Vancouver

Hi again,
We had a long weekend here in Canada recently for Thanksgiving (5-8 October), so a friend and I took the opportunity to fly over to Vancouver (Van) and check out the sites.
Before we left, I had people telling me that it rains all the time in Van and that even if the forecast was for good weather, that it will still rain at least once (kinda sounds like Melbourne! ?) :)
But we were blessed and had such PERFECT weather! It was sunny and 18 degrees all weekend, and the evenings were gorgeous too (not warm, but not too cold). The weather was perfect for walking the streets of Van, checking out the sites, etc, etc. I think we had just about every meal outside.
Vancouver reminded me of Sydney a little, actually.
I think it's because it is a city set on the water, many little coves & harbours, as well as lots of apartments on the water, with parks & paths along the edge. The streets and buildings also reminded me of Sydney - it felt pretty surreal. 
It is a more lively city than Calgary - bigger, more restaurants, more shopping, more diversity, greener and beautifully situated with the mountains set close in the distance (closer than Calgary).
But I have heard that the people in Vancouver are not as open or friendly as people in Calgary.
I am happy in Calgary, but I could definitely live in Vancouver!!

(a quick apology to those who are on Facebook - you would have seen most of these photos already)

Flight from Calgary to Vancouver over the Rocky Mountains 

Vancouver Public Library

On the 'aquabus' to Granville Island 

On the aquabus 

A quick drink outside in a lovely old area called Gastown. I loved this area. It was the 'old' part of town and is the old port area (I guess Fremantle is an equivalent city). There are some great little shops, cafes, bars and eateries. We had dinner down here one night and loved it! 

 Autumn / Fall leaves (maple tree)

View from Stanley Park toward north Vancouver

Gastown again 

Stanley Park - we cycled around the park, which is kind of a little peninsula off Vancouver, but right at the end of downtown. I absolutely loved the smell of the sea air when I got off the plane from Calgary! I actually couldn't quite work out what it was that was different and then when I realised, I was so excited! I kept taking big gulps of air over the weekend, just to get my fill! 

Pretty street on the edge of downtown 

Street art 

More Autumn leaves - we found this amazing Wholefood Store where we could buy gluten free, cheap and tasty meals. We were pretty happy to find it! 

Coal Harbour

So now I need to go back to Vancouver when the weather isn't so fine to see if I still love it as much. But because that was my first visit, I think that I will always think positively of Vancouver! Next trip will include a visit out to Vancouver Island, which is about 3hrs drive from Vancouver and is a fairly large, and apparently very beautiful island.

I will try to update again soon! We've had all sorts of beautiful changes to the scenery here around Calgary - with the colours of Autumn / Fall and a few snowy days. We're back to sunny weather (it's currently 16 degrees), but it's forecast to cool down and possibly more snow later this week.

And soon it'll be Halloween, which is a big deal here in Canada! Should be fun!

xoxoxoxo

Whitewater Rafting

I have been waiting for someone to send me on their photos from a hike that I did before the whitewater rafting... but she has been sick and hasn't been able to bring it in for me.
So, I thought I had better post the whitewater rafting blog before I forget what I did!!

Over the weekend of 18th August, a group of us travelled to a camp site just out of Golden in British Columbia, situated on the Kicking Horse River.
We camped right next to the upper reaches of the river, next to some mountains on one side of the river and trees on the other side. It was a very beautiful campground and very different to the camp sites that I have stayed at in Australia!

Saturday lunchtime we joined a group of people to do a whitewater rafting 'tour' down the Kicking Horse River. We did the middle and lower canyons. Below is a link to the website for the company that we did it with:
www.alpinerafting.com

It was so much fun! I wasn't sure how I would go passing through the rapids, especially in the lower canyon (where is gets wilder), but it was GREAT!!
I was in a boat with 7 other people and our guide was the head guide for the day, so often we were at the front of the group.
Apparently the Kicking Horse River is the third best river in the world for rafting - so that's even better! (I am not sure what the other two rivers are)
The scenery down the river was gorgeous too.

Parts of the rafting were a little scary, I almost fell out very early in the piece, which freaked me a little (because they give you all sorts of scary safety talks before you hop in the boat), but it was fine. The guide calls out to you during the rafting (we had paddles) and would call "forward", "back", "stop", "hold on" and the scariest (at first)... "Get down!" where you have to drop into the middle of the boat to avoid falling out.
But once we got going and went through a few of the rapids, the fear goes and you start to feel safe. Toward the end a few of us jumped off the side of the boat into the river (we were wearing wetsuits, helmets and life jackets) and floated along beside the boat of a while - it was fun!

