Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Squamish - Heart of the Winter Olympics - 2010

Wow, we're in a celebrity town. Or at least, a town which thinks its a celebrity. All over the place are flags saying "Squamish - Heart of the Winter Olympics 2010", because the Olympics are coming to the region in 7 years time. However, "Heart of" is the kind of phrase I'd invent in my best marketing moments (not that there were many of those). Basically the Olympics will be in Vancouver and Whistler...and guess which town sits halfway between them - yes, Squamish.

So, in a way, the 3 grocery stores, 4 petrol stations and 5 fast-food restaurants that make up Squamish are at the centre of the Olympics, in the same way that the hole is at the centre of the doughnut.

Anyway, I'm putting Squamish down a bit too much. We're staying at a great hostel, the Squamish International Hostel, which is a brand new hostel beside the Sea to Sky Highway 99. It's really nice - we've got a motel style room (ie bathroom in the room) and a brand new kitchen and dining area. (Don't believe the web site, it is actually finished).

There's a huge waterfall nearby (Shannon Falls), a lake for the children (Alice Lake), with self-guided trails through the kind of woodland scenery you see here, and a McDonalds for a treat.

Hire Cars, and Higher Costs

We've learnt a lesson today - that booking a car in advance on the Internet is MUCH cheaper than waiting until the last minute and trying to get a deal. We've rented a car from Discount Rent-A-Car, and in advance I'd checked out a price on the Internet - $159 Canadian dollars a week (about £80) - but thought I'd get a better deal if I waited. Not true - we're now paying $229 dollars (about £105), so it's cost us £25 a week by waiting. Oh well, its a lesson.

However, we did discover that the downloaded "free rental upgrade" voucher worked a treat - instead of the Suzuki Swift - looks like this o-o - we got an Impala, which is a typical North American big car - looks like this o----o

(Handy hint: If you want to get a good deal, book in advance, and use something like Breezenet)

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Sunday, July 27, 2003

Sealing a great trip to Victoria

Yes, I know, it's an awful pun, but it is late at night as I write this, and my good jokes don't work late (aha, says Uncle Euan, your good jokes don't work early either). Anyway, Sunday was a rush day, with loads packed in. (If you are one of those people who wonder what backpackers do all day (Janet), then today was a typical day). We rushed our breakfast down and walked across town to the harbour, and caught the small ferry across to the Fisherman's wharf. While there are still fishermen on it (for example, a chap selling Dungerness Crabs for CAN$5 a pound - about £5 for a two-pound crab), there's more houseboats. It's like a small bit of Seattle imported into Canada. Remember "Sleepless in Seattle"? - well it's a bit like a mini-version of that.

The reason to head there is that a seal hangs around the wharf, waiting to be fed by tourists, and the girls really, really wanted to feed it. We'd imagined that when we got there, they'd suddenly go a bit hesitant, but oh no - off marched Charlotte and Emily to the fish shop to buy some left over salmon. And then they go on with feeding the seal. Emily wasn't so keen at the last minute, but Charlotte had a great time - leaning over the edge of the dock and handing peices to the seal to munch. Charlotte tells the story much better in her diary - if you've not found it yet then follow the link at the top of the page.

Then we had to get back to the hostel in time for our checkout at 11am. We left our rucksack in the luggage store while we walked down the street to John's Place. It's a locally famous diner, where HUGE breakfasts are served up at the weekends, and we needed fortifying for the rest of the day. Somehow Canadians aren't as big as they should be - the food portions are huge, and leave me full for the whole day. Its amazing that often we see the Canadians order a meal, with a few side orders like extra fries, sausages etc. They obviously lead a more active life than typical Americans, otherwise they would all be 25 stone!

Then at 1 o'clock we caught a bus to the ferry terminal, just over an hour away, then caught the 3 o'clock ferry towards Vancouver. It took one and a half hours, which went pretty quickly, especially as the scenery was amazing as we passed between the Gulf Islands, through narrow straits. At the other end we caught a bus straight to the city centre (another 40 minutes) and finally staggered in through the door of the hostel at 5:30. We were hot, tired and felt very dirty, so we went straight down to the beach, about 300 yards from the hostel), via the Dunkin' Donut shop, and blissed out on the beach for an hour, munching doughnuts and sipping Coke. (Life can't really get better than this, could it?)

And that was Sunday done, all ready for a Monday morning...

