We finally boarded the ship for a 4pm sail-away, only to discover that a nasty storm was passing through and we would remain in port! Could have spent another hour at the Museum after all !! Shortly there-after, we were advised that due to to our safety we would not be visiting our first port of call [Saguenay] and would remain in Quebec City. All good, safety first, but my goodness was it cold. We took ourselves on anther walk, but decided that in the interests of freezing, it was back to the ship for coffee and pastries to warm our souls!!

We had one day at sea [trying to imprint the ship to our memories [bit like the Salmon!!] before landing in Sydney, Nova Scotia. We only had six hours here, so we just did out own walking tour, took in the beautiful parks, church’s and all the halloween decorations that were around town. Unfortunately the rain set in, and because it was sooooooo cold we returned to the ship. Had to allow extra time for getting on / of the ship as it was by tender.

Next morning we were in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Again we just did our own walking tour, saw some incredible art [old and new] gorgeous old homes, visited the historic church and graveyard before returning to the ship to warm up!!

This returning to the ship to warm up has become a theme on this trip. There are so many people who have done nothing but complain about the cold and how it is the worst weather ever!!!!! We are a couple of weeks late [well not late, but the early snow took the leaves of the trees earlier than usual] for the spectacular fall colours, but as we sailed away from Halifax the sun came out giving it a warm gold colour [but it was still freezing!] across the trees to the horizon. I also loved seeing all the lighthouses dotted around the coastline as we sailed on by.

Our next port of call [and the last one in Canada] was Saint John, New Brunswick. It is in the Bay of Fundy and again is rich in history. We booked a trolley bus tour here, so as to make the best use of our time. These tours always just give you that little bit more information and this one had a stop at the incredible ‘Reversing Rapids’.

Here in Saint John the tide rises and falls an average of 30ft each day [but can be up to 50 ft]. The tides rises a foot a minute and they estimate a 100 billion tons of water rush in and out of the bay from the Atlantic Ocean. We went to the rapids two hours after low tide and watched the rapids fall from the river head, toward the ocean. At nearly high tide, for 20 minutes, the tide and the river are equal and create a lake. This is the time when ships can traverse the ‘rapids’. Then the tide over-runs the river and the rapids flow the other way! (Apparently there is a time-lapse video of this on YouTube – of course there is!)

The phenomenon happens because of rising sea levels and the riverbed being eroded by the river/sea. There used to be a waterfall here (3,000 years ago) but with the powerful water movement, and the eroding of the land, eventually the waterfall ‘drowned’, creating the reversing rapids. This apparently is climate change happening over the past 3,000 years – so ‘humans’ have not been responsible for all the damage happening to the planet …… hmmmmm!!

Our tour guide had told us that she had no idea how much 100 billion tons water was, she couldn’t imagine it [and neither could I] so when she learned it is enough water to fill the Grand Canyon with each high tide, she went there to see it. So we have been to the Grand Canyon and done a fly over…so we able to visualise this. I am sure that here you would only swim on the incoming tide [like the Salmon]!!

St John has a lot of history [and wars, and fires!]. After the great fire [when all the timber houses burnt to the ground] the ‘powers-that-be’ declared that they must build all their buildings in stone. They then used all the wood for the ships, so then it became a shipbuilding centre. The buildings are all so interesting and have been standing a long time – such rich and fabulous history in Saint John.

And I loved all the doors on their homes 😍

So working on part 3!

After what seemed like the whole day travelling [and a time zone change] from Calgary to Quebec, we checked into a hotel close to the airport, and then the next morning transferred into Quebec City.

We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast which had mixed reviews, but its location was perfect. As it turned out it was just fine, a bit old and worn on the edges, but fine. The owner was a bit brusque, but I think that was more a ‘lost in translation’ thing than actually rude [like some of the comments had been]. We arrived hours before check-in, but he very kindly stored our luggage, gave us a map and advice for our own walking tour.

We headed on out into the freezing temperatures, suitably rugged up and hoping it wouldn’t snow. Quebec City is a French speaking city, but it [Quebec] is actually a word from the First Nations’s people. But the city itself does however have a French history and that is apparent everywhere. With the old buildings, the cobbled streets and French being the local language.

We walked up and down, along and down, upstairs, downstairs, along boardwalks and up the Funicular – it [the Funicular] wasn’t worth it! [A funicular is a small cable car that transports you up a hill, for those of you who didn’t know!!] $3.50CAD each for a 30 second ride … a genuine tourist trap, especially if you are fit and able!! After walking the gorgeous Skye for a month we are certainly fit and able.

