Easily Distracted

OK, so I’m discovering that I’m really bad at keeping this updated...too easily distracted I think. I wrote most of this during November, and here are almost 2011, and its still not finished, so that is my endeavour for today……

Back to November….
So we hit the desert in Utah and Arches National Park on wednesday (10th nov). Our dreams of warmer temperatures were dashed pretty much right away, with rain and then snow on wednesday evening- pretty cold, but exciting all the same! I realised in the morning that we'd broken the golden rule of camping, and pitched our tent under a tree *Gasp...* but it definetly helped to give us some shelter from the snow! Fortunately we have had sunny weather since, although its still cold, but nice enough during the day. Thursday we did some shorter hikes in the morning and then joined the ranger guided walk into the Fiery Furnace area, so named by the cowboys because of the red colour of the rock as sunset. The area is made up of 'fins'- rocks weathered into long upright formations with maze like areas between them. The walk was really interesting- lots of information about how the fins form and the environment of the area, but I found myself critiquing the rangers interpretation (which was really good)- uni has forever changed a simple hike for me.... Friday we did a couple of longer hikes- one to Delicate Arch, an incredible arch that seems to just sit on top of a flat area of rock. The fins are fun and easy to explore off the trail. In the afternoon, we hiked the Devils Garden area- also a really fun area to explore, climbing up some fins, doing a little bit of bouldering and up and over slick rock to avoid deep pools of water. We hiked for part of the afternoon with Doug, from Vermont, who I had also met in the morning at Delicate Arch.

Cooking up some lunch on top of a fin in Devil's Garden.

We headed into Moab for a bit of a lazy day on Saturday and visited part of the Canyonlands on sunday. From Moab we headed south through Monument Valley to the Grand Canyon. Tuesday (16th) we hiked down into the Canyon. It was 10 by the time we got to the trailhead, and the sign said it was 6-8 hours return to where we wanted to go (the Indian Garden, about halfway to the river), so we ram-jammed down the switch backs. The canyon is even bigger than you can imagine, really beautiful, but I think I prefer the mountains to the desert. And after the hike I love having lived in the mountains for the last six months because it meant that we cranked out a 6-8 hour hike in about 4.5 hrs!! Visiting these places has made me think about what I must have been like to be the first person discovering such amazing natural features like the Grand Canyon and the Arches. What were their first impressions, what did they think? What kind of awe, amazement or fear did they feel. Somebody told me a joke. Its a pretty bad joke, but oh well.... There was an explorer and a cowboy standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon. The explorer said "What an awesome display of the power of God...." The Cowboy said "What a horrible place to lose a cow..."

Feeling a bit over the desert, we headed to Yosemite national park in California. We arrived on one of the warmest days we have had yet, and visited the giant sequoias. The next day there was a storm coming in, but we embarked on a hike up the side of the valley up to Glacier Point. We got to the top of the cliffs, about half way to the Point, and decided to turn around before the weather came in too bad. That night, we had about 10cm of snow! Yosemite is such a beautiful place, the valley with large granite cliffs, El Capitan and Half Dome, rising toward the sky. It seemed to get even prettier with snow and low cloud as we were leaving the park.

El Capitan rising out of its blanket of cloud.

We left Yosemite, and drove a few hours across California to the coast. Lots of parts reminded me of Australia and I got very excited to see some Eucalyptus trees! Julia thought I was crazy for picking some little branches and hanging them around the car. The storm seemed to follow us to Santa Cruz, where it was cold and stormy. It continued to be overcast/rainy with some sunshine for the next couple of days. Talking to the locals, it was about as cold as it ever gets- they were all rugged up in winter coats, while when the sun came out, we broke out the t-shirts and flip flops, for the first time in 3 months and the last time for about 7! Apparently the week before it had been hot, but it seems we just can’t get away from the cold. We spent a couple of days in Santa Cruz, spent time at the beach and went surfing! It was so much fun, and I even managed to stand up a couple of time! It was so great to swim at the beach, I love it! I even introduced Julia to swimming at the beach- she’ll be hooked for life.
We left Santa Cruz and drove through San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge and out the other side. We spent the next couple of days having a ‘Sunday drive’ up the Californian Highway 1, right on the coast, with such fun roads that made me wish I was driving something sportier, with a little more power, rather than a Honda in desperate need of some TLC. We visited some beautiful beaches, had the most expensive nights camping (actually all of California is expensive) and even visited the glass beaches. The last place we visited before we made our way back into Canada was the Redwood National Park. I was again reminded of Australia, particularly the southwest of Western Australia.

