cliff was pretty high - maybe 30 feet. There was water underneath. I jumped. On the way down, I began to consider whether or not it was a good idea.

I'm glad I did it because it was the highlight of the day, even though it made me pretty cold for the rest of the time. Although the rafting was enjoyable, the water is quite low right now so there weren't really enough rapids. They gave everyone hot chocolate at the end. Mmmm. I had my dry socks on and I was happy.

I had a very long, hot shower when I got back, only around noon. I went out later on and almost beat Paul at Othello...then played hockey with Laura and her friends. I was attempting to fluke an action shot. I didn't get anything much, but I'll put some up since I didn't have any rafting photos.





Anyway. Not many plans for tomorrow yet, apart from going canoeing and eating steak.