What can I tell you about the Rockies that you haven't already heard?
Driving through these wonderful mountains was truly stunning; snow-capped soaring peaks, lush forests of pine and aspen, fast-flowing glacial green rivers, majestic glaciers, and my favourite sight of all - exquisite turquoise lakes - for hundreds of miles.
Our best places to stay were the mountain towns of Canmore and Jasper; best river, the lovely Bow; best lake, the breathtaking Peyto, which could only be spotted by walking the timberline and looking down to see it perfectly framed in all its turquoise glory by snow-capped peaks and sentinel pines.
We'd not been driving long on the Bow Valley Highway when we were alarmed to see ahead of us vehicles scattered all across the road, and people running around waving their arms in a frenzy. Good grief, we thought, there's been a terrible accident and there's a pile-up. As we got closer, we noticed the flash and click of cameras, and we realised a bear had been spotted innocently dining on blueberries in a roadside clearing.
We enthusiastically joined the shutterbuggers, and took our own photos of the grizzly beast. Later that day, on the ski lift at Lake Louise, we saw our second grizzly, again feasting unconcerned in the bushes. Two bears in one day - wow!
The following day we got a really close look at a bear feeding on the river bank and stopped to take our snaps, but our big bear moment came an hour or so afterwards when a black bear lumbered across the road in front of us, and obligingly dug up some roots to eat while we got our best shots.
Other wildlife highlights were two elk feeding by the roadside in Jasper, and an enormous moose - I swear he was as big as an elephant - in the forest as we left Jasper. Almost better than the Masai Mara!
What won't be recorded on our photos of the Rockies is the silence and stillness when we were miles from the highway, the light that always startled in its clarity when we got out of the car, and the thin-ness of the pure air, reminding us that we were usually six or seven thousand feet above sea level.
On a negative note, Brian fell victim to the many flying beasties that lurk in the forests, and was bitten to within an inch of his life. He has the scars to prove it, and will be able to tell you exactly how many bites on each part of his body should you care to enquire.
As for me, my favourite colour is now officially turquoise; maybe David Icke knows something after all.
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