Adventures in Canada

So now that Terry is here in Canada we are finding random Canadian things to do.  It still amuses me that with 8 hours driving you have multiple options of countries to visit in the UK.  Here we have 2 provinces to visit.

South Saskatchewan river cruise in Saskatoon

We have been busy this summer closer to home.  We went in July to Saskatchewan for a tour to Saskatoon and Regina.  New places for Terry and mostly for me.  I've been through Saskatoon for years visiting family but we have never actually toured around so it was a nice change.  We went for a boat cruise on the South Saskatchewan River which was lovely to see the city from.  We had fabulous weather and found a lot to see.  We made it down to Regina and toured the parliament building and visited the RCMP training facility.


On our way back we spotted a beaver.  We cruised through Elk Island National Park and had a good day of finding lots of animals!  The beaver ran across the road, chewed down a tree and hauled it back across.  And then swam it up the side to his damn.  The geese weren't so delighted.

In August we went to Jasper with my dad for a long weekend of touring and hiking.  Terry spotted a lot of animals along the roads.  We've seen bears, moose, elk and deer!  Marvin and I climbed to the top of a mountain.  It was tough but we made it!  And at the top we found some aggressive chipmunks who climbed on us for our snacks.  

This is us at the food festival over the summer in Edmonton.  We have around 80 cultures and countries represented who serve traditional food and perform traditional dances.  It's a good day and someone had a Inca Kola!

Our big trip was up to Churchill for the polar bears!  It was a dramatic day to say the least.  We opted to go through Calgary as some of the reviews I've read in past years indicate you see a little bit less in October.  And we went right at the same time of year as my original visit and in 2014 we saw 24 bears!

It is a narrow stretch of time when the bears head from the land to the ice for their winter of seal hunting.  It's mid October to mid November.  We were right in the middle of the high bear season.  

The tour company we used is based out of Calgary called Classic Canadian Tours.  The owner used to be the VP of marketing for WestJet airlines at their onset and he was quite successful as WestJet grew in popularity quickly.  They do around 6 tours a year from Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon as day trips.  On the plane around 6 am and back by 9 pm.  Every buggy has a representative from the company, we had the owner Bill.  You get 3 meals, the flight, the day on the tundra buggy and a bit of shopping or drinking time in Churchill itself.  It's a small town of about 900 people isolated in the northern parts of Manitoba.  But not north enough to be in the arctic circle.  You can only get here by a 2 day train ride or a small plane from Winnipeg.  They also have the tundra hotels where you head out to the hotel in the middle of the tundra for viewing any bears that come close by (you are up very high and safely away from the bears) as well as buggy tours during the day.  

So we headed down Thursday night to Calgary to spend the night.  Shuttle got us to the private terminal for our flight.  So no security to get on the plane.  They charter planes from Canadian North to get us up there for the day.  Everyone was loaded in the plane.  We did all the safety stuff and were on the runway picking up speed.  And just as the wheels started to lift they changed their mind and went back down and slammed on the breaks.  We had some sort of warning light that popped on.  Almost 90 minutes later we were on our way. 

Churchill is around a 2 hour flight from Calgary so nothing too crazy.  And as a change they actually feed you breakfast and dinner on the flights.  The guides asked everyone to use the bathrooms on board so that we can quickly leave the airport and get out searching.  We got off the plane and straight onto the bus and off to the buggies.  Our bus driver was a bit surly and anxious for us to get to the buggies.  We drove past the bear jail where they leave the bears who get too close to town.  When the weather turns they sedate them and take them to a safe place away from town.

Our buggy with our driver Marc was the first to leave.  We had the front seats so we had a great view!  Only the buggy was having some engine troubles so we were moving really slowly.  Our driver went out and tried to pour hot water over. No go.  A passing buggy came out with a gas torch and a girl with a rifle to scare away bears.  Didn't work.  Maintenance buggy made it and got us going.

We did finally make it out to the "hot zone" and found a male bear grooming himself on the ice. He put on a really good show with all the rolling while he was cleaning his back. We were there for lunch and watching so our mechanic had plenty of time to do repairs.  This was our view during lunch of the protection guy while the mechanic was working.

During lunch a second bear popped out of the bushes!  He was right in front of us the entire time.  The 2 of them put on a good show rolling around together.  We also spotted a mom and 2 babies but it was near the end of the day and they were going at a good clip to get on the ice.  They are also a bit reluctant, as they should be, to get too close to the cubs so we mostly got really distant views of them.  It was when the binoculars really came in handy!

Overall we saw 6 bears this visit.  The ice over Hudson's Bay had frozen up in nearly 3 days and everyone was really concerned about visits coming up to Churchill later in the week as nearly all the bears would then be on the ice and too far for us to see.

Terry's friend Ant joined us for the weekend.  He was the Asian guy with the duct tape in the photo booth pictures if you don't remember him.  After we were back from Calgary we went back out to Elk Island to find some more animals.  Our first trip through found us one bison.  Our second trip through was much better.  There were bison everywhere!  There was a single bison in the middle of the road.  He rejected the first 2 cars.  But we won the salt lick contest from the icy highways the day before.

This was Terry's car the day after the licking.  That bison licked from one end to the other for at least half an hour.  He was delighted with our car.  It was a little unnerving to look up to find a giant bison staring at you through the window.  Every car that drove by took pictures and videos.  It was a crazy moment.

We also took Ant out to visit the Egg.  He was less impressed with the sausage but thought the egg was well done.  So here is a winter view of the egg for you all.

Ant also bought himself a Canada Goose jacket.  Not sure what he needs it for but he seemed happy with the purchase.  Here is Cindy posing with one from an earlier visit.  I didn't think she would be sharing this particular shot so I am!

We have had a very exciting year of finding things to do around the Edmonton area.  Canada is always a bigger place than even I realize and there is so much to do!