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Record Breaking Birthday!
Hello from Calgary, where we are having a lazy day after a late night celebrating Bry’s birthday.
In our last update we suggested the weather had improved, however half an hour after uploading it we were hit by another torrential thunderstorm. Again there was hail, not as big as last time but enough for us to use our windscreen sun protector on the outside of Bowser, just in case! We were cooking dinner on an open fire, which we tried to protect with foil, but it was soon extinguished as the hail smashed holes through the foil.
We didn’t have the room attached to our tent, so we retreated to the front seats of Bowser and attacked our emergency rations (cereal bars and family pack of crisps). We watched as the campsite filled up with about 2 inches of water and laughed as our flip-flops floated under Bowser and off into next door’s camp. As per normal, the storm soon passed and we were glad to find the roof tent withstood it all, unlike some of our poor neighbours in ground tents.
From Saskatoon, we have slowly made our way across the plains to Calgary, Alberta, crossing the ‘badlands’ of the Red Deer Valley. The change in the landscape was dramatic but quite welcome after the endless expanse of the prairies. The valley contains canyons and cool rock formations formed by the ice age.
The area is famous for dinosaur fossils, resulting in the Royal Tyrrell Museum at Drumheller, which our Lonely Planet describes as “one of the pre-eminent dinosaur museums on the planet, in many ways this is the real Jurassic Park”. They did have some amazing exhibits as part of what is apparently the world’s largest collection of actual dinosaur fossils, as opposed to the casts you normally see in a museum. It was also interesting to see their workshops, where they extract the fossils from the rock and reconstruct the skeletons.
There wasn’t much else in Drumheller, apart from dinosaur-based tat, including the ‘World’s largest dinosaur’, a 26 metre high fibreglass T-Rex. In complete contrast, just up the road is the old mining town of Wayne, which used to have a population in the thousands but is now home to just 28, many of whom we met, including numbers 27 and 28, two young boys, Bentley and Beckham and their parents, Heather and Brian. To get to Wayne you drive across 11 bridges in less than 4 miles – apparently another world record! The town may be small, but it still has a pub – The Last Chance Saloon – which is a now a touristy/biker bar full of nostalgic memorabilia.
So on Sunday we went to the final day of the Calgary Stampede, billed as ‘the greatest show on Earth’, to see the world’s best horse and bull riders compete for the $2 million cash prizes. We didn’t really know what to expect, or whether to believe the hype, but when we got there we were in awe of the sheer size of the place. The arena where the rodeo takes place is just a small part of the park, which also includes 13 other arenas or stages, plus fairgrounds, pubs, nightclubs and hundreds of food and shopping stalls. Somewhere between 1 and 1.5 million people attend over the 10 days – it felt like a mix between Cheltenham Races, Glastonbury and Alton Towers, but with a strictly enforced ‘wild west’ fancy dress theme! After our last few weeks on the prairies, it was a real, but exciting assault on our senses.
The rodeo events were, of course, thrilling to watch but other highlights included the more sedate Heavy Horse sledge pull, the adrenaline fuelled motorbike/skidoo show and the highly entertaining stunt dog show. The latter included another world record attempt by trying to get a German Shepherd to jump more than 33 feet into a pool. Unfortunately he only managed 31 feet!
We made a full day of it, starting with pancakes for breakfast, pulled-pork poutine (chips, cheese, gravy) for lunch and a rack of BBQ ribs for dinner, washed down with Coke, Budweiser and Jack Daniels! Sod the budget, it was Bry’s birthday treat! After the extravagant firework display, it was back on the big yellow school bus at midnight for the trip back to our campsite.
We spent Bry’s birthday morning at a lakeside beach in Chestermere before exploring Calgary and enjoying the beautiful river and parks, just generally chilling out. We then headed to one of Caroline’s old work mates, James, where his wife Morgan, her Mum, Fiona, Aunty Cath and Uncle Rob thoroughly entertained us with beer, BBQ and birthday cake. They all made us feel very welcome and made Bry’s birthday one to remember.
