During the Summer of 1997 my father and I embarked on a cycling tour through the Canadian Rockies. It was a holiday I'll never forget.

We flew into Calgary International Airport on Friday afternoon. We were greeted by a Canadian customs official who promptly confiscated the 3lbs of prime back bacon we'd brought with us to sustain us over our first few days!

We found the bus into Calgary centre where we set about reconstruction of our packed and deflated bikes. We soon found Calgary International Hostel where we were informed they had no record of our booking. I hoped these first few hours on Canadian soil weren't going to be representative of the coming week!