AW Travel Blog

Ow, my head but WOW, the room, WOW, the hotel (Fairmont Banff Springs), wow wow the spa!!! The others in my group were up early but after some discussing beforehand it was decided I was best to stay at the hotel and rest up today. The bump on my head is very impressive!

So as soon as they left I decided to adventure around the hotel and have a nosey at some of the rooms. WOW, this castle is fascinating. An armour room, ball room, nooks and crannies everywhere to explore, spiral staircases, historic photos on the walls - and a large gingerbread house replica of the hotel. This place is outstanding.

I booked myself into the spa centre for the afternoon - ahhh - Bliss pure bliss. So this is how the other half live! Springs, steam rooms, lounger chairs with fruit and fresh juices and muffins to choose from. Do I ever have to leave?

Am I in a dream? I have seen the pictures but nothing prepared me for the breathtaking view out the window of Lake Louise this morning. They are preparing to open the ice skating rink on the lake so I woke to the sound of activity.

I did a tour of the Chateau this morning. This is a must do in my humble opinion. It was 2 hours long and fascinating, from the details of why the doors all have their own hand painted flowers to the sneaky peek views into the conference rooms. What a fascinating hotel. This place is not just about the room I booked but the history and character of the hotel.

We even managed to book in a slot to walk the resident Labrador dog, Sonny to take for a walk. It’s all these touches I think that I will remember for a long time to come.

In the afternoon we headed up to Lake Louise for an afternoon of skiing. The womans downhill racing is on here in a few weeks and there are a load of very professional skiers around. Just a tad intimidating as they fly past on the downhill run!!! But it was fascinating to watch.

Unfortunately at the very end of the day I managed to have a massive fall – now I own a pink crash helmet as a result. I didn’t realize my head could hurt that much.

We travelled from Lake Louise to Banff that evening but much of this was a blur due to the sudden candy floss in my head. Now, where is my bed…???

We were up early to catch the first ski shuttle to Marmot Basin which took 20 minutes from our Jasper hotel. This was our first day of skiing and what a day it was! This mountain is heaven, just heaven. I had been told about powder snow but WOW!! It was so light and soft that we couldn’t even make proper snow balls as they kept falling apart. There was not the sound of ice to be heard (a far cry from the skiing in NZ I have experienced!) They had received the highest snowfall for the month of November in a decade, three days before we arrived. Double WOW!!!

We had a snow host with us for the morning who told us all about the history of the mountain, a overview of the terrain and then guided us on the runs most applicable for our level of skiing. He also gave us some ski tips - very much needed by me as the last time I skied was eight years ago.  It was like riding a bike though and after a few minutes I was skiing like a pro – well maybe not quite that well!!

It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to ski between trees and on my first day in Canada, I got to do it and It was even better than I’d imagined.  The snow is so soft, it sounds like we are skiing on polystyrene balls!  Tt was a beautiful day with soft powder snow and blue skies and only ever one or two other people on the run I was skiing. I have never experienced skiing like this before.

I had been told Canada would ruin me forever as the snow is so light and that estimation is correct. It’s WELL worth the money to go over to Canada to experience the snow and the mountain conditions. This place is outstanding, totally outstanding.

After lunch we made our way to Lake Louise via the Icefields Parkway. It was a bit of a hairy journey as the road only re-opened after being closed for two days and there was still a high danger warning due to slips on the road.  However our transfer driver was outstanding and relaxed us immediately and drove us there safely with no issues. 

Driving through this Parkway, in the dark, felt like we were on another planet – the shadows from the mountains were imposing, the sound of ice cracking was eerie and the full moon casting it’s light over everything was an awesome sight.  It was -27 degrees as we were driving through so there was a lot of black ice on the road so we sat holding our breath a number of times as the sound under the car tires was silence until we gripped ashphelt again.  We even took the time to stop and step outside the car to experience the silence.  Sureal, totally surreal. 

Three hours later we glimpsed our first view of the Chateau Lake Louise.  Oh…my…goodness!!!!  It was even more impressive than I had seen in the photos and pictures.  I’m looking forward to catching my first sight of the Lake in the morning….

I had a blissful nights sleep due to the rocking of the train and woke to the most spectacular mountain views imaginable. High mountain peaks, laden with snow and “snow ghosts’ everywhere (trees so covered in snow they look like white ghosts). Breakfast was a feast with preserves, orange juice, tea and coffee on offer and three menu options to choose from, and there was a load of food too. The Canadian portion sizes are similar to the USA I’m quickly realizing.

I spent my morning looking at the stunning scenery from the luxury of the dome car or the private comfort of my room. We had to stop a number of times along the way for the express trains with cargo which have right of way, which allowed us time to take photos without the movement of the train. At around 11am we stopped at a little town called Clearwater which has a general store and not much else but we all enjoyed hopping out into snow for the first time and had a few snowball fights for good measure -how old are we again?? We even got our conductor in on the act!

Oh dear, it’s 1.30pm and we have been advised to get ready to disembark - who would have thought I wouldn’t want to hop off a train.  This journey has been like travelling through a fairytale – the cabin, the staff, the train, the scenery, the wildlife - WOW, WOW, WOW.  I had no idea how stunning Canada was – this is like my dreams on steroids!

We roll into Jasper and disembark, where my next adventure begins…

Here I am in Vancouver and about to board the train for an overnight journey through the Canadian Rockies. I checked in at the VIA Rail check in desk, after being advised in advance before leaving home that I can only take an overnight bag with essentials on board, as my main luggage travels in their own cabin! I had some time before departure, so headed to the VIA Rail lounge to relax, before boarding the shiney silver train (after taking a photo of the Canada flag of course!).

