Travelog for: Shakespeare

Hi Mum,

Today we said goodbye and wished a safe journey to ThomasHH who will take a plane to Japan tomorrow .

Hi Mum,

Today we went for another hike, this time in the area of Highwood Pass, where the road has been closed for more than two months after, guess what, all the floods in early summer. We walked a bit in this lovely meadow ...



...before the trail dived under the tress as usual .



After a bit the view improved...



...and improved even further as we came out of the trees .




Eventually we reached Grizzly Col, from where we had a lovely view of the valley heading south.



From here we could also see Mt. Tyrwhitt, that would was our planned destination.



Unfortunately a few gentlemen were already hiking up the mountain and clumsily dislodging tons of rocks in the process, and smaug decided that he didn’t fancy playing the target, so we just enjoyed a bit more the sun before heading back to the car.

Hi Mum,

It’s very boring here this days . smaug is always out of town for work and comes back very occasionally just to make sure we have enough water and food . Today he actually came home with a surprise too, a nice little package.



When we opened it a TV popped out of it: Krystal, one of smaug’s TVs who has come home to spend some time with us. And she brought some delicious sweets with her . At least we’ll have some new story to hear to help us killing time .

Hi Mum,

Yesterday smaug made one of his rare apparitions and today we went to the mountains . One thing that has change since the last time we were out and about is the main colour of the landscape as we could see from the parking lot that there is way more white around these days .



After walking along a frigid and shadowy trail for some time we eventually had a nice view of the top of the valley with the Rockwall glittering in the morning sun .



The Rockwall is an almost completely uninterrupted 35 km long and 900 m high rock face and it is, needless to say ,  spectacularly impressive. As we approached Floe Lake we could see a bit more of it .



Floe Lake is nested under the rock and does not see much sun at this time of the year...



...but the reflection in the still water was almost as nice as the mountains around it .



On the way back we had a chance to take a better look at Floe Creek valley...



...and at some of the other snow-covered peaks around it .

Hi Mum,

Today we were up to the mountains again . As usual it was some time before we enjoyed a bit of a view, but as soon as we were out of the trees we could see the mountains around the Little Elbow river...



...and Nihahi Ridge.



From a bit further up we could see the Elbow river valley disappearing in the mountains too .



As it happens, we were already high enough for our trail to be covered in snow .



But, with a little extra effort, we eventually reached a lovely (and incredibly windy ) viewpoint from where we could see mountains in one direction,...



...foothills in the other,...



...and even the prairies in the east .

Hi Mum,

Today we gathered to say goodbye to Benno who is travelling to his next host tomorrow .

Hi Mum,

Once again we are all alone at home. Not that it makes much difference as the weather is very wintery most of the time .



The fact that sammino insists in leaving the window open because Landroval could be home any time does not really help . We tried to no avail to convince him that Landroval sure was not going to have any problem in using the door bell, so the window is still open.



So, in a freezing house, and with food supplies running out, today we decided to decide who was going to have the last piece of the last chocolate bar with a card game.



With so much at stake, emotions were running high and arguments about alleged cheating were endless.



We were so busy yelling at each other, that we almost didn’t notice that someone had entered the house and was eating out all the chocolate left .



As it happens it was Landroval and he brought back lot of presents, including tons of chocolate with him . It seems we are not going to starve for a few more days .

Hi Mum,

Today we gathered to say goodbye and wish a safe journey to Mr. Blubber who is ready to travel back home .

Hi Mum,

Today we had a good excuse to have some cake , Tatanka’s birthday! Of course, we sang happy birthday to him and then quickly moved to the more pressing matter of the cake .

Hi Mum,

Today the weather wasn’t very good, but we were tired to be home and smaug was tired of working, so it was quite easy to convince him to go for a short hike near Calgary .




Despite the dark clouds it was kind of warm (Canadian warm , of course) and we had a nice view of the mountains .

Hi Mum,

Today smaug showed up with a parcel and said it was likely to be of interest to us .



Of course, we started working to open it and when we succeeded, a TV popped out, Pepita one of smaug’s TV coming home for the holidays !  And she brought some delicious sweets and a beautiful card with her. Of course we wanted to know everything about her recent trips and spent the night up chatting .

Hi,

We are on holiday ! Yesterday sammino told us to jump in the luggage...



...and today, very late at night, after an horrendously long and boring trip, we found ourselves in Italy ! It was a bit late for exploring around, so we got a delicious midnight snack and went straight to bed .

Hi Mum,

Today we went for our first trip on a small mountain next to the town . Some sections of the trail were a bit craggy, but you could get glimpses of the valley below.



Later we found a summit log .



That was a bit strange as we were not even remotely close to the summit, but, of course, we signed it anyway .



A bit further up the trail offered some nice views over Trento .



Then things took quite a steep turn .



Eventually, we reached the summit. There was no summit log here , but we had stunning views over Trento and the Val d’Adige .




The place was so nice that we decided to enjoy the sun a bit and rest on this bench .



On the way back we crossed a ridge to take a look at the valley on the opposite side of the mountain ...




...before ducking back under the trees on the way home, where, hopefully, a nice hot chocolate was waiting for us .

Hi Mum,

Today we went for a ski trip on the dolomites . We went over 4 passes around a big mountain group. Over the first pass smaug was a bit distracted so we have no photographic evidence of being there, but once we crossed Passo Pordoi we could see the Tofane Group in the distance .



Later we crossed Passo di Campolongo and entered Alta Badia.



The last pass we crossed is called Passo Gardena. From there we could see the Saslong...



...and more mountains in the west .



We also noticed the sky was getting cloudy and sammino recommended that we made the most of every single ray of sun still visible as, according to the weather forecast, we were not likely to see any more of it for a good week .

Hi Mum,

As the weather forecast predicted, it turned rainy and we are spending most of the time chit-chatting.
Today I was "turtle chatting" with Pepita when we realised that, just by meeting her, I had completed one of my missions, how cool is that ?! We also noticed that we both want to go to the Galapagos Islands, so we agreed that we should go visit them together in the future .



Later sammino abandoned us for a few hours and when he came back he was with two new friends who came home for Christmas:  Orpheus and Sigfrido .



I guess there will be even more chatting and storytelling in the next few days .