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

:)