After leaving Pike lake we cruised the 250 miles west and crossed another boarder into Alberta. Arriving ahead of schedule at Elk Island national reserve with a whopping 6 miles worth of fuel in the tank, I still dont know what Lisa was worried about.

Upon realising that the camp site in the park was 15 miles through the gate we promptly turned around with our tail…sorry with my tail between my legs in search of a petrol station. Luck struck and there was one just 5miles down the road. I could see the bitterness in Lisa’s eyes that we didnt break down and she couldnt pull out the famed ‘told you so’! Whist driving the 21 miles to camp we ran into 3-4 Bison leisurely strolling around minding their own business. I still think they look like something out of star wars!

After setting up camp on what can only be called a hillsite not a campsite, we headed out for a stroll and to watch the sun set. We took a walk on a board walk over the lake, we ran into a beaver smimming home for tea, lots of coots and a blue herron jumped out of a bush trying to give us a heart attack. We got back to the van and I oddly did the very British thing and offered our neighbours to help themselves into the van if they wanted a lovely cup off tea. Luckily they didnt come for a help yourself midnight cup of tea and we slept soundly at 45 degrees.

In the morning I awoke to a squawk ‘you have left the fridge open you donkey’. I had. I had to admit it, there was no arguing. I was the last in there to get a marshmallow to see me off to bed. Bugger! Nevermind we made the most of it, seeing as half the frozen food was now defrosted we planned a cook off for the end of the day. I let the neighbours know that they were welcome to come along as we would have more than enough to eat. We headed off on our easy Beaver pond trail – I quote – ‘A gentle 7k walk, easy terrain, Features – Aspen forest and sedge meadows, great for viewing Bison, moose (lisa’s favourite) and beaver (my favourite).’ Onward we went, the small path not wider than a meter started with 30 foot trees and bushes either side and felt like it was leading to a secret garden…. it continued and continued and continued. Eventually we came to a really interesting bit that had 100 mosquitos per square foot! Now running to escape being bitten we worried that we might run smack  into a moose as there was nowhere else they could be but on this meter wide path! We ran along laughing our heads off as I sprayed Lisa’s almost naked back with bug repellant and we literally got eaten to death. We ran out of the end of the trail and onto the road waving our hands about like crazy people (similar to when you see people running out of the horror house at the fair!). No moose, no Bison, no beaver not even a bloody squirel. We both agreed that the guide needed an update. ‘Do not enter’ would have done it. With our bites swelling nicely we headed back to camp to get covered in bite cream and enjoy the cook off.

The fridge/freezer had clearly packed up! EVERYTHING was now defrosted, the butter even poured out of the door as I opened it! Oh the joy. Well at least it wasn’t me leaving the door open. I smiled inside but thought better than to say anything. Lisa went about prepping the food and I went about being the newly appointed fridge engineer. An hour later and no better off it struck me like an iron bar. (not Lisa…the idea!) It couldnt be, it cant be… No never. It was, the fridge had stopped working because we were parked on a hill. After ignoring Lisa quaffs of doubt I turned Peggy around to instantly hear the fridge kick back into life! ‘Haaaaaaaaaaa’ I screamed feeling like Einstein ‘check that out’, ‘check that out’ I gloated.

Anyway. We set to work as we still had 54 king prawns, 2lb of beef and 11 fillets of pork to prepare and cook, not to mention the three packs of bacon we had for breakfast. We did our best and got chatting to the neighbours Steve and Sarah who where both locals and gave us a list of great things to do and see when we got to the rockies. Steve had actually proposed to Sarah at the top of the Sulpher skyline walk near Jasper so we added it to the must do list.

We got up early at 10am, (well we are travelling!) packed our things and headed out to Edmonton Mall just 30 miles away. Being north Americas biggest mall featuring a full size indoor lake, water park, an indoor aquarium and covering over 48 blocks we knew we would have our work cut out. The best bit for us by far was the chinese supermarket. A lot of chinese came to Canada in the late 1800 to help build the train tracks. Clearly a lot didn’t leave and in fact moved into Edmonton mall and set up one of the best chinese supermarkets I have seen. Oysters the size of fists for $1, there must have been a thousand lobsters, every fresh herb and spice you could think of and row upon row of sauces and dried goods ranging from noodles to salted octopus crisps. sadly the angry china man said ‘no picy’ once I had taken a picture of the oyster so you will just have to go yourself to see it. We watched a seal show at the aquarium and decided against the water park. Getting back to the van feeling truely wiped out we pledged to take a few days off, heading to ‘The Out Back’ a campsite just east of the rockies.

The facilities included use of a massive kitchen with every gadget under the sun, lounge area with cable tv with a million channels and old school pac man and street fighter arcade machines! Best bit was we were the only people there! Bliss. Being almost 8 weeks without home comforts we spent 2 days and 3 nights cooking, watching movies, playing on the arcades, catching up on emails, eating chocolate and loving every minute of our well earned break.

See what happens next in our wedding travel adventure!