Off To Canada (Again)

Holidays in Canada

Tag Archives: hotel


by Leave a comment

Au revoir Whistler, Bonjour Vancouver

The main route between Vancouver and Whistler is called the Sea to Sky Highway and it’s easy to see why. After a short drive you can see the water while at the same time huge mountains surround you. We made several stops and as Amanda was driving I was quite demanding. “Stop”… “Quick, pullover” and she was quite obliging which I’ll probably pay for at some point.

It seemed really strange to suddenly be in amongst heavy traffic as we came into Vancouver. We’d gotten so used to driving on almost empty roads over the past week, sometimes not seeing another vehicle for almost two hours, the difference  was incredible. We had a delay crossing the Lions Gate Bridge but that just gave us chance to enjoy the view of the city and the crossing into Stanley Park. It was a bit difficult for the tourists navigating through the city traffic but we got there and first impressions of the Fairmont Pacific Rim was very good. Very new, modern and ‘trendy’ without seeming unfriendly. The electronic keys are just touched to the readers to open the doors and inside everything can be controlled by the iPad in the room. Curtains, temperature, lights all touch controlled, not to mention being able to place reservations for dinner, call your car from the valet parking, order a newspaper, just about everything. Tech lovers dream. Oh oh oh…and the tv has a great sound bar giving excellent surround sound to go with the 42″ screen, oh and the bathroom has a magic mirror that has a tv built into it. OMG I could seriously live in this room. Nespresso machine, a desk with multiple chargers built in so charge my MacBook, iPhone, iPad etc, even the lights have mood settings so you can set it for ‘welcome’ when you come back in the evening, or ‘relax’. Brilliant.

Once we’d checked in and Amanda prised me away from all the electronic toys in the room, we went for a stroll along the harbour. I know some people already know this about me, and I’m sorry that the majority of people feel differently but I really hate the hot weather. HATE IT. I want to stay indoors with air conditioning and shade. I don’t want to sweat it out with all the other sweaty people pretending to enjoy it while saying ‘wow it’s hot today’ and taking all the shady spots which SHOULD BE MINE. If you love the summer, sod off and sit in the sun and leave the shady places for pale skinned, ex gingers who detest the scorching cancer causing radiation. There, rant over. I took some nice photos though and the city looks stunning from this viewpoint.

The digital Orca Pano of the harbour front Coal HarbourWe also saw a really cute mother and baby harbour seal swimming. The pup seemed to be just enjoying itself and the mum just keeping a close eye on her baby.

Mum & baby seal

 

I also lost my glasses….. I thought I gave them to Amanda but when we got back to the hotel they weren’t in her bag and all I had were my sunglasses. Thankfully I had a spare pair which I put on and raced back to where we’d been walking, just hoping….

Thankfully, someone had found them, opened the case (hoping to find expensive sunglasses I assume) and realising that they were prescription glasses for some blind man put them on the wall where I retrieved them, happily.

Tonight we’re eating in the hotel (reservation booked on the iPad, yay).

 


by Leave a comment

Last day in Whistler

Today has been a truly lazy, relaxing holiday day. We woke late, had a late breakfast, went for a short stroll, Amanda went for a swim while I watched Arsenal (win 3-0 against Fenerbahce). I had a quick shower then we went out with the wheelchair for a walk/push to the Lost Lake nearby. No idea why it’s the Lost Lake it was packed with people so it’s definitely found now. Actually it’s a gorgeous lake with a beach area and floating platforms and paved trails leading there. My only gripe is that it was too hot for a pale skinned ex-redhead but that really is searching for problems isn’t it?

Now we’re sat in the bar and we’ve had delicious Grapefruit Ale by the Whistler Brewing Company, a huge mountain of nachos with chilli beef, olives, 3 cheeses, jalapeños,  tomato salsa, sour cream and guacamole; breath and currently I’m sipping a JD and coke. Amanda’s now on sparkling water as she’s driving tomorrow, yay lucky me!

Oh, we saw a hummingbird, our first, flitting between the bushes and flower gardens.

We also were approached by someone from Club Intrawest hoping that we’d sign our lives away to get a time share (sort of) in Whistler. I checked into them afterwards and they don’t have a great reputation. You pay a huge amount of money for ‘points’ which you use to pay for your holiday in one of 8 destinations and from what I’ve seen so far it’s not always the best value for money. I’m sure they have a some happy customers but it’s not for us.

