The Calgary Stampede – It is advertised as the worlds greatest outdoor show. We decided to see what all the hype was about! Friday morning after a long 4-day working week we found ourselves in Calgary, Alberta. A mere 5 hour flight from Ottawa. Upon arrival Greg and Amy, who were coincidentally on vacation in Calgary at the same time met us.Seriously, from the second you get out of the plane it is cowboy country. Everyone has full cowboy boots and hats not to mention other cowboy-esque apparel. We were more than a little bit excited!!
After a quick pit-stop at our hotel to drop off our bags and put on our own cowboy gear (at this stage it only included checkered shirts and boots) we headed off for a looooong lunch in the glorious sunshine. We spent the afternoon enjoying cocktails and food and checking out all the latest cowboy fashion trends before heading to a store to kit ourselves out in similar gear. A good amount of time was spent picking out the best possible hats and … trying chaps on Joep. True story. I really wanted to buy them for him. They looked HUH-LAR-EE-OUS but alas he felt silly in them and didn’t want to have them. Boo. So we stuck with the bare minimum – Hats. Joep looked goooooood. This is me saying this, not him, although he said it a lot as well.
After gearing ourselves up we made a quick pit stop at a local rugby match (which Joep thoroughly enjoyed watching!) before heading to the Stampede grounds. First stop – the ticket booth to get some tickets to the chuck wagon racing!! We were there just in time and managed to avoid the irritating Aussie backpackers who were spending a lot of time loudly asking people how many beers they could buy inside the Stampede grounds (there are not many times that I am embarrassed to be Australian, this was one of them … I wasn’t alone. Another Aussie couple, mistaking Joep & I for a Dutch couple, meekly told us ‘We’re not all like that’ as we stood near them. I very quickly informed them that I too was an Aussie and therefore could attest to the fact that we are not all massive bogans. Thank goodness!).
Tickets purchased we headed into the arena. Now I am sure that most of you don’t know the ins and outs of chuck wagon racing. We didn’t either. And I’ll be honest with you; it was hard to figure it out by just watching it!! Here is a brief description (thank goodness for Wikipedia!) … A chuckwagon was originally a wagon that carried food and cooking equipment on the prairies of the United States and Canada. They would form a part of a wagon train of settlers or feed nomadic workers like cowboys or loggers. In the chuckwagon they would carry a stove and tent equipment etc.
In chuckwagon racing, chuckwagons are raced around a figure eight barrel obstacle. The racing team consists of the chuckwagon driver and two to four "outriders" who load the stove and tent poles at the start and must finish the race with the chuckwagon. So basically, a few guys throw a stove and tent into the back of the wagon then everyone jumps on their horses and races around the track. Oh and you lose points if you knock over one of the barrel obstacles or drop your stove/tent. It is complex. It is also very exciting to watch. We lost our minds for the next couple of hours cheering for various teams and trying to figure out the rules. It was hilarious!
After the winners of the chuckwagon racing were announced we were faced with a decision. Go to a pub or stay for the evening show?? We threw the options around for a while and then decided to stay for the show. Given the size of the stage they were setting up we figured it would be pretty good. We were NOT disappointed! The show was incredible. Picture Circ du Soleil mixed with world championship motor cross racing, plus hilarious stand up comedians and throw in famous Canadian pop stars to boot. Add in a few young kids performing ‘Kinderen voor Kinderen (for the Dutch) / Johnny Young Talent Time (for the Aussies)’ type performances and you have what was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I am not exaggerating. It was so interactive and so diverse! To prove that I am not exaggerating about how good this show was let me tell you that Joep & I barely spoke for the entire show except to say things like ‘OH MY GOODNESS!’ or ‘THIS IS INCREDIBLE!’ You get the drift. In addition, at the end of the show Joep told me that it was so good that he almost proposed to me again. Adorable! That is how good it was.
By the time the show was over it was late and we were exhausted so we decided to end the night on a high and wandered the streets to home. The streets were jam packed with crazy cowboys enjoying the stampede. Words don’t do this justice.
Saturday we were up bright and early and headed directly to the Stampede. It was rodeo time and we didn’t want to miss out on tickets! Tickets purchased we made the most of the Stampede grounds and managed to stumble across the World Horse Shoeing Championships. This might sound random. It was random. It was also very interesting watching blacksmiths make horseshoes from scratch and fit them to horses in a set time frame. It is hard work! I have much respect for these men. Oh and it stinks. The smell of a hot horseshoe burning onto a horses hoof is not delicious.
