I'm not dead yet...

...just buried deep in SK working young horses again and getting ready for the mountain trip again too.

I came back on training April. She is amazing. I left her barely walking under the saddle in the round pen and now we cross road construction on a windy day without freaking out! She has really put on condition (losing fat and gaining a lot of muscle) and confidence. If I give her 2min to think about whatever the problem is, she is then really keen on going on calmly. It is so nice to have a horse that smart, that forward, that willing (to try to do what I am asking for).

Yesterday we did our first cow work. She's a little excited but does the job. Today we had a wonderfull small collected canter catching up a fugitive cow at the pasture. I am really really pleased with that mare. I hope our team stays on the same line for the cross tomorrow and the mountains next week.

Besides April I am starting a new horse : Skar. Beautifull movement, pretty confident and friendly horse who's 4 and had some ground work last year, nothing untill july and some ground work again with other helpers. I am starting right from the beginning because he's not even leading properly yet. One thing I've learned here is not to start untill you have control over the back feet of the horse. It means that your horse should cross his back legs on soft demand anywhere you are whatever happens. That is because the power from a horse comes from the back end and by crossing the legs you disengage and consequently depower the horse so that you eventually can stop her/him. For the riders what I mean is a turn on the shoulders. So that's my goal with Skar. April is on turn on hanches (moving the shoulders) and nice back up (relaxed and head down) under the saddle.

I don't ride Ray anymore, he's being ridden by everybody else now and I get quite cranky if my work isn't being pursued so I better don't even look and listen to whatever happens to him. I get that some people aren't here to train horses and that Ray is nice enough to sit on and chat with your co riders without paying much attention but still I kind of think that's a waste not to use his abilities  more. That explains why I want my own horse when I come back (and can afford it, hehe). I guess I'm not very forgiving when it comes to my work.

Otherwise, yes I can take some pitty for my non horsy friends, the life in Meadow is still very sunny and hot (not quite as hot as when I left though), planned hour by hour. A nice life once you get used to it again.

Roght now I'm enjoying some rare alone time on the deck in the sun watching horses grazing and dogs sleeping. Not too bad eh?

bilan mi août

Alors en 1 mois de voyage touristique, j'ai :

- parcouru plus de 3726km

- vu des paysages magnifiques

- rencontré des gens super sympas

- dépensé plein de sous en ayant un mode de vie spartiate ( 1200€ )

- fait mon stock de cadeaux souvenirs

- réalisé que mes objectifs de voyage ont changé (paysages, expérience équestre et pas travail salarié)

- conclu que je suis arrivée au bout de ma quête de liberté

- décidé de ma date de retour (après les partiels de Minus) et organisé la suite de mon voyage ( ranch en alberta puis en Colombie Britanique)

- fais suffisament de photos pour décorer tout un appart

bref, quoi qu'il arrive, ce voyage est déjà une réussite. :-)

Mon itinéraire : 

Jasper

Avec Banff, Jasper est l'autre incontournable parcs des rocheuses. Réputé plus sauvage et moins fréquenté, je n'y ai passé que quelques heures donc je ne me prononcerai pas trop.

J'ai rencontré Caro, une globetrotteuse parisienne, en cherchant des passagers pour mon trajet Vancouver-Jasper. Le voyage est passé comme une lettre à la poste grace à toutes les histoires de Caro (un an en Australie, la vie d'ergo à Paris, la déception de Vancouver...) et aux paysages à couper le souffle. Qui dit conduite dis absence de photos mais pour résumer vallées très larges, des montagnes couvertes de sapins avec des pans complètement brûlés ou devastés par des tempêtes j'imagine et des parcelles coupée à blanc. Au fond de la vallée d'immenses rivières sur leur lit de galets.

La ville de Jasper est nettement plus petite et calme que Banff. Une trentaine de commerces maximum.