We spent a couple of days driving across Oregon, Washington and the very north of Idaho to get back into Canada. In the period of about 12 hours through Idaho it suddenly became winter, with not the greatest weather. Made for slow progress for a while, not being used to driving on snow.

We spent the next week visiting people from camp in Cranbrook BC, Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer before finally heading back to camp. After over 11,000km of driving in a month, I was so sick of driving and progressively got grumpier every time we got into the car to go anywhere. And after a month and a half of being away, living out of a car and constantly on the move, I was ready to be back at my mountain home.

Check out the second part of the map.

Across the Flat Lands and into the Mountains

After 5 days of hanging out in Guelph with a friend, Silver, who i met in Adelaide, and getting a couple of things fixed on the car, I was definitely ready to hit the road again. I picked up Julia on saturday (30th oct) night from her several day train ride across the country. Sunday we visited Niagara Falls. It really is huge!! and also a massive tourist trap. Driving along the main parkway along side the falls, we passed parking for $20, then cheaper, and then it was free. We parked for free and meandered along for 10 minutes looking at the massive amounts of water and wondering how many of the many tourists pay the $20 just for the convenience of being able to simply cross the road and be right at the best view point over the falls.

Part 3 of the car stories...

A loose connection was found to the fan, which has stopped the overheating and hopefully some stuff to swell the seals in the engine will stop the oil leak.

But then, just as I was feeling confident that all was well with the car, I was driving to Guelph, it had been raining for a little while, I was a few km's from Silvers place, and the windscreen wipers suddenly stop working. Of all the things to go wrong with the car, I didn't think it would be the wipers! Fortunately, it wasn't raining too heavily, so slowly on I go. Arriving safely, Silver helped me get them fixed (she has a good relationship with her mechanic, due to her own car troubles), before I went anywhere else!

Sunday night we spent at Marlies's brother's place. It was Halloween, a ridiculous commercialised excuse for kids to eat much sugar and for most other people to drink to much, but as trick-or-treaters came to the door, we convince Marlies's brother, Corni, to answer the door in Afrikaans....to some very confused and hilarious reactions! Monday morning started the 16 hr drive to Josh's place in Minnesota. We drove though Michigan, Wisconsin and into Minnesota- bringing my number of states us to 10- 1/5 of the continental states, not that I'm counting or anything....

We spent from Tuesday afternoon to Friday (5th nov) morning staying with Josh, it was great to see him again and where he grew up as he took us down memory lane to all his childhood spots. We also got creative and carved pumpkins (North Americans don't eat their pumpkins, they carve them for halloween, except at Thanksgiving.....)

Reluctant to leave a good friend, but keen to get going, we continued on for the next marathon leg of the journey, 14 hours to Bozeman Montana. Across North Dakota- where the slogan is "Legendary". Apparently Legendary is flat straight and boring, but then again, I may be a bit spoilt, having lived in the mountains for the last 6 months. We did however, have breakfast with a couple of Bison on Tuesday morning on the edge of Theodore Roosevelt National Park which was pretty awesome.

Saturday evening we arrived in Bozeman and stayed at the backpackers (for our first night of paid for accommodation) which is where Kirsten, a friend of mine from uni is working! It was great to catch up with her, and see a familiar face from home!