Tomorrow we leave for Vancouver for our last stop. We’re already a little sad about leaving but looking forward to seeing Vancouver again. We’ve absolutely loved the Four Seasons in Whistler and will definitely be coming back. We’d absolutely love to stay for longer next time. The rooms, the staff, the food and the location … all excellent.. highly highly recommended.

Pictures to follow as we haven’t moved from the bar to download them.


by Leave a comment

Peak-2-Peak…..it’s high (understatement alert)

So we had a our first whole day in Whistler and the one thing I wanted to do while we were here was go on the Peak-2-Peak cable car. We weren’t sure how accessible it was so after asking the concierge we decided to use the hotel car which would take us to the lower village, get the tickets and use the gondola to get up to the top of Whistler Mountain and then get the Peak-2-Peak over to Blackcomb Mountain and then get the chairlifts down the other side. When we saw the massive queues we asked at the information kiosk if there was somewhere Amanda could sit and he told us that if we could pick up the tickets then we could bypass the queue and zip to the front (aka the ‘spazz pass’). I queued for the tickets and Amanda waited inside in the shade (lucky her, it was scorchio). Once I had those (CAD$102 for 2 day passes) we walked past all those hateful stares and went to the front of the queue. We were in a small gondola with another couple and the reason I’m giving this information is simply that Amanda hates heights and was doing this under sufferance. She had the look of someone being taken to the gallows and sat there while everyone else looked around and enjoyed the views. I heard in whispered venomous tones that ‘You’re making it move every time you stand up’ so obviously being the caring person I am I moved around a bit more. Once at the top the views were amazing and we had to put on fleece tops as there was a 10C difference between the bottom of the mountain and where we were now.

View from the top of Whistler MountainAfter we took a look around it was time to jump on the Peak-2-Peak which is an incredible feat of engineering, all pretty much lost on Amanda as she contemplated certain death by travelling on it. I loved it and once on the other side the views again were amazing.

Canada 2013-0036 Canada 2013-0033 Canada 2013-0024 Peak-2-Peak

From the other side

 

Of course, once you’re over the other side you have to go down the mountain. However once Amanda saw the chairlift we had a dilemma. I could see there was no way she was going to get on that and she seemed none too impressed at the prospect of getting back on the Peak-2-Peak either. I reminded her that she had to choose one or the other and after quite a bit of thought ‘we’ decided to go back on the Peak-2-Peak and down the same way we came.  I would have loved to do the chairlifts but I was quite glad to go back over that huge expanse of nothingness again.

Two points to mention….

 

  1. Amanda would only get into gondolas with children so she had to be brave.
  2. A kind gentleman pointed out once we were in the middle that we were currently 1427ft off the ground. I think I heard a small whimper.

Once we eventually got back on solid ground we had a walk around Whistler Village, had a drink and then called the car to take us back to the hotel and we went straight to the bar. Honey lager was the order of then day and before it was too later I booked a table at the steak restaurant in the hotel.

We had just enough time to scoot upstairs get changed, teeth brushed, water splashed on faces and were downstairs again going into the restaurant. The food was extremely good, as was the wine (Made by the Kettle Winery and NOT served in kettles as has been suggested a few times) and we went to bed tired, full and slightly drunk.

 


by Leave a comment

A very long drive

So we (Amanda) decided that we should drive straight to Whistler after my disastrous decision to stop at Nimpo Lake instead of driving straight to Williams Lake. Well it wasn’t exactly disastrous it was just a bit too quiet at Nimpo to spend  a sunday afternoon when everything except the shop was shut, even the phone box was shut to cash transactions. I won’t lie it wasn’t the easiest of days but man what a drive it was.

Amanda drove the first 5 and a bit hours, the countryside was spectacular we saw loads of cattle alongside the road which we found a bit strange until we happened upon a real cowboy with chaps and all at which Amanda was a little too excited. We also saw two coyotes, black-tail deer, eagles, wild horses,  loons and really cute dogs. Amanda didn’t slow down soon enough to scoop the one puppy into the car, I even had a name ready for him (Patch). We started listening to country music, it was that country, well Nashville series soundtrack anyway. The terrain then changed pretty quick and Amanda found herself driving on really steep mountain roads with runaway lanes dotted every 500 meters. This was to allow lorries with failed brakes to exit the road hopefully safely.

