Hopefully they will have some front chain rings so that I can stay on Highway 93 and go south as quickly as possible.

At the Icefields Centre I stocked up on a lot of water and some over-priced Snickers bars. When I was about to get back on my bike, a teenager approached me and was in total awe at the idea of me riding up to the summit, “Much respect to you man!” I then rolled downhill for about 40 kilometres and found one of the closed campgrounds that the ranger had mentioned yesterday. I made use of the dining building and set up my sleeping bag on top of one of the wooden tables.

The second summit today was a lot easier. I got into Lake Louise at 3pm and found the bike/ski shop that I’d been referred to. The bike mechanic, apparently one of the finest in Canada, had gone on holidays four days ago. So they’d closed down the bike part of the shop and were now only selling skiing and snowboarding gear. Looks like I’ll have to head over to Banff. I had a closer look at the free map of Alberta I’d picked up and realised it was probably a good thing. If I’d taken Highway 93 all the way south I would have just skirted along the edge of Glacier National Park and totally missed the chance of passing through it.

I pedalled as fast as I could to Banff thinking that bike shops would be closed by 5pm on a Saturday. As soon as I got to town, I rang a bike shop for directions and found out they were open till 9pm. Unfortunately they didn’t have any front chain rings for my bike but gave me the names of some good shops in Calgary. Shite.

Banff is full of Aussies, must be all ski bums I reckon. I camped at the local park and was surprised to find, even though it’d drop to -2 degrees Celsius overnight, that there were many happy campers out there in force.

I put in a new tube but just as I got to 75psi the thing popped near the valve. What a bang. I had a ringing in my ear for an hour after.

Not only constant headwinds but constant traffic as well. Just the continual noise of cars and trucks rushing past left me dreading the thought of entering another city. It took me over an hour to find a hostel downtown, the street numbering in Calgary is ridiculous, or I’m just very dumb.

However he enthusiastically and competently gave me my granny gears back with the only set of front chain rings that he had left in stock.

Dinner was a six-egg omelette with tomatoes, potato and three sausages on the side. Washed down with dessert; a full block of Cadbury’s chocolate and a tub of yoghurt.