Our First day in Canada

I'll just pick up the story from when we woke up on Wednesday morning in Yellowknife. I haven't had such a good night's sleep in a long time. The beds were absolutely huge and quite possibly the comfiest we have ever slept in. The sun was bright and streamed through the curtains. It wasn't until we opened them we realised what a glorious day it was. The sky was cloudless and the view out of our windows was beautiful.


The view out of Hannah and Maya's hotel room

Having put that picture up I'm not quite sure it does the view justice because it was absolutely breathtaking. The land stretches out as far as you can see. It's virtually all flat, no mountains, with just a few rocky hills. There are tiny little lochens everywhere and it seems that the town is built around them with streets and roads weaving in and out between them. It's almost as if the land is the centrepiece of the town; quite different to how we are used to seeing cities and towns where they are a built-up mass that is the centrepeice of the surrounding land. We had a delicious Canadian breakfast in the restaurant. Mum and dad had the buffet but Maya and I had waffles freshly cooked with butter and a small jug of maple syrup and strawberries, blackberries and blueberries.
Then we went for a walk around Yellowknife's "Old Town". Dad wanted to find powdered egg to use as a source of protein on the trip so we went to the town's oldest store called "Weaver and Devore". Unfortunately they didn't have what we wanted but we did buy a bear scaring bell. The old town is enchanting. There's no other word for it. All the buildings are wooden cabins: shops, houses, garages. It is built around a small, rocky hill and has something of the wild and romantic feel you expect a small northern town to have. None of the buildings are the same. Each is individual in it's charm. Some have peeling paint and broken shutters, some are decorated with windchimes or local art and some have a modern feel with huge windows and different levels and balconies. Dad pointed out that this is because people literally build their own houses out of what wood they can find.
Do you remember I mentioned briefly in the last post a woman who put us in touch with someone at the Buffalo Airways office? Well we got in touch with him (his name is Peter) and he offered to let us look around before our flight. We had to be at the air field at 3:00pm so after we got back from our wander around Yellowknife, we loaded all our luggage into two taxis and made our way there. It was a really hot day, so perfect flying weather, and on the flight mum got some awesome pictures from the plane window but first we all got to take pictures of the Buffalo Airways fleet.
Buffalo Airways is a Northern Canadian freight and passenger company that flies classic "warbird" transport aircraft: DC3 Dakota, DC4s and Curtis C47s. They had, just that day, picked up a new additition to the fleet; A CL-215. It is shaped like a boat so can land in water and is designed to fight fires. It can pick up 12000 litres of water in about ten seconds The air-craft hanger was fascinating and, being a bit of an aeroplane buff, Dad was in his element. They even let us climb inside the planes they were working on and have a look around.


The new CL-215



Dad was like a little boy when he saw this



In the Cockpit of the plane that took us to Hay River



In front of the DC3 that took us to Hay River

Each plane in the fleet has a story. The DC3 that we were flying in had dropped paratroopers over Normandy for the D-Day landings during the second world war. If anyone has ever seen "Band of Brothers" then you will know what I'm talking about and how amazing it was to fly in such an historical plane. Buffalo Airways (http://www.buffaloairways.com/) has been involved in a TV series called "Ice Pilots" (http://www.icepilots.com/) and for any of you who watch it, it was "Buffalo Joe" who got us safely to Hay River.
As I've said before the weather was perfect for flying, the sky was cloudless, so Mum got some really good pictures of the scenery below.



Leaving Yellowknife behind

 


Ice on the Great Slave Lake

 After a very enjoyable forty minute flight we landed in Hay River. It was about 6:00pm Canadian time and although not as hot as Yellowknife it was still beautifully sunny. We were met by Doug Swallow of "Canoe North" (http://www.canoenorth.ca/), the company who are renting us the boats among other things, and he drove us to our lodgings.


Having arrived at Hay River. The DC3 is in the background



Our Mountain of luggage

 We are staying in an apartment until we leave on the river. It is quite nice actually and yet again the beds are both huge and very comfy. That night we went and did a bit of food shopping which was actually quite fun because they sell things like White Oreos and other things we can't get in the UK. For dinner we couldn't be bothered cooking so we went to the Ptarmigan Inn. The food was so lovely but none of us could finish it. By this time jetlag had caught up with us and we were sadly too tired to eat. Dad worked out that it was about 4:00am back home in Scotland so no wonder we didn't feel up to eating!
Anyway, that was our first day in Canada; Yet another little adventure preceding the big adventure that is paddling the Mackenzie River.
More later but goodbye for now,

Hannah