On dort dans la voiture sur le parking du Maligne canyon. Du coup ballade le long du canyon puis icefields highway jusqu'à Saskatchewan river crossing où j'ai déposé à la fois Caro et Wilhelm qui a donc un nouveau porteur.

De mon côté descente dans la plaine albertaine direction Rocky Mountain House où je m'arrête qq jours pour aider Jane à débourrer une dizaine de jeunes curlies.

des chevres de montagne traverssant la route dans le kootenay. Magnifique et désert.

le troupeau de curlies, regardez les oreilles. trop trop!

une de mes victimes

Vancouver

Logement / Accomodation : hard to find and expensive / faut vraiment chercher et cher => air bnb for/pour 56€ 2nights on a couch / 2nuit sur un canapé :S

Stanley park : oasis calm beautifull view and atmosphere

monday, BC Day (ferié)

MoA museum of Anthropology really interesting. I liked it. Although pretty hard to find. Only got lost on the UBC campus, I'm happy with that. Un bon musée mais dur à trouver, je ne me suis perdue que sur le campus de l'U de BC, plutôt pas mal. Mais je suis fatiguée de toujours me battre pour trouver mon chemin!

1/2 about Haida people house totem other wood carving (objets sculptés)

1/3 about other native culture of america

the reste : world wide

salmon skin dress anyone?

Vancouver downtown/gastown/chinatown/canada place/stadion. Nothing realy fancy. Gastown a little better than the rest.

bof, Gastown un peu mieux.

and dead town after 5pm. WTF ?!?

ville fantôme à 17h00. J'hallucine!

tofino 2

thursday is hiking day after a thunderstormy wake up // jeudi c'est rando après un réveil sous orage et pluie battante.

schoner cove.

easy boardwalk, 30min, a lot of steps and the feeling of beeing in a videogame jungle version, without the scary wildlife. We were alone and it was magical.

ballade facile sur un chemin en bois avec beaucoup d'escaliers (mais des rampes partout). Plein d'arbres géants beacoup plus gros et beau qu'à cathedral growth. Le sentiment d'ètre dans un jeu video version jungle mais sans la faune effrayante (serpents, insectes, araignées...). on était seule juste après la pluie, c'était magique.

pictures//photos

and the off to the Nun Tchat Nulth visitor center. We should have done that on our way in but we didn't anyway. This is a small but very intersting museum about the park and the Nun Tchat Nulth, group of premier nations of the west of vancouver island speaking the same langage and sharing a common cultural background especially whale hunting. I spend maybe 2hours there, poor Leonie.

after that, time for some fresh air along the beach.

The algues there are so big, imagine how good it could be to trash a friend (or a little sister ;-) ).

and a last hike to finish our tofino trip (near wya point, I should look for the name but I must be too lazy for that) ;-)

gravel road becoming trail, boardwalk and steep stairs. really cool beach and only another group of tourists. It's so peacefull and relaxing.

pictures :

proof that I set a hand (a foot would have meant taking shoes and sock off and back again on wet feet :S ) in the Pacific Ocean !

and my thirsts seastars :D (like a kid). I'm proud I resisted the want (??? not too sure about the appropriate word there) to take one with me. It was really difficult being a responsible grown up there.

So to conclude Tofino : now I WANT to do a shore hike on the island, either the west coast trail or the north shore trail (open, newer, wilder and starting in Cape Scott provincial park). I'm already registering for volonteers !

Tofino

Hi everybody,

I'm writing this entry in english not only for the very pleasure of my fluently french speaking mother but so that friends I've met on the road can actually follow one topic out of ten.

So here is about the famous (and almost only) canadian surf spot. I've named Tofino of the Vancouver Island's west coast. With Leonie, a german helper staying at Nano's friend and a great and devoted photographer for the last 2 weeks, we drove to Tofino for 2 days. With my special luck, we had a very grey but typical weather.

