The Gypsy Life

Hi there all!

Writing to you from the top of the rockies, we are now in Jasper and i can tell you that the scenery is absolutely awesome! For the last three weeks we have been driving past mountains and wondering can they get any better than this, simply the answer is yes! We have been camping in this campsite for the last three nights which is in the middle of the forest and it is such a blessing to wake up/go to sleep in such beautiful surroundings. Today we are going for a trail ride up into the mountains (after i promised my bruised backside that i would never put it through such a terrifying ordeal again, but love makes you do strange/stupid things) and as it is a cracking day hopefully we should get perfect views of the surrounding mountains and down into the lakes.
It struck us the other day that we have been living in a tent for the guts of 5 months, i never thought it would be so easy to turn into a gypsie! But the life of a gyppo isn't so bad and for any of you wanting to make the change here is a little insight of what you can expect. The main bonus of life on the road is that you can decide to live where ever you want and for how long. Normally at night times we decide where we will go the next day, here is a picture of my lovely wife out with the maps looking for the next site.



Unfortunately with this style of living you have to sacrifice the comforts in life, however you learn to make do. Most place we stay at are ensuite but you have to use a little imagination. Here is my Bathroom. The only problem is that there is no door and sometimes you get the feeling that others are watching, which makes bath times a little awkward (plus my rubber duck keeps on swimming away).



Jess now has the lovely big kitchen that she has always wanted.........



Now and again we have guests round for dinner, but to be honest it their table manners can be disgraceful!



After dinner we like to go for a walk in our back garden, we have some lovely views but to be honest it is a nightmare to keep on top of the lawns!



We also have lots of pets, we like to call this one yogi (or sir, depends what mood he is in!).



So that gives you all a little taster of what the day to day life for the McKinley's is like these days. Anyone tempted to give the gypsie life a go?



Oh aye i almost forgot to tell you that our last couple of days on Vancouver island were very eventful! On Wednesday 21st May Jess and i went to see the champions league final between Man Utd and Chelsea. What a day! Brilliant match and brilliant atmosphere! There were about 50 Man Utd fans and 4 Chelsea fans in the pub we went to watch it. I got a little bit carried away with the shouting and singing and i think Jess got a little bit of an insight into a side of her husband that she had never seen before. To cut a long story short we won the game after extra time and penalties and it took me until Sunday before i could speak again. I shouted a little bit too much.........
The game had robbed both of us of a lot of energy and we were looking forward to a good nights sleep. After dinner we read a little of our books and played cards then decided to go and get ready for bed. On our way back to the tent we were remarking at how cold it was and infact this might have been the coldest night since arriving in Canada. When we got back to the car we both asked each other if we had the keys. You know that sickening feeling you get when you know something has gone really wrong (probably the feeling the Chelsea fans still have). We shone the torch through the car window and surely enough there were the car keys. All nice and safe behind the locked door! What makes it all worse is that the previous night we had torrential rain and therefore decided to keep all our sleeping bags ect in the car incase they got wet. We had nothing and even no money in our pockets! We were totally helpless!
I started thinking about this documentary i had seen on TV a few years ago when they got ex car thieves to break into cars to show how easy it was and i had a brief glimmer of hope that i could remember how they did it. Jess sadly hadn't saw this programme as when i turned round there she was trying to pick the lock with nail clippers and then a TRAVEL ADAPTER! Seeing that we weren't going to pick the lock, i had decided that this was the chance to fulfill the desire in life to break a car window (it's a bloke thing) however after two laps of the car deciding which window to break Jess talked me out of it.
Thankfully the owner of the campsite was still up when we banged on his door at 10.30pm and he was so helpful and called a tow truck guy that said it would be no problem to break into our car. What made it so much better is that when the tow truck guy arrived the couple camping near us turned up and said that they had a breakdown card that allowed us to have the service for free! What started off as a nightmare turned into a miracle! What a good God we have! If anyone knows me well they will know that i have an obsessive compulsive disorder about locking doors/fridges ect! I fear this has put me back years in my recovery. Now Jess and i are constantly asking each other if we have keys.
Well time has escaped me, i have to go and get punished by that horse. I am sure Jess will write soon to tell you how great it was!
Oh a brief note to say that our bear sighting tally is now up to 9!

Catch you all soon

Gav and Jess (the gyppos)

Cold Canada and Calving Cows

Howdy cowboys and cowgirls

Since we last emailed we have left the sunny shores of Australia and landed in West Canada. Before we left we decided to check the weather forecast for Canada just to see what we were in for and alarmingly the screen told us it was -2 at night. Hmmmm the sleeping bags were scared and so were the people going to be sleeping in them. This didn't seem too bad though as we were doing another farmstay for the first week.