Luminara 2003


On Saturday night, in Victoria's Beacon Park, we went to the Lumina Festival. This is quite unlike anything we've ever seen before. For a start, it was a family oriented festival starting at 9 o'clock in the evening - but the reason for this is that it's a lantern festival. The park is given over to static displays of lanterns, and art performances such as bands and dance groups (it certainly brought out the hippies of Victoria, who happily wandered the park with their babies wrapped to their bodies in the African style sarongs).


Thousands of people fill the park, and many carry their own home-made lanterns. Before we arrived, I thought a lantern was either those red 'Chinese ball' style ones, or those Z-spring paper ones you buy from Ikea. But the people of Victoria have other idea's. In the weeks before the festival they seemed to have spent their time thinking up the most amazing lantern shapes. There were birds, fish, kayaks, whales, globes, horses, buses - basically you name a shape, and somebody had made a lamp in that shape. And it wasn't just "a fish", but specifics such as "a trigger fish" or "a killer whale".


Anyway, pictures tell a thousand words, so I'll let the pictures describe themselves. As you can imagine the children both loved it, and didn't have a problem staying awake until 10:30, and even managed to walk back to the hostel through the whole of downtown at the end.

An unforgetable experience.

Being normal


Today was the closest we've been to normality. A family we'd met on Salt Spring Island invited us over to their house for lunch. Alix and Brian had three children - Anna (6), Will (3) and Reid (1) - who had lots of toys.
Charlotte and Emily had a fantastic time playing with all of the toys in their garden, and seemed to ignore the food so that they could continue playing. One of the best toys was their climbing wall - Charlotte and Emily loved climbing all over it - it seems that in Emily we've got a bit of a natural.

It was really relaxing, and when the waterslide came out, the giggle-factor went through the roof. All in all, we had a great afternoon, and the children really enjoyed playing with other children, and more toys than would fit in any number of rucksacks.

Saturday, July 26, 2003

Whale watching

We'd been offered three choices for whale watching - a rigid inflatable (zodiac), where you sit in the full immersion/survival suit for 3 hours, a big catamaran, or a small silver, odd-looking boat. We chose the silver one because it had an inside deck, whereas all the others were open all round. As it turned out, it was a good choice, because once you're moving out at sea (and these things really do move!) it gets pretty cold in the wind, and for about 40 minutes we were in fog, which was pretty freezing outside. Judging by the expressions on the passengers on one of the Zodiacs we passed in the fog, we'd made the right choice.

The trip was 3 1/2 hours long, and we saw killer whales (Orcas) - the picture is of a whopper called Ruffles - Minke whales and seals - seals, sea lions and bull Elephant seals. The trip was great, although sadly the Orcas stayed about 400 yards away, and didn't do any of their acrobatics. It was also pretty expensive (in backpacking budget terms), because it cost just over £100 for all of us - but we won't see Orca's anywhere else, so it was a once-only chance.

Friday, July 25, 2003

Leaving Salt Spring Island...and on to pastures new.

Today we had to leave Salt Spring Island, as it was time to go to Victoria, on Vancouver Island (a very quick geograph lesson was needed when we first got here: Vancouver is a city, on the mainland; Vancouver Island is an offshore island, a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride away, which is nothing to do with Vancouver. The city there is called Victoria).

Just to prove that we're not really doing this by limo, here's a picture of us by the ferry dock of Fulford on Salt Spring. And yes, that really is all of our luggage! The black bag behind us contains the carrying rucksack for Emily when we're sightseeing, and her car seat.

Somebody who was staying at Lakeside Gardens gave us a lift down to the ferry terminal, about half an hour away, and from there it was a 2 1/2 hour ferry & bus trip to get to downtown Victoria. As we drove into town it seemed pretty grim - shopping malls & Wal Marts seemingly on every corner, but once we'd arrived in the centre of town we realised why it's referred to as a small corner of England in Canada. There are english-style buildings all over the place - beamed buildings, grand colonial style hotels, and English pubs and fish and chip shops. (No, it didn't make us homesick - can you imagine anything worse in 30-degree heat than the smell of fish and chips!)

Our hostel is an independent one, rather than a HI (like YHA) one. This means its a bit more anarchic, with a bar and music downstairs in the common room, rather than being like a cross between a monastery and a library. The walls look like Changing Rooms moved in - bright colours and all kinds of posters stuck all over them.

Emily was first to claim her locker - she likes to find new places to hide in every hostel we arrive at - mainly to cause us a few moments of panic and frustration.

We then went round the corner to "John's Place", which was a 'diner' - Wurlitzer jukebox, booths to sit in, bottomless coffee cups and HUGE portions! We all had a blow out lunch - we've realised that when we've been travelling, it's good to have a treat afterwards to boost the energy levels back up again. Then it was time to relax about town, and to book a whale watching trip for tomorrow.