Everywhere we walked there were charming streets, gorgeous buildings and statues and waterfalls on every corner and in every park. For those of you who have been following along on this journey, you will know that I love them so my appetite for sculptures has been sated for a while [just a bit!]. From the ships maiden head to the fountains, busts and famous people, halloween figures and more modern sculpture, there is art a plenty. And then there are the incredible murals to be found inside the city’s walls. All just fabulous.

As we walked along the promenade boardwalk and climbed the many stairs [no Funicular here!] we found ourselves at the famous Citadele fortifications [which was having huge reconstruction undertaken – actually there was a lot of reconstruction happening across the city in general]. The huge battlefields, cannons and the Plains of Abraham are full of such ancient history. Battles and Wars from a time gone by. Lives lost, battles lost, borders lost leaving a city that is now a UNESCO World Heritage site that attracts 4.4 million visitors a year. That is the population of New Zealand traipsing through a city the size of maybe … Napier?!?

We visited the Houses of Parliament which are located in a beautiful building built in the lates 1800’s. There are several statues here, but I loved the ones of the women in politics – a tribute to those that demanded that women be given the right to vote. It is good to know that little old New Zealand led the charge on this front, being the first country in the world to give women the vote. There had been a film shoot over the previous couple of days [as Parliament isn’t sitting] and it had a ‘crib’ in one chamber and a hospital bed in the other – the guide very dryly noted that having a job in parliament is from the cradle to the grave!!

Across from the Parliament building is the Tourny Fountain – we saw it each day we were in the city – the first day we stopped as it was so impressive with all its Angels and fountain heads and the second day we stopped again because it had frozen!!!

I tell you it was sooooooo cold in Quebec City and seeing the fountain frozen just proved how cold it was. From here we visited the Plains of Abraham Museum and learnt of the battles from the mid 1700’s to the siege of Quebec. The uniforms and guns that they wore back then were so heavy, it is a wonder that anyone actually shot anything or anyone!

Because we knew that we had one more day in the city once we checked-in on the ship, we left the ‘civilisation’ museum and the Montmorency Falls till we had boarded. Our first night on the ship was in Port, and it gave us great views of the city by night. It was lightly snowing when went to bed, but nothing that really was going to stop us exploring, and we even rugged up and watched a movie on the deck under the stars.

After a lazy start to the day we went to the Museum of Civilisation – we really needed more time here [hmmm perhaps shouldn’t have been so lazy!] A really interesting Museum that had showcases of different societies and eras across Quebec’s history. Most of it is relatable to history in general – we could have done with another hour here! I especially loved the shoes exhibit, but the most fascinating was the incredible exhibition where they asked people to send in their pictures so that could put face recognition to the test, but they were going to try it on 2,000 year old sculptures and works of art.

Over 100,000 people [from all over the world] sent in their pictures to see if they had a doppelgänger from the past. The results were incredible and of the 25 selected, there was a strikingly spooky resemblance to their ‘doppelgänger’ from the past. I will put a couple here for you to see, because I found it totally fascinating.

Dionysus vs Antoine

Greek mythology god 1250 BC vs Montreal Child 2016 AD

A God vs a Child

Demosthenes vs Jean Potvin

Politician vs Painter

Athens Greece 384 BC vs Quebec City 1947 AD

Oratory Art vs Painter

Gave speeches with pebbles in his mouth vs doesn’t mince his words

And I don’t know the details of this one…forgot to take a picture of the details!

So that is part one … stand by for part 2!

So I have learnt that the badlands are aptly named as ‘the land is bad’! But more importantly I learnt that we have some in NZ, with Hoo Doos! 😲 They are called the Putangirua in Wellington area. Who knew!! Funny that we had to come all the way to Alberta, Canada to learn that 😁

We drove to Drumheller on a very secondary route which took 3.5 hours – more barns, wide open picturesque prairies and oil pumps. It is such a vast open view, that really is more sky than land. We have again been blessed with the most amazing weather, and although it is cold in the mornings, it does get to a balmy 14 during the day 😊 As the sun sets, there is this incredible colour in the sky that just makes everything look warm! and the land basks in an incredible ‘orange glow’. I am in love with Alberta, and would come here again in a heart-beat 💓

This was the view from our room, and there is ice floating down this river!!! We can see the worlds largest dinosaur from here as well. You can climb up to the top for $6CAD, but we never quite fitted that in. We could see [him] from the Travelodge where we stayed, and he looked quite cool as the sun set on him.

