... try and find us

Flinders at its springtime best. Sparkling ocean, blossoms in the orchards, vines and flowers budding and the paddocks green. The local shops and cafes are starting to buzz with tourists and weekenders ... even a koala has taken up residence in a gum tree on the main drag of the town to add to the attractions. For Kate, this is back home.  For me, this is a place where curtains of normality shroud the occasional surprise.  Looking carefully at a pastoral scene of horses and cows grazing reveals a kangaroo.  While watching traffic whiz by, I'm sometimes startled by their seemingly driverless state, with a passenger sitting in the car holding a steering wheel.  Chopping wood reveals a small, innocuous-looking spider that I pay next-to-no attention to.  My twelve-year-old nephew says in his thick aussie accent, " Careful - that's a Redback !" (which, it turns out, is one of the more deadly native spiders). Gabby and Graham's home Yet I, too, have histor...

Graham and Gabby have met us in Canberra.  We are staying with them in their caravan on the edge of town and using it as a base to explore Australia's capital city.  All is neat and orderly here.  The streets are well laid out and signed.  A man-made lake is at the center of the city and provides a view to many of the major institutes in town.  We've come at a good time, too.  Floriade is an annual floral display and festival that happens on the lake.  We've decided to take it in and pick the nicest of the days to wander around.  Lots of colour, lots of prams, lots of grey hair, lots of school uniforms are wandering around the showgrounds. Graham at the National Museum We take in the War Memorial (which builds up our knowledge after visiting Gallipoli) and spend all day wandering around the displays.  The next day we go to the Parliament Buildings and find more than a few hours of interesting displays.  Australia owns a hand-tra...

The perfect place to recuperate from the long flight and the dull, drizzly weather made lazing in front of the fire a valid pastime. In the stunning Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, the  scenery is gorgeous, despite the mist and rain. We hiked the National Pass Trail which zig zags down a waterfall, edges around the cliff face and climbs back up to the top of the escarpment. And standing at Echo Point, the sun shone on the Three Sisters just long enough for the perfect snap. Foggy day in Katoomba A bit of sun on the Three Sisters

Phew. We did it. We are now homeless ... homeless, but with resources! All our properties are rented, including one with all our furniture. A supersized Tetris game saw all our toys stacked into our storage locker. The tandem is snugly housed with a BMW and a couple of Mercs as garage mates and our road bikes are feeling quite at home in a garage on Broadview Road. Our pantry Tupperware is off to enjoy a season at Fernie while our clothes and Sean's guitars are living it up in Cochrane.   And we have stashed a couple of overnight bags along with the "OMG how did we forget this cupboard" boxes.  Huge thanks to Adrienne, Karen and Jeff and The Pettigrews for agreeing to allow us to clutter your homes. A thanks to everyone who offered beds, box storage, offers of dinner and fed us wine before we skipped town. So here we are on our last evening in Calgary. To become a fully fledged Canadian, I still need to swear allegiance to The Queen (yeah, yeah, I know) but have not y...

The end of the tour, and wasn't it fun.  We had all kinds of weather - mud, snow, rain, cold, glorious sun (for the Jasper stage), wind and now a moderate, almost-autumn day in Edmonton. The Tour of Alberta finishes with an eleven-lap circuit that climbs into and out of the river valley, winds through downtown and past the Greyhound bus station, where I am marshaling and have my backpack handcuffed to a safety rail (courtesy the policeman stationed here with me).  Kate is at the other end of the block at a corner, within whistling distance.  It's very handy for me, as she has a better sightline for the oncoming entourage. Sean's bag will be safe while he marshals, courtesy of the city cop he is working with The cyclists do their thing, Kate and I direct the peloton through and keep the dumb-dumb spectators and random street people from accidentally wandering onto the course, then retire back to the festival at the city centre.  The Tour has housed us at th...