Nearly at the bottom

 

We hardly passed any other vehicles on this section of the drive, so when we hit Williams Lake it felt like driving in London  when in reality it was more like driving in a small town. That’s where the weather decided to change and provide us with natures car wash to clean our very dirty Jeep.

Car before the rain gave it a washThe rain was really heavy and the sky turned really black; we even had lightning it was pretty spectacular to watch, as a passenger, but I did feel a bit for Amanda (only a little bit though). Once the rain slowed to a spit we pulled over to have a car picnic, well we are british you know. I then took over the driving and I have to say I did a much better job as I’m so awesome at driving (tongue  planted firmly in cheek). Joking aside it was just as well we shared the driving that way around as the roads began to get very hairy, steep and mountainous. It actually felt in some points as high as The Hill but it did provide some truly awesome sights. We really felt quite insignificant, mother nature is a clever woman. Pictures to follow.

The final section before we arrived at Whistler was some of the most awe-inspiring scenery we have seen since arriving in Canada (this time) and we are so glad we (I) decided to drive this route.

We finally arrived at Whistler at 19:30 after leaving at 08:10, a long days drive by any normal person”s standards. I must confess that the Four Seasons was a very welcome bit of luxury after ‘slumming’ it since Ucluelet.  Amanda has decided she’s definitely not cut out for anything less than five-star accommodation, I agree. Amanda spent what seemed like an hour in the shower getting ready for dinner, I think she was scraping 5 days of slumming it out of her hair.

 


by Leave a comment

The Hill

One of the main reasons to come on this holiday or at least one of the things that got me working out the route we’d take was ‘The Hill’. I’ve mentioned it in previous posts but basically it’s a long stretch of Highway 20 going through the Tweedsmuir Provincial Park that is unpaved (packed gravel) and was the steepest in Canada (not sure what is now because this baby is STEEP) with sections at 18% gradient. You have two choices, go up or come down, depending on whether you’re going to Bella Coola or leaving Bella Coola. When I organised the trip I decided that I’d rather go up than come down, mainly after seeing some videos on YouTube. I’m going to say here and now that it was a good decision because after the amount of rain we’ve been having I really wouldn’t want to come down it. 

It starts off quite nicely and then things turn nasty quite quickly. Really sharp hairpin bends with a sheer drop on one side, or narrow sections that seem insanely steep and you hope that you don’t meet an 18 wheeler coming down as you’re going up. And yes, big trucks do go up and down, we met a driver at the lodge yesterday morning. He told us it’s much better now they expanded sections to one and a half lanes wide rather than one lane !!!! At this point I’d normally put some nice photos in to illustrate the road in question but as I was driving and Amanda spent most of the time saying “I can’t look” or “OH MY GOD” or ‘Please move away from the edge”, we don’t seem to have many photos. She did manage to point my iPhone vaguely in the direction of the car window so I’ll check those later and perhaps post a couple. I did stop the car at one point when I felt it was safe and as I turned back to the car to get back in I saw the mess that the road had made of what was a shiny new Jeep Cherokee. Then I noticed that the back of my jeans had the same mud caked to it which I’d gotten as I slid down from my seat. Afterwards I also noticed that the inside of the car was filthy too, my shoes were caked in that same brown stuff. I think I’ll have to get this cleaned when we get to Whistler more to protect our clothes than anything else. We were passed several times by what I can only assume were locals as they were driving at crazy speeds (over 10 mph). I was happy to let them on their way. I’m not sure but a might have been overtaken by a snail at one point.

I just viewed Amanda’s attempts at taking photos on my iPhone while I was driving. She took what we thought was a video clip of us going up a particularly steep hairpin bend. I’ll post the resulting 4 second masterpiece later. It consists of the dashboard and her asking how to turn it off.  The photos are almost as bad but I’ll put those up too. I warned her that we’d have to return and do it again so we can get some good photos. She’s still not woken up.

Once over the worst part, we stopped alongside a river where another couple had the same idea. They were German and were going in teh opposite direction ie down the hill. I warned them how steep it was but that Germanic stare soon established that I was merely an inefficient British person and that Teutonic driving skills would prevail. I’m sure they did fine.

After we left the nice German couple we thought we’d done the worst part and it was surely going to be a nice tarmac road from that point on. We were so very wrong. There was still hills, though not so steep, sheer drops and no sight of beautiful flat black tarmac roads for what seemed like a long long time. When we did reach civilised road surfaces it felt like you were driving on cushions, it was lovely. Never say a bad thing about British roads again. We saw a herd of wild(ish) horses on the road and some black tailed deer and some cows and some dogs. These don’t make up for not seeing bears however.