Championships over we wandered around to check out some of the livestock and to learn how to best train your horse (you have to ride with your legs … don’t pull on the mouth. That is a no-no.) before heading for the fast-food stalls. I ate my first ever corndog. It was gross. For those who don’t know who this is, it is a hotdog wrapped in breadstuff and deep-fried. It tastes like a heart attack. Not in a good bacon-ator way either. But I’m glad I tried it because I won’t die wondering.
Food consumed we were off to the rodeo! Oh. My. Goodness. Grown men staying on bucking horses and bulls for 8 seconds and getting points for it. It was incredible. And do you know what the prize money is for the winner? You will never guess this. I am thinking about taking up bull riding after hearing this. Or at least encouraging Joep to do so. The prize money is $2 million. That is not a lie. $2 million. Just for sitting on a bull for 8 seconds. I reckon I could do it. It looked pretty easy.
That is not true. It looked frickin’ petrifying! But it was 150% entertaining! We were glued to our seats for the next little while, except when it started to rain so we had to move to the undercover seats. What a show!!
Rodeo over, we headed out to enjoy the Stampede grounds again before heading home for a midday nap. We met up with Greg & Amy again for a lovely meal before attempting to find a mechanical bull for Joep to ride but everywhere was crazy busy (Saturday night at the Stampede … to be expected!) so we ended up giving up pretty quickly.
Good thing we did because Sunday was a big day! The World Cup Final!! We had decided, upon advise from our hotel receptionist, to head to a bar called Melrose Place so we were up and dressed in oranje nice and early. Arrival at Melrose Place showed that others had the exact same plan. As we got our first beers of the day and found a spot to stand Joep announced that he thought he knew a guy nearby. He wandered over to see if he was right and … he was!! Matthijs, a friend of a friend of Joep’s was at the same bar as us with his Canadian wife whom I met at Joep’s Nijmegen Cuban party a couple of years ago. What are the odds?? Matthijs was there with a few other Dutch guys who were also with Canadian ladies so they invited us to pull up a stool and make ourselves at home. We didn’t need to be asked twice!
We all know that the outcome of the match was not a good one. But let me tell you – We had a heap of fun. So much so that some Spanish supporters came up to us afterwards to tell us that we should be proud of ourselves because even though we lost we were the most entertaining people in the bar. So the boys felt happy again and we were all able to continue drinking and eating and celebrating. Shortly afterwards we headed off to Matthijs and his wife Kyla’s house for a bbq (hospitality galore!). All in all it was a great if not, somewhat blurry, day and ended our Stampede adventure on a high!
Monday morning we were up early to head to our next stop on our mini-vacation. The Rocky Mountains. We were both so excited about this and after 1.5 hours of driving as we headed into the mountains we were both blown away. Once again, words don’t do it justice. Banff National Park is one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. Mountains and lakes and waterfalls and all of them totally untouched. It is phenomenal.
We arrived in Banff earlier than anticipated (10am!) and so settled in for a coffee while I researched what we would do. We had already decided that we would do the Plain of Six Glaciers hike on advice from our ‘Once in a Lifetime Trips’ book and I then found a great hike up a glacier further up the mountains!! Realizing that we had not packed for ice climbing we made a quick pit stop at an outdoor store to pick up some winter clothes. Lucky we did! We then drove to Lake Louise for some hiking.
Lake Louise is picturesque to the nth degree. Seriously. It doesn’t not get much more perfect than here! We spent some time taking in the beauty of the area before beginning our hike. When we began the hike it was somewhat clear but looking like it could get colder so we each put on long pants and a long sleeved jumper. It is a 5.5km (one-way) hike and reaches elevation of 2100m. Many of you who know me will now be wondering if, since moving to Canada, I have gotten really fit and started training for things like this. I haven’t. But for some reason, whenever I am on vacation I suddenly think that I am super fit and capable of tackling any kind of difficult hike. Why? I don’t know. You’d think I learned my lesson at Cinque Terre. I didn’t. And this hike was way harder than Cinque Terre. Yikes!!
