Annie and Fos in Canada 2023

  Outlaw Calgary was gearing up for the Calgary Stampede while we were in town. Think Sydney Royal on steroids with a focus on rodeo events and chuckwagon races similar to Ben Hur chariot races. 'Outlaw' was the biggest, baddest, bucking bull ever. He reached celebrity status with his record of only 2 successful 8 second rides from 71 attempts from the world's best cowboys. Although Calgary likes to promote itself as a cowboy town, it was really built from oil money. Lots of oil money. There are nearly as many oil wells in the paddocks surrounding the city as there are cows. Petrol is cheap and huge pick up trucks dominate the massive road system.

Like many towns on the western foothills of the Rockies, Grande Cache began as a fur trading depot when European trappers first came to the area chasing wealth from pelts of beaver, martin and anything else they could trap or shoot. Old traditions die hard and the gift shop at today's tourist information centre still sells pelts. Beaver, martin, bobcat, otter, lynx and even wolf and bison skins were available. 

 We don't go to many museums but we have been to a few really good ones lately. Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump is a historic site in southern Alberta near where the prairies meet the Rockies.  The museum is located at one of the sites where the Blackfoot people used to drive herds of bison (buffalo) over a cliff as a method of gathering their main source of sustenance. The building is set into the ridge with most of it underground.  Large tribes/communities relied on bison for their food, clothing and shelters (tipis). Herds used to number in the hundreds of thousands and when they were wiped out in the 1870-1880s the Blackfoot and other tribes like them lost their mode of survival. Completely.   We then drove through part of the Canadian Badlands to Dinosaur Provincial Park where we camped. More big dinosaur fossils have been found here than anywhere else on earth and the fantastic Royal Tyrrell Museum in nearby Drumheller is part laboratory part public museum. It con...

The Lonely Planet guidebook describes the Prince of Wales Hotel at Waterton as like something from Hogwarts. It's a pretty good description. It was built in 1927 by a chronic Anglophile and named the Prince of Wales because the Prince was nearby at the time of completion and the owner wanted him to open it. Although the cad snubbed him and wouldn't come, the name stuck.  It is built almost entirely from local timber and very lavish. Naturally,  we booked dinner for 7.00. The waiters wore kilts and the food was very nice. We fitted in perfectly in our crumpled hiking attire.

 Well, today I met Bob. Bob is from Texas and had flown up to Montana to attend a bible group.  We are currently in Waterton National Park which is on the US border joining Glacier National Park in Montana. Bob had ducked over the border to have a quick look, although he seemed less than impressed “Better on the US side, more happening”. I’m not sure what he was referring to but I didn’t have time to ask before he continued. As we walked away from the toilet where we met, the conversation somehow moved on to guns, covid and politics. Now, some of you who know me will find this difficult to believe, but I swear I did not prompt, agitate or even encourage this line of monologue. This was all Bob. Covid was, and still is, a conspiracy by governments around the world to control their subjects. One example Bob knew of to prove this fact was that the government in America (he didn’t say which one) was paying families of people who died by other causes, $30,000 to have their death...

The drive south from Banff to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park followed the eastern edge of the Rockies. We haven’t seen the prairies yet but they are not far away. It was a lovely drive, the only interruption being a mob of Rocky Mountain Sheep on the road. This Park was established primarily to alleviate visitor pressure on Banff NP. It didn’t work. The scenery is just as spectacular but there are very few people here. We spent our full day here walking around the Upper Kananaskis Lake.