Sunday 7 June. Springdale

At last, on my fourth trip to Canada I have seen a moose, in fact two!! An adult and a baby. Cars coming the other way were flashing their lights at us and at first we assumed an accident and then suddenly I realised it might be moose on the road and I asked Lorraine to grab my phone and be ready. There they were by the side of the road but we couldn’t stop or even slow down too much with cars right behind us. She brilliantly managed to get a photo of the baby. So at last, my moose quest is done and I’m a happy camper.

For the first hour or so of today’s drive it was overcast but dry. However we knew rain was coming and it did. It hasn’t stopped since! Normally wet roads are annoying but not too bothersome but today’s drive was horrible, especially once we got onto the Trans Canada Highway where the speed goes up to 100kph. There are very few sections of divided road but there are passing lanes at regular intervals, which gave the cars behind me a chance to get by our slow car. As I’ve already mentioned there are virtually no guard rails except where you could go over a cliff into the water. For most of the journey there are large drops beside the road, which is built up high, possibly for snow. The whole road has two ruts caused by very heavy vehicles and these collect water so you are trying to stay in your lane but stay out of the ruts. This is not possible so there are often huge waves of water coming up. This is even worse if a large truck is going the other way. The splash blinds you for a moment. We were moving along at a reasonable (safe) speed but not as fast as most of the traffic. About 30 km before Springdale we came upon flashing red and blue lights and had to stop. A car had gone off the road and was lying on its side. There were police, ambulance and fire brigade on the scene and directing traffic. I bet a lot of people continued their journeys at a slower pace after that.

Our first break was at Tim Horton’s, where the coffee and hot chocolate machine had broken down. We’ve ticked that one off the list and don’t intend ever going back. Next break was at Robyn’s, which has been our favourite so far and there we had some chicken noodle soup. After driving all the way through Springdale we finally found Wing-it, which specializes in chicken wings but has other things as well. We had a late lunch there as we couldn’t check in to our chalet until 4.00. There was not a cosy cafe to be seen.

At last we were able to settle in to our very lovely chalet, which is next to the river at the top of the falls. Our big windows look right over the river. We’d love to explore it but the rain hasn’t let up so we have our fingers crossed for the morning. We only have one night here so will have to get out there early tomorrow.