After a couple of stops for gas and food (see I've learned from the 9$ peanut butter in lake louise) and an hour and a half delay (thank me please) we eventually hit the road west. Pretty busy road with it's fair share of RVs (campingcars en français) and motorcycle on a sunny day. Rihanna in the hears to fit the excitement of going to a surfers' town and finally meet beautiful young people overcrowding dozen of pubs as an after surf activity.

First stop on the road : cathedral growth. A natural park of giant trees. Actually it's more a way too small parking lot on the side of the highway with dozens of people stopping and walking the 10min pathwalk to see big trees. I expected bigger trees but as they're only 300yo, they're pretty obese I guess. americans : even trees are way too big. ;-) Anyway after a couple of patient photos (thx again Leonie) we climb back in the car, U turn on the highway to head the good way (yes the parking lot was full, we had to turn around to park on the side lane) and here we go again.

The road cross the mountains and that's exciting! A turning highway!! Either Canadians aren't used to a easy turning highway (believe me, nothing to do with Ardeche or Haute Loire roads) or the highway departement consider that's everybody is on medicinal marijuna here because they expect you to slow down to 60/50/40/30 at every single curve! that's how you end up with "respect the signs ! " signs. GUYS! show us that we can trust you if you want us to follow your directives eyes closed (or almost). So it's fun to drive, scenic and not ovecrowded but busy there. A good apetizer.

20km from the coast we go down under the clouds and almost won't leave them for 2 days. The ocean is calling! but that's still a very depressing light for me.

First thing to do : check the waves and the ocean. We stoped at southchesterman beach with our delicious picnic in the bag. Low Tide, Low temperature, small waves and not a single smell of the ocean. I guess it's too pacific for me. So we set up the picnic (veggie bread + peanut butter and cheese) sitting on a log next to a fire (at 1pm) nice. but still very depressing. The waves are pretty small and seeing people in intergral wetsuit+bootie fighting for small ripple doesn't seem to be worth the 40$ it'll cost me. So no surf for me.

Then as there isn't much to do on the beach, let's hit the town, do some shopping and have a nice coffe in trendy pub somewhere. Uuh... we drove past several houses, a couple of surf shops and touristy stores and that must be it because further, it's the ocean. By the way only a dozen of people on the street mostly hyppies in front of the supermarket. Maybe they are all inside? or along the harbour? we explored all we could and no such thing. After watching the fishermen unload salmons, we ended up in a cute small tea house with view on the RV parking lot. the tea was good and only 3$.

So not much to see, espacialy if you don't want to spend a lot of money. otherwise there are great whalewatching tours, hot spring cove tour, fishing trip and want is particulary appelling for me : seaplanes (don't ask me why I find it funky, I have no idea), nice clothes (surfwear and hiking styles). but each any any of those is around 100$ so maybe in some years.

After a lazy afternoon of drinking tea and window shopping, isn't that a good vacation program? we have earned some fat fish and chips. First time in my life, it'll be salmon. I kind of regret not to have chosen halibut because I usually love it. That's the price for being a coward and not trying what you don't understand (I've translated it since, obviously).

Now time for settling the camp in Pacific Rim National Park. Yes, another must do thing to check : camping in a national park campground. We got the gear from Nano and her friend so let's find our spot (#50) and build the tent before being eaten alive by a bear. After the check in employee, there shouldn't be a problem, a bear was reported 2hrs ago 200m from the entrance but no sign since so it must have gone away. Let's believe that, they know more about canadian wildlife than I do anyway. but I still want to see a bear!! I've only seen beers so far.

the spot is really cool, forest all round, we don't see the neighbors. it feels mike camping in the wild but with security and confort. good show national parks!

so in 15 min our camp is up and ready. it's time to go see long beach.

bear and wolf warning everywhere on the way : the thrill of adventure.

10 min walk in the forest and here is breathtaking Canada again :

nothing to add. Maybe you can witness that the temperature wasn't exactly tropical and the waves wild but the fun and the smile was still there.

1st day in Tofino ended drinking that nice beer facing the waves. A good day all together.