Not in Kansas (oops Canada) anymore

Well, I did it! I survived the year in Canada. If you have been reading my blogs you will know what an amazing year it has been! Even though I am typing this in Dubai airport on my way back down under it still does not feel real that the year has finished.

I wrote this little poem to say goodbye to staff at Ryerson Heights….. A good one for memories of my year too…

The 12 months of the Aussie

On the first month of the year, the Aussie came to Ryerson

On the second month of the year, the Aussie tried Tim Horton’s coffee! (Yuck!!!)

On the third month of the year, the Aussie boot scooted in Nashville

On the fourth month of the year, the Aussie ate a Canadian Easter Egg

On the fifth month of the year, the Aussie bird watched at Pt Pelee

On the sixth month of the year, the Aussie started to countdown to summer travels

On the seventh month of the year, the Aussie set off to see beautiful Canada

On the eighth of month of the year, the Aussie saw the amazing Rockies!!!!

On the ninth month of the year, the Aussie met some young Canadians in the new school year

On the tenth month of the year, the Aussie shared stories about Down Under

On the eleventh month of the year, the Aussie started to think of the warm and home

On the twelfth month of the year, the Aussie said goodbye to all new friends made in Canada

The few weeks leading up to Christmas were insane! School was frantic with holiday cheer and preparations for the trip home were happening in every spare minute. If it wasn’t already the silly season, Mother Nature decided to put on quite a show to send me on my way! On one weekend there was a lovely dumping of snow setting it up for a very white Christmas. The next weekend there was an ice storm with freezing rain. Every surface was like an ice rink… the short trip to the car even needed spiked boots (pity I could not skate) to keep your footing! Tree branches came crashing down, laden with ice. Whole branches and trees too heavy and fully frozen with ice (awesome to see!) cut power to thousands of homes (not so awesome (:

I was so lucky to experience my first ever white Christmas! I was staying with a friend and awoke to a winter wonderland literally! Soft flurries of snow were falling and if you caught one you could actually see the snowflake shape I had only seen in books. I had spent the weeks leading up to Christmas hoping for snow and here it was. You cannot beat snow and Christmas lights…Canadians love to decorate their homes with lights at Christmas but it is the lights they put in the trees that really put on a show! Every tree becomes a Christmas tree. It was a perfect way to end my time in Canada.

I feel so lucky that I was able to be involved in the whole exchange process. When I left last January, I wondered if I would survive so far away from familiar surroundings, family and friends. It became very apparent quickly that I would not have time to be homesick! The year was full of new experiences, amazing places but most importantly amazing friendly Canadians. I am not sure what they thought of my accent or strange lingo, but this did not deter them from welcoming me and helping me out when needed (and let me tell you I needed it a lot!) The friendships made during the year will never be forgotten. In fact, the whole year has rejuvenated me (after I get over the jet lag of course) and inspired me to live each day to the fullest! So I say a final farewell to Canada-maybe one day I might return eh??????

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So much to do….so little time

Bag em for the garbage truck.

Matt’s favourite thing.

Think the neighbours missed some…….

Almost worth being up this early to see this!

Beautiful sunrise but a bit chilly outside.

Anyone for a dip in the pool?

The court or is that the skating rink??

Snow and sunshine equals interesting shadows.

The past few weeks have been frantic!   School has been insane (so much to do….) with Remembrance Day assembly, reports and interviews.  Thankfully, this week has been more settled and I have even got some teaching done. I am now also starting to turn my thoughts to home and am beginning to write a list of things to do before I leave. I can’t believe it was a whole year ago that I was writing another list to come over here.

I think Autumn is my favourite time of the year here but all I can say is thanks Matt!!!! The leaves have been falling at a rate of a thousand per second (ok not quite true…. More like a million per second LOL) . He has been raking them up and stashing them in brown garden bags. Some houses have 10 or more of these bags out on rubbish pick up day. Wish I had thought of selling these bags as I would have made a fortune. The city of Brantford composts these and uses them on their gardens . The drop is finally slowing, just in time for the snow which covers them anyway.

Speaking of snow…. First snow of the season arrived! Just a flurry really, but enough to get me excited.  (not so Matt). The frosty clear mornings are also producing some beautiful sunrises. The winter coat , scarves and hat are once again out of the closet . My brain is again working overtime checking that I have all these items plus my indoor shoes plus my outdoor shoes plus my gym shoes…… how do the children keep track of it all? Oh that’s right they have a mum helping them. Matt and I have put in a special order for more snow before we leave which the Canadians here think is hilarious (and ridiculous) as they dread it each year.  I am going to do my best to have Matt make a snow angel before we leave!

