Going to Canada eh ?

The North American concept of sending the kids to summer camp first came to Pete’s attention by listening to ” Hello Muddah Hello Faddah” on Junior Choice with Ed (Stew pot) Stewart in the 1960’s.

Pause here while older British readers say “Oh I remember” and ” I wonder what ever happened to him”. Everyone else shake heads, smile politely and wonder when its time for his nap.

The idea is to send the urban and sub-urbanly raised children off for a week or so to get closer to nature. Getting them out of the house and preventing the I’m bored chorus from driving parents up the wall during the school holidays is an added bonus.

Lin had booked Dave in for several weeks at Camp Alexo and had volunteered to drive the bus for the Family Camp which was being held one weekend at the same place. The timing meant that Dave came back from one camp on the bus Friday afternoon, met us in Red Deer and stayed on the bus to go back again. This time with his Mum driving. As a precaution we had brought more clean clothes for Dave whether he wanted them or not.

The camp was well organised and on Saturday the CITs (Councilors in Training) served  dinner to the parents who were relieved of having to supervise their children for one meal time. Entertainment that evening was singing around a camp fire. Song books were handed out and we were amused to see that the songs included Camp Granada.

Alexo was formerly a mining town but the mine closed down in 1955 and all the buildings were demolished but you can still see where the narrow gauge coal trucks ran down from the mine to a tippler that loaded the coal into the standard gauge wagons. With the higher mountains in the background and abandoned mine workings the area was very reminiscent of North Wales with its old slate mines and narrow gauge railways.

Dave thoroughly enjoyed his weekend though Pete and Lin found the communal bunk house a bit noisy as the group included a few snorers. There was the option of sleeping in a real native teepee complete with wood burning fire in the centre to keep warm but we declined  fearing a change in the wind could smoke us out. These fears proved to be well founded when we met some other campers the next morning.

Thanks to Kathleen and Heather for organising the weekend and Lin for getting us there and back safely

The other week we were invited to go camping with friends Lin works with.

“We haven’t got a tent” she said. “Don’t, worry they replied we have 10 berth 5th wheeler you can sleep in the garage”.

At this point some translation is called for. Over here there are several types of RV’s (Recreational Vehicles). The self propelled camper van often the size of a small coach (Winnebago). The “normal ” tow along trailer with ball and socket towing hitch. The sort we would call a caravan in the UK, (here a caravan is a large MPV people mover). The third variety is the fifth wheel. This is a bit like an articulated lorry where the RV couples with an adaptor in the middle of the load space on a pick up truck. The trailer is couple and un coupled from the truck by means of electrically operated jacks that raise and lower the nose. These jacks are also used to level the trailer when it is sited.

The rear part of this RV had a fold down door like a horse box, into which you could drive quad bike, jet skis, generators etc. Once empty an electric hoist lowered two double bunks from the ceiling and this is where we slept.

As we were setting off they said “we will be stopping to put gas in the trailer”. We thought at first they meant getting a new propane tank, but no this was petrol. The trailer had a petrol tank and pump built in. This was to supply the fuel for the generator, chain saw and quad bikes without which no outdoor trip would be complete. Another useful feature was the external shower head that came out of a compartment on the side of the trailer and was used for washing the mud off the quad bikes (and David) after a particularly muddy ride along the trail.

We stayed not on an organised camp site but on a patch of grass by the side of an unmade road/trail in the middle of nowhere, half way up the mountains. We shared the pitch with another couple Tom and Erin who in addition to trailer, pick-up and quad bike, had also brought the stones and grating for the fire pit over which we would toast mashmallows and Wieners.   Tom also cooked a very good bacon and eggers over the open fire for breakfast.

On one ride out on the quads they found a fallen tree that had been weakened by termite damage. They went back to it with one of the pick up trucks and towed it back to the camp site by wrapping a chain round the tree trunk and pulling the tree behind them. This was later cut up into manageable chunks and added to the wood pile for the next campers who used the site.

The only worrying point of the weekend was when the radio announced that a Tornado had touched down north of Red Deer in the Blackfalds area. Fortunately it missed us but brought down some trees in the Central Park area.

After returning home, Lin picked up a local paper and found the front cover was a colour picture of our friends climbing on fallen trees.  Which had been ripped up by the tornado, or as they call them here, funnel clouds.  Scarily, they had been watching the damage from their basement.  Best place to be in that weather.

Still David was pleased that our ancient cat Penny had made it unharmed.