Thanks for all the birthday messages from home and especially to those who secretly gave Caroline birthday cards before we left. It was a treat for Bry to open birthday cards in the morning, even if we haven’t got anywhere to display them!
Next stop the Rockies to visit Banff and Jasper National Parks.
TTFN
Small towns, great people!
Hello from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan! We are now in our 5th time zone and 6th Canadian Province.
The last 10 days we have mainly been exploring the long, straight back roads and small towns across the prairie plains of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The landscape has been extremely flat but very colourful from the various crops grown. The only objects on the horizon being grain elevators and the odd clump of trees. However, the people that we have met have been amazing.
Canada Day weekend was spent in Whitemouth (population 400), where we met Sam and Jacinda, a couple cycling the 7000 km from Vancouver to Newfoundland in around 3 months! We’ve met a few long-distance cyclists on our travels, but are still amazed by the physical and mental strength these crazy people possess. They were a lovely and amusing couple that we shared a few hours with swapping stories.
Whitemouth’s Canada Day celebrations consisted of a barbeque with live music in the field next to our campsite, so we wondered over hoping to gate-crash. After a few polite introductions the next thing we knew we were being announced as ‘special guests from England’ over the Tannoy.
Throughout the afternoon, we met Annie and Dave, an expat couple from Kent, who have a similar love of overland travel and were impressed with Bowser and our rooftent. Blair, a retiree with a classic car collection, one of which is an MGB which he later brought round to show us. Also, Shannon the President of the local Lions Club, who ran the campsite, and also paid us a visit in the evening with her husband Tom. They were all great and we couldn’t have been made more welcome. It was lovely to celebrate their special day in a small town with a big heart.
Blair told us about a classic car show the next day at Lac Du Bonnet, as part of their holiday weekend, so we spent a few hours there looking at the beautiful American cars dwarfing his MGB. There was also a great parade with all sorts of vehicles, from a monster truck to a mini remote-control police car – Bry loved it!
Since then we have been slowly making our way West, stopping off in the small farming towns as we go. We have mainly been staying at cheap municipal or community run campsites, which most towns seem to have. A particularly nice riverside site was in Neepawa, where we stayed two nights. Here we met Bruce, a local who reminded us both of our grandads, who visited us twice on his mobility scooter. He was a charming gent, and through his more internet savvy wife, Margery, we have stayed in touch.
Another highlight was in Cupar, a little place we called into to buy a loaf of bread. Near the small shop there was a barbeque, which we presumed was a charity event, but it turned out to be a local insurance business’ 40th birthday party for their clients. We explained our mistake and went to leave, but the owners, Steve and Monica, said we were more than welcome to join in. So we enjoyed delicious beef baps, potato salad and iced tea while sat chatting with the locals. It was incredibly generous of them, we’d obviously never met them before and clearly had no business to offer them, but we were treated as if they’d known us for years. It was quite special!
The weather has much improved, although there have been some huge thunder storms. One night we spent in Riding Mountain National Park, where we could see a storm approaching across Lake Audy. The thunder was all around us but just when we thought no rain would come, the heavens opened with ‘hail the size of golf balls’! A local fisherman sought shelter with us under our tent and said he’d never seen hail stones that big either.
No damage was done to Bowser, but the downpour brought out the mosquitoes en masse. Our campfire was too wet to smoke them out, so we retreated to our tent with about 30 of the buggers, which we then spent the next two hours trying to swat. The mozzies have been a constant irritation, with us suffering well over a hundred bites between us! So far it’s been the only downside to this beautiful country.
From here we head to Calgary for the Stampede and to celebrate Bry’s birthday.
TTFN
Glamping to Tramping!
Hello from Lake Superior, the largest fresh water lake in the world, by surface area. It is so vast that more water falls into it by rain or snow than flows into it from the rivers.