We headed out again sunday morning for Yellowstone National Park. Sadly, they close all but the northern road on monday morning, so we decided to check out the Geysers on sunday afternoon. The highlight was Old Faithful, which sprays water many meters into the air. We also saw 3 Coyotes, lots of Bison and elk. Daylight saving has ended, so now the sun sets at about 5, which meant we had a early dinner before it got too dark, and having no effective light source while camping, we were in bed by about 7 (feeling a bit like a little kid, but meaning we got lots of sleep!) We awoke on Monday surrounded by Elk, which we were told were using us as a human shield against predators (eeekkk...) but they're herbivores and fairly sedate, so as long as we leave them along, their not really dangerous. Monday dawned cold and rainy, but we hiked to Hellroaring creek through the Yellowstone valley. Mid afternoon it started to snow and continued into the evening.

Tuesday we headed south through Montana, Idaho, where we say some snow on the roads (my first experience of driving on snowy roads- but thankfully no ice) and we stayed the night in Salt Lake City, ready to hit the deserts of Utah where we were hoping it was going to be warmer.

From Nordegg to New York

The City part of my great Canadian/US road trip.

Thanksgiving

I celebrated my first Canadian Thanksgiving on the weekend 9/10/11th October in Stoney Plain just outside of Edmonton. On Saturday we went into Edmonton and did some shopping and errands- yes, we went to West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in the northern hemisphere on a saturday, on thanksgiving long weekend, probably the busiest time of year after Christmas. Sunday we went to church and dinner with Becky's extended family. Kind of like Christmas without the presents, Thanksgiving dinner involves Turkey, stuffing, pumpkin, ham, salads, pumpkin and pumpkin pie for desert! Sunday we had another dinner at another Frontier family's place as well as a hay ride of their family's farm- as awesome way to spend my last day in Alberta for a while.

The journey begins....

I flew from Edmonton to Toronto early on Tuesday morning (12th), and Ros and Adrien picked me up from the airport. Amadeus (thats the car....) was still being having a bit of TLC, so they caught a train and 2 buses to come get me. To get back to where they (and now me) were staying, we caught a bus and subway to Union Station in downtown Toronto, walked through the city a bit, past the CN tower (getting funny looks for walking through the city with my backpack...) and then caught another train out to Burlington, south-ish of Toronto.

Wednesday we rode bikes into the nearest town, Waterdown and to Grindstone Falls, with awesome fall colours. Thursday we picked up the car, packed him up, and rolled out to Montreal.

A brief interlude here for Part 1 of car stories.....

Ros and Mars borrowed the car from Ronny, the site manager at Camp, and I am driving it back. They drove it through the States to Toronto, and had some troubles with it on the way over. Amadeus ended up needing a new engine, or I would have to buy a new one or rent something to do my trip. The new engine was the cheaper

option, and so that was done in the beginning of the October.

The Land of the French

Because the province of Quebec is primarily French speaking, the rest of Canada is bilingual when it come to signs, government stuff and

packaging. It strikes me as odd, and probably a little bit arrogant then, when all of those things in Quebec are only in French! This makes things a bit difficult when nobody that you are travelling with speaks any French what so ever! Oh well, just adds to the adventure. However, we discovered that most people speak fairly passable, or good, english and the french words for key things are fairly easy to figure out.

With Montreal

came rain. A tight schedule this week means that we really only had one full day in Montreal, and it rained ALL day Friday. Ever the fearless campers we set off to explore the city in the rain. We walked into the downtown area from our hostel and attempted to do a Lonely Planet walking tour. Sadly, we had to admit defeat by the weather and went to hide in a coffee shop to warm up and have lunch. We watched the people go by and saw several umbrellas be destroyed in the wild weather! After lunch we braved the

weather again, and went to the Notre Dame cathedral. It was incredible! Pretty much all of the interior is made of wood, but is all painted, so detailed and beautiful! Thankfully Saturday dawned overcast, but not rainy. We took advantage of this and went to Mount Royal, which is in the centre of the city, with great views. Again, beautiful fall colours, along with a huge group of joggers, cyclists and cross country skiers in training. We also went back into the downtown area and saw the sights that we missed the day before. Montreal seems very European and has these really cute houses with flights of stairs from the second floor down to the foot path! Saturday afternoon we moved on to Quebec City. Saturday night is Hockey night so we watched a game in the hostel. On Sunday morning we found an english speaking church, and walked around the old part of the city, highlights being the Citadel and the Battlefields Park where the English defeated the French.