We were recommended to visit the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur museum (thanks Mira x), so headed out there on a chilly, but sunny morning. We spent 5 hours here learning about dinosaurs and the different ‘ages’ the planet has gone through. We are merely a blip in this universe … “species come and species go, the only constant in life is change”. 95% of all species that have existed are now extinct 😲

We all know about dinosaurs, and understand that they roamed this great planet a long time ago, but when you visit this area and you are saturated in everything ‘dinosaur’, it somehow makes it a bit more real. People have ‘dinosaurs’ in their gardens, and some of the streets are named after dinosaurs. How cool to be living on Tyrannosaurus Rex Drive 😁

The Badlands, Drumheller has been so fascinating that we stayed an extra night. The valley in the prairies has so much to offer and we wanted to do as much as possible. Again, because of the timing of this visit, some places were closed but we still managed to see and do a lot of things!

We decided to drive the dinosaur trail which took us to some historic sites, including the worlds smallest church – seats six! What a cute church, that is never locked and seemingly never vandalised. Colin shared a few words – I think they were about love and being married 30 years, but I could be mistaken – he did ramble a bit 😂. As you can see we had the most glorious weather. I wonder if they need an Event Co-ordinator?

We decided to do the small hike through Horse Thief Canyon. You can just image the rustlers herding the horses and hiding them in here. The landscape is like a mini ‘Grand Canyon’, although not as vast or as deep. The mud [degraded volcanic ash] when it is dry is sort of like popcorn in flat sheets, and we have been told when it is wet it is slippery and greasy. You can smell the sulphurs from the volcanic makeup of the place. Even though it was dry, it was still slippy underfoot from the shale sitting on the surface.

While we didn’t see any horses here, we did see a wee prairie dog. They are really quite cute, and this wee guy actually let me get quite close before he disappeared into a burrow. There were burrows everywhere, leaving holes on the ground that you could break a leg in if you weren’t watching where you were going.

We carried on the dinosaur trail, and took the ferry across the Bow River (we had been to Bow Lake / River in the Rockies – it has come a long way). This ferry trip took two minutes to load the car, three minutes to cross the river and 15 minutes of chatting the the ‘ ferry captain’, he did everything at his pace and was absolutely in charge of how long he thought you should take 😆. The ferry is closed over winter as the river freezes. It already had ice in it while we were there.

We picked up the trail on the other side and headed towards the Hoo Doos, stopping in town for lunch on the way. The supermarkets here have the most amazing range of ready made food [and usually somewhere to sit]. At the moment there are pumpkins everywhere – I love all this madness with Halloween 🎃 [hmmmm, not so sure about the door-knocking though!]

All along the way, for as far as you can see are fields of gold … with old barns and oil wells! Spot Colin taking a closer look 👀 😂

We visited the suspension bridge across the Bow River – this historic crossing took miners across to the coal mine in years gone by. The actually crossing was in a basket type arrangement, but they recreated it so people could enjoy the crossing and go hiking to the mine on the other side [closed for the season!]. And best of all it was free!! As we crossed the bridge a chilly wind blew and IT WAS FREEZING ❄️

We carried on to visit the Hoo Doos – I just love these ‘structures’ that the environs create – wind, rain, snow and sun over long periods of time. I really want to be here where the sun comes up, or the sun sets BUT with a fabulous camera. [And even more so now that we stayed in a motel last night that had wicked large pictures on the wall]. And now I will have to put Wellington on my to do list, and see the Hoo Doos at home.

Next on the historic trail was a visit to Wayne, over 11 bridges – they were fairly unremarkable, but hey it was a nice 6km drive through the valley. You might notice in some of the photos that the sky isn’t blue! It depends on where you are and whether or not the harvest is close – the dust [from the harvest] gives the photos an overcast look.

So as we left Drumheller, we headed across the Prairies towards Calgary. It is only 1.5 drive, so reasonably close. We passed many more fields with gorgeous falling down barns [there are very nice new barns everywhere – mostly a brown/red colour with white trim], cattle grazing on the harvested fields and of course more oil pumps. We also drove through the ‘Wheatlands’. These fields were just so beautiful – ever colour of honey you can imagine. From the ‘clover coloured fields’ [cut and dried] to the rich golden amber fields that are still to be harvested. The farmers all working like mad well into each evening to get it all done. They are a bit behind as they had a early snowfall a few weeks ago, and needed everything to dry out.

As the sun sets on this part of our trip [the moon was incredible, but alas this is as good as the phone will take!], we leave here hoping to return. For now we are flying to Quebec City, before picking up our cruise to Fort Lauderdale (14 days). Another amazing adventure awaits, and we shall be sure to share it with you as soon as we can.