When we last wrote we had just arrived at Aunty Jean’s in Toronto, where we had a lovely weekend including a big family get together on the Saturday evening. It was great for Caroline to catch up with her cousins and their ever-expanding brood – it made for a very special night.
Then it was off to Caroline’s bridesmaid, Jeannie’s, to stay a week with her and her three lovely children, who we haven’t seen for 7 years! We had a relaxing few days at her house in Toronto doing a few jobs to Bowser including a well-earned oil change.
Jeannie spoilt us rotten, looking after us like an extra couple of teenagers. Then on Friday night we joined her family to see U2 at the Rogers Centre in their corporate box with complimentary food and drink! It was an unforgettable experience for which we will be eternally grateful. There is no way we could repay her – we’ve seen the ticket price and there really is no way we can repay her!
As if that wasn’t enough, Saturday morning, feeling slightly groggy and ears still ringing from the concert, it was off to Jeannie’s family cottage on the Lake of Bays. We say ‘cottage’ as traditionally Canadians have a small house on the lakes that are passed down through generations. This, however, was the large, modern, luxury version with facilities to rival a country club! A great weekend was had enjoying the speed boat, kayaks, tennis court, as well as swimming and fishing in the cold waters.
Needless to say we were very sad to leave Toronto, not least because we do not know when we will see our fantastic Canadian friends and family again. We were both quite emotional getting back on the road and heading West into the great unknown. By way of contrast to our 10 days of being spoilt in Toronto, that night we camped in a wet truck stop – although the fresh tea and coffee the next morning was most welcome and the staff were lovely. As a whole, everyone we’ve met has been friendly and more than willing to pass on their help and advice. Only once have we been told we can’t camp somewhere and even then we were told where we could.
Bowser has been much admired and a great ice breaker. Particularly with British expats who recognise the licence plate, or just general outdoorsy people who recognise that we are on a ‘trip’. We met a particularly lovely couple, Harold and Pat, who moved here from Lancashire back in the ‘60s, neither of whom had lost their accents but now live ‘off-grid’ in a cottage by a lake.
This week we have been driving along the North shores of Lakes Huron and Superior on the Trans Canada Highway. The scenery has been spectacular, with forests, lakes, rivers and waterfalls as far as the eye can see. We’ve stopped off at most of the towns along the way, which have ranged from quaint, picture-postcard to run-down and boarded-up. We’ve seen deer, coyote, chipmunks, loads of big birds of prey and millions of mosquitoes! The only bear so far was a statue of Winnie-the-Pooh in White River, the town where the original bear cub was bought before going to London Zoo and inspiring AA Milne. We spent one particularly nice night wild camped on the shore of Lake Superior, having a beer around a camp fire, watching the sun set.
We are now in Thunder Bay and suitably the weather has turned wet again. The forecast here looks bleak for the next few days, so we are going to head straight to Winnipeg which looks drier. It’s Canada’s 150th birthday on Saturday and everyone will be celebrating, so we hope to join in the festivities somewhere.
Click here for new Canada photos.
TTFN
The Start & Photos
Our trip started in Halifax so we've backtracked and set a pin.
All our photos will now be available on Facebook but you don't have to be a Facebook user to view them, just click on the link below!
First Update - Finally!
Hello from Canada!
We’re here, we’re good, we’ve got Bowser and we’re back on the road!
We had fun getting here, initially our flight from Gatwick was delayed for an hour whilst two argumentative passengers were removed from the plane by the police. They then refused to identify their hold luggage, causing more delays. We eventually arrived in St Johns, Newfoundland with 50 minutes to spare to catch our connecting flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, due to our lack of return ticket and only having hand luggage, immigration pulled us for extra questioning. Luckily the officer was a typical polite Canadian, and after being impressed with the number of stamps in our passports, she let us on our way with minutes to spare.
Sunday night we arrived at Dalhousie University to stay in student accommodation they rent out during the Summer. Two single beds, two desks, one washbasin and shared, unisex toilets and showers. Not the height of luxury but it was cheap and cheerful and at least the building was grand and historic, if somewhat cold at night.
