Sunday, September 8th:
I left Vancouver in the morning. During the fly, I could see mountains crossing the clouds, it was gorgeous! I arrived to the airport of Cranbrook around 12, it is the smallest airport I've ever seen! But at least it's not very busy and it's quiet. I had lunch at the only restaurant of the airport.
Somebody was supposed to pick me up around 3, so I had the time to have a nap! I fell asleep on the chairs... When a cute guy with a cowboy hat was standing right in front of me "Agatha?" ooooh my gosh I felt sooo bad.. So ashamed to sleep like this, almost like a homeless person! And the guy was really cute. He carried my suitcase to the van, and I sat down into it and got acquainted with a friendly English girl, about my age. Surprisingly, I understood her very well !(on the contrary to Joe at Time Out Farms if you remember).
After a 15-minute ride we arrived to the ranch. I was sooo amazed! Nice grass, nice lodge, nice small houses... Well, I should say cabins, but so different from the ones of the cathedral lakes! Sooo cute wood cabins.. Like in my dreams :-). And inside my cabin... So cleaned, so perfect, with my own bathroom...with a bath :-) I was so glad to have a bath! I felt so dirty! My body which was quite painfull felt so good
Monday, September 9th :
I woke up at 8, then I had breakfast at 8:15. When I arrived to the main lodge, I didn't really know where to have a sit but then I saw an old guy sitting alone, I felt some pity for him so I came to his table. There was my favorite food for breakfast : pancakes! It wasn't so much fun to eat with this guy who was not very talkative, but it didn't matter.
At 9:15, we had an appointment near the stalls. I got acquainted with the horse I'm gonna ride the whole week: his name is Moe, he's not very tall, and he's dark bay, almost black. I got on the horse and with a group of four peole plus one wrangler, we left the ranch to go for a trail. We just walked. We walked for one hour, then got off the horses, the wrangler attached them to trees, and we had a break near a nice creek, with a small river and stones. I talked to the wrangler, and then we all talked together, it was really nice. Then we got on the horses again and walked for one more hour. For the whole trail we walked in a kind of forest, the paths were really narrow sometimes and very wet, there were even quite a few trees "lying" on the ground, but the horses didn't mind, just at the beginning, my horse stopped and backed up when I wanted to cross a paddle, and the lady behind me wasn't a very good horse rider and couldn't control her horse, so they passed me, but it was okay. I quickly showed Moe that I was the boss and I wanted him to listen to me, and then he was alright. In my group, there were Emily - the nice english lady who also is my neighboor - , karen and sue - two "ederlies", and the wrangler - Tailor, who is 19 -.
When we arrived to the ranch, it was time for lunch. I sat down to a table with Emily, it was much more fun than for breakfast! There was several dishes on the buffet, it was good! When we were eating, a wrangler (the son of the boss in fact) asked us who wanted to ride again this afternoon, and which kind of ride - just walk, or with trot -. Of course I said I wanted to ride again, and to do some trot. I was really glad that Emily did too.
So appointment at 1:15. We left with another wrangler, Rachel, and with five people, including Emily and me. The trail was just amazing! Nothing compared to the one we did in the morning! We didn't trot that much, but the landscapes were awesome, and sooo peacefull. At a time we crossed a river. The trail didn't last more than 2 hours. When Rachel asked what we thought of the trail, I answered it was amazing but too short. She said because it was the first day it was better not to ride for a too long time. I brushed my horse, then I got change, because in the morning it was quite chilly but it got warmer in the afternoon.
Then I wanted to go to the hot tub but there were some bugs in it so I changed my mind. I lied on a chair to relax, I was so happy to feel the sun again. Then a lady came, and I talked to her for such a long time! She was very friendly! Her name is Alison and she's from Scotland, that's funny because I noticed she had a accent, but firstly I thought it was a german accent! Then I had a hot bath, oooooh it's just so nice I think I'm gonna have a bath every day this week :-).
Then I went on the terasse with my tablet, when Emily went out. We talked together, and it was 6:15 so we went to the main lodge because we were hungry, and dinner is at 6:30. Many people were sitting at the bar, so we came to the bar. Emily started to talk to somebody, who talked then to me, and asked me where I come from.When I said "from France", she said "do you speak french?", I said "well of course, I'm french!". And then she started speaking french with a quebec accent, saying she lives in a town in ottawa where people speak french. She said she didn't understood when the day before I said my name is Agathe, because it's a French name, and she thought my English was too good to be French! She said I don't have a French accent. I was really glad when she said that but I'm sorry that to be honest it's not true, I definitely still have a French accent.... But maybe compared to other French people who usually speak English not very well, it's okay. Anyway it doesn't matter, I heard people saying that French accent is a sexy accent! I had a glass of wine, I had to, since I stayed at the bar!
Then we had dinner. I again sat down at Emily's table. The atmosphere was even better than it was for lunch! The lady sitting in front of me was very nice, and the one sitting on my left was Tailor, the wrangler from the morning. I forgot to tell you the cook cooked me a fish because I told her the day before I don't eat red meat! It was so sweet since there were still lots of dishes on the buffet, I didn't need a specific plate just for me! Anyway the fish was good!
I probably did several mistakes, sorry for that! I hope you understood what I told you. Or should I translate?
Love
