Entering into summer

With posts becoming few and far between you do wonder what we get up to all day.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my lovely parents came over for a week at the end of February - celebrating our 'Canniversary'. This celebration brought with it a number of enlightening moments, many of which will reveal themselves over the coming months and year.

March was a whirlwind personally as I moved to a new job. I am very fortunate to work for such a great organisation and the work they do is phenomenal - or phenomenally Canadian according to L. I work with Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative dealing with all things donation related. It is wonderful fun and I am continually learning every day about the projects that we lead or support on, from the tip of Yukon all the way down into America to Yellowstone National Park. For obvious reasons all things bear interest me the most though hearing about the destruction and damage of Dam's (Site C being the most current and horrific) on the environment is overwhelmingly sad. Yet the government see $$$$$ rather than nature. Plonkers.

April was by far my most cherished month here. The arrival of a beautiful baby boy and most beloved sister!! I haven't seen my nephew since he was three moths old and now he is a full year, they changes in him were astounding. He looks like a little man, or more specifically my dad. He is the cutest and most charming baby ever, and a super-duper flirt with the ladies! Waving and grinning
at every girl he saw! We had a wonderful time together and couldn't believe how quickly time flew by.

And here we are at the end of May. Yikes. This month we had L's mum visit us for a week and to take full advantage of the Holiday Monday we decided, at the last possible minute, that we would drive to Victoria. That is correct, a 14 hour drive EACH WAY for a 3 day break. On Friday night we strated our ambitious drive and stopped in Sicamous, then at 5am Saturday morning we continued the journey to reach Cordova Bay on Vancouver Island. It was the best decision ever as I have missed the ocean so much, I am truly a water person and lakes just do not have the same influence on me.

Sunday we explored downtown Victoria, enjoying Fisherman's Wharf and a marching band competition in front of the Legislative Building then on Monday morning 4am (after watching an amazing sunrise) we drove back to Canmore. Worth every minute.

Catching up almost to present - which would include the tale of L cutting his foot on a rock while climbing Saturday and 24 hours later being taken to hospital by moi with blood poisoning. He had to have 4 days of IV antibiotics, we are now friends with all A&E Dr's at Canmore Hospital, and now he has a further ten days of heavy duty oral antibiotics to make sue it doesn't come back.

As you can see we are keeping busy and continuing to explore Western Canada. With one more significant visitor booking to arrive in August for three weeks of climbing, hiking, kayaking and surfing who knows what stories we will come back with!

Sri Pada Pilgrimage

The bus journey alone to get here was an adventure with gangster hip-hop music playing the entire way. The buses are all 'self-styled' by their owners to make them, what I can only assume, more appealing to get on. Don't get me wrong, they are amazing and so much better what you get in the UK.

We arrived in Dalhousie after being blasted by many passing fumes and realise there is very little to do other than climb a 2,500m mountain. So at 2am (yes in the morning) we set off to conquer this climb. This may be business as usual for my winter/rock exploring partner but for me it was all new territory.

With a bulky torch in hand we set off, all the while Lew is whispering "I hope we don't get mugged." Nice. Really puts my mind at ease.
Anyway, off I trot and start humming to sooth my worries and we make it to the base of the never ending stairs. If you do this climb you will know exactly what I mean.
Buddha bless the monks who actually built the stairs all the way to the top, as there is not a slope in sight. Stair Master 2000 has a competitor.

I have no idea if it was a mix between the random time of night by body was being exerted, lack of food or water, or the torch swinging with every step but my giddy-aunt did I get nauseous. Luckily for me, my partner in life is a moment-entrepreneur and decided to utilise my 'still dark moments' to do some night photography.

Two hours, two water bottles, a torch battery and many pit-stops later, we arrive at the peak of Sri Pada - the great Buddha's footprint. As it was 4am by this point there was very little to see other than a few twinkling house lights but by 5.45 the sun was starting to come up and WOW was it stunning. We got every colour of the rainbow in the sky and it only kept changing.

We were above the clouds, the sun, the forest and it was just so... simple? Is this peace?

We stayed for over two hours at the top as every minute we looked at the horizon the colours and clouds had changed and it was a new image to imprint in our memories or for the sake of good documentation our SD cards.

Gangster Lewis and myself admiring the sunrise

It was phenomenal, and what is surprising is my legs maintained their strength all the way to the bottom. Thank you Pilates.

Instead of staying in this little town for another night we got onto another hip-hop bus (there are Sri Lankan national buses and general pop too from our experience) to take us to Ella.

And that is when the rain began.