British Columbia Canada

Revelstoke to Lake Louise – with a hitchhiker!

Homemade waffles and magical maple syrup for breakfast at our Chinese Canadian hotel in Revelstoke…then time to hit the road for Lake Louise…

We were making good steady progress, edging ever closer to the Rockies…until I nearly caused a crash when I felt something run up my legs and under my dress! To my horror it was a vicious looking black spider with crimson red and Jaffa orange legs! 🕷 I frantically shook it off and it dived for cover under my car seat! We pulled over and searched my footwell and the back seats… but our little hitch hiker remained well hidden!

I kept my legs crossed under me until pins and needles made me give in! 60km later on a mountain pass we spotted a herd of mountain goats tottering on a roadside rock and at that EXACT time the hitchhiker 🕷 tried to get in on the action – this time showing himself to Arachnid Tom!

Google offered no reassurance, the Canadian Black Widow, looked worryingly like her double! It suddenly stopped being quite so funny!! On the precarious edge of a roadside we emptied the ENTIRE car and the little lady remained elusive! I still have my sea snake fang scars from Thailand and, whilst my stop in Intensive Care was a positive one, I don’t much want a matching set of spider fangs! 😡😡🕷🕷

We drove the rest of the way to Lake Louise armed with a baseball bat, a paddle, lynx deodorant and a Harry Potter book! A reward of $10 on its head meant her days were surely numbered…

The rest of the journey was uneventful and we arrived, rather relieved, at Lake Louise! Callum has been dreading the mountains due to bears and spent the last hour of the trip grumbling on like an impending thunderstorm, recounting stories of his ‘friends dad who was bitten by a deadly spider in Canada’ and how we were spectacularly irresponsible parents for driving them into a ‘bears den’ … 😂

Little did we know our hitch hiker was still ‘aboard’ when we checked in at The Alpine Centre, Lake Louise….

… and that she had opted to join our hike down to the shores of stunning Lake Louise!

Jack couldn’t resist ticking off a ‘bucket list Lake’ and soon headed off across the icy, glacial lake! What an experience! Especially as today would have been my dear Nanna Judy’s birthday… and Lake Louise was one of her favourite places when they lived in Canada!

The photo below was my great uncle, taken outside Chateaux Lake Louise during the First World War… not long after it opened in 1911!

And to see Jack paddle in front of it today was something special! Callum and Tom went off to explore the ridiculously grand hotel and, unbeknown to me, were pretending to be VIP guests! They made it up to the ‘gold floor’ coming back having bagged some spectacular photos!

Fortunately at this point I had no idea they were ‘winging it’ in luxury land… 😂

Back on the shores of the lake I waved my arms frantically to attract the attention of a rapidly disappearing Jack! As I did so, I suddenly felt the patter of 8 little feet suddenly spring into action! I pulled at my bra, shook it like a mad woman, oblivious to the crowds around, danced up and down and the hitch hiker tumbled, in a scrunched up ball, onto the wooden planks below!

I love almost all wild animals… but spiders 🕷 are safely positioned at the bottom of that list! As she fell between the boards into the jaws of the icey lake below I was grateful that there was now one less of the little buggers on the planet!

Back to the hostel for one of our best meals yet… pool and chess.. and a good old thunderstorm!

We have a private family dorm with 6 beds spread over two floors… And the charm of this hostel is second to none! It was one of my favourite places to stay ‘back in the day’ … and I’m so pleased it remains that way now… The history of some of Canada’s greatest climbers is preserved in wonderful photos.. memorabilia..artefacts… just perfect! I am so grateful that we are back here for two nights…and that we are now 5 and not 6!

❤️🇨🇦

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Sacha Brakenbury

As mum to three sons (and auntie to ten!) Sacha is kept busy trying to keep the kids alive, safe, fed and watered. Having specialised in Child Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Reading, Sacha went on to complete her Postgraduate Certificate in Education before taking up her first teaching post as Head of Boys Sport and Year 6 teacher. After 6 years, Sacha was fortunate enough to awarded a travelling fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, enabling her to undertake an extensive research project overseas. Sacha has worked with some of the world's top professional sports and educational institutions across Canada, America, Australia and New Zealand - researching ways of engaging young people through the medium of sport and in particular how this can help to reduce drug use and gang membership. After returning to the UK Sacha became Education Director at Ipswich Town Football Club, leading in the government's 'Playing for Success' scheme. She went on to establish three highly respected Study Centres back in the East of England, each of which used sport as a means of motivating children and young people. After successfully completing her National Professional Qualification for Headship in Cambridge, Sacha went on to study for her Masters Degree in Education. With the arrival of her three sons, Sacha decided it was time to 'go it alone.' She set up her own business consultancy, supporting a range of charities and organisations across the UK. Securing funds in excess of £2 million pounds, Sacha was able to 'give wings' to a wide range of charitable causes close to her heart. She continues this today with work specifically for Child First Trust. It was her own kids that were the inspiration behind her establishing Learning Academies (www.learningacademies.co.uk) - a tutoring company that has the simple mission to motivate and encourage its students to become confident and assertive learners who are not afraid to 'take risks' and challenge themselves. As a passionate photographer, Sacha is never more at home than when she's travelling, camera in hand, boys in tow. As a qualified medic with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, she is able to combine her love the outdoors with her passion for wild animals.

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