After a pretty sleepless night we put the bikes together and did some shopping. We had to get used to the lovely heat, but we didn’t mind, and Bernice showed us a bit of the city and its surroundings. We were planning on leaving for Banff the next day, but then we found out the famous Calgary Stampede was starting then. It’s a week of carnival, eating, drinking, but mostly of rodeo’s. Of course it would be great to stay and experience this famous event, so we decided to stay another day.It all started with a huge parade of cars, carriages, horses, people and marchingbands. There alse were delegations op police, firestations and First Nations. Mostly on horses of course. Most of the audience was dressed in cowboy boots and hats. We bought tickets for the rodeo’s of that day and found our spot in the stadium.

There was bareback riding, saddle riding, calf wrestling (also by kids), barrel race, steer wrestling and of course bull riding. Those horses and bulls jump and buck in the most bizarre ways to get the cowboys off their backs. Those cowboys get knocked around so badly, it must really hurt. It was a very nice day with beautiful weather and we were happy we’d stayed for another day.

Then it really was time to go. We left Calgary and rode to Banff in 1,5 days. It was very hot and the first part of the ride was very busy and the scenery was not that inspiring, it was pretty barren. But that changed after a while, the mountains in front of us came closer and the scenery became more lush and green. The last stretch to Banff, from Canmore, was on a bikepath (Legacy trail) so we didn’t have to ride on the highway. Fortunately we could get a spot on the campground in Banff. We were lucky because it’s a very busy place in the extending summer season. Because people went home early, we were lucky to get a spot. We took the shuttle into town and walked around remembering and recognizing things from the previous time we were there.