Day 3 - Vancouver to Telegraph Cove

Today was all about driving. And trees. And 80s music.

As we packed the night before, it was an easy start this morning. Whilst I got the car brought around and loaded up, Laura went over the road to get us some breakfast, which today consisted of a berry & oatmeal muffin, lemon bread and banana bread. Yum.

Vancouver was still thick with smoke and we could both feel it in our throats and eyes. As we drove north out of the city over the Lionsgate suspension bridge we couldn’t see Grouse Mountain, so it was lucky that we’d seen it the day before.

We arrived at the ferry terminal in Horseshoe Bay exactly one hour before our ferry was due to depart for Vancouver Island. As we knew we wanted to be on the road quite early, we reserved our place on the ferry months ago, so we simply paid at the booth and parked up in lane 2.

In the queue we wrote the blog post for the day before and listened to music on the Jeep’s sirius satellite radio. At one point, Laura braved the 10 lanes of queueing cars and froggered her way over to the toilets.

At this point a tannoy told everyone to get back in their vehicles as boarding was about to start, so Laura hurried back and we sat in the car for another 5 minutes until we had the excitement of driving onto the ferry. Weeeeee!

On the ferry Laura continued to write the blog whilst sipping a cup of tea and I explored the upper deck. The mainland was barely visible through the smoke.

The ferry crossing took 90 minutes, but eventually we arrived at Departure Bay – which is surely only a good name for a port 50% of the time, right?

If we took the main road up the island, Telegraph Cove would be a 4 hour drive, but we followed the coast road for a more scenic route and added about an hour to the journey. The smoke started to clear a bit as we headed west, but it took a long time.

At a small store we loaded up on drinks and snacks for the long drive ahead of us. 

We drove through places with names like Bowser, Courtney, Qualicum Beach and Fanny Bay (hehe). At Qualicum Beach we stopped for a wee.

Eventually the small towns become more sparse and for the last 150km it was just us, the car, the road and lots and lots of trees. Big trees, tall trees, thin trees, thick trees. Trees as far as the eye could see.

Laura tried to photograph the scene but it was difficult to do it justice. Imagine a long, straight grey road with a yellow line down the centre receding off into the distance. Next to the highway, trees so tall that they dwarfed even the occasional car that passed us heading the opposite way. 

We played a game of leapfrog with a group of old guys on loud bikes that chugged deeply every time they overtook us, shirts flapping in the wind.

After a couple of hours we turned off the highway and down a road towards Telegraph Cove. On the way we went past Beaver Cove where thousands of logs arrive each week to be sorted and floated into barges, ready to be towed to sawmills and paper factories.

Finally we drove down a hill and arrived at Telegraph Cove. Hurrah! It’s a very small place in the middle of nowhere, but it’s got lots of character.

We checked into our room for the night and had a wander around the cove, eyeing up the two places on offer for dinner (which I’m sure are essentially the same place because they share the toilets and kitchen…)

Whilst Laura went back to the room and had a shower and got changed, I wandered over to North Island Kayak and introduced myself. They were expecting us (hurrah!) and they gave me a packing list and some dry bags so we could pack our gear ahead of the 8.30am start the next day.

After I’d got changed we went over to The Old Saltery Pub – which as it’s name implies is the old salmon saltery – and got some dinner. Laura had a fisherman’s platter and I had a bison burger, which were both delicious.

Back at the room we packed our dry bags. The larger one for overnight things that we’d need at camp (pyjamas, toothbrush, warm clothes) and the smaller one for things we might need on the water (hat, sunglasses, camera). Packing was a little bit tricky because of the limited space, the necessity to favour synthetic clothing over cotton and the worry that things might get ruined by water! We managed it though.

By this time the sun was low in the sky so we went out to watch the sunset. We wandered around to the end of the boardwalk and sat on a bench overlooking Johnstone Strait. It was a bit chilly but the sun was still quite strong and kept us warm (mostly).

The sunset was lovely and as we were getting ready to walk back, a family of otters swam into the cove and entertained us. They were very cute.

Day 2 - Vancouver

After 12 hours sleep I woke up feeling fresh, with no regrets about missing out on Nat’s bike ride around Vancouver. I was very glad to be feeling much better and ready for the excitement of the World Cup Final.