BOO!

Boo!

I was able to dress up for the first time on Halloween. It was a hoot! (Or should that be a spook??).Check out the photo. I look pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Some might say just another day at school. Trick and treating was fun even though I stayed in the house and just gave out candy. I heard that some people spend hundreds of dollars on candy but I was not one of those people!

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I also heard that people give out  hot chocolate and hot dogs but I could not “verify” this as I was too busy giving out candy to leave the house. Which brings me to a very important question…If everyone is out trick and treating at the same time who is actually home to give out the candy???

I had ghosts, skeletons, a fairy and other spooky creatures come to my door for the candy. My neighbour even gave me a pumpkin to put on my step. Luckily I found out that you do not eat these types of pumpkins before I made pumpkin soup out of it after Halloween. I was really impressed that parents come out with the kids and kids are supervised at all times. My class also could tell me ways to keep safe when trick or treating so maybe taking candy from strangers this one time of the year is not such a bad thing…….

Then I went to school the next day and the students were still high on the sugar rush of all that candy so I decided it might not be a such a good idea after all. The inevitable crash of sugar levels came in the afternoon and all I can say is thanks to Wallace and Gromit and the Case of the Were Rabbit (DVD)

Mythbusters Special- Are Moose real?

Well thanksgiving arrived and we headed north. Everybody else stayed home to eat turkey and be with family but we were on a quest… to catch a glimpse of that elusive moose…. apparently everywhere and yet nowhere to be seen! We headed north out of Brantford to a lovely spot called Gravenhurst on Lake Muskoka. A Canadian teacher had graciously offered her condo for a night so of course we accepted! The drive was peaceful and uneventful through farmland and of course all the stunning autumn colour. We arrived in time for a late lunch near the lake and then had a leisurely drive around the Lake. Huckleberry Rock trail was a highlight (even if we did not find the so called man made 1 km canyon we climbed to look for.) Oh well, the ice cream at a local ice cream shop covered our disappointment!   We arrived back at the condo and settled in to watch the Maple Leafs ice hockey game. I must admit, I am becoming a fan of this game and some of the rules are even starting to make sense.

We awoke to a rainy overcast Sunday but that did not deter us! The quest for the moose was on! We drove an hour North of Gravenhurst, of course stopping at a bakery along the way to fuel up for our quest. Algonquin Park was our destination. Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Central Ontario, Canada and is about 7,653 square kilometres. There are over 2,400 lakes and 1,200 kilometres of streams and rivers within the park. The park is considered part of the “border” between Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The park is in an area of transition between northern coniferous forest and southern deciduous forest Algonquin Park was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1992. Algonquin Park is the only designated park within the province of Ontario to allow industrial logging to take place within its borders. Of course the main reason for our visit was to see a moose in a park famous for moose and wildlife sightings. The park was busy with tourists so we decided to get off the beaten track a little. We visited the visitors centre to learn where and when the latest moose sighting had occurred. People record the   wildlife sightings on a display board- some yokel had written on the board that he had observed a giraffe ….. on his IPhone. After a little giggle at this we headed out to Beaver Pond. Yep you guessed it… no beaver in sight! It was an interesting interpretive trail though, with beaver lodges, dams and felled trees all around. The busy beavers were now obviously on holiday in Florida after all this work. There was an amazing dam created by the beavers that stretched from one side of the lake to the other. Fascinating, that the beaver build these amazing dams to create a pond in which they build a lodge. The beavers create a while new ecosystem by doing this. The rain drizzled down but the forest trail around the pond was moist underfoot and full of oranges and yellow leaves scattered on the trail. Beautiful!

After a quick lunch we headed for another trail, The Spruce Bog. I did not know much about bogs and the interpretive trail was interesting and informative. Different plants make their home in the bog and even though there is peat the greatest survivor in these conditions is a grass that lives in water.  Our next trail was through a hardwood forest. . This trail was very different from the last and offered   golden tree lined trails.

Now you are probably wondering about the moose. After all that was the reason for driving north in the first place.  I was so sure we were close…we had seen so many signs stating “Danger- Moose as we drove through the park; we had read about sightings of moose on the board at the visitors centre; I had read all about them at the visitor’s centre and knew what to do if I met a male moose on the prowl for a female (the answer is run!!!).We headed for the last trail that apparently had the best chance of seeing one and discovered it was a six hour long hike with a difficulty factor of 3 ( Beaver Pond was 1) and 3 is the highest. So as the rain began to fall again (or was that my tears?) I realised no moose for me yet again. In true mythbusters style I have “proven” yet again that moose do not exist, perhaps they are created by Canadians to bring in tourists much like the Yeti. At least some people have seen the yeti…. Hee hee.