But I am proud to say that I made it all the way to the top!! Not only did I make it but I made it even though half way up it started to pour with rain (we took shelter under a tree with an Australian couple who were on their way down and told us that we were almost at the top … liars.) – Then when the rain subsided and we began hiking again I didn’t even stop when it began to hail big hailstones. I’m laughing as I write this. I don’t know why we didn’t turn back. It was freezing and we were not dressed for this hike. It was slippery and steep and cold. But we persevered. And when we were approximately 300 meters from the summit I threw my one and only tantrum and proclaimed loudly (with what I believe included a smidge of foot stomping) that I would not go on if the summit was not around the next bend because this is no fun Joepie. This is not a vacation! The summit was around the next bend. Phew! We then sat and played a quick game of backgammon (Joep thrashed me) before making it back down the trail in what I believe to be record time!!
Needless to say we were exhausted. This exhaustion did not stop us from marveling once again at the beautiful scenery on the way back to Banff. Semi-lie – I slept a lot on the way back. But Joep woke me when he saw deer on the side of the road so that was exciting!!
We arrived at our hotel and were more than a little bit impressed by how beautiful it was. And by the fact that there was a big spa in our room to soak our aching muscles!! After a bit of recuperation we made our way down to the town for a big long dinner. Heavenly. Followed by an early night. Glorious.
Tuesday morning we had to be up early to make it to the Athabasca Glacier by 10:40am (a 3 hour drive) for our glacier hike. The drive along the Icefields Parkway (between Banff and Jasper) is pegged as one of the most beautiful drives in the world. It is. There is no doubt about this. It was fantastically beautiful. As we drove along marveling at how lovely it was … it started to snow. True story. Middle of summer in Canada and it was snowing! We started to get a little bit nervous about how well equipped we were for this climb!
Luckily we had nothing to worry about. When we arrived at the glacier we were fitted out with boots, clamps (for gripping the ice) and snow clothing to wear over the top of our winter clothes. Problem solved!
The glacier is approximately 6 km long, covers an area of 6 km², and is measured to be between 90 metres and 300 metres thick. According to tourist guides, travel onto the glacier is not recommended unless properly equipped because hidden crevasses have led to the deaths of unprepared tourists. Exciting!! We couldn’t wait to get up there … although I did have a brief pang of ‘Hmmm’ when asked to sign a waiver stating that if I hurt myself or died on the glacier it was my own fault. Yikes!
The hike was incredible. It was snowing bucket loads while we were up there, which actually made the climb somewhat easier but made it even more difficult to see the ice and therefore the holes. We were instructed to follow step by step behind our guide and we took that seriously. He was incredible and gave us heaps of lessons on ice travel and on the impact of global warming on the glaciers. All of this was very interesting but my favourite part of the tour was when he stopped us, crept forward a few metres with his ice pick, stopped and then called us one at a time to come and look at what he found.
It was a ‘melt well’ which is essentially a seriously huge hole in the ice created by a bit of melting ice that finds a crack and wears it down. This hole was big enough for a few people to fall down at once and dropped 16m straight down before beginning to spiral. That in itself was pretty incredible. But even more than that … if I had been walking on the glacier all by myself there is no way I would’ve seen that hole until I was inside it. True story. It was pretty incredible!!
After a long trek on the ice we made it back to the car all in one piece and with one more incredible memory under our belts!
We then headed up to Jasper to check out the remaining leg of the Icefields Parkway and to find some delicious lunch. Both goals were met. We briefly checked out Jasper (and decided Banff was definitely the better town to stay in!) and we pigged out on amazing Cantonese food … who woulda thunk it!!
Massage over we decided that, despite our mammoth late lunch, we wanted a long dinner too. So we headed out to the town to enjoy an incredible Italian feast! Satisfied, we called it a night.
Wednesday morning we woke up without the alarm and, after packing all our new clothes (winter and cowboy …) we checked out and enjoyed an incredible long breakfast in town. We then headed up to the sulfur springs in the mountain just behind Banff town where we vegged out in the warm outdoor baths for a few hours. Heavenly.
It was with heavy hearts that we headed away from Banff and back to the airport. What an incredible few days! It was so great to get away from it all for a few days!! Having said that, it wasn’t so bad to get back to the real world considering that both of us had great news from work awaiting us upon our return to Ottawa.
And so ends another great Canadian adventure! It was, once again, one of the best trips ever (a recurring theme!). Our Canadian ‘to do’ list is starting to dwindle!! But never fear, there are more adventures to come J