Ps: We visited Gasoline Alley in Calgary [only thing we did!], and took the latest photos for Petrolhead! (All the pictures for Gasoline Alley are on Facebook, because well, they just are!!). This was a fabulous collection of historic gas pumps and restored cars/trucks.

pps: so I wrote this yesterday while travelling, and edited it this morning before posting – I know along the way that there have been some spelling errors [sometimes because I had a ‘lag’ between the mobile [pictures] and the tablet uploading or crappy internet?!?], and they drive me nuts!!! But it drives me more nuts that Colin reads it before I post to check for spelling mistakes!!! You just can’t get good help!! 😂 😝

[I did see that Nadia Lim’s new cookbook has a fly in it …. that is much worse 😜]

After our incredible hike around the Five Lakes with the most stunning scenery, we took the long drive to Edmonton. This first hour and a half was okay as we transitioned from the hills to the prairies…the next two hours of the prairies were fairly tiresome [it is the end of the canola harvest, so we missed the yellow fields]. The long straight roads were a bit boring on this side of Alberta, although we did see a lot of the oil pumps working. We finally arrived to meet our friends [Mira and Alex] at The Royal Glenora Club where they are members. It was so lovely to see them again, and we were glad we had made the effort to visit them. We had dinner with them at the club and socialised with their tennis friends. They thought it was amazing we had come to Edmonton to visit them 😉

Alex is mad on tennis, and this is how we met them early last year. They came to Auckland to the World Masters Games and stayed with us via AirBnB. We had an easy relationship with them and decided we were too close not to visit. After a couple of emails trying to connect, we were able to work our road trip through the Rockies and stay with them. We had thought two, possibly three nights but ended up staying four, as they were so welcoming and seemingly happy to have us!

We went to the Royal Alberta Museum the next day and spent hours here learning about the history. It was one of the best museums we have been to so far. From the dinosaurs, to the First Nation people, to the diverse economics (oil, gas, canola oil) of the area today we really enjoyed this fabulous museum.

Mira and Alex very generously took us to their cottage at Lac Sante, a short 1.5 hour drive from Edmonton, although we took the long way as they took us through Elk Island Sanctuary [which has bison]. The animal gods weren’t playing nice with us, so we only saw a few in the distance, so onwards to the Lake.

We had seen so many ‘barns’ that were falling down along the way and Mira explained that they are part of the historical heritage of the area and they can’t be knocked down. We came across a cluster of them and stopped to explore. Colin of course climbed up into them [how did he know they weren’t about to fall down!!]. They are actually quite beautiful, and I have now taken lots of photos of ‘barns’.

Where we stopped there was also an old house – it was a ruin. It is being returned to the earth so to speak, but we had a poke about, found an old newspaper from 1972 (figuring that is about when it was abandoned?!?). All the windows had been smashed, so the birds and other animals had made the most of the dry space. The floor was in surprisingly in quite good condition, but the porch was almost fallen down.

Once we arrived at their cottage, we had a casual lunch [left overs from Alex’s birthday dinner the night before] then Colin and Alex went for an explore on the quad bike, and Mira and I went for a walk to/around part of Lake Sante.

It is in the Two Hills area [North Alberta] and most people are shutting up their properties for the winter, as the lake freezes. Because they had snow here a couple of weeks ago, we missed the fall colours, but the leaf litter was crunchy beneath our feet and had tinges of colour left, and it was so peaceful. We saw flocks of Canada Geese and Snow Geese as they start their migratory path. With blue skies [but a chilly wind blowing of the lake] it was just so lovely. We saw a couple of beaver dens – man these guys cut down some big trees!! I was super impressed!

Colin went quadding and explored down to the river, around the lake, across farms but never found that elusive bear! [Just as well, as Mira and I had the bear spray!!!).

Mira [who is an amazing host] cooked a wonderful dinner and we enjoyed sharing travel stories and a movie with them while we waited for the night sky to grace us with its presence. While it was beautiful, we were actually hoping for some northern lights, but alas these didn’t appear.

After breakfast the next morning Alex took us out in his small ‘tin-tub’ and we had a gorgeous trip around some of the lake. On the opposite side to where we launched is a holiday community [think campground, but not tents!] so we headed over to their beach and had a walk around before exploring some more of the lake and seeing more [and bigger] beaver dens, muskrats and flocks of geese on their travels.

After a late lunch we headed back to Edmonton, via the Elk Island Park in the hope that those animals would grace us with their presence. Well we were in luck – huge bison sauntered down the road as dusk, and we also saw a lone coyote making his way along the edge of the bush. But the bison took centre stage – they are such huge animals, and you can hear them huff and puff as they walk along. Just the best experience. We did see them in a farm setting on the way to the park, but the park was just fabulous.

The next morning Mira took us to the West Edmonton Mall – it used to be the biggest mall in the world!! Apart from the shops [800 of them!!] there is a waterworld, ice rink, theme park, minigolf, shooting range, marine land complete with seal show and a petting zoo. This took two hours just to do the tour …… just amazing.