The alter of Notre Dame.

The Land of the States United

Monday we crossed the boarder into the States into Vermont. This was pretty easy, I just had to pay $6 for a little green piece of paper in my Passport that lets me go in and out as many times as I like for 3 months. We drove through Vermont, with amazing fall colours all around, and into New Hampshire. Ronny had told us about a camp that he and his family worked at a few years ago, and that we would probably be able to stay there. We got in contact with them and they were ha

ppy to have us stay! We went for a walk on the trails at the camp- 4 Aussies scuffing their way through fallen leaves! We were planning to pitch our tents, but we ended up rolling out our mats in the reception area because it was cold. The staff started work at 8, so we packed up and left soon after 8 for Boston. In Boston we followed the Freedom Trail, which takes you to all the historical places in the city that played a roll in the beginning of the American Revolution. We camped that night in a RV park south of the city- where everybody thought we were crazy for sleeping in tents!

New York was next and we stayed across the river in Jersey City- much cheaper! Again we camped in an RV park- where the people thought we were crazy. We got there on Wednesday afternoon, and went into the city in the evening to see Chris- who is my second cousin.

He said we was busy, but agreed to meet us for something to eat. Our bus into the city was running late, due to traffic- no surprise really in NYC, so we ended up having only about half an hour to see him. Busyness I guess is relative- to us it would mean I could give you a couple of hours, but I guess to someone who lives, studies and works in NYC, busy really is busy!

After meeting Chris, we walked down the road to Time Square. A Wednesday night and it was still extremely busy- I’d hate to be there on a weekend! We even saw a bride and groom on the way there!

Thursday we spent in the ‘Midtown area’, went to the top of the Empire State Building- (you can see all of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island, although it wasn’t a very clear day), Grand Central Station, walked down 5th Avenue past all the fancy shops, the Rockafella Centre and some of Central Park. On Friday we went to the ‘Downtown’ area, the world trade centre site, caught the free ferry across to Staten Island to get a good view of the Statue of Liberty (and back again, not really much to see on the island, just a suburb). You have to book way in advance to be able to go up the statue, and the free ferry gives just as good a view of her as the tourist ferry does! We then went to Wall Street and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge late in the afternoon, saw the sunset behind Manhattan, and took some photos of the city at night! The world trade centre site was really interesting, the area is still a big construction site. On the place where the twin towers stood, they are building 2 big pools/water features to serve as memorials and a museum kind of in between them. They are also building 1 world trade centre building. The whole thing is scheduled to be ready for the 10 yr anniversary next year. We visited a preview to the museum, with a couple of videos, lots of pictures etc. We also went to St Paul’s cathedral which is where volunteers provided food and beds etc for the rescue workers/clean up people for 9 months after it happened. The church is now more of a museum rather than a church. Quite moving stuff.

After 5 months in Nordegg, a week in big cities is definitely enough!! Can't wait for the next part of the trip which involves heading west through the States, and a possible 15 national parks!

We drove back to Canada on Saturday and stayed with the Dokters in Waterdown, just near Burlington. Ros and Mars lived with their daughter, Jen, in perth, whose Mars’s brother just got engaged to. I took Ros and Adrien to the airport on Monday night for their flight back home to Perth.

Part 2 of the car stories.....

Amadeus was leaking oil and overheating. So, back to the place that did the work in the first place to get them to fix it. Thankfully, Ronny is a real blessing and grew up in this area, so he knows people! A friend of his and his cousin have both in involved with fixing the car for us.

Check out the route here!

Check it out- I'm on the internet!!

