Banff

The hills are alive with the sound of music...

The greyhound bus to Banff takes 10 hours from Penticton, any traveling that takes less than a day seems fast to me, plus the scenery certainly makes for an enjoyable ride, even if I still ended up with a seat that refused to recline without easing back up a few seconds later. I concluded that most bus seats are rated for persons much heavier than myself and thus have the weight to keep the seat reclined, which I guess is most people, except for normal sized children.

The last few hours of the journey which should have been the most spectacular were spoilt but some chatterbox who either started his journey from that point or moved from another place in the bus to a man sitting the next row to the side of me. He then regaled the poor man with his life story and acted as tour guide for everything we went past.
"On the right you can see Spruce and Pine, Spruce and Pine and on the right there's Spruce and Pine...Some very good fishing on the right there, spent a long time fishing...We're about 40 minutes from banff now, it's 45 minutes from Banff to Lake Louise, so I guess we should be there in about 40 minutes...That mountain right there is about 5000 feet high, it's a long day hike, you can do it in a day, we started at 6am, at the top by noon, it took all day so it's a really long hike, it's a big mountain..." And so on until we got to Banff, by which time his continuous drivel had given me a headache, the man who had been the sounding board had been too polite to pretend to fall asleep, I hope he learnt his lesson.

As the bus pulled into Banff I saw Saven walked across the parking area towards the bus station, she had arrived at 5am that morning, walked up a hill and was about to get another bus to somewhere else. It was great to see a friendly face straight away and a really nice surprise, especially as she had hot food and shared it with me before I went of to find the HI hostel. Which she warned was up a hill and a bit out of town. Groan, I was too tired for lugging the pack far, I bid her farewell and went off to inquire about bus routes, as I was waiting for the bus a girl remarked on the remarked of the size of my pack and turned out she was going to the same hostel, she told I driver I was with her as she showed her free bus pass, it would appear HI Banff gives guest free bus passes for the duration of the stay.
Banff HI hostel is nice but filled with people on working holiday visas which made me feel 100 years old, the kitchen was also too small for the number of people, right next to the hostel is a massive Parks Canada campsite, yes for $27.40 you can lie on the cold ground for a night, and if you want to use a fire pit, that's an extra $8 per night excluding tax.

Despite the expense, Banff is very nice, I walked up Tunnel Mountain which was going to have a tunnel built through it but in the end didn't, and enjoyed the hot springs up Sulpher mountain which gives super views over the mountains. I walked back down the hill because I just fancied the walk and scared myself silly going through the forest on my own with no bear spray or bells. I had a look around the imposingly huge Fairmont hotel, which is terribly grand, I thought it was the building out of 'The Shining', but it wasn't, I'm sure it uses the same carpet in places though.

Notes:

• The hot springs can be accessed by bus from town, they cost $7.30. It's probably the cheapest activities in Banff, aside from walking up Tunnel Mountain.
• The cheapest room at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel is $329 and goes up to over $1000 for the suites.