Banff part 2

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When the Moose bus pulled into Banff on our way back to Vancouver, a few of us in the group decided to 'jump off' for a few days and have a bit of a holiday, although by the end of it I needed another holiday! Banff is primarily a tourist town but the landscape there is beautiful. The view of the rocky mountains from the main street is awesome and would look even cooler in winter.

In Banff we got up to a few things; lots of drinking, riverboarding (not at the same time luckily), getting rescued from riverboarding, going out for a 3-course dinner, going out to a few bars and a nightclub and shopping. Eva, Aaron and a few other guys jumped off and the next day we went riverboarding. It was like surfing the rapids on the Kannanaskis River about an hour out of Banff. The river and the surrounding scenery were beautiful and nearby a group of other backpackers were going whitewater rafting. That was probably what I should have done but I thought I'd go all out and try riverboarding. After getting into our wetsuits and hopping into the freeeezing water, we got a quick lesson on how to kick on our boards out into the middle of the eddie, which is like a rip, over it and get into the current of the rapid and catch the 'wave'. It proved difficult for most people but I actually got stuck in the rip and was going backwards! One of the guys helped pull me out of the rip and then our first practice was over and we had to actually throw ourselves off the riverbank into fast flowing water and out through the V-shaped rapid. The guy just before me got rescued and I was absolutely shitting myself when it was my turn to jump in. Eva jumped in first and she was fine so then I jumped and I was kicking and paddling and I started to head towards teh rocks and could feel myself getting out of control again. The guides were yelling for me to kick harder. One of them came over to get me out and we both nearly lost our boards cos the water was hardcore. By the time I got out the second time I was over it. But went down the riverbank with one of the guys and watched everyone else finishing off. Most of them had an excellent time even though a few had to get helped every now and then. Don't think I'll try that one again at least not until I can swim a hell of a lot better. But glad I tried it anyway.

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The last day in Banff a couple of us got the gondola up to the top of Sulphur Mountain and took photos of the views, went for a walk and looked out for bears and cougars.