Timmy Travels

So today I set off on my Prairie Duster part of the Moose tour which I added at the last minute. I really wanted to see the Badlands which is why I did it.

First stop was the Hostel in Calgary to check in and pick up some people for the trip. A brief look at Calgary reveled that it is in fact a bit of a dive. The City has grown so fast that lots of it has failed to keep up. There are lots of drunks and drug addicts dotted around the place. Most amusing was the huge drug and alcohol rehabilitation center we passed which not only had lots of people sat outside drinking but also sported a liquor store at the back.

After the delights of Calgary we headed to Drumheller and first stop was Horse Thief Canyon which gets it's name because the area is like a maze of canyons, ravines, gullies which made such good hiding places that horse thieves would hide out there for days. These canyons and gullies and other such geological forms are know as Badlands. Other forms that can be seen are Hoodoos, these are tall thin pieces of rock that protrude from the Badlands area and look a bit like mushrooms.

After this place we had a quick stop at the smallest church in the world, it's just at the side of the road and is no more that 1 meter x 1.5 meter. The last stop of the day was a Dinosaur museum which was OK but I'm not really a museum kind of person so I sped round it then went for a walk around the Badlands area on the site.

On the way back to Calgary we stopped at a place called Wayne and at the Last Chance Saloon this was a very original Saloon type bar. There were a couple of old timers sat drinking whiskey and they decided they ought to do a sobriety test to see if they could drive home ok. This consisted of a small, but painful looking, animal trap and a coin. The idea was to get the coin and not get your fingers caught, needless to say they failed on several attempts much to our amusement. I videoed them doing it, I'll upload it to Facebook as soon as I can.

After a night in Calgary we headed to a place called Head-smashed-in Buffalo Jump which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The buffalo jump was used for 5,500 years by aboriginal peoples of the plains to kill buffalo, by driving them off the 10 metre high cliff.

Next we headed back to Banff to stay the night there in the Alpine Hostel, the rooms were fantastic and I got a double bed on the mezzanine level after craftily switching the bed numbers round so the Frenchy I was shering with got the single. After a home cooked meal, thanks Angie, we all headed to the bar which being a Friday meant Karaoke night. It was a great night had and myself Andy and Shane got up to sing Wonderwall, my first time doing Karaoke, I think the booze helped!