Finally we arrived at Nimpo Lake. The ‘resort’ is really an RV park with six motel rooms and a few cabins. I wish I’d booked a cabin as they look really nice, but the motel room is clean if basic, but it’s real selling point is the location. It sits right on the shore of the lake itself. We’re looking forward to sitting outside later and hopefully seeing a lot of stars as there’s nothing else around us. Of course that means that it’ll be cloudy and we’ll also hear that there was a lot of bears in Bella Coola just after we left.

Tomorrow, we were supposed to drive to Williams Lake and stay overnight. Amanda decided that we would be better off having a marathon driving day and go straight to Whistler and have an extra day there instead. So we made the relevant phonecalls using Skype (no working payphone and no mobile service) and tomorrow we embark on a 10 hour drive to Whistler. On a side note, when Amanda called the Four Seasons in Whistler we were told that the room rate had gone down since we booked and would we like to upgrade and keep the same price or have our room cheaper? As we’re staying an extra night we picked the cheaper option, but it was great to be asked. We’re not convinced that the Celtic Manor (other hotels are available) would even lower their prices let alone let you that they did of you booked in advance.

Right, where are those stars?

 


by Leave a comment

I finally drove

We had a short ferry journey from Brentwood Bay to Mill Bay which saved us about 20 mins or so driving  and was a lot more scenic, and then it was a four hour drive to our next Hotel in Ucluelet. I should point out that so far Amanda has done all the driving and was driving today also. If I’d been sensible I’d have packed beer or a hip flask as I was being passenger but I didn’t so finally after about 3 hours it was time for me  to take the wheel for the last 40 mins (it seemed a lot longer but Amanda made me put that in there).  In the previous 3 hours it was dull old wide highway driving and then  it got a little more interesting with mountains and lakes to look at. When we changed over and I drove FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD, it turned into some strange slalom route which seemed as wide as a goat herders track not the main road to the west coast of the Island. Thankfully, due to me being a man and having amazing driving skills <cough>, I triumphed and got us to the destination in one piece.

The Black Rock Oceanfront Resort is actually right on the ocean so we won’t be suing for mis-advertising. Our room has a great view of the water but with a slight downside in that it’s directly over the pool and hot tubs, so all we hear with the door open is voices/screaming/splashing. What on earth are they doing enjoying themselves like this? I think it’s disgusting. I simply wouldn’t be doing it.

The resort is proud to be quite eco friendly and as such it has no air conditioning. Thankfully they have the Pacific Ocean which has it’s own, so all we do is open the door to the balcony and enjoy the sound of the waves and the smell of the sea (and of course those annoying people).

In the book they leave in  hotel rooms giving you helpful info about the tv channels and the opening times of the restaurants, there is also advice on what to do if we have an earthquake or indeed a tsunami. Yes, we’re sort of in that part of the world and so I’m keeping that section by my bed and will read it if the room starts to shake. Also helpful is ‘what to do if you come across a bear’ and ‘what to do if you come across a cougar’ and no, that’s not an older woman looking for a toy boy, we’re talking wild critter here. Actually I already know what I’d do in those situations and it mostly consists of crying and screaming like a small child told to turn off CBeebies and wait for my impending death. I might read it though in case it has some pearls of wisdom I hadn’t thought about. I’m sure that they did this to add the illusion of danger and excitement but in the restaurant and at reception they have posters telling everyone to watch out for a bear that seems to be hanging around the area. I’ll send Amanda out to investigate with a picnic basket and a jar of honey. Either Yogi Bear or Winnie the Pooh will come running.

We have to be up quite early tomorrow to go on our whale watching trip and I forgot to buy sea sickness tablets. This’ll be fun because as calm as the ocean is right now, as soon as we set off it’ll get bouncy, I just know it.

Black Rock Oceanfront Resort View from our balcony of the Pacific


by 1 Comment

Day 1 Recap – ‘And it almost went without a hitch’

I book things in advance, people know this. I do it to make sure I don’t forget things. Therefore when someone calls at my door with a car that’s really too small to accommodate 2 passengers, 2 (not huge) cases, 2 pieces of hand luggage and a wheelchair AFTER booking it well in advance, then I’m a little peeved.  He’s convinced he wasn’t told but I have the email (haha). Anyway we managed somehow to fit it all in and we got to Heathrow.