So after a late afternoon lunch, we packed up our things, said our goodbyes and headed to the Badlands in Drumheller. Who has heard of the Badlands? Not me! Will let you know what we discover in a few days. Chow for now 😊

Driving along highway 🇨🇦 93 to the Columbia Icefields was incredible. We have the most perfect weather and I took so many photos! It truly is the most amazing place. At every turn in the road there is another amazing view, incredible lake or glacier.

The visitor centre is a huge place, with hundreds of people booking/checking in to go on glacier tours overland, by air, on the ice-truck or on the skywalk. We just had our lunch, took in the amazing vistas and left them all to it. So many people come on days trips up here – I am so glad we are doing this at our own place.

The next place we stopped (just 7km along the road!) was Tangle Creek Falls. This photo doesn’t do them any justice!! They were spectacular and extra pretty with the snow. We didn’t scramble up the rocky-face, as I had already fallen over once and wasn’t going to risk twice! We had been recommended to get crampons (but we thought we wouldn’t need them!). They must be just amazing when ‘the melt’ starts. Colin of course wants to look for gold in every river we stop at and this one was no different 😂

Sunwapta Falls is next on our ‘must stop at’ list and they didn’t disappoint. Such a calm looking river at the end of summer and then after a short walk you come across these amazing falls that are wild and force themselves through a rocky gorge. There was a lot of ice here on the ground, and there were a few lunatics who climbed over the fence for a better photo 😲. There was no room for error doing this, one wrong step and it’s ‘final curtain’ for you!! Absolute madness!!

About 20 minutes along the road we came across Athabasca Falls. People have died here! The are so gorgeous and flow into the river so calmly after their perilously journey through the limestone rocks. We watched this one for quite a while, as it had no ground ice so we were quite comfortable walking around.

It was getting late in the afternoon when we were here, and it says that the water flow is less at the end of the day, and of course we are at the end of ‘the melt’ season. Again there were mad people who risked their lives to takes pictures where fences were, to stand on canter-levered pieces of rock [that could fall at any minute!!!]. I mean I am all about a great photo, but I want to be able to share it with you, so rest assured that I will not be taking any risks – I want to be sure to finish this trip!!

So six hours after we started we made it to Jasper. We stayed in this olde-world style accommodation that was from last century – literally! It was clean and comfortable, but it can only be said it was a style all of its own! [It wasn’t bad, but just so old school – I mean, they had patchy internet]. We had dinner in the pub downstairs and walked along the road to take some photos of the sun setting – it was just so beautiful.

The snowy mountains soaked up the sun and just shone in the cloudy sky. I loved that the train slowly rumbled through. The absolute beauty of the sky shining on these huge mountains was just so incredible and as the sun slipped from the sky we were just amazed at the colours nature threw at us. 💖

The next morning we decided that as the weather was so extraordinary, we would do the Five Lakes Hike before heading on over to Edmonton. This was the most gob-smacking beautiful hike, and the lakes were just incredible. Every one had it’s own specialness, and I just loved being here. I will let the next few photos ‘do the talking’ …………

So as you can see they were just fantastic. It was quite warm and the crisp clear skies gave us beautiful mountains, the clear waters gave us amazing reflections. Every lake was gorgeous. We didn’t see any bears, which was just fine by me as we didn’t have any bear spray. We did see squirrels and chipmunks all busily gathering their nuts for winter 🐿

So that is us in The Rockies – they were incredible. We have a few days in Edmonton, so will be back in touch soon xox

Dear Diary, we are in the Canadian Rockies and it is everything you have every imagined and more. It is majestic, spell-binding, awe-inspiring and vast. The huge snow-capped craggy ‘rocks’ stretch as far as you eyes can see. They say that you sometimes have the best view in the mirror – and this is totally true. I know we have seen snow before, but when it falls and you are in it, in a gorgeous place you can’t help but oooh and aaarrrh ❄️ 🌞. The temperatures have gone from -6 to 20 over a few days, and we have had the most spectacular weather – sun, blue skies and a bit of snow to create the magic 💖

When we arrived at Lake Louise, it had been snowing for an hour or so, and everything looked so beautiful. The sun was trying to come out again and man it got cold quick! Even the small waterfalls along the road side were frozen.

It was busy at Lake Louise – I can see why everyone wants to visit here [or get married here, although I did wonder what the bride was thinking having her photos taken in a summer dress, in a winter climate (maybe she wasn’t expecting snow!). Her attendants put her jacket on in between pictures or snow boots out for her to walk in, they got her heels out for her to pose in 😂 ]. The lake when the sun’s out is a magnificent turquoise colour. There were a lot of people at the Chateau end, so we walked to the far end of the Lake (4km return), where it was less populated and Colin couldn’t help himself making a snow angel.

