Calgary and adventures......
After travelling on with Macswayround, we rested about 100 miles short of Jasper National Park, at a lake named La Salle. We enjoyed an evening chatting around the campfire with Rod and Linda from Nebraska, whom who have also bumped into a few other times, as we travel in the same directions! The next day, at McBride, we attended to a few chores – including another of Nessie’s tyre valve that was kindly sorted out by Ray at the JNR Auto Services Ltd. Later, we made it into Jasper and enjoyed a night at the Whistlers Camp. We saw lots of Elk around the camp and were warned that the bulls can be particularly aggressive as this is rutting season. Jemma and Ben built a wildlife hide near to our camp and we sang around the campfire! We took a look around the town of Jasper and then drove through the beautiful scenery, stopping off to see the Columbian Ice-fields and Athabasca Falls. We saw a huge six wheel drive bus that is used for snow tours! We camped at Wilcox Creek. The next day we were blessed with absolutely glorious weather which was very uncharacteristic for this time of year. The mountains had a splash of snow which added to the beauty. Along the Ice fields Parkway, the lakes, including Mistaya and Peyto, projected a bright turquoise shimmer that danced through the trees. This highway runs through from Jasper to Lake Louise in Banff National Park. Mosquito Creek was kind to us and did not live up to its name! Ben tried a spot more panning for gold and Phil let his artistic flair rein as he sketched a moose scene. The children were keen to join in and I am hoping that I live amongst some budding artists too! Our southbound route led us out of the majestic Rocky Mountains, and into the flat lands of Calgary. At the Calgary West RV Park we were able to make a check on emails and found a surprise email from a couple we had met earlier on this summer in California! We had been invited to call in but after mislaying the relevant details, we thought we were out of luck. However, Nessie had been spotted by Reasa, and she and her husband Ron, both emailed to invite us over once more! How lucky we have been on Macswayround with such friendly people, and to top it all, we had landed with them on the night they were all having a block street party! We had a great time meeting some Albertan locals and were made to feel very welcome by everyone! Special thanks to Ron & Reasa for tracking us down and including us in some more fun times! The camp fire and food was lovely and the children joined right in with the other children on the block too! Nessie was celebrating at the party too, as she got an entire new set of Continental tyres, from OK Tyres, who had fitted us in, at very short notice, that very same day! Thank-you to Reasa for showing us some more sights of Calgary, including the stadium shaped as a saddle and the arena’s used in the Calgary Stampede each year. Our next stop was at the ‘Head-Smashed-in-Buffalo-Jump’ UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is the site where thousands of buffalo were stampeded over the edge of the cliffs, to their deaths. Radiocarbon dating of the bones reveals that this site was used to kill buffalo over 5,600 years ago and some of the buried deposits are over ten metres deep. Our final night in Canada (for now) was spent by a river close to the border crossing, in the Waterton Lakes Park. We enjoyed meeting Pat and Peggy and another chat around our campfire! The next day we crossed over into the USA and into the Big Sky Country of Montana! More about our adventures, next time! Please stay tuned to Macswayround!
Wednesday, 23 September 2009 05:34:09 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Canada