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| Lake Chestermere, Calgary |
Day 1 in the land of the maple leaf has been amazing. Immersing myself in the culture, I enjoyed a salad when I arrived last night, topped with maple syrup bacon. Considering that was pretty good, I further exposed myself to more Canadianisms by adding some Nova Scotia smoked salmon to my omelette for breakfast. At this point, have to consider that the Canadians are pretty good with their food. They still do have crazy orange cheese that looks like it is out of an episode of futurama. Pretty sure they import that from the USA though.
So after a delicious breakfast I made my way the convenient 50m or so to the car rental place, and as is my usual custom managed to get talked into the slightly fancier car. I'm that guy that the supermarkets set up displays in the middle of the aisle for with flashing lights and nothing but new packaging. I think I have shopping ADHD... ooh, what that's shiny thing over there....
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| Chestermere Lake, Calgary |
Cruising in my Dodge I headed off to see the good people of Rednik surf Co. who are conducting the race tomorrow. Managed to get a new hat and register for the race, although the young lass at the store, ever so helpful but unable to tell me where I could paddle around Calgary....maybe they should visit the Wetspot
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| Chestermere Lake, Calgary |
From there I found my way to Chestermere Lake. Beautiful lake. Lots of water skiers, a beautiful day and a new friend. Canadians are super friendly. Jay was having a family celebration for his niece's birthday by the lake. I let a couple of them have a go on the board which I thought was reward enough in itself watching them fall in, but then they gave me lunch, a beer and invited me home for cake. Who said there's no such thing as a free lunch!!
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| Bow River, Calgary |
I passed up on the cake in order to head to have a look at the race start for tomorrow.
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| Bow River, Calgary |
As amazingness would have it, I turned up at what I later found to be the wrong place, but met a new mate called Maurice. Maurice rides his bike upstream on the Bow River. Leaves it there and SUPs back down to his car. After a bit of a chat, he insisted on driving me up to his starting point so that I could paddle back down to my car. Very generous of him. It was about a 20min drive up there. It also meant for my second paddle of the day and an awesome one. It was only as you went over rocks that you could see that you got a real impression of how fast you were going. If I don't manage to beat anyone tomorrow, I'm counting the half dozen rubber dinghys, 3 inflatable rafts like the ones from Jamberoo and the very brave girl in a bikini as people that I passed and beat down that river.
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| Bow River, Calgary |
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| Bow River, Calgary |
Apparently its a popular weekend to be in Calgary. booking.com suggested a 79% full rate when I resorted to them after having no luck turning up on hotel doorsteps. Managed to find some digs and watched other people as I was checking in getting told that there was no room at the Inn. Dinner at the Toad and Turtle and back in for bed. Day 1 done and dusted. A resounding success in tour de SUP.
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