We sped through security, got duty-free (a bit too much by the look of things but we got away with that) and after a coffee we arrived at the gate and then we’re in the air and on the way. Lovely….hmmm. When we dropped our bags off the very nice gentleman put a tag on Amanda’s wheelchair and assured us that we could take it to the door of the aircraft where it would be taken from us, placed in hold number 5 and when we got to Vancouver it would be waiting for us at the aircraft door. What fantastic service. Well… when we arrived in Vancouver we were told, after waiting for about 20 mins and by now the only passengers on the aircraft, that the ground crew had given her wheelchair to another passenger because she’d asked for wheelchair assistance. Someone ran after her and after about 25 mins it appeared with the story that they never REALLY gave it away, no of course not, it was hidden in the hold and it was particularly difficult to remove. The plus point was the BA cabin crew who refused to disembark and made sure we stayed on the plane  which forced the ground crew to sort the mess as quickly as possible.

Two wheelchair dramas in one day, not bad eh?

We had problems finding the car rental desk, it’s not well signposted in the airport but were very happy when we finally saw our transport for the next two weeks.

Our Jeep

Our Jeep

 

Amanda drove the first leg as I’d never driven on the wrong side of the road (intentionally) before and did a great job. We had a minor issue with our sat nav but I got that fixed and we got to the ferry terminal in plenty of time to catch the 5pm sailing.

By now we were seriously flagging, both scared to calculate how long we’d been up, but once on Vancouver Island it was a 30 min drive to the hotel. Canadian traffic signals gave us a minor heart attack a few times. I made the mistake of assuming that traffic lights are the same wherever you go, a  universal method. Red=stop, amber=prepare to stop/prepare to go and green=put your foot down. Here we have flashing red, flashing amber and flashing green. Not flashing like ours meaning things are about to change, just flashing…continously. I had to look them up when we got to the hotel and hopefully we won’t kill someone/get booked/hold up the locals in the future.

The hotel was exactly as we remembered it, peaceful and lovely. I booked so far in advance that the price had come down so I got a $30 a night reduction and they were having problems with our fireplace (who needs a fire this time of year?) and the safe so offered us free breakfasts during our stay too. I reckon that’s about CAD$100 we saved on this stay…(happy face).

Our room at the Brentwood Bay

Our room at the Brentwood Bay

 

The dysfunctional fireplace that got us free breakfasts

The dysfunctional fireplace that got us free breakfasts

 

Our balcony view

Our balcony view

 

Today is a relax/get over jet lag/learn how to use the car/sort out luggage day. Amanda will probably go swimming and I will probably drink beer. Happy holidays

 


by 1 Comment

A slight change

Yesterday the postman delivered my new Fairmont Presidents Club card and a reminder that as a member you get a few little extras. Tucked away in my (now digital) folder were certificates for a free room upgrade and two 25% off vouchers for either dining or spa treatments. That got me thinking. It was so nice of Fairmont to send me these offers and it would be rude not to use them really ,and as I’m a nice polite person I wouldn’t want to appear rude to anyone (UNLESS YOU PISS ME OFF). I took a look at our holiday plans again to refresh my memory and the only places with Fairmont hotels that we could stay in is at Whistler and Vancouver. I got a good deal at the Four Seasons in Whistler and so we took a look at the three Fairmont hotels in Vancouver (I know they have another near the airport too).

The Pacific Rim is a relatively new Fairmont hotel for us as we usually stay in their historic properties but it looks fab and is in a great location near to Canada Place and Stanley Park. We booked a Harbour View room and we’ll see if we can get an upgrade when we get there using our voucher. If we don’t use it there we have our wedding anniversary in November so perhaps we’ll use it at the Savoy in London, now THAT’S a place to have an upgrade.

I sent an email to the Granville Island Hotel to cancel our reservation, saying that I hoped we’d get to stay there another time and we’re all set again. Not long to go now. Less than three months. We only have to book the car to the airport and the small matter of waiting for my wifes driving license to return from the DVLA. I hope it gets here soon or else I have a lot of driving to do.


by Leave a comment

4 months to go

It’s now March and the little counter on my page says that in 4 months time we’ll be off on our trip, so perhaps it’s time to wrap up the preview and update on what’s been happening.

