Immigration is a massive journey and there is SO MUCH to think about and plan. From the day you make the decision to the time you get on the plane, your life is going to consist of one big check list! I’ve recently been looking back at our journey to Canada and when I think back, it really is incredible how much work it involved. Immigration is hard work and you have to put the hard work in to make it happen. To make your life a little easier, for those of you considering a move to Canada or who are already in the process, here’s a comprehensive list to help you along your way: Do your resear ..read more

For our second camping trip of 2021, we headed to Police Outpost. Located in the Police Outpost Provincial Park, it’s right on the border with Montana, so quite a drive down south from Calgary. It’s a lovely small camp site with nicely shaded sites. The whole camp site is only one loop so not too busy. The lake is just a short walk from the camp site, but it was rather gross thanks to lots of algae and leeches, so not that pleasant to swim in, but we still enjoyed some time by the water. It was super hot the weekend we were there, and thanks to the lake not being swimmable, we went in search ..read more

I’m so behind on sharing our camping stories and it seems a bit strange to be sharing these in the middle of winter, but I am dreaming of summer, and if you know how crazy the booking system is for camping in Canada, I’m sure you’re also starting to plan your summer camping trips already. So, I guess now may still be a good time to start talking about camping again! One of our favourite camping trips of 2021 was to Boulton Creek. It’s an awesome camp site in the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in Kananaskis, about 153km from Calgary. It’s a really beautiful drive through the mountains to get th ..read more

I am very excited to share that we added a big tick to our Canadian bucket list recently with a trip to Moraine Lake. Located close to Lake Louise, about 195km from Calgary, it’s an easy day trip from the city. But if you’re planning on going, I’d definitely suggest arranging the shuttle from one of the park and ride locations as the parking lot fills up quickly. So to avoid disappointment, you should definitely plan ahead. The road from Lake Louise to Moraine Lake also closes in the winter, so unless you’re up for an 11km walk, your best bet is to go in the summer. Few words can describe the ..read more

After a few false starts, thanks to our first two trips being cancelled, our summer 2021 camping season FINALLY began with a wonderful weekend with friends at Park Lake. Park Lake campsite is located in Park Lake Provincial Park, about 17km north of Lethbridge in southern Alberta. It’s a really lovely little campsite situated on the shores of Park Lake. There are treed sites that are suitable for both tents and RVs – it was nice to see a big variety of different tents and vehicles there and lots of families spending time together. It’s not a big campsite and we were in the A loop, with our sit ..read more

Andy and Marius moved to Toronto in November 2020. They braved the move during the height of the pandemic, but with a great attitude and determination, they have made the move look so easy. They have certainly made the most of this great adventure, grabbing every opportunity possible to explore Toronto and all the wonderful things the city has to offer. When did you move to Canada and what made you choose Toronto? We arrived in Canada on November 29th 2020. We opted for Toronto because: We already had friends there Toronto is the financial hub of Canada. I work in banking, and my partner work ..read more

This last week was one of our hardest since moving to Canada. We had to bid a sad farewell to our sweet kitty, Oliver. We brought Oliver with us from South Africa and he was an integral part of our immigration journey. When we first started thinking about emigrating to Canada, a big question we had was what to do with Oliver. Do we take him with us? Do we rehome him? It’s a big decision to make that comes with a lot of costs and logistics to organize. I was initially okay with rehoming him – I felt that we needed to do what was best for him and I wasn’t sure he would be happy in Canada with th ..read more

Summer is on the way and as things have warmed up and the days have gotten longer, we have had so much fun as a family exploring all the different bike paths around Calgary. There is such a great variety of walking and bike paths all over the city. In fact, with about 1000km of regional pathways and 96km of trails, Calgary has one of the most extensive urban walkway and bike path networks in North America. From city views to paths along the river and through parks and forests, you will never run out of places to explore in and around Calgary on your bike. There are dirt tracks for off-road cyc ..read more

We love taking random drives in and around Calgary. We haven’t had the best of luck when it comes to seeing the Canadian wildlife on these drives, but the beautiful Alberta scenery never disappoints. It is so diverse, from the towering Rocky Mountains to the flat plains, and rolling farmlands, there is always a beautiful image to behold. We recently discovered a little gem called the Foothills. It consists mostly of acreages and farms just to the south of Calgary. It’s really beautiful and we loved the winding roads and rolling hills. The area is also dotted with quant little towns, full of in ..read more

As we head into spring in Canada, I’ve been thinking back on all the wonderful adventures we enjoyed over the winter. With lockdowns and many things closed, we really had to make the most of the outdoors and the things we were allowed and able to do as a family. One thing we really enjoyed doing together in winter was ice skating. Our highlight of winter, and a memorable experience to tick off our Canadian bucket list, is most definitely skating on a frozen Lake Louise. We took a trip out to Lake Louise with our little family over the winter break and it was a really magical family time. Lake ..read more