You join us again on the other side of the Atlantic, where after the first flight of our trip, we arrived in Vancouver. The flight in was pretty special, as we descended over the spectacular snow capped Rockies, a region we would later be visiting. After exploring Vancouver, we were struck by its diversity and huge range of cultural influences – french, american and Chinese all visible (reportedly the best Chinese food outside of china- or so our guidebook claimed!). We spent our first day cycling around the pretty Stanley Park on the edge of the city and checked out Granville Island with it’s cool shops and excellent food market. We also embarked on our first hike of the trip, up the rather gruelling Grouse Mountain (nicknamed the Grouse grind!)- a very steep 90 minute climb, boasting amazing views of the city and harbour. Sadly, we were greeted with pretty much solid fog when we reached the top, however, we did get to see two massive grizzly bears- though thankfully these ones were in captivity, so no need to pull out the bear spray! We ate very well in Vancouver, the highlight being an epic waffle house brunch with Ian Lawson and the rest being a result of his great foodie tips.
Soon we were picking up our RV, which would be home for the next 3 weeks. For anyone who hasn’t tried out one of these fellas, they are a kinda a souped up, huge (ours was 27ft long) caravan- complete with fully functioning kitchen, double bed and shower. Our first activity was to do a huge shop at the biggest Walmart I have ever been in. Fridge, freezer and cupboards brimming with food and pretty tired, we happily made our way to our campsite (which we had booked the night before). Following google maps, we didn’t realise there was an issue with where we were heading until signs of the American border started looming larger and larger (15km, 10km, 5km…1km)… Until we actually reached the Canadian border with Washington! Unfortunately, we had inadvertently booked an American RV site, despite signing a declaration at the RV shop a few hours before, guaranteeing we would not go across to America or pay a significant fine and void all of our insurance. We realised this mistake a little too late, resulting in me hastily pulling into the lorry section lay by, a few hundred yards before the border checkpoint. Here we weighed up our options; either drive across the border and accept the fine or drive back down what is clearly a one way slip road and pray no lorries came our way…We went for the later and thankfully got through fine, but a pretty stressful first drive and evening in our new vehicle!
Our second evening was a memorable one, but this time, for the right reasons! We stayed just outside of Vancouver so we could squeeze in a Don Diablo gig at the Vancouver Harbour Convention Centre, which was really fun. In a bid to get Glastonbury tickets, which came out at 9am UK time, but 12am our time, we left the gig early and headed straight to a 24hr internet cafe to try for tickets (along with the other 2.4 other million people this year!) Thankfully, we were among the lucky ones to get some, thanks to Jamie De Groot (you bloody legend!) Not only is it the 50th anniversary of the festival this year, but it also falls on my 30th bday- so should be an especially big one!!
Our Canadian road trip then truly began, after we headed north to the ski town of Whistler in our RV, who we had now named Reggie. The scenery in Canada is stunning and renting an RV is a great way to explore it as you have such freedom over where you want to stop and what you want to see. This meant we tweaked our route along the way after local suggestions and fitted in a great overnight stop in Wells Gray National Park, which was well worth the detour. However, I have to say, after seeing the landscape in Jasper and Banff, the first few towns do feel a bit like warm up acts to the main event. With a backdrop of snow capped mountain ranges, endless evergreen forests, glacier blue lakes, waterfalls and canyons, not to mention the huge array of wildlife, Jasper and Banff National Parks really were an outdoor paradise. We did some great hikes in Jasper – exploring the Old Fort, The Five Lakes Trail & Maligne Canyon. We also went on the Lake Maligne Boat Cruise to Spirit Island; which despite being pretty expensive, delivered more incredible views. Weather was at times pretty chilly, dropping down to -9oC at night, but Reggie (who is fully winterised) coped with it well, with snow tyres, great insulation and an in-built furnace which kept us pretty toasty!