We were spending the morning the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Park so we decided to grab some breakfast from a lovely coffee shop next door to the hotel and get on the road. I noticed that there was a weird yellow fog over the city, Natalie dismissed it saying it would burn off but it was weird. I guess we just assumed it’s something that happens on the coast as we had experienced similar in Los Angeles and San Francisco, it wasn’t until later that we discovered that it was the smoke wafting over from some wild fires around BC, there’s been about 50 fires start over the weekend. I hope they don’t spread to where we’re going. I also hope the wind changes as the majority of this holiday is planned around spectacular views, so it will suck if there are no views.

We drove to Capilano over the Lionsgate Bridge, which obviously excited Nat. We noticed it seemed to be very skinny but that it was a very nice bridge! We soon got to Capilano, it had heated up nicely now, and there was no smoke here, yay. We walked straight past the queue for tickets, well done me for researching and pre-buying.

There’s lots of cool stuff to do at Capilano, we started with the suspension bridge as it’s the main attraction really, it’s a bit like the bridge that the winner of I’m a Celebrity has to walk over but with lots more people. It was extremely wobbly, we planned what to do if it collapsed, some would think the best strategy would be to Indiana Jones jump to the edge and cling on but we saw on Mythbusters that that wouldn’t actually work and to just cling to the sides, so that was the plan of action. Luckily we didn’t have to worry, the bridge worked and we crossed safely. The view from the bridge was really nice, I took loads of photos of the river, really I wanted to get down into it but you can’t, boooooo.



While we were there we did a treetop adventure, walking around some of the tallest trees on a platform fairly high off the ground. The trees were pretty tall, some of them were pretty fat, they were cool. I pointed out cool things, Nat took lots of lovely photos. We saw some birds of prey that were visiting for the day, including an owl and a couple of hawks, they were well behaved, phew.

We finished the adventuring with a cliff walk, which as the name suggests has a platform attached to the cliff side and you walk along it to get different views of the river. It was cool.

In the gift shop I resisted the urge to buy all the maple syrup, but we did get a t-shirt each and some new fridge magnets. How are we going to get all these souvenirs home?!

We decided to get some food while we there as it was such a nice setting and the atmosphere was lovely. I had a salmon burger, Nat had a salmon salad (and a lemon slushy!), they were really nice.

After we’d devoured our food we decided to head back to Vancouver, Nat wanted to stop off at Stanley Park as she was feeling bad that I hadn’t seen it but we hit a bit of traffic and I made the executive decision that getting back to the hotel, and to the stadium to soak up the World Cup atmosphere was more important. We knew it was going to be good because we’d seen loads of USA fans out and about, dressed head to toe in red, white and blue at 9am, however, as we got closer to the stadium the hordes of people was immense. We quickly parked up (well, we got our valet Keanu to park up), freshened up and headed out in to the crowd of chanting fans. USA, USA, USA!

We bought a flag ($5), joined the crowd and made our way inside, all the time surrounded by chanting and singing. It was brilliant. We made the way up to our seats, two rows from the very back of the stadium, but still a pretty good view.

Before we knew it, both teams were out warming up, it never occurred to me that they have to come out and warm up on the pitch before they officially run out of the tunnel to play the game. Soon enough, everything was set and the match began. I’m sure you watched the game, seeing as  the whole tournament has been brilliant and only losers would miss the final, but just in case you didn’t see it, I’ll just let you know that it was an absolutely incredible start, with USA scoring 4 goals in the first 15 minutes. The stadium was going nuts, out of the 53,500 people there, I think about 53,450 of them were American, or supporting the USA team (including us, seeing as Japan knocked us out of the final). It was an absolutely amazing experience, the game was brilliant, the atmosphere was insane and I even came away with a new chant… “I believe, I believe that, I believe that we will win!”



After the game, we decided to head to Gastown for a bit of a wander and some dinner. We had to walk through a bit of a dodgy area where we realised there is a very fine line between Hipster and Hobo.

