Travelog for: Cherry Lola

Hi Mum,

Today we explored a bit around Calgary . First we roamed around the streets looking at the skyline.




Then we entered a mall and stopped a bit to rest.



Those flags are for the Junior Hockey World Championship which is going on right now in Calgary.



Later we explored a bit the mall...



...and just before heading home we found this lovely curtain of lights ...it probably looks better without the daylight coming in from the glass roof .

Hi Mum,

Today we gathered all together to say goodbye to Landroval and Sigfrido who are travelling back to Europe and will arrived just in time to celebrate New Year’s eve ...assuming they won’t be too jet-lagged .

Hi Mum,

Today we went for a short hike near Calgary. Most of the route was between trees with the occasional viewpoint .



Once we reached the summit the views were great and, funny enough, the place is so windswept that there was hardly any snow around .




On the way down we noticed that someone had built a igloo . The outside didn’t looked exactly state of the art in igloo construction ...



...but is seemed solid enough, so we went inside to take some shelter from the wind and have some rest. And it was actually very warm and comfortable , too bad eventually we had to leave and go home .

Hi Mum,

Today we said goodbye and wished a safe trip to both Quentin Ducky and Cassiopeia who are travelling to their next hosts in Chile and Germany .

Hi Mum,

Today smaug showed up with an envelope that looked like having a new guest inside .



And it was a new guest indeed , Commodore Quack a nice duck from Wales. Of course we gave him a warm welcome and spent the night chatting and listening about his travels .

Hi Mum,

Today we were bored to stay at home so, despite the weather forecast not being exactly beautiful, we convinced smaug to head to the mountains . It was actually a bit cold and cloudy, so we hid in the backpack until we reached the first stop of our day, Rawson Lake. The lake was frozen solid and covered with snow (like everything else around it ) but, half covered by clouds,  we could see the imposing face of Mount Sarrail at the back of it.



On the opposite side of the lake we could see our destination, that ridge up there.



So, up we went in the middle of the trees. Breaking trail in the deep snow was hard work...so we left smaug taking care of that .



Once we reached the top, the clouds were getting thicker and lower, but we still could see the frozen shapes of Kananaskis Lakes.



On the way down we had a great idea: instead of sticking with smaug at his painfully slow pace, we decided to practise glissading on the snow and wait for him at the bottom. It was so much fun !



On second thought, maybe it wasn’t the best idea ever . Oouch!



After this little accident we humbly went back in the backpack ad nursed our wounded pride with some chocolate for the rest of the day .

Hi Mum,

Today smaug had some time for us, so he took us up to the mountains to snowshoe a bit .  We soon started questioning his trail selection strategy as it seemed that for the whole day the sun was always on the opposite side of the valley, but he seemed unfazed by our complaints .



It was funny that, while we had to proceed in deep snow,...



...some of the peaks around us were almost snow-free .



On the way we stopped to talk to this friendly bird and asked for directions .



Eventually we reached our destination, which unfortunately was battered by the wind and clad in clouds ...except for the direction from which we had just come. So we took a photo and quickly took cover .

Hi Mum,

It was fairly cold and snowing here in Calgary this weekend, so we stayed in town and went just to stretch our legs along the river, which is mostly but not completely frozen.



Not surprisingly not many people were around .



On the way we stopped to check how construction of the Peace Bridge is progressing....it seems there are chances that it might open less than 2 years late from the expected date .




Later on, we politely explained to sammino that while we were sort of comfortable with the -15C , the wind was starting to bite a bit, particularly since we haven’t got specific arctic survival training . So we took a final look at downtown Calgary and headed back home...



...where we spent the afternoon nice an warm playing computer games .

Hi Mum,

Today was a nice and warm day so we went for a short walk to the foothills . It was actually nice and warm in Calgary, but only nice and freaking windy a bit higher up . Luckily most of the time we were walking between trees...



...passing by the occasional viewpoint .



Once we reached the highest and most exposed spot of our little trip it got very, very windy, so we took a couple of shots trying not to get blown away and then took cover for the rest of the day .

Hi Mum,

Today eventually smaug had some time for us, so, even if the weather wasn’t exactly great, we went for a short hike in the snow . After a a bit of walking we crossed this lovely canyon .




Then we reached the best viewpoint of the day: apparently on a normal day this would be a great view of the lake and of the mountains behind it....not today .



So we kept going along the trail.



Later on we decided to walk down to the lakeshore where the view was a bit clearer...although it was hard to tell what was lake and what was shore .




And at that point the camera’s battery surrendered to the cold and, despite our best efforts, there was no way  to revive it. So I’m afraid I will not be able to document all the lovely fog and clouds that we enjoyed during the rest of the day.

Hi Mum,

Today smaug came home with a parcel that looked very likely to be the travelling quarters of a new guest , so we got very excited.



And it was a new guest indeed, Petit Lapin , a nice rabbit from Germany who is traveling the Round Robin 16.  He showed us the lovely cards that he brought with him , and then we spent the night chatting about past and future travelling .

Hi Mum,

Today a new guest arrived in Calgary . Smaug brought back home an envelope and we immediately knew that it was a TV.



And yes, a TV it was, Melek a nice hedgehog from Germany ...and he brought with him a lovely card and some delicious sweets . Of course the chocolate helped a lot in keeping high our sugar levels as we spent the night chatting .

Hi Mum,

Not only today is a holiday, but the weather looked gorgeous this morning, so we went for a bit of outdoor exercise .  We picked a trail in the trees not too far from Calgary.



The trees around us where still covered with the snow fallen last night  .



As we moved uphill the view even improved.




By the time we reached the highest point of our day the weather has taken a sudden turn...for the worse , and the snow started falling.




Soon the light snow turned into a heavy snowfall, so we took shelter under a tree. As we were cheering ourselves up with some tea and a chocolate bar , we asked sammino if it was normal for the weather to switch from incredibly clear and blue sky into a blizzard in a couple of hours. He just answered : “Welcome to Calgary” .

Hi Mum,

Happy Easter !

We were hoping to celebrate with some gigantic chocolate egg , but smaug was concerned about our diet , so we just got small TV sized egges ....still there was enough of them for everyone .

Hi Mum,

Today we all said goodbye and wished a safe journey to Jujube who is travelling to her next host in the US.