Check out my staff profile on the Frontier Lodge website! and while your there, check out the website that bought me to Canada.

http://www.frontierlodge.ca/staff

So this week is my last week at camp before heading off on my epic road trip. The trip begins this weekend with Canadian Thanksgiving with some of the crew from Frontier- at Becky's families place just outside of Edmonton with Becky and the Germans. On Tuesday 12th I fly to Toronto and meet up with Ros and Marlies. Some of the east of Canada and New York is the plan with them and then back to Toronto to pick up Julia, and then we head into the States, through 12 states visiting Josh in Minnesota, Yellowstone National Park, the national parks in Utah, Grand Canyon, up the coast through California, Oregon and Washington- looking forward to what will hopefully be some warm weather and beaches! and back to Alberta through British Columbia. Its a long way, so stay tuned!

Busyness, Canadian mail and Goodbyes

Wow its been a long time since the last post. The short Canadian summer has left us, although for quite a lot of it the temperature was the same as Adelaide would be having in its winter- and possibly just as wet as it seems that Adelaide has had quite a bit of rain this season. As I checked the weather for Nordegg and Adelaide one week in August, the forecasts were the same- rain with a max of 15°C!

As the season of summer leaves us, summer camps also finished at the end of August. Two words that describe the summer would have to be tiring and fulfilling. Spending five days with teenagers from first thing in morning to late at night, both programming and hanging out, is tiring. On the flip side, it is incredibly fulfilling being able to get to know the campers, have input into their lives, minister to them, and see them learn about themselves and God.

The busyness continues through September, as we go back to school groups. The last two weekends we have had the Wycliff Race to 2025 Adventure races. (check out http://www.wycliffe.ca/raceto2025/index.html to see what the race is all about- us staff man the checkpoints along the race route.) The advanced race was an epic weekend, which ended with 3 out of 8 teams finishing the race and 2 teams getting lost. On a personal level for me, sunday was the most exhausting day of my life as I had been up sick during the night and then had to hike up to the top of a ridge to the checkpoint. We started hiking at about 7.45, got to out checkpoint at 10.30, spent 7 hours on the top of the mountain, flew the Aussie flag, spent 2 hours of that 7 alone in a snow storm as Allan hiked down the mountain a bit to look for one of the lost teams. He didn't find them (although they were found soon after back at the starting point) so we left our check point at 6 and hiked back out to the road. Still feeling ill and rather low in energy it took us about 3 hours to hike out, making it back to camp at about 10. My exhaustion was described by Becky as the most exhausted person she had ever seen along with the best public cry ever seen at Frontier Lodge- don't worry, we are laughing about it now! The second adventure race, with not such an epic route was a much more relaxed weekend for me.

August also bought some exciting developments on the 'becoming a temporary citizen of Alberta' front. Some of you may not know that I decided to stay at Frontier for the winter and next summer, committing to stay for a year. This means I needed to get an Alberta drivers licence. Sadly, this wasn't an easy process, as I had to do the written test to get a class 7 (learners), surrender both my SA and international licences and apply to have my SA driving history credited, so I don't have to have a graduated licence (like our P's system) for 2 years. I found out last week that they will credit my driving history, so now i have to take a road test next tuesday, and if i pass they will give me a full licence! I also got a social insurance number, like a tax file number, and opened a bank account, all of which made for a couple of exciting weeks of getting some actual Canadian mail!

The end of August and beginning of September also saw some staff, who had become wonderful friends, leave. My room mate, Mary, went home to Switzerland, Josh went home to Minnesota, Spoon went home to Germany, Matt moved to Vancouver Island and Ros and Marlies- fellow Aussies, went travelling. This place won't quite be the same without them. On the other hand, I have a new room mate- Hanna from Germany (i'm noticing a theme here.....) has come for a year to work in the kitchen. At the end of the month, 2 more German guys will arrive to do their civil service year. With so many Germans around (5 soon) hopefully I will be able to get my German back again!

What now I hear you ask? September remains busy with school groups, and then it quietens down alot. Mid October i am leaving camp for a month and a half. I will fly to Ontario and meet up with Ros and Marlies and travel with them for a couple of weeks. At the beginning of November, Julia- from Saskatchewan, is going to fly out and meet me, and then we are going to drive back to Alberta through the US. Then its back to camp, -30°C, ice climbing and all other new wintery experiences!