We stayed at the Lake Louise Inn and just as we were thinking of heading out for dinner, the whole of Lake Louise had a power cut! Hmmm, Colin says “don’t worry they’ll have emergency generators” … as it turns out they don’t! So the staff very quickly got their gazebo up and running with a BBQ, bar and a huge roaring fire pit – it was still freezing! We had a simple burger and fruit, and talked with a couple of guys from the UK, who were in Canada on a photographic essay. Had a laugh with them, and of course invited them to NZ to stay!!

After a lazy start to the morning and a late breakfast, we headed to Banff! I had only just said to Colin the night before, “I wonder if the car will show minus or does it just get to ‘0’ “. It showed the minus the temperatures very well 😂

The drive to Banff was lovely, and of course around every corner is another wonderful vista of huge mountains covered in snow, with blue skies completing the picture. Banff is a gorgeous place, a town that is similar to Queenstown … heaving with visitors, lots of tourist shops and a heap of eateries. We went to the oldest pub in Banff, the Rose and Crown and had soup to warm us up.

We had noticed on the highways that they have created all these over and/or under highways for the wildlife. I love that they have done this. I mean we put a huge road through their territory and then run them over all the time!! So now there are these passes all along the highway [and it is fenced], and if you are lucky enough you will see the wildlife.

While in Banff we visited the Cave & Basin National Historic Site [which is the first site and the beginning of Canada’s National Parks], and the first thing you notice is the smell of sulphur. The thermal pools, the smell and the therapeutic qualities of this place immediately reminded me on Rotorua. This pool is historically significant to the indigenous people, but more importantly a tincy tiny snails. You are not allowed to touch the water for fear that if everyone did, it would upset the delicate balance of the minerals [Colin!!!!!! 😆]

We drove back to Lake Louise on the secondary road so we could visit Castle Mountain – it was closed! We seem to be a couple of weeks late for a lot of things, including the fall colours across the Rockies. This is Castle Mountain from the highway.

As we left Lake Louise [heading towards Jasper] we had only driven 5km when we came across Herbert Lake, which gave us our first taste of how wonderful this trip was going to be. There was still snow on the ground here and it had turned icy, and I slipped on it! So not only am I travelling with a horrible head cold, I tried to give myself concussion 🤭 Colin is now on driving, just to be safe!!

It was to be the first of many stops, making a 3 hour drive, take 6 hours. I mean the plan was to stop as often as we wanted and because the weather was so kind to us it was very often. You probably need to drive both ways, as I am sure it looks totally different heading south again.

Crow foot glacier is meant to be the shape of a crow’s foot, but that was a bit much for me. There were plenty of crow’s in the car park claiming their name to fame! The lake was amazing and were we blessed with the most perfect time to catch the reflection of the mountains. It was beyond gorgeous and we have 300km to go! I made a pact with myself to only get my camera out every 5km!!

I can hardly believe I am driving through the famous Rockies …. and it is every bit as spectacular as you have been lead to believe.

… so that is part one, you can see that there was far tooooo much for this to be one entry into my diary!! Part 2 will follow as time permits!

We left Vancouver on a beautiful day and headed out to the west and up along the Howe Sound inlet. It wasn’t long before we came across the Britannia Mine, which used to be the biggest copper mine. It is just a tourist attraction now, and they are trying to preserve the huge old building which was precariously built of the side of a mountain. You go on a small train trip, into the mine a short way and try to imagine how life would have been as a miner! Cold, wet and dirty!! And dangerous!

From there we headed towards Whistler, stopping only at Brandywine Falls. Just a short walk from the road and you come across these spectacular falls. They are 70m in height and are really very beautiful and because of their power they have created a cavern, so you can hear them before you see them.

We have made a decision to only stop once a day for waterfalls, or we are not going to get anywhere. We have also decided not to do anymore Gondola or suspension bridges!! There is only so many you can do and every corner you go around there is another spectacular view, lookout, lake, waterfall or mountain with snow on it. We have a lot of road to travel, so just need to keep going.

This is us alongside Duffey Lake, we met a couple there from Mexico and what we are doing in a week, they are doing in 4 days! I am not sure I am committed to that level of driving.

Whistler is gorgeous, but really a ski / hiking town. Well we weren’t skiing, mountain biking, bungy jumping, golfing, RV tours, heli tours, gondola riding, stand-up paddle-boarding or white water rafting!!! So we only spent one night here and continued on the sea-to-sky highway up to Pemberton, Duffey Lake, Lillioot, Cache Creek before finally arriving in Kamloops.

Colin sitting on the Olympic Rings in Whistler village

The next day we stopped at Nairn Falls. These were a short walk from the road, along a reasonable track [just a bit bumpy and lumpy in places]. Again we could hear them before we could see them. The water comes through a gorge and falls into a pool which has created a whirlpool, which in turn has carved out the rock, so the water goes under a bridge and comes up in the next pool before creating another waterfall leading out to Green River. We only saw a couple of people, so it was great to have the place to ourselves, so to speak.