 

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Autumn Adventure with other Aussies

Yesterday I caught up with some of the other Aussies at an event organised by the exchange foundation here. Some of the Aussies have just arrived for their year here and I am a bit envious that they are just beginning their year- long party.  Matt and I spent the day in two conservation areas- Mountsberg and Lake Crawford. The autumn colours were beautiful and we saw bison (breeding herd) up close as well as visited an Iroquoian long house. This was a full sized long house of the Wendat nation (First Nation tribe of the area) . It was built on site of an original Wendat village. This is known from archaeological artifacts found there and in nearby Lake Crawford. apparently Lake Crawford is pretty remarkable as there is no oxygen in its lower depths so it preserves everything from many years ago. Only the top water circulates.  The Interpretive guide told us all about daily life in the long house and my ears pricked up when I heard that women were in charge!   Not so thrilled when I heard that women did most of the work and married at 13 years old.  Fires went 24/7,365 days of the year. Talk about a smokehouse. Food was stored in the upper part and this smoke helped cure the meat. Downside was it also gave the women lung health problems, shortening their life spans. No wonder everyone slept  on the lower levels.  We then had a lovely dinner at a member’s home. It was a fun, interesting day with autumn and harvest flavour.

Matt and I then drove To Toronto so Matt could see a premiere of a special DVD of a band he likes. What a big mistake that was! We literally could not reach the cinema! It took us an hour to move less than 500 metres! It then took us more time to get out of the grid lock to get back to the highway to travel back to Brantford. I had expected it to be busy but not that busy on a Saturday night. Maple Leafs hockey was on….. After Dark Festival was on….. and it seemed every person in Canada was on Yonge St on Saturday night! We did not make it to the premiere which was a disappointing end to a good day.

I will let the photos do the rest of the talking…..  I am looking forward to Thanksgiving weekend next week but not for the turkey!  Matt and I are heading north to try and see that elusive moose and more of the amazing Autumn colours! Maybe finally, I might spy one and not just hear about them!  I will practise my moose call “Here moosie, moosie “Stay tuned………..

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Life after summer……..

I can’t believe that it has been a month since the school year started!  My how time flies! It took me a little while to rest up after my summer adventures but now I am looking forward to having more adventures as my time in Canada draws to a close.

My new class is full of characters… keen to learn and really curious about Australia, especially our strange animals! It has been interesting to experience the start -up of a school year here in Canada. It is just as busy, chaotic and not enough hours in the day as in Adelaide!

I am slowly regaining the sight- seeing bug after resting up after my summer adventures and the fun just keeps coming! It is also hard to believe that I have been in Canada for 10 months! It only seems like yesterday that I arrived here in the snow , learning how to drive on the “other “side of the road.

It is now Fall here and I think this will be my most favourite season here. The colours and change of the leaves is breathtaking! So many photo opportunities so little time! It also harvest time here and pumpkins and scarecrows are everywhere! The stores really put out beautiful displays based on the harvest, Halloween and Thanksgiving. There are lots of fairs and local events on- one every weekend so I won’t need to travel far to have fun.  I attended the Jazz festival held in Brantford- not my kind of music but still an experience. I especially liked the  Dixie band ( what is it about men with big tubas???)  and it only needed Fried chicken… One thing Canadians seem to do well is celebrate each season in a big way. I can’t wait until Halloween either as it is celebrated in a BIG way over here. Maybe I will dress up and go trick and treating just to be part of it all! After all, you can never have enough candy!

Matt and I joined some locals for a short but tranquil cruise on the Grand River. The sunset was colourful and the meal was tasty. It was great to “see “the Grand River in a different way. I almost saw a beaver……….. the captain said it was swimming near the boat but by the time I got my camera, put on my glasses so I could see it…… jacket on…….. well you get the picture ( I didn’t)

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Stay tuned………..

Vancouver-Way out West

A place to rest and reflect.

A peaceful piece of scenery

Beautiful Bonsai in the Chinese Garden

Lots of water in a Chinese garden

Maybe I could ride this home?

Canadian geese in Stanley Park

Terrific Totems

Looking back from Sea bus

The Sea Bus ( looks like a ferry to me!)

