As England awoke on 1 July, we boarded a plane destined for Calgary to begin two amazing weeks of adventures in Alberta and British Columbia. I flew out with my boyfriend (Stephen), parents and sister (Holly), and our first stop was to visit my aunt, uncle and two cousins who live in Calgary.
We spent a couple of days in Calgary before all heading west, with a stop-over en-route, to Sicamous where we picked up a houseboat and spent four days relaxing on Shuswap Lake. From there, Stephen and I split off from the rest of the group to explore the Rockies. Our accommodation ranged from camping to hotels, and we even spent a night in a wilderness hostel which was a fantastic experience.
The trip took us white water rafting on the Kicking Horse River, walking on the Athabasca Glacier, canoeing on Emerald Lake, Western riding around Lake Louise and swinging from the trees at SkyTrek near Revelstoke, before finally returning to Calgary for the Calgary Stampede, a night of two-stepping and line dancing in Ranchman’s and learning Canada’s history at Heritage Park.
We saw some amazing wildlife – a black bear hanging out along the Icefields Parkway, bald eagles at Shuswap lake and tens of the most adorable squirrels that love to pose for the camera.
Of course, this is far too much for one blog. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be writing blogs about some of the best bits of the trip, and of course I took hundreds of photographs of this beautiful country and what it has to offer. So stay tuned and hit the ‘follow’ button to find out more about what we’ve been up to!