We found a cheap and cheerful place to stay in Kamloops and then headed into town to the art gallery … its current installation was clearly beyond both of us and 15mins later we left! I know art is subjective, but this was just to ‘spatial’ for us. We ended up at the Frick and Frack for dinner and an early night.

After leaving Kamloops, we drove through Sicamous to Revelstoke. Sicamous is famous for it house boats, and we chatted to a local while we were stretching our legs and he told us that there is 1200km of coastal lake waters to explore on Lake Shuswap. It is a big business, with boats catering up to 24 people. They have a floating restaurant / supermarket you can call into if you don’t feel like cooking, or need extra supplies. Looks like this would be a fabulous adventure. They have just closed up for the season.

Revelstoke is a small city in British Columbia. Quite a pretty town, we had a walk around town along part of the River and then up to the dam. There was a forestry museum here but alas it was closed. Actually we have found that a lot of places are closed. It seems to be they close in October until the spring, or just to have a break before the madness of the ski season starts. There have been several places on our ‘to-do’ list that have been closed!

The trip has been quite reasonable so far, the roads not too busy, although we did encounter 50km of road works on our way to Lake Louise [as we crossed through Glacier National Park]. We are hoping that the weather holds up for the next 10 days or so … it did start snowing driving through ‘Kicking Horse Pass’, and continued as we drove through to Lake Louise yesterday.

See you in Jasper ❄️ ⛰ 🌞

So our time in Vancouver has come to an end. We have had a great time here, although perhaps [as I mentioned before] it was a bit long. Skye is the most adorable dog with a beautiful nature, we have loved looking after her. We have walked at least a 1000 miles, and explored North Vancouver [where ‘our’ apartment is] up and down, in and out and back and forward!!

Although our photos don’t do justice to the night view, it is spectacular at night, wonderful by day (when it’s sunny!), moody with the fog and like everywhere else … miserable when it is raining. We have had a few rainy day, but they have been great for planning and we have certainly organised ourselves for the next wee while 😊

There are so many beautiful bush walks that we have done, been on the Spirit Trail many times and have been up and down in the lift to the 20th floor hundreds of times! ‘Our’ apartment here is beautiful, and has a gorgeous outlook over to downtown Vancouver, out to the east [we can actually see Mt Baker from here – it is in the USA!] and west to Lions Gate bridge. We wander down to catch the ferry, or catch a bus. Everything has been easy here, and we have loved been on the North Shore – it felt like home 🏡

Over the last few days we have been to Cypress Creek, Granville Island and we were meant to go to the Fall parade, but it was cancelled due to the inclement weather!

Cypress Creek, was an hours bus ride and then a 3km hike through some pretty spectacular forest [more than 300+ year old Cypress! trees], and yet more waterfalls. It was up hill and down dale, so while 3km doesn’t sound far … it was pretty intrepid. Colin did decided that he might pan for gold, but the water was freezing, so that thought lasted less than a minute 😂

Cypress Creek is West of Vancouver, and the housing out there was beautiful. Beautiful properties with gorgeous settings and prices well into the millions!! They do however have to contend with a bit more wildlife out there and at this time of the year they ask residents to take any fruit left of trees down, so as not to encourage bears trying to fatten themselves up for the winter.

Last Friday night we went to the Lonsdale Quay markets which was the last one for the season. We had dinner and a beer and soaked up the local atmosphere. The band playing was pretty good, although the only ones dancing were the kids! I was queueing for a beer under the mighty crane and took this pic looking up through it … it was a bit rusty in places!!

Granville Island was another of our stops, and it is a great place to visit. The food markets are wonderful and it reminded me of the markets in San Fran …

On Granville Island are the cement works and they created this art project on the giant silos … they are very cool and then there is this building – can you believe it! It really looks like this, but not this bad from the other angle!!! I am thinking that the Engineers that designed this, should have to live in it!! There was lots of quirky art around, and I am thinking that Colin could do this!

So that’s us for now. As you read this we will be driving to Whistler, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Edmonton, and Calgary. I am hoping that it won’t snow much! Maybe just enough to make it look pretty ❄️

And it is sooooo pretty! Red, red leaves and green, green grass ❤️ [and some rain ☔] Of course there are lots of yellow, oranges and pinks and a TON of leaves everywhere. They have these really cool BOBCAT blowers which make short work of the cleanup!

We decided to visit Chinatown and the Chinese Gardens. The Dr Sun Yat-Sen gardens were underwhelming and so was Chinatown. Maybe Chinatown isn’t open on Sundays?!? No dim sims for lunch for us!

