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Silverton Falls I had lunch back at a restaurant/diner located at the Johnston Canyon trailhead, and then headed a little further up the road to a less popular / short trail: Silverton Falls. By this time the sun was out too, and it was quite warm. Lots of ground squirrels about on the...

Johnston Creek Ink Pots From the upper falls, a longer and much less frequented trail continues to the "Ink Pots". I passed quite close to this fearless woodpecker, who didn't seem at all bothered by me. The tree was right next to the trail, and it was at about eye level: The view over the...

Johnston Canyon Apart from the smoke, one of the more slightly disappointing aspects of this trip was that due to it being peak season, car parks at trailheads were usually full and closed by mid-morning. This meant it wasn't really possible to visit any of the more popular stops in the...

So if the reason Tiger is switching to 737s is because of fleet simplification and saving maintenance costs (across VA as a group), how does VARA then taking on those Tiger A320s actually help? Maybe I'm missing something here, but if anyone has any insight (I've always assumed 737s/A320s have...

Oh wow, that's unlucky and horrible - I understand that attacks and deaths are fairly rare, but I was still a bit on edge in some places (particularly areas where the trail was dense and made lots of turns). I actually ended up making some clapping sounds as I was walking in a few places where...

Not that I remember - go on, tell us! :D I was warned it's important to take wind direction in to consideration, as people have sometimes had it just blow back in to their own faces! Also, a related news story - there was actually a bear attack in the area whilst I was visiting. A couple...

Kananaskis Country & Canmore The smoke was still hanging around on the second day, and was accompanied by cloud cover, so I decided to remain in the local area and not bother buying the daily park pass for entry in to the national park. The Grassi Lakes Trail is a short drive from Canmore, and...

Canmore The drive to Canmore was horrendous. In addition to it being the first time I've driven on the right, the smoke limited visibility quite a bit. Then at one point there was a period of intense rain where the fastest windscreen wiper setting still wasn't clearing water away. I couldn't...

They've been regularly flying PER-DRW and PER-ADL for quite some time now (as well as XCH/CCK). In fact it looks like they're fairly common on PER-KGI-MEL too. FlightRadar24 links: VH-FNP VH-VNJ VH-YUD

Wasn't necessarily negative comments - it's a market driven price, and people are prepared to pay for it. An airline would be stupid not to maximise the opportunity and add capacity / reap the benefits. I do feel for those who are caught out (non footy fans) who happen to need to travel this...

I noticed today that a VARA operated A320 is doing PER-MEL on Friday as VA686, presumably they're attempting to increase capacity to cash in on the footy final fares (economy currently going for the cheap cheap price of $851 one-way). Edit: Also MEL-PER as VA685 earlier in the day, and PER-MEL...

Calgary On my final full day before leaving for Canmore, I woke up at 4am to find my phone flashing with an alert. I've never seen this on my phone before - and wasn't from any app I had installed myself - the alert came from the OS. I could actually smell a hint of smoke from within my hotel...

Calgary I mostly spent the couple of days I had in Calgary walking around exploring, and caught up one evening with some friends. Prince's Island Park: A smoke hazed skyline from Prince's Island Park: Peace Bridge: Stephen Avenue Walk in Downtown Calgary: Wonderland Sculpture: Behind...

Calgary My room at The Hilton Garden Inn Calgary Downtown was a reasonable size, and had a comfy bed: Despite reading online that the East Village area of Calgary was new and filled with bars/restaurants, in reality it's all still under construction apart from a few completed apartment...

Just wanted to note here in case I was misunderstood that I wasn't complaining that I didn't receive an invite - I was just making an observation that I wasn't handed one like I've read in other reports. I really enjoyed all the first and business legs on this trip. It's not really in my nature...

The amenity kit provided on both my LHR-YYC and YVR-MEL flights included socks, eye mask, hand cream, lip balm, ear plugs, a glasses cloth, and a dental kit.

LHR-YYC Flight: AC851 Aircraft: 787-9 (C-FRSI) Seat: 2A (J) Departed: LHR 21/08/2018 13:18 (13 mins late) BST Arrived: YYC 21/08/2018 14:59 (4 mins late) MDT Duration: 8h 41m This flight was booked as a Star Alliance redemption using 65,000 KrisFlyer miles (transferred from Velocity). It cost...

London Heathrow Airport and Air Canada lounge I was feeling very apprehensive about this part of the trip - originally I was very enthusiastic about it, but I'd been following the conditions in Calgary and Banff, and it wasn't good news. Smoke haze from the bush fires in British Columbia had...

Novotel London Heathrow Airport T1 T2 and T3 Hotel I was dropped off the following night after the wedding at the rather long named "Novotel London Heathrow Airport T1 T2 and T3 Hotel". I was quite impressed with the hotel, again booked during an Accor Private Sale for GB£66.50, which at the...

UK My original plan when I booked the suites reward flight in 2017 was to visit somewhere in Europe (probably Barcelona) for a few days, rather than spend the entire two weeks in the UK. However monetary concerns (the insane accommodation prices I encountered when booking the Canada section -...