travel
can do canada
By Marayke Jonkers
Posing for photos atop 200-year-old ice on picturesque Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rocky Mountains is one of the last places I expected to be in a wheelchair , especially having just stepped out of an Ice Explorer snowmobile with wheelchair lift and guided commentary .
I came across the glacier in the must-see Rocky Mountains region , encompassing Banff , Jasper and Lake Louise , on a self-drive tour departing Edmonton and finishing in Vancouver . The glacier is a peak of ice six kilometres long and one kilometre wide . The tour takes you to the middle of the glacier , on a five-kilometre round-trip journey during which our guide explained how glaciers are formed and interesting geological facts - such as when we disembark we will be standing on ice up to one kilometre deep which melts and deepens with snowfall and temperature .
To finish the experience you can take a jaw-dropping walk along the one-kilometre glass-floored Glacier Skywalk boardwalk at the cliff ’ s edge , taking in wildlife and stunning scenery . Both the tour and skywalk are wheelchair accessible when booked a day in advance . Wheeling on the ice and filling my water bottle with fresh , glacier water were highlights .
Lake Louise , Banff and Jasper
Meandering in front of this picturesque blue lake and stunning vivid wildflowers in a singlet in perfect hot sunlight , with snowcapped mountains behind , I wonder why I ’ m tired and realise one of the benefits of travelling in Canada during summer is it ’ s still daylight at 11pm . Having checked into an accessible room at the Fairmont Hotel , Lake Louise , I can see the sights out the window
46 travel linkonline . com . au