Quay market

Musical Ride-love those mounties!

And away we go!

Charge!

“Laughing” Beluga Whale

Jumping Belugas It is a jumping beluga!

Purple jellyfish-almost as good as red jelly.

Dolphins in action

Sooo cute sea otter using his stomach as a table.

I was looking forward to having a house as a base after all my nights in hotels, inns and universities over the summer. I was also looking forward to some home cooked meals!  I was not prepared though for how tired I felt nor how difficult it would be to appreciate more sight- seeing after the magnificent Rockies. We settled in and on the first day just got our bearings and land legs downtown. Vancouver is Canada’s third largest city and 35 percent of its population is foreign born. It has the highest proportion (per capita) of Asian’s of any North American city. I would also guess it has a very high proportion of Australians also! Vancouver is North America’s second largest port in tonnage and physical size –after New York and is a major cruise ship port. Almost every day I was there, a cruise ship was in Port.

Highlights of our time in Vancouver were:

• Gastown- A historic and shopping district in the downtown area. Most famous landmark here was the Steam clock.
• Dr SunYat-Sen Chinese garden – This was the first North American classical garden built outside of China. It was a Ming Dynasty Scholar’s garden and had some exquisite Bonsai on display.
• North Shore- After a  short ride on the sea bus ( fancy name for ferry) we were on the North Shore. Real estate on the North Shore is in the upper market range and as we discovered it has lots of hills! We spent some time checking out The Quay markets and would you believe, we found an Australian souvenir shop in here! We then caught a bus and went to a local park to watch the Royal Canadian Police perform in the Musical ride.  It was great to see the Mounties and horses perform to music. Very clever choreography and entertaining. I had learned all about this in Ottawa at the stables and headquarters so it was great to catch them in action.  We then caught another bus to Lynne Canyon where we hoped to cross a suspension bridge and catch a view…… unfortunately the bridge was closed! It seems a summer dare for young locals is to jump off the cliffs into the river. Apparently a young man had fallen 40m and had to be rescued. Emergency personnel and police were on the scene so no view of the canyon was possible. We did see some tress though and lots of emergency vehicles 🙂
• Vancouver Aquarium. This was an amazing place. We spent most of the day watching sea otters, dolphins and beluga whales. Great fun was had by all when the whales slapped their tail and caused  BIG splash! If you were sitting low you literally got drenched with salt water and were warned to put cameras away so they would not be damaged by the salt water. The display of jellyfish was out of this world! There were even purple ones!
• Stanley Park- a mini Central Park but this time by water. Interesting Totem poles was a central feature as well as this park being surrounded by a sea wall.
• Granville Island- Matt was not to0 impressed with this place-too many shops! I was able to have a quick browse around and yes, I did buy a fridge magnet and jewellery (again!)

One of the “not so highlight” of Vancouver for me was the number of homeless people in the city centre. They were very visible, literally sleeping on the sidewalk which was very sad to see. On one main street you had very exclusive brand name stores on one side and the homeless on the other. It is the first city I have visited in which I was “advised” to avoid a certain street because ” it is not very pleasant”. I have heard than it is very expensive to live in Vancouver and it would seem there are the very rich and the very poor with not much in between.

Our time in Vancouver drew to a close and it was with some relief I hopped on the plane to return to Brantford. What an epic summer of travel and I was looking forward to meeting my new class and beginning the last leg of my journey and adventures in Canada.

The tour continues…. and ends….sigh

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My blogs would not be complete without some photos of beautiful Lake Louise ( both a lake and hamlet are called such) It was in the hamlet/village we returned to rest for two days of the tour.

After another buffet breakfast we were loaded and ready to travel through to Vancouver by 8 am. Little did we know that that the eight hour trip would end up taking 15! But I digress, first details first. We headed out of Lake Louise and took the scenic route to the major highway. It was a short drive to the British Columbia border which incidentally had no sign other than one for construction! We made a pit stop  at Golden and then went up into Rogers Pass, a high mountain pass through the Selkirk Mountains. The pass is a Canadian historic site and provides a shortcut across “the big bend” of the Colombia River near Golden. As it turned out, it was no shortcut! There was a serious car accident on a particular tricky bend and the bus sat in a line of traffic kilometres long for four hours!!!! Thank goodness the bus had a toilet on board. People made the most of waiting in line- they went for walks, walked dogs and children played in the dirt on the side of the road. One couple were jogging up and down the line. Men were running into the bushes (I don’t think they were looking for moose) and it was quite the carnival atmosphere. I was surprised that more did not turn around and return to Golden but there was nowhere really to go unless you wanted to go hundreds of km out of  your way. The highway was completely closed both ways. Helicopters and emergency vehicles came and went. Apparently, one driver lost control on the bend and collided head on with another vehicle travelling in the opposite direction. We found out later there were serious injuries but no fatalities.

