So I'm cheating a bit - I thought I would blog again before we went off on our holidays but never got round to finishing it so have decided to finish the blog I wrote before our holiday and then complete one sooner about our holidays and family visiting!
Yet again we have been busy busy busy so I better get typing!
Calgary and The Rockies!
I wanted to share a video from Tourism Calgary promoting the area.It pretty much captures all the main attractions of the city.
Public Holidays
Get that jealous face ready! We have a public holiday/long weekend every month through the year apart from June and either March or April depending when Easter falls.This means no long wait between August and Christmas for a long weekend like in the UK!
Fishing - Lake Minnewanka & Bow River Falls
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Lake Minnewanka (pronounced minnewonka) is a located a 20minute drive from Banff center. It has walking trails, boat hire and tours available. The walking trails were closed to protect vegetation for bears in the area. We were hoping to catch one down by the lake whilst fishing but only managed to see a few mountain goats. The lake has an interesting history, there is a settlement under the waters that was flooded in 1941 to create a a newer dam to provide power for the area.
We also failed to catch any fish! But it was a good way to spend a hot afternoon with some friends.
We also failed to catch any fish! But it was a good way to spend a hot afternoon with some friends.
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| Imogen has fallen to sleep in some weird places but I think the bow of a boat tops them all! |
After fishing we decided to visit Bow River Falls properly, we'd only ever been to the wooded area of the falls and never actually seen the falls itself!
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| We met our first Mountie! |
Time zones
So Canada is a pretty big place. The Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming first proposed time zones for the entire world in 1876, and Canada, being a continental country is covered coast to coast with multiple zones. From West to East there are 5 1/2 different time zones!
- GMT-8 Pacific Time (Yukon, British Columbia)
- GMT-7 Mountain Time (Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nunavut)
- GMT-6 Central Time (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario)
- GMT-4 Atlantic Time (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island)
- GMT-3.5 Newfoundland Time (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Nando's? A taste of home?
Alastair managed to locate a Nando's in Calgary! Surprised and curious we decided to check it out. We were left missing Nando's even more after our experience. The place itself wasn't like Nanado's at all inside, no Portuguese feeling, no atmosphere! The menu wasn't on par at all with Nando's in the UK, it was all wrong wrong wrong. Its safe to say we will not be traveling across town to experience this again!
Weather!
Taking your lilo/inflatable rubber dingy/something that floats (or like we saw - airbeds!) on a hot summers day to the Bow River and letting yourself leisurely float down the river is a Calgarian tradition and a must do.
Below is a map of the route we took from Ghost Lake. There are many launch points along the river and depending how long you want to float for depends where you get on and off the river. Ghost lake is a popular place to start if you want to do a shorter run, it is approximately a 25min drive from our house. It took us 2 1/2hrs to travel this section. The Idea is you drop a car off at the point you wish to disembark the river and leave a car where you set off. Luckily for us we had a lift from our friend (who was also kindly looking after Imogen) so we only had to drive back from the river to their house.
How to describe the weather in Calgary? The assumption by many is that its a cold place to live - which is true - IN WINTER! The summer is largely dry sunny and in the mid to late 20's for the best part. We do however, suffer from thunderstorms, severe weather warnings (large hail and cyclone warnings!) about once a week. A few weeks ago we had a heavy hailstorm which was over within 30mins and every where was dry and sunny again. What is even more unpredictable about it is we can have hail in our yard yet 1mile away at my friends there will be little rainfall. In the winter we will get Chinook winds which causes a rapid change in temperature e.g going from -17c to + 10 to 20 in a matter of hours! I would try and explain how they occur, in honesty it is easier for you to check out the link.
Funnily we have begun to think about our winter coats now. A lot of the stores have 50% sales on - Ally bought a snowboard when it was 30c out!
Bow River Floating
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| Ghost Lake with the Rockies in the background - the set off point. |
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| A very steep incline to the launch point. |
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| Bobbing along! |
Below is a map of the route we took from Ghost Lake. There are many launch points along the river and depending how long you want to float for depends where you get on and off the river. Ghost lake is a popular place to start if you want to do a shorter run, it is approximately a 25min drive from our house. It took us 2 1/2hrs to travel this section. The Idea is you drop a car off at the point you wish to disembark the river and leave a car where you set off. Luckily for us we had a lift from our friend (who was also kindly looking after Imogen) so we only had to drive back from the river to their house.
Another and more popular place to start is from Bowness Park, this is a 10 minute drive from our house and most people end at the Calgary Zoo, a 4 - 5hr journey in all! A good mixture of groups do this from families to couples to college students with a crate of beer in tow (some even have a seperate raft for their beer)
So off we set the three of us Ally, Colin and myself for a relaxing float down the river. Yes we got wet, yes there were choppy parts that had us full of excitement and even a large rock that managed to give us a good thump in the backside - but we made it and can't wait to go again and for Imogen to be old enough to take part.
Look a video:
So off we set the three of us Ally, Colin and myself for a relaxing float down the river. Yes we got wet, yes there were choppy parts that had us full of excitement and even a large rock that managed to give us a good thump in the backside - but we made it and can't wait to go again and for Imogen to be old enough to take part.
Look a video:
Ok so that's it for now. Keep an eye out for a blog about our holiday soon. I promise to try and do it soon!
