home, uk - 15th May 2009
By: Spadge
I'm really happy to be ready to embark on an adventure - just need a host now! But till then i think i will just chill with Pynx......
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Posted May 15, 2009, 7:55 pm Last edited May 15, 2009, 8:03 pm by Spadge
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home, uk - 16th May 2009
By: Spadge
Pynx has gone to bed so its just me left to finish the drinks.......
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Posted May 16, 2009, 12:50 pm
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home, uk - 16th May 2009
By: Spadge
cant....quite....make...it.....to......the....sink.....zzzzzz
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Posted May 16, 2009, 12:55 pm
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home, uk - 19th May 2009
By: Spadge
just found out im off on my first adventure tomorrow!! Im going to canada to visit Smaug!! Hope it doesnt take too long - theres not much room in this envelope!
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Posted May 19, 2009, 6:34 pm
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Moraine Lake, Canada - 30th May 2009
By: smaug
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Posted Jun 4, 2009, 4:25 am Last edited Jun 4, 2009, 4:45 am by smaug
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Calgary, Canada - 6th June 2009
By: smaug
Hi Mum,
brrr, where did you send me?? We are almost halfway in June and this morning it was snowing here It soon became rain, but the rest of the day went on very cold and very rainy. So, since the day was not really good for any outdoor activity, Smaug decided to go to the office to do some work and brought us along
First we had a look out of the window...rain, rain and more rain
So we decided to play a bit on the computer screens...
...but since Smaug actually wanted to do some work he kindly moved us away from the computer and left us exploring the bookshelves.
Let’s have a look at this one, the front page looks colourful...
...so, yaaawn, interesting...zzzzz
When we woke up we had another look out of the window, ehi, a bit of sun And you can see downtown Calgary in the background...of course, rain and clouds were back very quickly.
Wow, Smaug has some nice poster of his homeland
Next week Smaug is going to work from somewhere on Vancouver Island and guess what? We TVs are all going with him. He told us that he is not sure that he’ll have much time to take photos but we have hope
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Posted Jun 8, 2009, 1:26 am
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Campbell River, Canada - 12th June 2009
By: smaug
Hi Mum,
as anticipated in the last update, this week we all went with Smaug to Campbell River on Vancouver Island , where he was working for a few days. Unfortunately his carry on baggage was filled by the laptop and other work stuff, so we were forced to fly in the checked baggage, how uncomfortable
After a couple of boring days at the hotel we had a chance to explore the place. First we walked north of the town along the narrow bit of land (called the Tyee Spit) that separates the actual river called Campbell River from the Discovery Passage. The Passage divides Vancouver Island from Quadra Island and is the main route for cruise ships sailing to and from Alaska.
Here we are resting on some driftwood with the Discovery Passage and Quadra Island behind us.
Here I am at the very end of the Spit with the Discovery Passage on my left and Campbell River’s mouth on my right.
And here are another couple of pictures looking upstream along Campbell River.
Going north a few km, the Passage becomes very narrow and near its narrowest point there used to be an underwater island (called Ripple Rock) that in low tides claimed lot of ships and lives in the past. This navigation hazard was removed in 1958: putting there some warning signs might have been a simple and effective idea, but an even more effective solution was chosen and the whole top of the underwater island was blasted off in one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history
On our last evening here we explored the southern bit of the town. As you can see the 50th parallel passes here, how cool
And just south of the 50th parallel there is this big painted rock on the beach just within the high tide line. It is actually called (you would never think of that!): Big Rock It is supposed to be some remnants of the ice age, but one legend has it that it is a boastful grizzly bear turned to stone after not heeding the Great Spirits advice and just failing to complete his attempt to jump from the mainland to Vancouver Island. The tide was high and his back paw touched the water and, as the Great Spirit warned, the bear turned to stone. By the way, grizzly bears are plentiful along the mainland coastal inlets but none are found on Vancouver Island.
Here we are taking a photo with the southern tip of Quadra Island behind us, while on our way back to the hotel.
And now back to Calgary....again in the checked baggage...where we spent a long long time since the flight was more than 4 hours late
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Posted Jun 13, 2009, 9:27 pm Last edited Jun 13, 2009, 10:04 pm by smaug
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Aylmer Lookout, Canada - 14th June 2009
By: smaug
Hi Mum,
today we went for a long hike to a place called Aylmer Lookout. This used to be one of the fire lookouts within Banff National Park and , as all the other ones, it has been abandoned a long time ago. But the lookout location is still one of the best viewpoints in the area, and can be reached via a 12km trail, so we were quite excited.
Most of the trail was in the forest and nothing exciting happened along it, so we didn’t take any picture, but once we reached the lookout, wow, it was worth the wait
Here we are enjoying the view over Lake Minnewanka (almost 600m below us).
The lookout is usually visited by many mountain sheep, not today though.
This is us again looking up the valley leading to Aylmer Pass.
While driving back, just after leaving the car park, we spotted a black bear on a tree a few meters from the road side. How exciting, my first bear “meeting” in Canada, it was huge Unfortunately Smaug didn’t stop to take a picture of each of us with the bear in the background, but just slowed down enough to let us enjoy the encounter and to take a picture of the bear (picture that actually came out dark and out of focus ). He explained us that stopping so close to a bear might help him in getting used to humans (and that is bad for both bears and humans) or might make him nervous and scared (and that is very bad for humans as you don’t really want to be close to a nervous bear ).
Will write again soon
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Posted Jun 17, 2009, 3:47 am
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Moose Mountain, Canada - 20th June 2009
By: smaug
Hi Mum,
today we went visiting a place called Moose Mountain. This is a fairly high peak (2437m) that lies on the eastern edge of the Rockies and have a fire lookout (still used) right at the top. To reach the trailhead we had to drive a few km on a gravel road littered with potholes...my spine is still shaken by the experience . Of course the road was quite dusty too, hmmm, what was the colour of the car?
We could get the first glimpse of our destination through a gap in the trees.
After a couple of hours walking (well, Smaug was walking, we were chatting in his backpack ) we reached the summit. Wow, there was a sea of peaks surrounding us on three sides
While on the opposite side the green sea of the prairies was disappearing into the east.
We didn’t linger much as the weather was turning ugly.
On the way down we managed to take a final picture of the summit...
...before it started raining cats and dogs, we even got some heavy hail. But eventually we made it back to the car park without getting too drenched.
During the drive back we stopped to take some more picture of the prairies (you might almost see Calgary’s skyscrapers in the distance...well, it's a bit dark, but they are there)....
...and we explored a natural gas extraction site...that’s not my head fuming , but just the smoke from the gas works down in the valley.
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Posted Jun 21, 2009, 7:23 pm Last edited Jun 21, 2009, 8:02 pm by smaug
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Calgary, Canada - 22nd June 2009
By: smaug
Hi Mum,
today we got a "present" in the post: Pepita came back from BC to spend a few days here (guess there's something she wants to pack in her shell) before leaving for Germany. Wow, of course we spent the whole night chatting
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Posted Jun 26, 2009, 3:56 am Last edited Jun 26, 2009, 4:22 am by smaug
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