We have had to delay our cycling until my broken hand is mended and my balance is back to normal.  Not being town people we have found staying in Calgary and Fernie quite a strain, just too many people, noise and cars.  So we have rented ‘Fred the Wreck’

We set off north, back up the Columbia Valley slowly so that we arrive back in Calgary in time to have my cast removed from my hand.  The problem of being in a car is staying on tarmac roads, which, in August are full of massive camper vans, as are all the main camp sites which are also full and not appealing.

Luckily, due to my dizzy vision, I haven’t been able to read the small print of our rental agreement, and we have found some lovely empty campsites, (up some ever so slightly rocky roads!) that also happen to be near beautiful lakes.

Although the car has allowed us to see more of British Columbia it is really not a good way to travel. On the bike it is the journey that is the experience as you are can hear, feel, smell and touch things you pass. The destination is just the place you happen to stop at the end of the day, not the reason for travelling. It is the opposite in a car. You notice the odd dramatic bit of scenary as you speed past and the destination is the big disappointment when you stop. So we decided to go a bit more off the main route. Having chatted to a couple of lovely ladies in a cafe in the tiny village of Spillimacheen we left the road and turned across the wetlands.

We are now back in Calgary waiting to see if they will take off my cast and say my broken thumb is mended tomorrow. In this unlikely event we will try to set off again on the bikes from Fernie, mainly on roads to start with. If not we will make further plans with the car, and hope all the fires in Montana have now been put out.