Craig & Mel's World Tour: Nance (the van), Road Trip, Calgary Stampede, Banff and the Canadian Rockies……. This is the life!

We marked our 3 month anniversary in Vancouver with a road trip through the Canadian Rockies to Calgary for the Stampede.

So we finally got ourselves a car, or should I say a van! We called her Nance!!! A Canadian guy Steve who was friends with one of our old house mates is a mechanic and he was nice enough to drive us around and look at cars to be sure that we picked a good one. After the a whole Saturday of looking at cars we ended up getting a 1992 Nissan Quest 7 seat van and she is a beauty for only $1100. Power steering, elextric windows, air-conditioning and quite clean and tidy inside and out! Cars are so cheap here in Canada! I am sure that the same car in Australia would have cost closer to $3-4000 so we are really happy with our purchase. We got the car on the Saturday and left for Calgary on the Wednesday morning around 3.30am. On the way there we had 6 people in the car. Me, Craig, Lisa, Ash (a guy that we met through Lisa – He is from WA), Benny (works at the hostel in the kitchen – He is from NSW) and Ryan (our token Englishman who we have met from the hostel as well). 6 people and 6 back packs were a tight squeeze but it was more than comfortable and we had a great run the whole way there. Driving through the Canadian Rockies was just breathtaking. It is the most beautiful landscape we have ever seen. Craig, as you know has been to Grand Canyon and in his words ‘the Canadian Rockies trumps it’! The weather on the way was not the best and so sometimes we were not able to see very well because of heavy rain. All in all it took us around 12 hours with a few fuel and pee stops on the way. We met Luke and Andrew there and stayed in a Travelodge close to the Stampede stadium.

Our first night there we definitely didn’t hold back. We just had drinks at our room and didn’t really manage to get much sleep. The next day we got up and went to day 1 of Stampede. Lisa and I dressed up in our finest cowgirl gear (the boys were not so enthusiastic) and went for a look around. We had a few drinks there as well and then went to meet Megan (a girl that both Craig and I went to school with who now lives in Calgary). She works at a local bar and so we met her there and partied ALL night! It was so great to see her and we had a great time. Friday, we had a bit of a lazy day. Calgary was having awesome weather. It was really sunny and quite warm and so we took the opportunity and spent the day in the pool! Definitely not something that we can do here in Vancouver! Saturday was our planned big Stampede day and we went to the Rodeo! All in all the Stampede was nothing too exciting. For us it was much the same as the Ekka in Brisbane but had a Rodeo to go with it oh and with a whole lot more cowboys floating around. We had a great time but it just wasn’t as special as we had expected! People from around the world come to Stampede (us included) but for something with such a big hype, it was kind of a let down! I have been to Rodeos at home before and they were bigger and better than the one that we watched. All in all though it was definitely an experience and one that we will remember forever! We have now been to Calgary and experience the cowboy country itself, so it is something that we can mark off the list!

Saturday night we met up with a guy that Andrew had known from his previous travels who also lives in Calgary, Rob. He met us at our hotel to have a few pre drinks before heading out. Luke and Benny (the children of our trip – just kidding J lol) had been stirring each other up all afternoon and play fighting. As what is always said, it is all fun and games until someone looses an eye..... Well Benny didn’t loose an eye but he did end up with 3 stitches in his head. Luke pushed him over and had planned for him to land on the bed but instead smashed the back of his head against the coffee table. He reached for the back of his head when he landed and instantly, blood everywhere. We controlled the blood a little and then off to Emergency for him. Luke went along for the ride since he was the one that pushed him. Apparently it was a cheap trip, only $750!!!!! (Thanks travel insurance!!) The wrest of us went out and had an awesome night dancing and seeing the Calgary night life at its best. It was a huge night and luckily in our drunken state one of us managed to set an alarm and work up at 10.30am the next morning to pack and be out of our room by 11.00am!!!! We hit the road again in the afternoon and headed to Banff!

Banff was about a 1 and a half hour drive from Calgary. It is a small little town that is right in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. We stayed at the Samesun Hostel there and met up with a few people that we knew from Vancouver Samesun. After 4 days of nothing but partying in Calgary we all pretty much crashed and burned early that night! Monday we hiked Tunnel Mountain which gives an awesome view of Banff village and the surrounding mountains and steams. It is only about a 40 minute hike but I still managed to nearly die. I have decided that I don’t like hiking very much lol but the view was definitely worth it! After that we spent the afternoon canoeing around the streams around the mountains which is just beautiful. The water is so clear and COLD and the views that you get are just unbelievable! Craig has been dying to see a bear in the wild and we had been told that there had been sightings of a mother and 3 cubs in the Banff area of Sunshine recently. After canoeing, we drove about 15 minutes to Sunshine to see if we could spot the bears – unfortunately, no luckL! That night we went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner which was super yummy. You get garlic bread, salad/soup, main pasta meal and ice cream for around $15. Definitely, somewhere that I want to go to again (lucky they is one here in Vancouver as well!).

Tuesday we woke up early and hit the road again to go home. Thankfully the weather was a little better this time and we had planned to take a little longer to go home so that we could make some stops on the way and see more of what we had missed on the way there. We stopped at a place called Lake Louise which is one of the most photographed scenes in the Canadian Rockies. Pictures of Lake Louise are featured on the front cover of most Canadian Rockies travel books and guides and I can understand why! It is absolutely breathtaking. It almost looks fake, it is so beautiful. We managed to take some beautiful photos and just stood there and admired the view! We spent the wrest of the drive home stopping at random places along the highway just to take photos of the mountains. Each one in the distances is just as spectacular as the last. You could spend days and days taking photos and still feel like you haven’t taken enough. It is almost disappointing because the photos just don’t give it justice. It is currently the middle of summer here in Canada but there is still snow on the tops of most of the mountains. It is just incredible. We definitely want to do another trip through the Rockies when it is winder because I know that it will be just as breathtaking but looking so totally different!

Nothing much has been happening since we arrived back from our little adventure. Last weekend we had to say goodbye to Andrew – he left for his road trip around the USA before he returns home to Australia. This month is full of goodbyes because Luke is leaving on Friday to go back to Australia too. Thursday is his birthday though, so we will take him out for dinner for one last hurrah before he leaves! Happy Birthday Luke! Lisa my best girl friend here is leaving me too. She is heading home in late August. All of these goodbyes make us so sad. It is weird that we have only known these people for such short times but we are going to be heart broken when each of them leave! The positive though is that we are meeting all these people from all around Australia and the world which equals cheap holidays in the future. Well, one can hope haha but at least it means that we have reasons to visit different places when we return home. Andrew, Luke and Lisa are 3 people that we will definitely see again. Luke hopes to return to Vancouver over Christmas time which would be awesome!!!

Right now I am trying to plan a weekend trip to Las Vegas. From Vancouver you can take about an hour drive just over the USA boarder to a place called Bellingham. Flights are so much cheaper from there and they have pretty good 3 night stay deals at the moment. Hopefully we can go late September early October and have a long weekend there. We are also hoping to do a camping trip on another long weekend coming up. Since we have the van we are able to take the back seats out and then we can put a mattress in the back and we can sleep in the van. We have had a few suggestions of places to go but I am sure that we will fine somewhere nice no matter where we go.

The next big thing already booked is a weekend trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island. We are going there the weekend of the 19^th August and seeing John Butler Trio. Tickets were only $50 which was a total bargain and then we are staying at the hostel there for the weekend. We have been told how beautiful Victoria is so it was the perfect opportunity to visit there.

Hope is well at home. We miss and love you all! I have attached some photos so you can see what we have been up to.

Love Mel and Craig xoxo