An early start today to get into Grande Cache and out to our drops. We had over 70km of the course - no corners, all just logging roads and camp grounds. But it did mean long drop times, in the cold and snow! My drop was of a small forestry road in a research area. The area of research is lichen and how it is affected by different logging densities.  This is important because the woodland caribou eat lichen though the winter - that on the ground until it is covered by snow, then that on the trees.  I know all this because there was a sign, a little weathered and worn, but obviously, still most informative. I had plenty of time to read and make a snowman marshal. Otherwise, it was silent, nothing but nature. Just the honking of the Canada geese flying overhead (disconcertingly flying north!), the plonking of the snow off the trees and caribou crossing the road. As the peloton passed, several water bottles landed at my feet. I called out thank you and a rider called ba...

Adventures can sometimes mean going places you never intended to go.  Last year, we discovered a new source for adventure - The Tour of Alberta .  On a whim, I decided that seeing a cycing race close up would be entertaining and knew from my swimming days that being behind the scenes at major sporting events is a large amount of fun.  The Tour of Alberta is a major cycling event that draws teams from the international circuit to come to Alberta and race for hundreds of thousands in prize money.  Riders that have raced in the Tour de France, Giro de Italia and other world-class grand tours will come to our little corner of the world and entertain the locals. Two years ago, the Tour came within 100 metres of our house and so Kate and I looked into volunteering for the event.  Last year, we signed up to volunteer as course marshals, which meant giving direction to the cyclists, support vehicles and media entourage as they make their way along the course....

Sometimes adventure comes in the way of familiar experiences done with new friends. Kate and I were sad to see our neighbors, the Eaglesons, move from their house beside ours on Broadview Road to a new one closer to the kids' school.  Our sadness quickly changed when we met the new neighbors, the Pettigrews, who are a delightful clan in their own right. Shortly after they moved in, Kate was at their door, armed with an apple pie and a big helping of Collins Family hospitality.  We soon found out they were escapees former residents of Winnepeg and their desire to play in the mountains (and job opportunities) had drawn them to Calgary.  We quickly decided they were too much fun to leave to find all the good things in the area all by themselves, so we appointed ourselves as their tour guides and took to dragging them out to our favourite cycling haunts, for both mountain- and road-bike rides.  So far we have toured around the river pathways, invited ourselves ove...

The most amazing ridge walk.  We were encouraged to do this hike by a family from Minnesota with two 14 y-o boys. What they did fail to mention however, is that they headed down off Mt. Cautley and did not attempt the chimney on Wonder Peak. After a fabulous tromp across the meadows studded with the flaming purple fireweed, we found the trail leading up Mt. Cautley - heading first to the ominously named 'O'Brien's Leap'. Stunning views over Assiniboine Pass.  We then trekked up the ridge, across the scree to a peak with gorgeous views across Bryant Valley and back over the meadows to the Lodge, Lake Magog and the towering Mt Assiniboine.  We followed the ridge to the summit proper of Mt. Cautley (2,880m).  The ridge walk was very impressive with snow still snuggled on the north face. After traversing a steep scree slope made up of many different rocks, we hit the first chimney.  Seemingly insurmountable without the use of ropes, we had faith in the tr...

Everything here elicits a Wow! There are no hikes that provide substandard views. Windy Peak is no exception. Stunning views.  The hike takes you through the Og Meadows, about 3km of trail framed by magnificent peaks. It runs across the lower slopes of Cave Mountain then switchbacks up Og Mountain to Windy Redge.  It certainly lived up to its name with a fierce wind blowing.  The ridge dropped off sharply but afforded stunning views across the Sundance Range and Banff national Park.  Yes, here we were on the brink of the Continental Divide.  Gord Pettigrew, here is a great one to ass to your list! It was an out and back hike. Crossing the meadows is somewhat unfairly referred to as 'The Slog from Og' due to the long hike across.  With the peaks of Assiniboine, Magog and Strom, along with their associated glaciers, as a backdrop, who could call it a slog? Along with the numerous ground squirrels and chipmunks, we also saw a long-tailed weasel and ...