Getting started with our new life............

A month ago, on 16th August, we finally left England for good (well, until December, but we'll ignore that for now). Following an early start for a 10 am flight from Gatwick, we arrived at the departure gate to be told that we would be delayed until midday. Suspiciously, we were given no information as to what was causing the delay, and by the time midday rolled round we found ourselves facing an extended delay, with news of whether we would take off or not to be given at 4 pm. By this point we were resigned to not flying at all, but, amazingly, we managed to board the plane and be in the air by about half past 8 that evening.

Note to everybody, 12 hours at Gatwick airport is NOT something you should ever do with your time!!!

Fortunately, the flight passed pretty uneventfully, and before we knew it, we were facing the Canadian immigration officials at Calgary airport. Immigration was a breeze, and we strolled out into the fresh air of Calgary airport concourse full of excitement about our big adventure.....

Sadly, we had missed our ride from the airport to Simon's place in Nordegg by about 8 hours. This left us with 2 options: a night in a hotel in Calgary, followed by a greyhound ride, followed by another greyhound ride until we met up with Arin in Rocky Mountain House approximately 36 hours later; or hire a car and drive the 3 hours to Nordegg straight away.

There are many reasons why we should have stayed the night in Calgary, mostly involving 12 hours at Gatwick, followed by a sleepless 9 hour flight, and it being 11 pm when we cleared immigration. However, Lea wanted to go to a land auction the following morning and Rob wanted to go hiking for 4 days so really we had no choice. As a result we were both more than a little tired when we rolled in Nordegg at 2 am, and duly rolled straight into bed.

What a joy it was when we were woken up at 7:30 that morning so Rob could pack up a bag, and head to the trailhead with Simon to meet the rest of the hiking group. After less than 12 hours in Canada we had decided that it was time to have a bit of time apart, so the story diverges for a few days...

Lea spent the morning bonding with James, and Arin as they went off in the search of some land. Requiring a large deposit in order to be eligible for the land lottery, Lea found herself clutching $5000 and hoping that her name came out of the hat. The odds were against her, with around 200 people all hoping for one of 25 lots which were available. As a result, neither Lea nor Arin were lucky enough to get a lot and had to go home empty handed.

At this point Rob was heading off into the mountains as part of a group of nine hikers in an attempt to take in Banff National Park, Jasper National Park and the Whitegoat Wilderness in a 4 day odyssey. Simon had planned a nice easy first day for the trip, climbing all day and camping at about 2200 metres. The second day was a bit easier, with a second night of camping in the same spot allowing a day trip up to a pass overlooking the valley of the lakes. However, by the end of the second day Rob was struggling (almost as much as at the end of the first day!), so it was with much joy that the third day was almost entirely downhill.

Back in Nordegg, Lea was kicking back with the canadian side of the family, Anne and Arlene having come over for the weekend. Walking around the bustling metropolis of Nordegg (pop. about 200) wasn't enough for Lea, so jogging became the exercise of choice. Taking onboard the advice from the locals, "You can't get lost, but if you go past the llamas and into the forest then you've gone too far.", Lea set off, and subsequently got lost, but luckily the canadians are so friendly, and even more luckily, she found someone in Nordegg to ask so she got home unscathed.

Meanwhile in the mountains the hikers were bushwhacking their way through the 'Valley of the Grizzlies' (named by Simon). There was a huge amount of evidence of bears, but luckily none were encountered. If the size of the bear scat that we saw was any indication, there were some very big bears around the area!

By the fourth day Rob was pretty pleased that the hiking was coming to an end and had two things on his mind: a shower and a comfortable bed for the night (away from Simon). It was with this in mind that the hiking finished, and we headed back to Nordegg to see how the Lea and the others had enjoyed their weekend.

On the morning of the 21st, we left Nordegg and headed for home (for the next 10 days) in Meadow Lake with Arlene. This gave us plenty of time to ease ourselves into canadian life, and get to meet a lot more locals. A week before we were due to move to Saskatoon, we had a day trip with a couple who until two days before were complete strangers, and were treated to a guided tour, seeing where we would be living and where Lea would be working. The rest of our time was spent walking around town (something which the people of Meadow Lake seemed never to have seen before), car hunting, and generally taking it easy. Eventually though, it was time to leave, and on Sep 1st we jumped on the bus and took the 4 hour ride into Saskatoon...

As with everything involving this trip (that didn't involve Gatwick airport) our arrival in Saskatoon went very smoothly. We picked up the keys for our new flat, and moved in with all our possessions (1 suitcase, 2 backpacks and a laptop). It may surprise you all to hear that the flat felt pretty empty! Some shots of the flat...

It was an amazing stroke of luck that Lea enjoys shopping so much, so we hired a car and started to stock up on essentials. It was on one of these shopping trips that we managed to find our first friend (without the help of anyone else), so a random meeting in a supermarket led to an evening stroll by the river with ice creams courtesy of Ken, another ridiculously friendly canadian.

Our arrival in Saskatoon also meant one more thing: Lea had to start work! Again, this has all happened with a minimum of fuss, and Lea is thoroughly enjoying her new job. Rob however, is not experiencing the same work related happiness. There is something remarkably depressing about the job centre, and it seems to be a regular haunt. As yet, Rob is still 'between jobs' but hopefully this situation will improve in the not too distant future. Some shots of Lea's walk to work...

Finally, we managed to get our new car this week, so now we feel fully canadian, and will never walk anywhere again! We are now the proud owners of a Honda Fit, which is allowing us to spend the weekend driving around looking for the perfect piece of land on which to build the dream house. More news on that next time though...

If anyone is interested (we know some people are, we've had requests) our address is as follows:
#407 906D Duchess Street,
Saskatoon,
SK,
S7K 6K3,
Canada

And our phone numbers are:

Rob 306-880-4528
Lea 306-881-5323

Until next time.................

Rob and Lea