The drive down from Jasper to Banff was spectacular, going along the Icefields Parkway and framed by mountains on each side. We made several stops along the way including the impressive Athabascar Glacier, where you could walk right up to the edge of the glacier (via a pretty treacherous and slippy pathway- Zo only fell over twice…) We did attempt a sunrise the next day, getting up early to look out onto Bow lake, but were sadly thwarted by a cloudy/ snowy morning preventing the sun from breaking through. Later that day we walked the loop trail around Emerald Lake, where depite the fact it was not a picture perfect day, the scenic snowfall through the woodland made it a pretty and enjoyable hike. Our next day in Banff took us to two of the more famous lakes, namely Moraine and Louise, where we had quite different experiences. Moraine had frozen over- so thoroughly that people had actually started playing ice hockey on it! But Louise, one of the most famous sites in Banff was just as beautiful as described and really took our breath away; I think we also benefited from it being slightly off season, as it meant we weren’t fighting crowds to take pictures or walk along its shores. Whilst at Lake Louise, we ventured up the Fairmount view trail and after a couple of kms this opened up to a stunning view out over the Lake.
We have really put our hiking boots to good use in the National Parks; amongst many walks, Johnston Canyon with its two waterfalls and Tunnel mountain with great views out over Banff have been two of my favourites. We have spotted a great range of animals- bald eagles, caribou and even an elk, but sadly no bears in the wild, despite driving down the Bow Valley Parkway – famed as being one of the most likely places to spot them. In Banff we had a memorable dinner out, at Chuck’s Steakhouse, which was an amazing experience; we had a sharing steak platter with three cuts of delicious beef between us, alongside some quality sides and good bottle of red wine…food heaven.
From Banff, we travelled to nearby Canmore which is a small city with a large creative community. Here we wandered through a few cool art galleries and had a nice stop off at a local coffee shop before hitting the road again. From Canmore we headed back west towards Vancouver to take the ferry over to Vancouver Island. Over the next couple of days we made stops at Fort Steele, a heritage town with buildings held in time from the 1920s, Ainsworth Hot Springs where we had a dip in the warm (42oC) natural springs and also checked out the Okanagan wine region. To be honest, before this trip, I did not even realise Canada produced any wine, but we were pleasantly surprised with how good the wines were at the Burrowing Owl Vineyard in Oliver and treated ourselves to a very nice white Pinot Gris.
On reaching Vancouver Island we travelled over to Tofino, recommended by many as a great place to go on the island. We spent a lovely couple of days here soaking up the relaxed atmosphere in this chilled out surfer town. We stayed at probably our favourite RV resort – Crystal Cove Resort, where they included fresh herbs you could pick to cook with and free coffee every morning (the way to Zoe’s heart). Vancouver Island is a bit of a micro climate, quite a bit hotter and rainier than the mainland and on a walk we did; we crossed a couple of secluded beaches as well as lush, almost rain forest-like vegetation before reaching town. We dropped into the Tofino brewery and distillery and sampled a range of spirits including a rather fiery jalapeno vodka (not my thing as it turns out). We then drove back south to our final stop on the island to the pretty city of Victoria; here, Zo led walking tour taking in a few sights of the city, before catching the ferry back to Vancouver. We had played with the idea of going on a whale watching tour in Canada, but decided since we had a chance of seeing them on the ferry over and were planning to do one in Sri Lanka, we would save our pennies… Luckily, as fate would have it, this decision was vindicated, as on the ferry ride home, we managed to see a whole pod of Killer Whales swim along the port (left side – for non-sailors, thank Russell Abrahams for the sailing lingo) of the boat, which was pretty amazing :).
We handed Reggie back in, who has been a very reliable, comfortable and enjoyable home for the last three weeks and we are now headed across the border to Seattle for the next leg of the trip.
I am trying out this new website/app called polar steps, which I am going to run alongside this one. It keeps up with your current location, so it should mean a bit more up to date coverage!
Over and out
Chris
thereandbackagainaslumdogtale 