I had no idea how fabulous this train is! There are four distinct accommodation options and I got a two berth cabin, with its own wash basin and toilet, all to myself.

Once the train departed I went up to the dome carriage for canapés and champagne as I travelled out of Vancouver…very flash!

The views were fascinating and the length of the cargo trains were phenomenal (182 carriages was the longest cargo train I counted.  Sheesh!)

Returning to my cabin I discovered the two seats had been transformed into a very comfortable bed, complete with towels, water bottles and chocolates. There were a load of hand towels, bath towels, soap, shampoo, conditioner etc as well. I really didn’t need to pack this in my overnight bag. I was even able to charge my camera onboard as well.

I was rocked to sleep by the rhythm of the train as it made its way through the night…

Leaving South Luangwa National Park behind we fly back to Johannesburg, but we have time for one more African experience before heading home. Our half day Soweto tour was very interesting and our guide was really good. The tour focuses a lot on the student uprising that took place in Soweto and we spent a lot of time at the Hector Peterson Memorial Museum, it was really interesting and we could have stayed for longer. So if you have some time in Johannesburg then make the time to visit Soweto, as we found the tour very worthwhile.Our afternoon was spent at a massive shopping centre directly across the road from the hotel, time to pick up those last minute gifts.

We flew from Livingstone to Mfuwe via Lusaka, where we were met by our guide from Mfuwe Lodge and transferred for one hour to the lodge. The drive was really interesting as it travels through a number of villages, so there is lots going on and lots of people out walking along the road. On arrival at the lodge we checked into our room and went straight out on our 4.30 pm night drive, didn’t return until 8pm. A big part of it is done in the dark with a spotter and a spotlight.

The next day, we were off on another early morning game drive.  South Luangwa National Park is known for it abundant game and we certainly didn’t have to drive very far to see animals.  We saw zebra here which is something we hadn’t see so far in the wild.  Another day spent by the pool before our night game drive.

While at South Luangwa we decided to go on a game walk. We walked straight out from the lodge and across the dry river bed that was directly in front of the lodge. We then frightened a hippo and quickly retreated as he looked quite scary and we thought it best not to upset him. Saw a reasonably big herd of elephant and was amazed at how quiet they are while they are walking.

It was an enjoyable walk but quite different to the walks we had done in the Okavango Delta as the terrain was quite different. We also learnt a lot about all the local flora and fauna which was very interesting.

On our evening game drive we found 10 lionesses lazing on the banks of a dry river bed and another male and two females next to the river. Saw a huge buffalo herd but as it was very dark when we saw them we could really only see the reflection from their eyes, it would’ve been amazing to have seen the whole herd during the daylight as there was easily 250 of them. On the way back to the lodge we saw our one and only leopard in this park, he was lying next to some bushes not far from the road.

Our first sleep in of the trip! While having breakfast on the deck of the restaurant we had their herd of zebras walking past so made for a pretty unusual breakfast!

We got picked up at 9.30am for our helicopter flight over the falls, it was a great experience and a fantastic way to get a really good view of the falls.

More time was spent at the curio market and the pool before heading into the lounge for High Tea. Just one word describes this experience - WOW. It was amazing, for USD18 there was such a huge variety of lavishly decorated cakes, slices, scones with jam and cream, little cups with crème brulee in them, fruit cocktails and an assortment of hot dishes like savouries and quiches that you could order.

The food was amazing, almost didn’t want to cut into some of the cakes they were so beautiful, but managed to force ourselves.  Tea was served in bone chine cups, saucers and tea pots, so it made for a great way to spend an afternoon.

Up early this morning to go on a lion walk, picked up at 6.30am for the 20 minute drive to Thorntree Lodge. We walked for around an hour with two 11 month old cubs. It was great to watch them fighting and playing with each other. They were very playful and spent the whole time chasing each other or climbing trees! This was a great way to spend a morning and really nice to know that by doing this we were helping with the conservation of the lion.

After arriving back at the hotel we headed off to the curio market and to see the Victoria Falls. One of the good things about staying at either the Royal Livingstone or the Zambezi Sun is that you don’t need to pay the USD10 entrance fee to see the falls. They were very impressive although only flowing at around 7% of the flow at the end of the rainy season, would love to go back and see the difference!

The afternoon was spent reading a book at the pool, life is great! After another stunning sunset we enjoyed dinner in the restaurant at the Royal Livingstone. The food and service was amazing and at USD80 for dinner and drinks for two it wasn’t a bad price for such an amazing meal.

We had to leave at 9.30am so didn’t have the chance to do a full game drive, however Desert & Delta arranged for us to go out with our guide again and then be met by someone else to transfer us to the airstrip. So off we headed back to the kill. We spotted the leopard lying down in the grass and drove up to where she was. She hadn’t taken the kill up the tree yet which is very unusual but it was very obvious that she had enjoyed a big dinner the night before.

We were also incredibly lucky to see her baby, it was about 3-4 months old and so cute. We snapped a couple of quick photos. We didn’t want to disturb her and her baby’s breakfast too much so just watched them for a few minutes then left her to it. What a way to start the day!

We then headed off to the airstrip for our 30 minute flight to Kasane. We were met and headed towards the Kazangula River and the border to Zambia. We crossed by ferry and paid our USD50 visa fee and entered Zambia. It took us an hour to reach Royal Livingstone in Livingstone, a stunning 5* hotel right on the banks of the Zambezi River, that looks across to the spray coming off the falls.

Our adventure continues tomorrow….