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Monday 8th July 

So much happened last week at Heaven’s Gate. We finished the outside of the new visitors cabin, which I loved because Steffi and I finished the roof. Steffi is hilarious because she calls herself Bauer Renn and in German Bauer means farmer and she absolutely loves picking up the horse poo in the morning. In the two days that we finished off the cabin, it was around 35 degrees and I burnt my bum a few times sitting on the roof but a few people cooled off by jumping in the pond afterwards.

Last week we had a girls only day, where Brigitte took us shopping western style. We looked for cowboy boots, horse tack and other bits and bobs. I have never been to a western tack shop and even before I walked in, a random woman jumped in front of my camera and began posing. She was really funny and told me about how people are friendly in Alberta, which I can’t argue with.

Afterwards we went to Roy’s restaurant but decided to leave after ordering water because we saw a buffet across the road. We told our server that we were meeting a friend at the buffet but when we got to the buffet, we were told that the buffet would begin in 2 hours. We then had to do the funny walk of shame back to the original restaurant and say ‘oh, our friend wasn’t there’. Somehow I don’t think she believed us.

On our way back to Heaven’s Gate we visited Monolo, who is friend of Brigitte’s originally from Mexico. He makes and sells the most beautiful South American furniture but unfortunately his furniture shop was severely damaged during the recent Calgary floods but you wouldn’t know this to talk to him. He and his wife were so welcoming and happy.

We also really got to know each other and spent some quality time in the tipi. Brigitte had the idea that we say a positive and negative thing about the person next to us. Although it was hard to think of negative things, saying the positive things was really eye opening and helped create a great family atmosphere in the team.  

The team also went for a truck drive to a nearby bear cave, which Brigitte said was down the road, which in Alberta terms means 10km. It was a beautiful drive and on the way, we saw a black bear, deer and some eagles but the road to the grizzly bear cave was closed.

I went food shopping at Walmart with Brigitte and I noticed all the people wearing cowboy hats for the first time, which really made me feel like I was in the Wild West. The other thing I observed was the way that people left their truck doors open when they went shopping. I guess it’s not London.

The scariest part of the week involved five us going on an eight hour hike in the Rocky Mountains yesterday. So much happened that it warrants a blog all on its own coming very soon. Now I know personally why they call them the Rocky Mountains.