Even with the delights of a king size bed, Lewis had a bad night; he is
feeling the effects of altitude sickness and was really suffering last night!
He eventually got to sleep in the early hours and we rose at about 10am to
shower and get ready for the day.

We headed to Lake Louise Gondola – this is a ride up the mountain in either
an enclosed gondola or a ski bench and apparently is one of the best places to
see a bear – which is what we want to do so much!!

We chose an enclosed gondola for the journey up which takes about 15 minutes
and the views were outstanding- we scanned the area below us and the tree line
each side so we could say those immortal words “Hey bear, it’s only me
bear” …. But to no avail…sigh. When we arrived at the mid-point where
we got off, we were greeted by one of the guides who informed us that a grizzly
had been spotted within 100 metre of the platform so for safety, we were not
allowed to get off but were sent round to do the descent and climb again…..
we looked long and hard for this pesky bear who was stopping us from getting
off to take his picture but not a claw or tooth could be seen…grrr!! We descended,
continued scanning the woods and open land below us, and went round and climbed
again….and the same guide very apologetically told us that the bear still
hadn’t moved so we were being sent back down again – and still not a whisker to
be seen!

On this descent, we decided to get off, go get a coffee and come back up in
a short while when hopefully we would be luckier and catch sight of the pesky
varmint who had thwarted our intent to take his picture!

Up we went, on the open bench seat this time – Kim loved it but Lewis felt a
little queasy. We had our eyes peeled all the way up but nothing, not a rustle
in the trees. We got to the top ….and yes! We could get off! We were told that
the bear had moved up the mountain and over a hill. We hoped he would put in an
appearance but it was not to be – so we carried up two cameras, three lenses,
one tripod and one tripod head to take a few pictures of landscapes from the
top of the mountain!

Some news came up via some tourists who had come up recently, they had seen
a black bear between poles 10 and 11 so we packed up our stuff and got an open
bench ride down, and counted the poles …….13, 12, 11….eyes peeled ….looking
left and right…..and there in the trees was a small black bear …so cute, not
sure if we managed to get any pictures of him, and no video as we were so
awestruck – we saw our first bear ….and were finally able to say “ Hey bear!!!”

We went back to the hotel to have something to eat as we hadn’t eaten all
day, then went back to our room for a little rest and then near sunset we got
back in the SUV and drove to Lake Moraine which is up a 14km small windy
road.  Apparently it’s one of the places where there was a good chance of seeing wildlife…..  What did we see?  Absolutely nothing!!!  Having said that we think we got some lovely photos of the lake and the Fay Glacier that feeds the lake.

By 10:00pm we were both knackered and so off to sleep we go…..