Well, we’ve had a bit longer to get used to it now, and to recover from the jet lag. And it really is fantastic to be doing this. The children are having a great time – enjoying exploring all of the places that they can, and becoming more relaxed within strange environments.

After a few days in Vancouver we took a combination of city buses out to Tsawwassen (yup, I don’t know how to pronounce it either), and then hopped onto what seemed like the world’s oldest ferry to Salt Spring Island. We chose it because it’s a great place to relax, with a combination of 60’s hippies and ‘moving out of the city types’. The trip was pretty uneventful, as the ferryweaved it’s way through the Gulf Islands. The harbour when we arrived was pretty impressive – just a long natural harbour, with rocky shore and wooden houses clinging to the steep shoreline – all with their little jetties for their boats. Apart from that, there was nothing – no town, no hustle and bustle, and no bus (whoops). Anway, a shuttle and a taxi later we’d arrived at Lakeside gardens, which was pretty amazing.We had found our accommodation on the Internet (Lakeside Gardens) and it turned out to be everything we wanted.

We’re staying in something the size of a Wendy house, with a double bed suspended from the ceiling, and a gas hob outside the front door for cooking on. And through the window we have the most amazing view of a lake, the hills and nature, nature, nature. We’ve got some nice photo’s that show what it looks like, which we’ll update this page with at the weekend when we get back to civilisation (at the minute I’m sitting in the village public library typing this), and we’ve also created a little video to show you the outside and inside of the hut (just because some people won’t believe that Sarah can sleep in a wendy house AND love it!)

So far everybody’s well, enjoying it and eating like horses. We’ve discovered that Canadian bacon tastes nicer than English bacon (especially when cooked on the camp fire), and that we can buy pancake mix that makes breakfast quick and really nice. In fact, at this rate I’m not sure if we’ll ever want to come home! (Only joking).