We flew in to Calgary where we picked up a rather sporty hire car and drove her down to our cattle ranch that we were going to be working on for a week. It really was in the middle of nowhere and absolutely beautiful.
Silvertip RanchOn our way down we called in to a tourist stop which was charmingly named "Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump" it was where the native Indians used to chase huge herds of buffalo off the mountains, lovely!!!

Anyway back to the Ranch. The Ranch was surrounded by huge snowy mountains and was breathtaking. This was at the south tip of the rockies so apparently isn't as spectacular as the main section, so we can't imagine what it will be like when we come to them. Our first job was to pull up a bridge by hand and then the next day we were to start building a new bridge for tractors and cows to go over. Since we are not bridge builders the farmer brought in her Dad to be the brains behind the operation and we provided the muscle... well Gav did, I realised how little muscle I have. Thankfully to say it all went well and we have now left a bridge in Canada built by the McKinleys. We even tested it by riding over it with our horses that we acquired for the week. I learned to drive the tractor and actually got on quite well. So well that Patricia left us for the day to go into town and we were to feed the cows and calves with hay from the barn. We loaded up the 39 haybales and set off. All was going well until we came to the first gate. I went to stop the tractor and as I put in my clutch the darn thing didn't stop. (For those who aren't tractor drivers apparently you can stop a tractor without using the brakes if you are in a low gear, this had worked previously). So the tractor kept going and Gav was yelling for me to stop but by this point the thing had already smashed through the gate. I finally found the brake and managed to bring the thing to a stop. Meanwhile Gav was surveying the damage, thankfully the gate had stayed up and only the gate clasp had broken. Easily fixed! I realised I had been in a high gear and thankfully was able to continue the feeding without any further mishaps.

Our other jobs on the farm were to watch the cows who were still to calve. 5 wee calves were born while we were there and they were so precious.
Eric the Red as Gav named him (he was the first person to see him after he was born therefore he decided he needed a special name)
As the farm was in the middle of nowhere we also got the chance to see loads of wildlife including elk, coyotes, mule dear and whitetail deer. Unfortunately we didn't see any bears which are common to the area (the ranch was called Silvertip Ranch due to the silvertip grizzly bears that live in the area... hee hee parents we didn't want to tell you until after) The closest we got to the bears was when we were fixing fences and we came across lots of bear fur clinging to the barb wire. Patricia also let us ride her horses at night and so Gav had his first western experience with no riding hat and a western saddle. During the second ride I couldn't resist coaxing my horse into a slow canter obviously Gav's horse followed and I heard him shouting in very basic terms how he was being hurt so I quickly stopped. The outcome: when we get to the rockies he will go fishing for a day and I will go horse riding.
This is me with Mandy

We are now on Vancouver Island and it is so beautiful. We spent the first day in Victoria (the capital of BC) which is a lovely city and treated ourselves to fish and chips. I then poured sugar all over mine as I thought it was salt... yummy.. not! Tip: Don't pour sugar on your fish and chips, it tastes vile. On to the west coast and Pacific Rim National Park. Where we have been bear watching and have also seen 15 humpback whales!!! It was incredible, there were so many swimming around our boat and it was glorious. They put on quite a show with raising their heads above the water and waving at us with their fins. We also saw a black bear which was really good, Gav was so happy. Due to the weather we have had to buy new sleeping bags that go to -10 at night. The first night camping in Canada was miserable and we couldn't sleep because of the cold. The second night we slept with all our clothes on and were still cold. So new sleeping bags it was and they are worth every penny. They are so comfy that we don't want to leave the tent in the morning.

Gav here now. This morning as we were driving we came across a black bear and her cub. It was fantastic to see them so close up. We have been given bear warning information sheets which outline what to do when you come in contact with a bear. You should stay around 100 feet away if possible. Being the McKinley's we forgot/ignored the rules and turned the car around and set off after the bear and her cub up the forest track. Once again for all you fact fans out there a bear is potentially at it's angriest when with her cub. We happily sailed up to around 20 feet below the bears and watched them forage further up the slope. For any kids reading this blog, we are trained idiots and do not encourage chasing after any sharks or bears. It's dangerous. If you do so make sure you have a wife or something that you can use as a decoy so you can make your escape safely.

Hope you are all doing well.