Canada, USA and beyond....

simmo

I'd like to quickly recap an ongoing journey that I and my wife have undertaken. We have been keeping track of this on our blog if you would like to read further into our adventures from the start but set aside some time as there are over 100 hundred lengthy posts and counting. Click here to read it from the begining or here to go from now backwards.

We have been travelling for 10 months now and have 2 months remaining. I hope you enjoy the story....

So our trip started May 27, 2006 in Australia where my wife and I married before departing a week later for Canada. We boarded a cruise ship in Vancouver bound for Alaska which was an incredible experience. We must have lowered the average age on board by about 20 years but enjoyed it so much and would do it again in a heartbeat. Highly recommended. Here is one of the many spectaular scenes, 'Traceys Arm near Sawyer Glacier'



For more details about the Alaska leg of our trip see here

We then spent about 2 weeks traveling around Victoria, Vancouver and Whistler. Here is a shot of Shannon Falls, somewhere between Vancouver and Whistler.



If you would like to read more see Vancouver or Whistler.

Next we spent around 3 weeks travelling through the Rocky Mountains with a bus company called Moose travel. Mainly aimed at younger people but quite a fun group. Now Australia is mean to be some kind of "Natural Wonderland" but in my opinion the rockies equal if not top anything we have at home. They really are a photographers themepark.

The highlight for me was 'Peyto Lake' about 1 hour north of Banff. (Thats actually me on the right, photo courtesy of my wife)


So much so that we actually came back here 4 months later to see it in Winter


For more on the Rocky Mountains see here.

Next stop, Calgary Alberta....Cowtown. We actually stayed here about 4 months. Why, I here you asking?... Because we wanted to see the Stampede and there was no accomodation available so we had to sign a 4 month lease on an apartment. We also needed jobs by this time to recover some funds so we could continue our journey.

Heres a shot of the Chuck Wagon racing at the stampede:


While in Calgary I actually worked in the Photolab at Vistek, a large Photography store there. Nice place that does great large prints at reasonable prices (even better for staff), they even let me borrow rental equipment that wasn't in use so I could take advantage of equipment too expensive and heavy for your average backpacker.

Local skate park, taken with D200 and 80-200 F2.8:


For more on Calgary see here

We are now in Toronto were we have been for the past 4 months or so, working once again to fund the next leg (east coast and europe). We actually leave on Monday (26 of March).

Highlights from here have been:

Niagara falls


Dog Sledding in Haliburton (isn't he beautiful)


And I finaly upgraded my tired Panasonic Fz10 to a D80, this was my first outing (last weekend) to the old Distilery District, east of downtown Toronto


For more from Toronto see here

As you can see, when Australians leave our home shores we tend to do a thorough job as the flights cost so much you have to make it worth while.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures, I'll try and get in here and update this thread as the journey continues but I'm not sure how often I'll have time.

bsvirginian

I'm certainly envious of your trip and the length of time that you've been able to devote to it. I wish I could do the reverse and spend as much time in Australia and NZ. Thanks for sharing with us. BS

dogwood

Love the Peyto Lake shot (summertime). The Canadian Rockies are amazing-- hope you made it up to Jasper too! That's another fantastic landscape photography spot.

Skippy

simmo wrote:

I'd like to quickly recap an ongoing journey that I and my wife have undertaken. We have been keeping track of this on our blog if you would like to read further into our adventures from the start but set aside some time as there are over 100 hundred lengthy posts and counting. Click here to read it from the begining or here to go from now backwards.
We have been travelling for 10 months now and have 2 months remaining. I hope you enjoy the story....
So our trip started May 27, 2006 in Australia where my wife and I married before departing a week later for Canada. We boarded a cruise ship in Vancouver bound for Alaska which was an incredible experience. We must have lowered the average age on board by about 20 years but enjoyed it so much and would do it again in a heartbeat. Highly recommended. Here is one of the many spectaular scenes, 'Traceys Arm near Sawyer Glacier'
For more details about the Alaska leg of our trip see here
We then spent about 2 weeks traveling around Victoria, Vancouver and Whistler. Here is a shot of Shannon Falls, somewhere between Vancouver and Whistler.
If you would like to read more see Vancouver or Whistler.
Next we spent around 3 weeks travelling through the Rocky Mountains with a bus company called Moose travel. Mainly aimed at younger people but quite a fun group. Now Australia is mean to be some kind of "Natural Wonderland" but in my opinion the rockies equal if not top anything we have at home. They really are a photographers themepark.

The highlight for me was 'Peyto Lake' about 1 hour north of Banff. (Thats actually me on the right, photo courtesy of my wife)
So much so that we actually came back here 4 months later to see it in Winter
For more on the Rocky Mountains see here.
Next stop, Calgary Alberta....Cowtown. We actually stayed here about 4 months. Why, I here you asking?... Because we wanted to see the Stampede and there was no accomodation available so we had to sign a 4 month lease on an apartment. We also needed jobs by this time to recover some funds so we could continue our journey.
Heres a shot of the Chuck Wagon racing at the stampede:
While in Calgary I actually worked in the Photolab at Vistek, a large Photography store there. Nice place that does great large prints at reasonable prices (even better for staff), they even let me borrow rental equipment that wasn't in use so I could take advantage of equipment too expensive and heavy for your average backpacker.
Local skate park, taken with D200 and 80-200 F2.8:
For more on Calgary see here
We are now in Toronto were we have been for the past 4 months or so, working once again to fund the next leg (east coast and europe). We actually leave on Monday (26 of March).
Highlights from here have been:
Niagara falls
Dog Sledding in Haliburton (isn't he beautiful)
And I finaly upgraded my tired Panasonic Fz10 to a D80, this was my first outing (last weekend) to the old Distilery District, east of downtown Toronto
For more from Toronto see here
As you can see, when Australians leave our home shores we tend to do a thorough job as the flights cost so much you have to make it worth while.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures, I'll try and get in here and update this thread as the journey continues but I'm not sure how often I'll have time.

What an awesome journey
I am super impressed with the 3rd image, that is just beautiful, your wife takes dang good shots having you in the shot for her makes it all the more special what a spectacular view !
Love the shot of the dog and his two different coloured eyes
Looks like you guys had a wonderful time, and your photos are quite stunning.

Thanks for sharing......... Skippy
.

System

Spectacular view! Thanks for sharing.

simmo

Thanks for the comments everyone. I hope you're not too jealous . Yes, we did get up to jasper too but only for two nights. This one is from Mount Edith Cavel, which is one of the surounding mountains of Jasper:



All of these shots except the skatepark and rusty dodge where taken with 'point and shoot' cameras too. I would have loved an SLR the entire trip but when you are packing for a year, weight is an issue.

I've even had one of the Peyto Lake photos printed 24x12 and a Canvas made of this one 18x24
Bridal Veil Falls, B.C.


We literally have thousands more photos from this trip, I'll post a few more up as we continue, especailly of the next stops.

Monday we leave Toronto, our itinerary goes Ottawa-> Montreal-> Quebec City-> Halifax-> Prince Edward Island-> New York-> London-> Paris-> Barcelona-> Florence-> Rome-> Lucerne-> Munich-> Cologne-> Amsterdam-> Houston-> Vancouver-> Sydney, Australia (home!!! ).

Total trip will have been 11 months and 29 days

simmo

And just so you know we have been enjoying our selves, here are two more from Alaska (seems so long ago now).

White Pass Railway, Skagway


And no holiday photos are complete without a sunset:

Sunset on Inside Passage, Alaska