We watched the steam clock, found the place where the founders of the city decided to call it Vancouver then went for some dinner at The Flying Pig. Nat had a bit more salmon, this time with risotto, I had an amazing seafood pasta dish. The restaurant was pretty hot (no aircon) so we paid up, went home, repacked our suitcases, wondered how everything fit in the suitcases in the first place then went to bed.

Day 1 - London to Vancouver

After a lovely night's sleep, we woke at 6am. The chore of getting out of bed was made much easier by pressing the button that converted the bed into a sofa, so rather like my nan in her magic chair we were almost pushed out of bed :)

After changing the lighting to normal, we got dressed, put the remaining bits and bobs back into our suitcases and checked out.

We got the elevator back up to the airport and as if by magic we were there in departures. Genius.

After finding the check-in for Air Transat we suddenly realised that we hadn't actually checked in online, er, not sure why we didn't. Just forgot! Anyway, didn't seem to be a problem because we'd pre-selected our seats months ago to guarantee we got a pair of seats together.

Once through security we spent 20 minutes browsing perfumes in duty free and stocked up on some new smells. I finally have a new bottle of Bonbon by Viktor & Rolf!

We got a table at Wondertree and had some breakfast. It was very nice, a similar feel to Giraffe.

After that it was time to board. We got to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare (no point being first and having to queue, right?!) and took our seats on the plane. The narrowness at the back of the plane meant that the 3-3-3 configuration reduces to 2-3-2, so we had no middle seat and got an extra wide isle instead (thanks for the advice Seatguru.com)

We had some reservations about flying with Air-Transat because frankly, who the hell are Air-Transat?! But we chose them because they are a lot cheaper than other carriers and the planes have recently been refitted with lots of funky lighting and touchscreen entertainment units. We felt very happy with our choice.



Once in the air we both watched Spare Parts – a movie based on the true story of a community high school who built a robot from spare parts, entered it in the Underwater Robotic Competition and beat MIT and Virginia Tech etc. It was very moving!

Later on we both watched Still Alice (about a woman with early onset Alzheimers) and both cried lots at the end. A wonderful and moving film.

Laura also watched The Spongebob Squarepants Movie whilst I watched an aerial documentary about British Columbia.

At this point I have to mention how amazing my new Bose Quietcomfort 25 headphones are. I've been using them at work for a few weeks and they really help me focus and concentrate. The noise cancelling technology is incredible. On the flight, the engine roar was reduced to nothing more than a distant hiss. Expensive, but ultimately very worth it.

The main meal on the flight was a chicken / rice thing (it was nice) and a snack later was pizza. Mmmm. I drank lots of coke zero and according to our stewardess I'm the only person that ever orders it. (One of my favourite things about flying to Canada is that Canadian's say doody free, instead of duty free, that was amusing every time - Laura)

The flight passed very quickly. Near the end of the flight we flew over the rockies and saw glaciers, lakes, snow capped peaks... it was amazing.

We landed in Vancouver about 45 minutes early (good work captain). The airport is lovely, very clean, modern, spacious. It also felt very natural with lots of daylight and wooden sculptures.

Once through, we headed to Hertz to get our hire car. We'd booked a midsize SUV for a one way trip from Vancouver to Alberta and got given a massive 2015 Jeep Wrangler. It's a ridiculous car, but we're happy with it! After exploring it appears the roof panels come off too, so we could be cruising down the Icefields Parkway in a convertible Jeep. Hmmm! It also has a built in sat-nav, which is a bonus.

As with all North American vehicles, it seems to have an engine bigger than my house, so the lightest tap on the accelerator makes the engine roar. I think we're going to have fun in this car.

Driving to downtown Vancouver was very pleasant. Vancouver is such a lovely, modern, green city. I'm in love already.

We navigated our way to Hotel BLU, which is two blocks from BC Place Stadium and Laura's definitely got us a gem of a hotel. The reception allowed us to check in early (like, 2 hours early) and after tipping the porter (gosh, don't get me started on the ridiculousness of being British and not knowing how much to tip) we crossed the street to watch England vs Germany in Back Forty Saloon.

The place was packed with football fans, but we got a table with great views of the screens and watched a very tense and exciting match. Everyone gasped and oohed and aahed as shots were missed or saved. There were a few brits in there, but a lot of the crowd seemed to be Americans that had just arrived ahead of the final tomorrow. And with it being Independence Day too, they needed no extra incentive to wear their colours with pride.