Ok, so somehow my last post - 'A Day in the Life', ended up being out of order, and so should come after 'Summer's Coming' and i'm not sure how to fix it!

Summers Coming!

Ok, so its been a while, ok, a really long time since my last entry. Sorry! What can I say, spring has been crazy- and lots of fun! but summer is coming fast and its going to get even crazier. A definite highlight of the last couple of weeks was being trained to, and then leading the rappelling, an awesome group all the way from Colorado, and a climbing trip to Lake Louise with some of the other staff (although that just made me keen to do some travel and see more of Canada and possibly the states as well)

This weekend summer staff are arriving (including 2 Aussies, which im so excited about), followed by a week of staff training, and then the first summer camp starts on sunday with the arrival of campers in the evening. Its senior high (yrs 10, 11 and 12) wilderness and I'm cabin leading. The major difference between the spring groups and summer camps, is that spring groups bring their own teachers/staff to do most of the supervision of campers, where as in the summer, that responsibility falls to us- which is what makes the summer so much crazier than the spring.

Quite a few weeks ago, i started writing an entry about a typical day, but got distracted (probably by going climbing to be honest) and never finished it, so i will try to put that up some time in the next week while there is no group here and i have some more free time in the evenings. ok, now that i'v posted it here, i have to do it!

xoxo

A Day in the Life

So in my last blog, I said that I would try to post about my days here before we started summer camps. Obviously that didn’t happen- the third summer camp just finished today. I have also discovered that trying to write an entry about the days here is super difficult. Days are so different, but I guess in terms of basic structure they are pretty similar.

We meet for staff meeting/devotions at 7am, and then we cook breakfast all together for the group to be ready at 8 am. There is a thought for the day (called ‘over the edge’) for the campers before breakfast. Some of the campers, plus a couple of staff, do dishes, which generally takes till 9.15 or 9.30. The rest of us get ready for the day, pack gear etc, or start in the kitchen or camp work if we’re not programming. We generally leave for programming around 9.30. Activities are hiking, climbing, rappelling (otherwise known as abseiling), mountain biking, caving and canoeing. I really love all of these.....except mountain biking- it scares me....but maybe thats a story for another night.....I have even been given the privilege/responsibility of leading hiking, rappelling and climbing- which is super exciting!

Lunch is always delicious, with homemade flat bread (with cream cheese or jam), pizza buns, muffins, cookies and fruit.

We generally get back to camp between 4.30 and 5.30 and then the campers have free time before dinner at six. After dinner, campers do dishes, we play wide game (something like capture the flag (or Frontier style- capture the log. not really sure why its called wide game, it involves all the campers and often takes a lot of space...maybe thats why...) After that we have snack, generally around 9ish, and then campfire down by the lake, with some silly songs/game/skit, worship songs- basically a mini church service. Lights out is at 11- late enough that the kids a generally so tired by the time it comes around, but too late when you've been up since before 7 go go go all day!

July is almost at an end, which means we are half way through the summer here. Summer camps started at the beginning of the month, with Senior High (yrs 10, 11 and 12). I was cabin leading, which means i was basically responsible for a group of 6 girls, slept with them in the cabin, went programming with them etc- awesome fun. That same week was level 3 freeride camp- a group of crazy mountain biking boys. Last week was junior high- i went on an awesome overnight hike with them, and then this week was the camp for First Nations kids. Since last week, the Summer Adventure Leadership (SALT) camp has bee

n running as well. Next week is level 2 mountain biking camp (not programming with them....thankfully), then Fat Tire festival- the annual mountain biking festival, then we have under 13s camp, level 1 climbing, canoeing and mountain biking camps, another junior high camp, and then in september Acesnd starts which is a 3 month adventure bible school.

Leading the rappel! It rained all day and all of the next!

The view from near Allstones lake, where we overnighted with Junior High.

Things I'm thankful for.....