The bus finally got through and we stopped at Three Valley for a very late lunch!  It was a very picturesque spot and even had a ghost town you could visit as well as a lake and fancy hotel. No time to visit the ghost town unfortunately as we were all keen to get back on the road.We then, virtually travelled parallel to the Canadian Pacific railway line and our tour guide told us some of the history and local stories about the railway. The builders faced numerous dangers and obstacles when building the railway and many workers died during its completion. The railway was constantly threatened by avalanches and even today, they fire cannons into the snow during winter to create avalanches to prevent the build -up of snow.  Snow tunnels protect the train as it passes through the mountains. There is also famous spiral tunnel to lessen the grade that trains must travel up through the mountains.

Another story that was told by the guide was about a mother bear and two cubs. Bears have learned very quickly that the cars of the trains are filled with grain and often this grain spills on the tracks. Bears will come onto the tracks to eat this. One day the mother bear and two cubs jumped up on the stopped train and started to eat the grain on top of the car. The train started to move and the mother bear jumped off. The two cubs did not! The cubs had a lovely ride for about 30 km to a nearby town where wildlife officers caught them and reunited with their mum. Apparently the same family were sighted doing the same thing a few days later. It was also sad to learn that bears and wildlife are often killed by trains because of this easy meal. Parks Canada and Canadian Pacific are trying to lessen the fatalities of animals by vehicles with a number of measures. They have built special animal passes over main highways in the parks. Tunnels were not as successful as wolves would not use them. Electric fences prevent the animals from reaching the highway and corral the animals towards the passes and then they can cross safely. Cameras are setup to monitor animals crossing so the passes also allow scientists to track the animals. Wolves, being very smart, have learned to wait near the passes for a buffet style dinner!  We finally reached the Trans -Canada Highway in British Colombia. The tour had taken us through 5 National Parks and three Mountain ranges in four days. It had shown us the remarkable and magnificent Rocky Mountains and then some.  My visit in The Rockies will be an experience I will never forget.

The bus finally reached Vancouver at 10pm. In four days, Matt and I had passed through two provinces, five national parks and three mountain ranges to reach our final destination. Matt and I took a cab to the university for the night (public transport just seemed way too hard after the epic day) and our time in Vancouver began. Accommodation at the university was a little different this time. Five single rooms, in each unit, shared a common lounge, kitchen and bathroom. There were no long halls as in other universities I had stayed at. Again, facilities were clean and comfortable and after my epic day I slept well.

Matt and I made our way out to the “Kerrisdale Chalet” the next morning ., here we would spend the next seven nights.

Could it get any better….. yep it did!

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After the Ice fields, we left Jasper National park and entered Banff National Park. Our last stop of the day was beautiful Peyto Lake. This lake is the fifth largest in Banff National park and is glacier-fed. It was a remarkable bright turquoise blue colour. During the summer, large amounts of glacial sediments known as rock flour, flow into the lake. This sediment absorbs all colours except blue and green which are reflected. Interestingly, the water only appears to be green but is in fact crystal clear. If there is an even larger amount of this sediment in glacier-fed lakes and rivers, they can even appear the colour of milk.

And so I arrived at Lake Louise Inn in the very popular hamlet/village of Lake Louise. Here we would put our weary heads and our heavy cases for the next two nights of the tour. The Inn was literally nestled in between the mountains and we could not wait to see what was in store for us the next day. I thought nothing could top it but I was proved very wrong!

After another buffet breakfast, we hopped back on the bus and out to Moraine Lake. We were not due to visit here until the afternoon but apparently that is when the crowds descend on the Lake so our guide switched the day around. It was overcast and drizzly but when in the Rockies you don’t let a bit of rain stop you. Moraine Lake is a glacier lake that gets its name from the heap of rock debris (a moraine) at the bottom of the lake which acts as a dam. There are different types of Moraines which are formed when a glacier stays in one place for a long time, deposits a pile of till and then retreats. The view from this “rock pile” or moraine is known as the “twenty dollar view” It is captured on the old paper Canadian twenty dollar bill. Our guide proved this when he passed around a twenty dollar bill when we got back on the bus. In his words, on the new plastic bills there are now just boring politicians.

