A Journey Beyond

About the Book

In 1951, Erna Maria Pruckl and her husband Franz Josef, broke their ties with Austria and immigrated to Canada. For many months they traveled and explored the Rocky Mountains on horseback. They soon fell in love with the area and decided to settle and build a ranch in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Living in the wilderness and off the land they built a successfull big game hunting business in the Kakwa Lake area and raised their family on a horse and cattle ranch. With beautiful pictures of the area and of pioneer life combined with the extraordinary descriptions of the landscape, the early settlers and the joys and heartbreaks of this type of life she creates a unique and exciting adventure story. The author, through the eyes of a loving wife, shares the sometimes amusing, sometimes adventurous, but also sad experiences of this very different way of life.<p>
 
This true story reflects the hard work, the preserverance needed to carve a ranch from the wilderness and raise a family in this environment.

About the Author

The author is a Canadian who was born in Austria. She has a diploma in social work, is a registered 1st class big game outfitter, a rancher and an avid gardener and excellent cook. She left the world of her sheltered childhood, which was that of her beloved woodland district north of the Danube River and the Viennese milieu in which "I kiss your hand" and a curtsy were still a part of daily life to experience, at the side of her husband, Franz Josef Pruckl, a new world - the yet unchanged "wild west" of Canada.