From Stampede to Vancouver Island

After the national holiday, the next few days were very eventful: In addition to my mother and grandmother's birthdays, which I was able to congratulate via video telephony thanks to my sisters, I also made a day trip to Canmore in the Rocky Mountains. I was allowed to borrow the hosts' old car and drove it to the mountains for hiking. I was able to see the Grassi Lakes and hike up Ha-Ling. The latter was very challenging and kept me busy for a total of 4-5 hours. However, the view from the top was incredible and I had a good overview of Canmore. I have already published the photo in my last entry because I didn't want to withhold this view from you. Once back at the bottom, my legs were sore and I was glad to be back on a flat surface. After a short break, the day was already over and I drove home exhausted but also happy.
The next day, I rode my bike to the Calgary Zoo, but I was disappointed because it was relatively small and the cages were very small. At least I saw a grizzly bear that day, and I was also in the right place at the right time as the Land of Lemurs was opening that day.
The following day, I used the bike as a means of transportation and went to downtown. There, I explored the main shopping street a bit and you could tell that the famous Stampede was just around the corner. Everywhere, there were advertisements and special offers, and many items like cowboy hats and boots were being sold. And some stores were so crowded that it was impossible to get through. In the evening, you could already visit the Stampede grounds to get a taste of it. For the equivalent of 25 €, you could try out all the rides as often and as long as you wanted. After about 15 different rides, I started to feel sick and had to slow down. It was like having Heide Park, Bartholomäus Markt, and Landwirtschaftsausstellung in Tarmstedt all at the same time at the Stampede.
The next morning, there was an impressive 2-hour parade for the official opening, and good seats were secured by getting up early. After that, the first day offered free admission and I went to the agricultural center first to see the exhibitions about the various farm animals. Around noon, I went to the rodeo, which offered an entertaining show with many different disciplines. In addition to rodeo riding on a horse or a bull, one discipline was to catch a calf as quickly as possible with a lasso.
After that, I got caught up in the rodeo fever and tried it myself on a mechanical bull. I did so well that I was allowed to do a second round. But this time, I was thrown off within a few seconds. After that, I continued exploring the grounds and discovered, among other things, a household fair which had kitchen appliances and massage chairs to try out, where I could relax a bit. In the evening, the interesting chuckwagon race took place, followed by an evening show with various performances and artistic performances. And in the end, there was a fireworks display, which also marked the end of a very exciting day for me. Tired, I rode my bike home. Since the past few days were very exhausting and long, I spent the next day in a more relaxed manner and spent most of the time at home.
Since my journey will continue soon and I will head towards Vancouver Island, I took the opportunity to prepare everything for the departure.
I found someone on the internet who was also going to the island the next day, and so I joined him. He and his wife were going to visit their family and had a passion for cars, especially VWs. During the drive, we were able to talk about that, and the rest of the time, I used to write my diary and get some sleep (more or less comfortably). Arriving at the ferry, I enjoyed the three-quarter-hour ferry ride in good weather. In addition to the classic small kiosks like on the Elbe ferry, there was also a café, a restaurant, and a work department here.
When I arrived at my destination in Nanaimo, I was picked up by my next hosts. I had actually arranged to wwoof with them for 2 weeks. This means that you help out on the farm for a few hours a day in exchange for food and accommodation. So I arrived at Whiskey Creek Farm owned by Lori and Brian, which has a small chicken coop and a biogarden. There is also a bakery, a bistro, a farm store, and a butcher shop. However, these were not operated daily but only on weekends or, in the case of the butcher shop, on Tuesdays. In addition to garden work like watering, planting, and taking care of the chickens, delicious raspberries were picked every day, which was hard to resist.
On free afternoons and days, we were allowed to borrow the car and explore the surrounding area and places near the farm, such as Qualicum Beach and Cameron Lake. At first, I thought there wouldn't be much work, but sometimes the days were very long, especially on weekends when everything had to be prepared for the bakery and the farm store. On the other hand, the tasks were not physically demanding. Furthermore, the harvested vegetables and the self-raised chicken were very tasty and you knew what you were eating.
I also enjoyed the weather here because it was often very sunny and not as hot as compared to Calgary.

I also get along very well with the other wwoofers, who are also Germans, which makes the work more bearable because sometimes there are just too many different tasks and the owner of the farm has already lost track of them because it is simply too big for her. But together, we brought in that German organizational talent and brought much more order.