Cool Facts About Canada

There are so many incredible facts about Canada. Here are just a few really cool things you likely didn’t know about the Great White North.

Canada has the world’s longest coastline

Did you know it would take you four-and-a-half years to walk the length of Canada’s coastline? And, it is bordered on three sides by three different oceans: the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific. This alone accounts for 202,080 of the world’s total 356,000 kilometres of oceanfront property.

Canada has 10 per cent of the world’s forests

Yes we have plenty of trees, but we also boast 30 per cent of the world’s boreal forest and 10 per cent of the world’s total forest cover. An incredible 396.9-million hectares of forest and other wooded land can be found across the country, and 68 per cent of that is coniferous.

Canada has the only walled city in North America

Quebec City is the only city north of Mexico that still has fortified walls, first built by the French and later the English between the 17th and the 19th centuries. Quebec’s entire historic district, including the ramparts, has since been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Canada has more oil than you think

Canada has an estimated 176.8 billion recoverable barrels of oil in Canada’s oil sands. Canada has about 70.8 per cent of the world’s oil, which is six times more than Russia.

Canada’s national parks are bigger than most countries

Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories not only has massive waterfalls, but it’s also an incredible 30,050 square kilometres—bigger than Albania and Israel. Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta and the Northwest Territories is even bigger at 44,807 square kilometres, which makes it bigger than Denmark and Switzerland.

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Reasons Why You Should go Backpacking Today

If the travel bug has hit and you’re starting to feel the itch to go somewhere, there’s no better way to scratch that itch than to go backpacking! Here are four of the many reasons why you should go backpacking today:

It’ll broaden your horizons. Backpacking will open your eyes to a set of experiences you never thought possible, and it’ll introduce you to places and people you never thought you’d see or meet.

It builds confidence. Backpacking can be a scary experience at times, especially when you’re going solo. But confronting those fears more often than not lead to incredibly rewarding experiences, and once you’ve conquered those fears you build a sense of confidence the likes of which you’ve never known before!

It offers a whole lot of flexibility. When you have just about everything you need on your back and no fixed schedule, there’s no limit to all the amazing places you can go and all the incredible things you can see. All it takes is a backpack and a sense of adventure, and the world is yours to discover.

You’ll make lifelong friends. Backpacking attracts a special breed of people, those who crave adventure and the unknown, and it’s those very same people you meet while backpacking that often become your best friends. You may not always be in the same part of the world, but the deep connections you make mean you’ll always keep in touch, no matter where you are.

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Adventure Book Suggestions to Get You Going

Some time ago adventurer Alastair Humphreys interviewed fellow adventurers and asked them about their favorite books in their particular field of expertise. When it came to walking adventures, Alastair chose to interview Leon McCarron, who walked across Mongolia, China, and the Empty Quarter Desert Here are Leon McCarron’s five favorite adventure books.

1. Clear Waters Rising – Nicholas Crane: A wonderfully British adventure – Nick Crane sets off across Europe on foot, following mountains all the way, and carrying little more than an umbrella by way of kit

2. Of Walking in Ice – Werner Herzog: I only recently got hold of this – it’s out of print – but if you imagine a Werner Herzog film put to text (about him walking across the Alps in Winter to visit a dying mentor) then you can imagine what’s going on. Mental and brilliant.

3. Wanderlust – a history of Walking – Rebecca Solnit: A bit heavy going at times (for those of us not used to academic texts) but mostly it is an enjoyable and ridiculously well research compendium of walking

4. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien: I read this when I was a kid, and it’s responsible for my initial desires to walk long distances. Dissapointingly I’mve yet to do a trip with a horde of dwarves or elves’¦.

5. A Time of Gifts – Patrick Leigh Fermor: I didn’t want to put this in (it seemed far too obvious – I wanted to put in the slightly obscure journals of Lewis and Clark as they crossed America) but any walking list without Fermor is incomplete – probably the most poetic and wanderlust-enducing book ever written about walking.

Looking for an adventure? Visit our online library at www.voxency.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more, accessible anytime from your favorite devices and sure to get you going!

The Importance of Adventure in Our Daily Lives

Adventures can be anything from fun to frightening, unpredictable to out of the ordinary, and oh so worthwhile on so many different levels! We could all do with a bit more adventure on a regular basis, and here are just four of the many reasons why adventure is important in our everyday lives.

Change is good. The right adventure can take you out of your circumstances, and indeed, take you out of yourself. Adventure broadens your horizons, increases your awareness of the world around you, and inevitably leads to change, which can be a very good thing indeed.

The fun factor. We’re not saying there’s anything wrong with routine, but adventure can spice things up a bit and more often than not leads to a whole lot of fun, making everything seem just a little bit more worthwhile.

Adventure leads to personal growth. It’s through the tough and challenging times that we build strength and character, and it’s not just a matter of survival skills. The right adventure can help us not just survive but thrive in any situation.

It brings a sense of accomplishment. An adventure can be an achievement; a mountain to climb, a river to cross, a country to travel, or an obstacle to overcome. That feeling of accomplishment can be nothing short of euphoric in and of itself.

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