The rest of the week was spent liaising with Customs and the shippers, trying to determine when we would be able to pick Bowser up. It was all a bit stressful and frustrating not having much control over what was happening and just having to wait for the bureaucracy to do its thing. We tried to kill time by going for lots of walks and actually happened to see Bower’s ship come in on from the top of a hill.
Halifax has an interesting history, although a bit gruesome. It started as a British fort in the 1700’s, battling the natives, then the French and then became a centre for pirates. Ships sailed from Halifax to help rescue Titanic survivors but mostly brought back the dead. 150 of them are buried in the city cemeteries, most un-named, their gravestones just show their identification number and the date 15 April 1912, the day after the ship sank as this was when it was presumed they would have drowned. During World War 1 two ships collided in the harbour, one carrying munitions, resulting in the largest manmade explosion prior to the atomic bombs. More than 2,000 people died and approximately 10,000 were injured as half the city was flattened.
Luckily Bowser’s ship got in safely and after some shenanigans with custom’s inspections and hanging around industrial parks in the baking sun, we picked him up on Thursday afternoon. We had a pleasant sunny evening getting him ready and attaching all our crap to the roof rack! We like to think he was pleased to see us, but not half as pleased as we were to see him.
So Friday the 9th we were back on the road, but the weather had taken a change for the worse. It rained all day so other than the odd stop here and there for food and drinks, we drove through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, not able to appreciate the landscape due to the rain and mist.
Saturday was much sunnier and saw us crossing into Maine, US of A and sure enough we got pulled again by immigration for further questioning. We had to convince them that we were not looking to live there – luckily we were prepared with copies of documents showing we owned a property in the UK, that we had income from renting it and what our savings and credit limits are. After a nervous wait, we were granted entry until December – more than enough time for our plans.
We then had a quick jaunt through Stephen King country and stopped at his house in Bangor, which is quite noticeable from the spiders and cobweb designed fence and gate. It was then on to Portland, New Hampshire, where all along the harbour was a street festival with live music, carnivals, food and hundreds of stalls selling the usual arts & crafts. We enjoyed a few hours wandering around, getting a bit too much sun, before heading off to Cape Elizabeth for a bit of peace and quiet and to see the oldest lighthouse in North America. There were loads of families enjoying their Sunday in the park with picnics and BBQs and we caught a high school graduation ceremony – it was all very American!
The next day we moved onto Gloucester, Massachusetts of Perfect Storm fame and had a nice walk about the harbour and seafront. There’s a very simple memorial to fishermen who have died sailing from that port alone – all individually named, a staggering 5000 odd.
Next up was New Haven, Connecticut for a really interesting tour of Yale University, particularly their immense new library where they keep rare and first edition publications in a six-storey glass chamber where the air is perfectly conditioned to preserve the papers. The outer walls are made of thin marble, which lets in daylight, but not harmful UV rays. It is an amazing building, but with fees at $60,000 a year and 10,000 students, they can afford it!
We then stayed with lovely Annie - best friend of Bry’s sister Michelle - her charming husband Chris and there two beautiful daughters in their gorgeous house in New Canaan. It was great to see them, we had a lovely evening catching up and appreciated the use of a proper shower and sleeping in air-conditioned luxury! We are very thankful for their generous hospitality.
Then it was heading back to Canada, via Albany, New York and a quick trip up their observation tower for views over the Hudson River. So far the only night we have paid for accommodation was a campsite on the banks of Lake Ontario, next to another lighthouse (just a coincidence, not an obsession), before heading to the Rainbow Bridge over Niagara Falls and up to Toronto to stay with Caroline’s great - actually amazing - aunty Jean, which is where we are now with her cute dog Trixie at our feet. We’re looking forward to a big family meal tonight with loads of second cousins.
Sorry for delay, we've had internet problems! Photos to follow soon.
Have a nice day, y’all!