A little bit more exploring... (in the car)

Leigh had most of last week off which, with the exception of a couple of days, we spent mostly chilling out in Ralston. With lots of sunny weather and a fairly decent size pool in the garden we had another great week. We also had a visitor for a few of days - Ed Robinson who was out here 'working'(!) for a week.
We did eventually get off the garden chairs for a couple of days and visited the Provincial Dinosaur Park in the Canadian Badlands at Drumheller. It's about a 2 hour drive from here and is a really amazing place.
Apparently more dinosaur bones have been found there than anywhere else in the world and excavation is still ongoing. Some of the bones & fossils found there date back 70-90 million years. The Provincial Park itself resembles a mini Grand Canyon and has these really unusual rock pillars called Hoodoos, which also took around 70 million years to form. There is a great museum there too full of the dinosaur
skeletons which they have dug up. Whilst the children really enjoyed the museum, they were less interested by the amazing scenery & Hoodoos and much more keen to get to the nearby Go-Carting track! The Provincial Park is also home to the worlds largest (plastic!) dinosaur (left) which you can climb up inside and view the park from its jaws! If you enlarge the picture you may just be able to make out me and the children at the bottom of it!

The Great Little Canadian Roadtrip

Despite vowing that we would never hire an RV and go off camping with the kids, last week we hired an RV and went off camping with the kids! It was all quite short notice as friends of ours who had hired the RV originally bought one instead, so we took the hiring off their hands. After a very successful 'test run' camp at nearby Elkwater for a night we decided to take the plunge and head south to the US border, taking in some really fabulous sights along the way. We ended up having a brilliant week and we are so glad we did it.

We didn't travel for more than a few hours at a time and our first stop was near Lethbridge, camping next to the Oldman River. The campsite there was really good as it had an outdoor pool & great facilities. After a leisurely start the next day (kids sleeping in 'til 9am!) we made our way down to Waterton via Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump(!) & Fort Macleod. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is a World Heritage Site and is the place where Indians used to kill herds of buffalo by causing a stampede and sending the buffalo over a cliff...very efficient! Fort Macleod is the first post set up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the southern frontier and there is a replica Fort there.

Waterton is absolutely stunning; a beautiful turquoise lake set in the Rocky Mountains and it is on the border with Montana. The first night there we camped in the mountains - it was very basic but very beautiful. We made a camp fire and were joined by all sorts of wildlife around the picnic table! The beavers & chipmonks were most interested in our pile of fire wood and a stunning deer emerged from the bushes right next to us and was not bothered in the slightest by the Tingey Tribe!
We were all much relieved it wasn't a Grizzly bear; desperate as we were to see one, that would have been a little too close for comfort! The next day we moved down to Waterton Town Campsite which was much more civilised! We had an amazing 3 hour boat trip on the lake which took us over the US border and we stopped off briefly in Montana. So incredibly beautiful!

After leaving Waterton we headed home via the town of Pincher Creek and
also took in Ludbreck Falls. Just as we were giving up hope of seeing a Grizzly bear we saw 2 from the road as we were driving out of Waterton National Park. Just amazing - we think it was a Mother & Baby Cub. Leigh said 'Kerry quick! Get out and take a photo'! So I did! (Leigh would have taken it himself of course, but he was driving!). Sadly the bears look more like sheep in my photo! We stopped off for one last camp next to the Oldman River, and here we are now, back in sunny Ralston. But what a great week! We both had visions of the kids getting up a 6 every morning, jumping up and down on the beds in the RV; it couldn't have more been different - in fact Leigh & I were awake most mornings before the kids!

Sapper Supper

Apologies for this late blog. The week following Olivia's birthday party was pretty hectic and for the last 7 days we have been on a little Canadian roadtrip in our hired RV(Recreational Vehicle), which I will write a separate blog about shortly!

Olivia's party was a great success (no injured children!)and she was a very happy 5 year old, particulary with the sack full of presents she received! That week, Leigh & I also hosted the annual 'Sapper Supper' in our garden. Every year the Engineers throw a big party(for no other reason than throwing a party I think!) and our garden was
turned into 'Fort Sapper' by about 12 soldiers; complete with hay bails, fire bins, seating for 90, a large Canadian Canoe full of beer and a freezer full of wine...and of course lots of jugs of Pimms. Even the BATUS VIP Chef turned up to do the BBQ! The usual Sapper games of log-sawing & nails were laid on and it was a really great evening (well it couldn't really fail with the amount of alcohol on offer!). All 90 invited guests turned up and we then had about 20 more when gate-crashers appeared after the pub kicked out! There were still a few left in
the garden when the soldiers turned up the next morning to clear up (no surprise that Leigh was one of them!) So all in all I think just about everyone in Ralston was at our party - Leigh & I are now looking forward to all the return invites!