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Lakeside Gardens - Living in the garden shed

To get to Salt Spring Island, we took the ferry from Tsawwassen - about 40km out of Vancouver. The trip was pretty uneventful, as it weaved 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're staying in a little lakeside cabana (if ever there was a good example of marketing, this must be it - in England we'd call this a "shed", but by calling it a "cabana" you create all kinds of cutsey images). It's got a bench downstairs, which the children sleep on, and then a suspended deck above which makes a double bed for us.


The view from the window is amazing - we look over a peaceful freshwater lake, and a tree filled landscape. Somewhere amongst the view are a few other wooden houses, but they are pretty unobtrusive, so waking up in the morning is an amazing experience! The cabana has a small cooking stand outside, with a gas stove, and round the corner a small washing up stand,
with the tap fed with water directly from the lake. It creates a pretty idyllic living environment, very similar to camping but without the confinment you get in a tent (and none of the sounds of childhood like "ZZZZzzzziiiippp" as somebody went to the toilet in the night). We'd have been pretty pleased with this place if we'd chosen it as a holiday destination, let alone as one of our backpacking stops.

The children have loved the grounds - with boats to paddle the lake in, swings and a beach to swim from. It's very "Swallows and Amazons" stuff. It has been very relaxing for us, because we're in a park area, where we don't need to worry too much about the children - they can wander off to play without us having to watch them every second. We have made sure that Emily understands not to go near the water, and despite her willingness to break every rule we've ever created, she does seem to be following this one (phew!)

The other people staying here (there are 7 more cabanas sleeping 4, two cabins sleeping 6 and 10 camping spots) are Canadians, plus a couple of American families. This is great, as it means we can find out more about Canada, and we've had some good advice about the rest of our trip (DON'T ASK about the evening that one couple gave us good advice about making sure the children are safe from cougars and bears in the Rockies). Most of the people we've spoken to are here again, and some have been coming here for 10 years or more. That says omething about how magically relaxed it is, and how nice it is to be alongside a lake. I guess we'd hope to find other places like this as we travel around the world, but I don't hold out much hope of finding anything as idyllic.

We've made a video to show what it looks like - pop across to our Video Album to see if it's there yet.

The only difficulty has been transport - we're on foot, and as there's no transport on the island, and no shops nearby, I've been hitching to town (about 6km) to get provisions. That has allowed me to meet people living on the island (tourists don't pickup, but locals do) and so far I've met a Californian who moved here last week, a lady who runs a holiday home rental agency, somebody who makes rammed earth houses, a South African couple who moved to Canada 16 years ago (but still sound like they stepped straight from the Bush Veld), a washing machine repair guy, an artist and a carpenter. One lady even went past her turn to drop me here at the campsite, before heading back into town. It's certainly been a good experience, and when we leave tomorrow we may well hitch down to the ferry terminal at the other end of the island (possibly a bit more tricky with four of us, but we'll see).

Overall, Salt Spring is a great experience, and one that the whole family has loved, and we'll be sad to leave tomorrow to head off to the hustle and bustle of Victoria on Vancouver Island. But we've got things to do, places to see, and the Orca's await.

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Saturday, July 19, 2003

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

And they're off...


Well - suddenly it's stopped being a surreal future, and instead hits home as "here and now". As I'm writing this we've just got through our first day on the road - which hasn't been as difficult as we'd imagined, but it's been a lot, lot longer.

Emily woke at 2am, and beyond 2:30 there was no way that she was going back to sleep. So we've been up since then with her, trying to keep her quiet in the hostel, then Charlotte woke, and at 4am we had our first breakfast (Honey Nut Loops, since you asked!), then at 6am we hit the street and had coffee and cinnabuns in the shop round the corner (can't recommend both of them highly enough to give you a caffeine and sugar rush when you've got jet lag!). Then on to the shoreline, to see the sun rising, the floatplanes taking off, and Vancouver buzzing with joggers and wino's.
We've had a pretty good day - I will post some pictures tomorrow of the most amazing thing we saw today - a tree growing on the top of a skyscraper.

But the key is - we're here, we're well, we're enjoying it, and so far the only thing the girls are missing is space in their bedroom. Can't be bad!

Saturday, July 12, 2003

Monday, July 07, 2003

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

Packing...

Well, we now know how much can fit in a rucksack (or three). On Saturday we laid everything out on a sheet (to take this picture...)

And then we packed it all into the rucksacks. Amazingly we had more space in our pack than we had thought, and we could actually all lift our packs!