1. An amazing crew of staff (this is only some of them), who are not only work colleges, but friends, house mates, church, small group, encouragers and so much more. They have welcomed me into their lives, are fast becoming great friends, make fun of my accent (but thats a 2 way street) and made me feel very at home at Frontier Lodge.

2. Living, working and playing in some amazing creation

3. My Icebreaker wool clothing. Sometimes I feel like a living, breathing Icebreaker add, but I'v been wearing it everyday as the temperature hasn't really risen above 10°C. Colder than it ever really gets at home, I find my self wearing often more than twice the amount of layers than everyone else, especially as some of the crank out the shorts!

4. Ok, so these next 2 are mainly for those of you interested in the particulars of where I live (*clears throat*...Claire).....My Bed! Increasingly important as the season gets busier.

The Dining hall.

And finally, but definitely not least........

My Family and Friends who have supported and encouraged me in coming over. I love and miss you guys.

Welcome to Canada

As my first week in Canada comes to a close, I thought it was time to sit down and let you all know that I'm still alive, surviving the cold and most importantly, having a blast!

I arrived in Calgary last saturday night, tired from what is so far the longest day of my life and feeling slightly stressed from too many airports. My spirits were lifted however, by the ease of which my visa was processed at immigration, snow, finally being in Canada and the warm welcome of the family that picked me up from the airport. One of the Frontier Lodge board members, Rene, his wife and 3 beautiful daughters welcomed me into their home and I spent sunday morning helping to decorate cupcakes for Eden's fifth birthday party!

Camp is a 3 hour drive from Calgary, and 2 staff members, Tim and Liz picked me up. On the way we stopped is a small town called Caroline at a general store which sold more guns than food! We also stopped and picked up another staff member, Kristen, from her cabin in the woods!

The staff here are mostly Canadian, with 4 Americans, 3 Germans, a Swiss (Mary, my room mate) and me.

This last week was staff training and so the 5 new spring/summer staff members spent some time learning the procedures etc side of thing and then the rest of the week learning activities! We spent a day climbing, learning how to set up top ropes, which is something that I'd been wanting to learn for a while, an afternoon of mountain biking, something pretty new for me, especially in the cold with a little bit of snow. Wednesday night there was a couple of inches of snow, which meant we couldn't go canoeing on the river, so we went for a paddle on the lake and learning strokes, again most of these were new to me, not having any white water in Australia, so it would have been really great to have had the opportunity to got out on the river and practice them for real before I have to go canoeing with campers next week! It continued snowing a bit on Thursday and on Friday we set out to go caving, not sure if we would get to the cave, after a couple of hours hiking because of the snow and avalanche risk. The snows ranged from a few inches deep, up to above the knees in a few places. We didn't make it to the cave, but it was still really exciting for me to go on my first hike in the snow in the Rockies! This area is so incredibly beautiful. The camp is on the edge of lake with a view of the mountains up one end. A short drive and you are in the Rockies proper, still with a lot of snow around the place.

We had the weekend off, and a few of us went climbing on Saturday. We spent the day practicing our new skills and extending them a bit, with some lead climbing- super exciting! (Sorry for you non climbers reading this) Hopefully with the opportunity to climb regularly on weekends, and bouldering most days (thats right, there is a whole cabin with some pretty sweet routes at camp) I should be a lot stronger by the end of summer!

On Sunday, some of us went to church in Nordegg. We doubled the congregation numbers of the church in a town of 80 people. A fairly traditional, conservative church- very different to what I'm used to at Blackwood Hills, but great all the same, and good to meet a few of the locals in Nordegg, including Rene's parents and seeing the girls again, who were staying with them and excited to see me!

Campers are coming this week! Im doing a couple of days of climbing and canoeing. I'm super excited to start work and hanging out with kids. God is going to do some exciting things the summer, and I would love to have you journey with me, through prayers, emails and maybe even some old fashioned snail mail! Keep me updated with whats going on in your lives. I maybe on the other side of the world, but thanks to email and Facebook, its not that far!

Love Anna xoxo