The Coulees

This photo is looking down to Oldman River and Indian Battle Park from the Brewery Gardens.

We walked from the base of the coulees up to the Brewery Gardens. A tiered hillside garden. The gardens were covered in snow and the pretty waterfall was frozen.

This is the view of the coulees from the back of the college. When it is warmer, deer and other smaller animals come up to visit. Perhaps they are in need of an education.

There are many walking tracks and picnic sites through the coulees.

Visitors enjoy both prairie and wooded habitats sheltered by coulee walls which extend 300 feet above the river valley.

High Level Bridge

This is the High Level Bridge. It is one mile and fourty seven feet long and three hundred and seven feet from the valley floor. It is the longest, highest bridge of its type in the world. It is very impressive and was completed in just ten months. In this photo you can see a freight train crossing over it. This train was longer than the bridge.

Fort Whoop-Up

Over the week-end we decided to explore some of the local areas. Behind our residence are the Coulees - V shaped valleys and the Oldman River so we decided to travel there. We started at Indian Battle Park and Foot Whoop-Up - so named because of the use of of illegal whiskey to éncourage' trade, the fort soon developed an infamous reputation. In other words one big party was going on here.

Craig you are about 125 years too late.

It was facinating learning about the history of the fort, the Canadian mounties sent to try and control the alcohol trade and establish Candian sovereignty, and the battles between warring plains tribes, the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Cree.

As you can see the snow has already started to melt. It takes 18 buffalo hides to cover 1 tipi.

Our residence

This is where we will be living for the next four months. We moved in on Friday and it was great to unpack. It has 2 bedrooms and is very comfortable - we even have cable TV with 60 channels.
During the summer the College and the Lethbridge University let out their accommodation at very reasonable rates. Families or individuals can stay and use the facilities.

Exploring Lethbridge

For the first few days we walked around Lethbridge most of the time. Here are some photos of the houses we passed on our walks into town. Don and Kathy have kindly lent us their car for the four months we are here. Craig has learnt to drive on the other side of the road and manage the last of the snow on the roads.

Snowmen

We haven't made a snowman but did find these three along from where we were staying. This cat was very friendly and was enormous.

Heritage House B & B

For the next 3 days we stayed in a B & B in Lethbridge. We have spent time walking around in the snow to get our bearings. The street system here is easy to navigate. All street names are numbered and go from North to South. All avenues are numbered and go from East to West in a grid system. So finding a specific location is very easy.

Snow everywhere

The temperature remains constant between -8 to -11 degrees. All our purchases for the cold weather before we left were worth it. My possum fur boot linings and socks are fantastic.

This photo is for the people who sent me images of cars covered in snow before I left - you know who you are. It is exactly the same!

We made it!

We arrived at Calgary airport at 10pm with snow falling. It was beautiful, but very cold -10 degrees. Candian customs and immigration were very good, all our paperwork was in order so it was pretty much straight forward. Craig was told they would fast track his work permit if he decided to get a job here in a body repair shop (panelbeating). Normally it takes between 8-10 weeks to be issued a work permit. There had been 500 crashes in one day in Calgary because of the weather and it takes 2-3 months before you get your car back.

We stayed in a hotel for the first night in Calgary - check out is noon - hooray for Canadian hotels, we could catch up on some sleep.

Job Exchange

This blog records the exchange between Kathy Lea of LCC Buchanan Library, Lethbridge, Canada and Coral Hanna of Whanganui UCOL Library, Wanganui, New Zealand 1st March 2007 - 30th June 2007.