We ended up at Tim Horton’s for the first time and it was pretty average as well !! I ended up making a complaint as the restaurant was filthy with rubbish on every table – and the staff standing about chatting!

Don’t you just love Group On 😊 I love it when deals come up and it is somewhere that we need to visit! Vancouver Police Museum is in the former Coroner’s Court & Morgue! You can go in the old autopsy room with the stainless steel benches and the jars of human bits & bobs! Quite an interesting place. The confiscated items were also a bit alarming! It is in quite a dodgy part of town though! Hastings street is so awful and I can’t help but wonder how this ‘community’ has been allowed to grow like it has. It is just so awful, and a lot of the shops have closed, giving it just such an awful feeling about the place. The displaced persons are by the hundreds!

We took the lovely Skye on a hike with us. It was to Mackay Creek, which is about 3km from the apartment and then 3.5-4km’s through / around it. We always have to be bear / cougar aware in these green belts!! The forest is really quite old and some huge old trees that have fallen over are over a hundred years old. They are called nurse logs and they provide sustenance for the new seedlings. I had to put Colin in the picture, so it gave it some perspective!!

This is probably the only picture I liked at the Vancouver Art Museum. This has got to be the worst art museum we have ever been to!! Not only was half of it closed [and you only got a 25% discount] it was boring and uninspiring!! I gave it an awful review on trip advisor!

Big egg … little egg!

Our next place to explore was the Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Colombia. It is on the same campus as the Botanical Gardens. What a cool museum! The huge whale hanging in the entrance is gobsmacking! There is an awesome video of the recovery and restoration of the whale – an epic project.

There was even an Kiwi there!

We spent a couple of hours here and it was fabulous. It is a teaching museum, so only some of the millions of items are available to view, but what you can see is amazing. Loved our visit 😊

So we are now counting down the days until we head towards Whistler and beyond. Will get one more post done before we depart Vancouver on the 10th!

… and we will walk 500 more!

It is fall here and Vancouver is looking beautiful. We have glorious sunsets, misty moody mornings and then stunning days. Here’s hoping it continues for the next 10 days 🌞

A couple of days ago we hired bikes and took ourselves around Stanley Park – it is such a wonderful place to visit [and easy to bike / walk around because it is flat]. You see the totem poles which are the First Nation Art and remind me of the carvings we have at home. We cycled under Lions Gate bridge [which we sailed under on our cruise], and rode the entire way around the seawall, seeing a sealion wrestling with an octopus just offshore.

The harbour is just so busy! Shipping, cruise liners, ferries and so many other people out on the water [or lying about in trees 😊]. We see it all from our apartment as well and love being close to the water.

Colin found this little VW in the park, and we have seen another since BUT we are not camping in one of those! Firstly it is getting cold and secondly – where does the luggage go? 🤔

This hotel is supposedly haunted … who knows?!? It does look beautiful though with the ivy changing colour.

A-maze-ing Laughter is a public art sculpture just on the edge of Stanley Park. It consists of 14 giant bronze statues all laughing in different poses. Of course everyone stops here and copies the the poses!! We weren’t any different!! 😁

One block over from us is the local theatre and we had seen that they had a play that was on a bus! Only 35 tickets each night. It is a one-man-band show and he plays various characters from his life as an indigenous man who was bought up both in the city and on a reservation. The bus takes you around town and to some of the places he ended up, including the famous Hastings street. (We had been up here during the day on a bus, but by night it was horrific. I cannot believe that this ‘community’ continues to grow in this area – people are drugged / drunk up to the max and the shops have closed on the street giving the area a very unwelcome feel).

Anyway, our night on the bus was interesting and the play ‘darkly comic’ in places and it was quite a harrowing story, delivered in an intimate setting. There was over 50 characters played by one man, he was exhausted after the 90 minutes and it left you grateful that you hadn’t had any of those experiences.

A fair distance from us in the UBC (University of British Columbia) Botancial Gardens. It is a ferry, skytrain and bus to get there + a longish walk when you get of the bus, then a walk around the park! We picked up tickets on Groupon for entrance to the park and the tree-walk. Again it is a test for me, especially a moving walkway! It wasn’t too busy so I was able to take my time. 300 metres winding through the trees at 20 metres of the ground and I did it – even the birds-nest! It certainly does give you an entirely different perspective of the huge trees and an opportunity to see and hear the birds.

Well that’s it for now, we have less than two weeks left here. A month was probably a bit too long! While Vancouver is beautiful, and our dog/apartment gorgeous we have nearly exhausted our ‘things to do’ list. And we are hampered by time [leave the dog for max 5 hours], so day trips are out of the question. Nevertheless, it has been a great stop and we are now planning for our departure on the 10th October. Chow for now 😊