I would definitely do it again! 

We had another night camped at the river's edge and then travelled to a nearby lake for a swim, before heading back to Calgary. We were the only ones at the lake and it was (again) in a gorgeous setting! I had been very keen to go for a swim (without a wetsuit!) before the summer ended and I missed out all together. 

We came back with such good stories, on such a high and have now made a whole bunch more people keen to do it next year - so I'll be back there next summer with any luck!
It's also surprisingly reasonably priced. And the camping was free! Bargain!

Below are some photos (some of which were on facebook, so some of you have probably already seen them)

 Campsite!

 Our group at the beginning of the day

 Just out of a rapid

 Our group!

River setting

Lake on the way home

Winter is now on its way... We are in autumn and the days are shortening. I have booked myself a flight to Vancouver for 4th October for a long weekend (still to book the return flight though!) and will try to get a few other things in before winter. Apparently we should still be able to get a few hikes done before winter, so that's good.

I also realised that I have been here for 4 months and it's only 4 months until Christmas! The time has flown by, so I think (and hope) that the time will also fly by to Christmas when I can see all the family again!!

Much love
xoxo

Iceline Trail Hike, Yoho National Park, BC

Now that I have internet at my new apartment, I can do another update!

A couple of weeks ago (5th August), I went for another hike. I had heard about this one through a group of people and wanted to try it out. So a few of us (~10) decided to head out.
It's called the Iceline Trail and is in the Yoho National Park in British Columbia (BC) province - my first time in BC and the furthest west that I have been! It was around 3 hours drive from Calgary, past Banff and Lake Louise.
The trail is around 14km (return) and had an elevation gain of around 700m (classed as Moderate).
It starts at Takkakaw Falls, which is a fairly large waterfall, which is sourced by a glacier at the top of the mountain behind it. The power of the water was amazing (and for those of you who didn't know, big walls of water, like water falls, dam walls, etc, kinda give me the chills...). The water coming off the edge of the mountain hit a ledge or a narrow part of the cliff wall, which directed the water outwards from the wall, so it gave it a stepped look. 
The environment / surroundings along the hike changed quite a bit - it was really interesting! We started out in a damp forested area, with many trees and limited view of the mountains around us, it then thinned and dried out a little, but still had trees, but more shrubs and flowering plants (it was very pretty). It got rockier and fewer and fewer trees, until there were no trees, just rocks and gravel, etc, with the ridge of the mountain next to us and the glacier(s) in the distance.
Toward the end of the hike (one way), we came to the glacier(s) and many streams and lakes that were running off the melting glacier. It was very pretty! 
There was also this surreal view, where the gravelly and rocky environment abutted a lush green grass area... it felt like something out of Lord of the Rings and a friend of mine said she felt like she'd see a golf buggy scoot along at any moment.... a rolling grass field, next to a harsh rocky environment.  

On the way home, we stopped for dinner in a small English pub in Canmore which no one had been to before and were pleasantly surprised by it! The Canmore Folk Festival was on, so we couldn't get a table at our usually preferred pub, which has a gorgeous view of the mountains, but this was a good alternative.

Below are some photos from the hike

Takkakaw Falls

 About half way up

 Glacier

  Glacier

 Lord of the Rings ;)

 The Top! (kinda - more the end of the trail)

Ha Ling Hike

I have finally been for a hike!!

We had a long weekend here last weekend for Canada Day, so a few of us went into the mountains for a hike.

We went to Ha Ling, which is just behind Canmore and only about an hour drive from Calgary.

It was a 2.3km hike with a 750m elevation gain, so it was fairly steep, but it was great!

This is me about half way up

 View from about halfway

View from about halfway

 View from the top... maybe a little over-exposed, but.. oh well!

Me at the top!

We went to a pub in Canmore for lunch after the hike - it has the best view of the mountains from the decking, so was a lovely way to end the day.

A few days later I did my first outdoor climb!! It was great and I am hooked! I went with a guy that I met during training. He has all the equipment and has been many, many, many times. He is also very patient and a great teacher. We went to a place called Wasootch, which is just before Canmore. It is situated in the loveliest spot! It is a small valley, that has a little creek trickling through it, lovely big green trees and hardly anyone around. So we could hear the water running as we were climbing... so beautiful. I can't wait to go back.

I only took one photo, and this is it... not sure if it does it justice.

The Calgary Stampede is on at the moment, so everyone is out in their finest cowboy / cowgirl outfits. I went into the grounds today, and it's just like the shows that we have in Australia (Royal Show, etc), but a little bigger and has rodeos and chuckwagon racing (which I haven't seen yet). I am going to a stampede breakfast tomorrow (I am not too sure what it will entail) and we have a Stampede BBQ lunch at work on Thursday this week. It's huge here. I think some people just party for the whole week! 