We headed off to visit Johnston Canyon. You might say that the Rockies are full of lakes, waterfalls and canyons and you would be right! We were certainly seeing some spectacular ones on this tour. Johnston Canyon is 23.6 km west of Banff. Here you can walk along the canyon wall on a permanent affixed boardwalk. There are a series of waterfalls and you can enter a tunnel to get up close and personal to the lower falls. Johnston canyon is being eroded into a fault system in the limestone bedrock and you can see the effects of this erosion in the rocks as you walk along the boardwalk. At times the boardwalk seems to literally hang off the canyon wall, but I braved it. People with strollers were even doing it so I thought I should too!

We arrived in Banff and had two hours to explore and have lunch. Banff is the largest town in a Canadian National Park and I think everyone visiting the Rockies had stopped for lunch there also! It was a buzz with tourists, RV’s and tour buses.   The township is nestled between Suplhur and Cascade Mountain.  Personally, I thought two hours was a bit long to explore as retail therapy was not really on my agenda and as Matt remarked “How many souvenir shops do you really need to visit as they all have the same things anyway!”

We managed to fill in the time and then it was back on the bus. We had a quick visit to; yep you guessed it, another water fall. Bow Falls is only10m high and separates two very different rock formations. Incredibly the rocks on the east bank are 70 million years older than the rocks on the Wet bank.  Next stop was Sulphur Mountain. Here I took the freakiest, scariest and highest ride of my life! I took a ride in the Banff gondola to the observation deck of Sulphur Mountain (elevation 2285 m). It was eight minutes of sheer terror! Matt snapped photos while I hung on for dear life! The gondola is like a cable car with big windows. I did sneak some peeks out of the side when I was brave enough to open my eyes and the view was spectacular! We finally reached the summit (eight minutes seemed like hours) We did not have much time so literally ran on the boardwalk to snap some photos and “oohed and aahed” over the view. You could see Banff, Lake Minnewanka( only hydroelectric reservoir in the national park) and the surrounding mountain range. Then it was into the gondola again for the ride down.  I chatted with a Texan couple on the way down which stopped me thinking about the heights and in no time at all we were on the ground.

Our day was not over-next stop Lake Louise (the lake this time time not the hotel)

One small step……..

We were soon on the road again along the beautiful Icefield Parkway on our way to Columbia Icefield. The Columbia Icefield is located in Jasper National Park. The Icefield – the largest sub-polar body of ice in North America – is one of the reasons why the United Nations declared Canada’s four Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Sites. The Icefield covers 215 square kilometres with solid ice up to 365 metres (1200 feet) deep. Melt water from the Icefield flows to three oceans: the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic via Hudson Bay.

It was here, I climbed upon the ice on the Athabasca glacier after a short trip on the “Ice explorer” bus.  This bus, more like a snowmobile than a bus is designed and manufactured by Canadian Foremost Ltd. The Terra Bus provides all-terrain mobility to transport up to 56 passengers. Equipped with large, low pressure Terra tires, the bus can be used to transport personnel in on-road/off-road applications. Extra- large side and top windows provide greater all-around visibility. Our tour guide and driver on the Ice Explorer was, of course Australian…..so many people out west are-that or International visitors. 23 out of 48 on tour bus were Australian, mainly from the East coast and the rest international. It seemed the only two Canadians on the bus were the guide and driver. After a very steep descent (one of the steepest in the world), the explorer takes you out to the middle of the glacier. You step out and feel much like Neil Armstrong when he stepped on the moon. It is pristine, rugged and slippery but well worth the trip. You then fill up your water bottle with clear cold water from the melting glacier. No pollution or chemicals here. What an awesome experience!  In case you did not know, glaciers are large masses of snow, recrystallized ice and rock debris that accumulate in great quantities and begin to flow outwards and downwards under the pressure of their own weight. Glaciers form when yearly snowfall in a region far exceeds the amount of snow and ice that melts in a given summer. In this way, massive quantities of material accumulate in relatively small periods of time. There endeth the geology lesson!

Facts about the Athabasca Glacier:
Type: Outlet valley glacier
Area: 6 square kilometres (2.5 square miles)
Length: 6 kilometres (3.75 miles)
Depth: 90 – 300 m (270 – 1000 ft)
Icefall: 125 m/year (400 ft)
Ice Explorer turn around: 25 m/year (80 ft)
Toe: 15 m/year (50 ft)

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