We ordered some food and had a few drinks. I had a burger and a pint of Stanley Park. Laura had a BLT and a diet coke.

In extra time England got a penalty, and even though nerves meant we could barely watch at this point, we scored! One nil to England! Woohoo! When the final whistle blew everyone cheered and then clapped (which seemed a bit odd...) but we were very happy.

Back at the hotel we got changed to go on a bike ride. The hotel have bikes that guests can use for free to explore the city, so we'd reserved two for after 5pm.

As it wasn't quite 5pm yet, we wandered around the nearby streets, checked out the Vancouver Public Library (which Fringe fans will spot as the Fringe HQ from the alternate universe) and the found the the FIFA WWC fan zone. We got a free coke each and saw lots more Americans wearing stars, stripes, red, white, blue, eagle hats, bandanas and flags. They were clearly very excited. As two fans we talked to said, women's soccer is a big deal in the USA.

Fatigue was getting to Laura though. It was 5pm, so really 1am UK time so she decided to go back to the hotel room and sleep, leaving me to explore on my own. Laura had a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out) but would have been no fun. Like the hulk, you wouldn't like her when she's tired.

I picked up my bike and headed to the seawall path. Vancouver is an extremely bike friendly city. There are wide dedicated bike lanes everywhere and it was really simple to explore. I cycled south, then west and then north as I headed up to Stanley Park along the sea front.

It was really surreal (maybe my brain was a bit tired) and if you've ever played Wii Fit then let me tell you that it was just like the jogging / cycling part. I think because Vancouver is so modern and clean it felt like I was in a video game. As I cycled past BBQs on the beach, couples lazing in the parks, people chatting, the sounds drifted in and out, only to be replaced again with the sound of the sea and the birds. It was lovely.

I really am in love with Vancouver. I think I want to live here. Stanley Park is bigger than New York's Central Park and I cycled all the way around the sea wall path with a huge smile on my face.

After a few hours of cycling I headed back to the hotel and joined Laura in Slumberville. New population: 2.

The night before

Our flight to Vancouver on Saturday morning was at 9am from Gatwick so we decided to get to the airport in plenty of time - i.e. the day before.

Rather than drive to a hotel, stay over and the park the car either at the hotel or at a long stay airport like in previous years, we decided this year to get the train to Gatwick and actually stay in the airport.

The train was a simple choice because this year I don't want to have to drive home via the M25 after a 9 hour flight whilst having holiday blues. That is not fun.

Given the choice of hotels at Gatwick the choice of where to stay was simple – Yotel! We've been wanting to stay in one for years so this was a good enough reason.

The hotel can't be any closer to Gatwick, because it's literally in the airport. So after the train pulled up at Gatwick, we wheeled our suitcases around to departures and found an elevator with a button marked Yotel.

The hotel is very cool. The rooms (or cabins to give them their proper name) are small self-contained pods with no outside windows. Cabins can even be rented by the hour. Reception provided us with a free cup of tea on arrival and unlimited refills during our stay.

The cabins have been designed very well to fit a lot into a very small space. To maximise use of that space, the bed converts into a sofa at the touch of a button. Lighting can be programmed to one of 5 modes (super extra bright! normal, purple, reading, sleeping).

It was already 9.30pm when we arrived, so we needed to go the bed soon, but before that we did a bit of suitcase contents juggling and managed to even out the weight so each one was under the 23kg baggage allowance.

We set our alarms for 6am, converted the sofa into a bed, activated sleeping lighting and went to bed, dreaming of our adventure tomorrow.

The adventure begins

I think it was about 583 days ago that we decided we would explore Canada in the summer of 2015. Vancouver Island, the Rocky Mountains, emerald lakes, snow capped peaks, unspoilt wilderness, nature at it's finest. Definitely our kind of holiday (Laura will probably tell me to shut up and stop being so poncy and gushing at this point).

We started researching, planning and looking forward to an adventure almost 2 years ahead of us. We put an entry in our countdown app and watched as the days decreased at a glacial pace.

But now, that adventure has started. The mountains are calling, I must go...