Wilpena shower

WE arrived in the Flinders Ranges just in time to see a little rain storm blow across the parched landscape towards Wilpena Pound.

When it hit Rawnsley Park Station, our accommodations for the next few nights, there was a heavy shower and the black clouds were gone as fast as they arrived.

@ Skillagalee

 @ Skillagalee, a winery in South Australia's Clare Valley.

Trip #2 (2012)

I'm back from Canada, so here are the next round of travel stats...

Flights - Six in 17 days

Kilometres flown - 27,836km including return flights from Melbourne to Sydney and Sydney to Vancouver, and a flight from Calgary to Kelowna and Kelowna to Vancouver

Total kilometres flown in 2012 - 40,348km

Hotels - Fairmont Pacific Rim (Vancouver), Chateau Jasper (Jasper), Delta Kananaskis Lodge (Kananaskis Country), Radisson (Canmore), Stonebridge Lodge (Big White), Snowbird Lodge (Silver Star), Shangri-La Hotel (Vancouver)

Total hotel sin 2012 - Nine

Countries visited - One, Canada

Total countries visited in 2012 - Two

New countries visited - Another big round donut

Hockey one, hockey two

I CONTINUED my education of North American sports tonight by attending an ice hockey game in Vernon.

I was talking sports with the guest services manager at Silver Star and he told me my visit to this part of British Columbia would be complete unless I saw the Vernon Vipers play a game at their home ground, so tonight we ventured down the hill for three periods of action on an arena of frozen water.

And it was good, very exciting, and so much better live than on television.

The Vernon team plays in the third level of competition - there are the pros in the NHL and a semi-pro circuit that nearby Kelowna plays in, and tonight I saw the boys aspiring to play professional ice hockey working towards getting drafted.

The highlight, and all-in brawl in the final minutes of the match when every player on the ice was involved in a fight.

And they weren't playing, punches were thrown and it took the umpired several minutes to break up the brawl and another long block of time working out all the penalties.

@ Silver Star

Sunset at Silver Star

Sunset at Silver Star, yet another BC ski resort, but my last one for this trip.

Puppy power

TODAY was one of those memorable days out on the road when I get to do something really special.

I am at Big White, the ski resort an hour above the BC city of Kelowna, and I spent the morning with a family of dogs that lives on the side of the hill during winter ready to take visitors on thrilling sled rides along some of the destination's long Nordic trails.

The dogs spend the winter living in simple kennels set in the snow in a quiet corner below the village, and the summer on the owner’s property in another part of BC where they romp in the lakes and run in the bush.

I knew I was in the right place long before I saw the sign above the entrance because the dogs make a lot of noise when they know it’s time for a run, and two sleds were ready to take myself another visitor on a ride through the white landscape.

The sledding experience begins by meeting each one of the animals, and because most are rescue dogs they really appreciate the attention, and while some were happy to laze on the snowy ground others were hiding in their boxes scared by the avalanche blasting that was happening up on the mountain.

After greeting each dog the owners selected 14 animals to pull the sleds, six on my vehicle and eight on the other which was a little larger and carrying more weight, and then wrestled them into place.

That was no easy task with the dogs barking and yelping, jumping and twisting with absolute excitement, and the rest of the pack adding to the chorus because they also wanted to be included in the fun.

The ride covered about 10km along a trail that followed the edge of the mountain, providing a view across the valley below, and we went really fast with the racing feet in front kicking the snow into pebbles that flew back and hit me in the face.

I was lucky enough to drive for a couple of kilometres and completely forgot about my surroundings because I had to pay careful attention to the team and make sure the line stayed tight and that no animal was doing any more work than another.

These dogs love to run, and don’t need a command to take off but start galloping as soon as the anchor  is lifted, and when it was time for me to stop driving and climb back into the sled for the dash home I stood on the brake with both feet and even then we were only just stopped.

What a wonderful experience, being with such beautiful animals when they are doing the one thing that makes them completely happy.

Fresh powder

EVERY skiers favourite sight, buckets of fresh powder falling on the place you're going to spend the next couple of days skiing.

I have moved again, and am now at Big White which is the mountain above Kelowna in the Canadian state of British Columbia, and the snow has been falling four hours and doesn't look like letting up anytime soon.

Bring on morning I say...

Olympic tracks

I GOT to slide in the tracks of Olympians today.

I spent the day skiing at Naniska, the alpine resort in Kananaskis Country built to host the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics' alpine events, and I navigated the same runs athletes from around the world covered on their way to winning gold, silver and bronze.

Skiing Olympic-class runs isn't as remarkable as it sounds, the slopes aren't so steep but long with sections where the hill drops away dramatically for a only few metres before leveling off again.

And it's even more demoralising to realise, after negotiating a steep section of an old Olympic course, that there's a team of kids zooming down the hill behind you and they don't look the least bit fazed while you're wondering just what your travel insurance covers.