After a one night stopover at Williams Lake we have a nice 5 hour drive to Whistler and I’m happy to say that we get another taste of the easy life for our last two stops. We’re staying at the Four Seasons in Whistler on Blackcomb way and we have two nights to relax. We first went to Whistler/Blackcomb in 1988 and some  of it was still under construction as I remember, so I’m sure it’ll be finished by now right? I have plans for the peak-2-peak cable car but apparently one in every five or so cars has a glass bottom and Amanda would freak if we had one of those so I’ll either be going by myself or we’ll make sure we do not have the special car. Apart from that we have no plans except enjoy the scenery and relax.

Thursday morning we’re off again for the Sea-to-Sky highway down to Vancouver on the last part of our trip. The last stop of any holiday has the possibility of being a bit of a downer so to compensate I booked us into a hotel that we tried to stay at previously but was fully booked a year in advance due to a wedding. It’s the Granville Island Hotel and I’m hoping for a bit of luxury and tlc before we have to drop the car off and fly home. The location is amazing being on Granville Island (obviously), with restaurants and the public market to check out (again) and I’m sure we’ll venture downtown at some point to try and fill any remaining space in our luggage with stuff from Roots.

Saturday morning….the day we’ll be looking forward to the least. We’ll take the car back and jump on the plane back to the UK. I’m not even thinking about it yet, it depresses me that much.

My new passport arrived yesterday so I can now fill in the advance passenger info for the flight. The new passports have a chip in them which holds the same info as the information page inside, or if you prefer and you’re that way inclined, the ‘man’ can now track me wherever I go so long as I carry my passport and I’ll be signalling back to base everytime I walk past an RFID reader. Frankly if anyone was that bored that they wanted to follow me then they’re welcome. I give them a day before they decide I’m not worth bothering with.

We still have to buy a new wheelchair, measure and weigh it and let British Airways know the details. This should now move to the top of the ‘to-do’ list I think as it’s fairly important.

I bought a new lens for my camera ready for the trip. It’s a 50mm f1.8 which equates to about a 75mm lens in old money. I gave it a quick try and it seems really nice and along with the 16mm f2.8 (plus wide adapter), the 18-55mm zoom and the 55-210mm zoom I think I’m covered for the trip. I might get a spare SD card just in case.

That’s it. The trip. If anything else happens or I get more info I’ll update. Other than that, see you in August.


by Leave a comment

North then North again

I realised something the other day. I might have to do some major re-jigging if BC Ferries change the schedule, as the one we want to catch only goes once a week and at the moment it’s on a Thursday. When the new schedule comes out at the end of the year I’m hoping to find that this ferry still goes on a Thursday. Let’s pretend it will for now, ok? The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.

So, on Wednesday morning, bright and early we’ll be leaving Ucluelet and making our way back to the east coast of the island taking the Pacific Rim Highway to Port Alberni (where it becomes the Alberni Highway) and then to Qualicum Beach. We might stop for a break here or push on, taking the Inland Island Highway north. Seeing a place called Fanny Bay along the route really makes me want to pause but I think my wife will insist on driving past. Either way we’ll have to stop for provisions and loo breaks as it’s over 6 hours to Port Hardy (I do hope she wants to share the driving).

Everything I read about Port Hardy told me to book in advance as the hotels/motels get booked up quickly when the ferry is due to leave so I booked us in The Quarterdeck Inn for the night. It’s quite near the ferry terminal but after that long on the road I think all I’ll want is a couple of drinks in the pub and my bed.

The ferry (going by this years schedule) leaves 10:15am and you have to be there a couple of hours before departure apparently, but I’ll check that nearer the time. It takes about 13 hours to get to Bella Coola and you travel through some amazing scenery, so I think I’ll be spending a lot of time on deck  with my camera in my hand.

We arrive in Bella Coola at around 11pm and so will have to find our hotel in the dark. That should be fun. We’re staying at the BC Mountain Lodge which I have to say looks great. We’re booked for three nights as we wanted time there to do a bit of exploring and most importantly of all, go Grizzly Bear watching.

The Lodge organises this and this is the highlight of the holiday for us (you might say actually it’s the whole reason I arranged this trip). You go upstream from the bears and then float past them in a boat and from the looks of things I’m hoping to get some amazing photographs (although perhaps not like the one above).

The day after our Grizzly experience we hit the road again and begin heading back to Vancouver…..slowly.