We had a girl's afternoon yesterday - these are our finest cowgirl outfits :)

It's 32 degrees here, so it lovely and warm!

Canmore, Spray Lakes & Calgary

Hello again,

We had a long weekend here in Alberta province last weekend (May 21). I did have big plans for going hiking in the mountains and possibly camping, but then I started to freak myself out with the thought of bears and cougars... so I just went for an afternoon drive instead! :) 
I plan to get hiking in the mountains soon (and hopefully bike riding, camping, etc), but I think I need to get a few things first (like hiking boots, bear spray, etc)...

So I headed back to Canmore, had a wander around and then drove up to the Spray Valley Provincial Park. It's a close drive from Canmore and the days are pretty long at the moment, so I had plenty of time to cruise around.

Below are some photos from my drive around Spray Lakes

This one is near the Spray Lakes camp ground. You can see that some ice is still melting

The pipeline that you can see in this pic is from a dam / reservoir just behind that wall. Even though there's that structure there, I thought that this was very pretty 

And, this is me :)
It was fairly windy, but lovely.


I'll update again soon

:)

Canmore & Banff - Rocky Mountains (1st trip)

Over the weekend I went to Canmore and Banff in the Rocky Mountains. The mountains are lovely.
The snow has pretty much all melted, except for higher up in the mountains.
I went with a couple that I have been hanging out with (climbing etc). We had planned on going for a walk / hike, but we decided to just hang around the towns instead (we had to be back in Calgary by ~5pm, so there was limited time). And I am kinda glad that we did decide that, because throughout the day (and over the weekend), I heard more and more stories about how it's active bear season... It makes sense, but it's new to me... They're coming out of hibernation so are around looking for food. When you go walking (in the mountains), you're supposed to carry bear mace (just in case). So I'll make sure that I have that for my next visit (likely this weekend).

The first two photos below are views from / within Canmore. It's a sweet town and apparently it has one of the best bagel cafes / shops around (I had a gluten free spinach scone, instead).

This next one was taken in Banff from the balcony of a pub where we had lunch. It was a beautiful day, so sunny and around 21 degrees.

I tried to take photos of the towns with the mountains in the background... to show you some of the buildings and things around.

I'll take some more pics when I head back this coming weekend.

I'm moving into my new place on Friday after work. It might only be until 1st August (or August 1st as it is in Canada), which might be a good thing. I am not sure if I will like sharing... so I will just see how it goes.

:)
I'll update again soon

Calgary - first impressions

On Sunday I went to the Nose Hill Park, it's a large nature reserve that sits on the edge of town and has good views of the city and the mountains. It was lovely and sunny. And I saw my first deer!! The park wasn't very green, but given that the snow and ice only recently melted from winter, it's a little too soon to be green. Hopefully that will come soon.

The weather changes quickly here too. On Friday it was lovely and sunny (14 degrees), then Saturday morning it was snowing... and Sunday was back to being sunny and warmish (~15 degrees). Today was around 18 degrees and tomorrow (Tues) will be ~21 degrees, before it drops off again with snow and rain on Wed... but the weekend will be warm again... confused yet? Point is, it's up and down. 

 This is near Nose Hill Park, in the NW of Calgary

 Deer!!!

 Nose Hill Park, NW Calgary

 Me in Nose Hill Park

View of Calgary from Nose Hill Park

Last couple of days in Australia

I was able to re-activate the blog that I used when I went travelling around Europe! :)

My last weekend in Australia, mum, Leonie and I toured around McLaren Vale before a family gathering.

 The top photo is a building at one of the wineries we visited... I can't remember which one! It was either Coriole or Chapel Hill... :)
The next photos is a view from the Hugh Hamilton winery...

It was my first time on a wine tour around McLaren Vale and was lovely to share with Leonie, Mum and Mitchell.

On the way to the airport in Adelaide, there were some crazy clouds... looked amazing... see below.

It's just unfortunate that the service station is in the foreground too... but still pretty awesome.

My couple of days in Sydney were great too. I caught up with a few of the guys from RPS Sydney and got to hang out with Michael, Gayle and the kiddies in their busy house under renovations. 

It was hard saying goodbye to everyone, but Christmas 2012 will come around quickly. I'll have experienced a Calgary summer, autumn and some of the winter... and I will definitely be hanging out for some Australian warmth and sunshine! Hopefully by then I will have been out and about a little, hit the mountains for some hiking and hopefully some snowboarding!

Soon I'll post some photos and things about Calgary

:)