Tuesday July 28th
This was the white knuckle day for me: persuaded by the family that a Grade 1-2 rafting trip just wasn’t worth the bother, we’d signed up for a Grade 3-4, so at 7.45 we were whisked off by a stoned New Zealander in a yellow all-American school bus and by 9.15 I was standing outside a hut near the Kananakis river with a bunch of other hapless tourists, clad in my first ever wetsuit (all those pancakes and maple syrup coming back to haunt me), squelching in bootees still damp inside from the previous raftee (yuk!) and trying to get my helmet and lifejacket to fit. We’d previously signed a waiver, preventing us from suing on pretty much any grounds whatsoever which had spelt out in grim detail all the ways this fun pursuit could maul, maim and kill us. However the guides – a mix of Canadians, Kiwis and Ozzies – carefully walked the tightrope between coming across as a bunch of dreadlocked hippies, jollying everyone along and actually knowing an awful lot about their sport and safety. 8 to a boat, we were given useful tips such as what to do if you fall into the river, how to haul someone back onto the raft without strangling them and all manner of codewords and instructions for various life-threatening scenaria. Once on the water, though, it was brilliant fun: we navigated (or rather our guide steered and we paddled lamely when told) through various Grade 3+ whirlpools and rapids, we had a couple of water fights against those in other rafts and Angus and the girls (but not wimpy ol’ me) took the optional jump into the river from a 7 metre cliff. We squelched back, wet and happy and, in dry clothes and fortified by hot chocolate, dozed our way on the bus back to Banff. Unfortunately no photographic evidence exists of the whole thing, though given that I was winkled into a wetsuite, that's maybe no bad thing!
After lunch (well all that adrenalin output sure builds up a hunger) we crashed out for a bit and then in the evening went on a wildlife tour. We didn’t actually see any more animals then we’d seen previously on the trip – quite a few elk, some ground squirrels and one young black bear, but our French Canadian guide was very knowledgeable and gave us loads of background on the national park and the animals that live here.
