Andy & Gillie's Big Adventure!: What's in a Name?

As more wasn’t added before posting last time, we’ll bring you up to speed with the latest wanderings since Trinidad.

What’s in a name indeed? We have visited much of the UK and parts of Europe on our way to Canada, just by travelling up the west coast and into the Rocky Mountains (more later). We have stayed at or driven through/near the aforementioned Trinidad, then Denmark, Florence, Newport, Kent, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Lincoln (City), as well as the delightfully thought-provoking Humptulips (!) In Canada our mobile provider is Fido and the network is operated by Rogers. There y’go.

After a very pleasant sojourn in Trinidad, we progressed up the coast. The weather was getting cooler, but still mainly sunny and we availed ourselves of a variety of casino free RV parking – one of which was right by the sea and gave us one of the best sunsets after a very unpromising cloudy day. The west coast above San Francisco, into Oregon and Washington State is uniformly wonderful and spectacular, with some truly breathtaking scenery. It was quite tough driving, but worth the effort.

On Friday 19^th June, following a long wait at border control, we drove into Canada, breaking our routine of arriving in new (or at least leaving previous) countries on the 21^st of the month. Strangely, the Canadian border guard asked if Gillie had had a traumatic experience the last time (34+ years ago) she had travelled to Canada. Something about pepper spray…

Anyway, having been thwarted in our attempts to visit Vancouver Island by outrageous ferry costs and full boats, we booked in to stay at a campground nearest downtown Vancouver and availed ourselves of the delights of that city. Vancouver is divided into three main areas – each a city in itself – North, West and East (didn’t see South mentioned – may be wrong) and has a variety of great places to see.

The women’s football world cup was being held while we were there and Canada Women had just beaten Switzerland to get into the semi finals on our last night. They may have won it by now, for all we know…

We were very fortunate to have another ex-pat, Tyson, as our guide while we were in Vancouver and can unreservedly recommend his restaurant (well, not his, but you know what I mean) Tacofino for great grub and atmosphere. The sangria was very nice too. Thanks for putting yourself out and showing us round Tyson, we had a great time.

We did some serious walking while in Vancouver, so got a good ‘feel’ for the city. It has a bit of a London vibe in some parts but is small and friendly enough not to feel too overwhelming. It’s great for cycling and walking too, especially around Stanley Park, where we saw several games of cricket being played. On the subject of which, it was nice to see England win some one-day and T20 matches for a change. Bring on the Ashes!

We also met a very nice chap – Barry – whilst in Vancouver who gave us lots of ideas for camping when we get to ‘The Prairie’ – the seemingly endless stretch of flat featureless land we have to cross between the Rockies and the Great Lakes. He also invited us to use the drive at a house he has at Delta Beach while we explore Lake Manitoba.

We put in a couple of hefty trips out of Vancouver, stopping at surely one of the most spectacular truck stops in the world at Ten Mile Hill before traversing Rogers Pass (more name-checks) and arriving in Lake Louise in Banff National Park.

If you’ve been to The Rockies, you’ll know what we mean when we say it’s some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world. Like New Zealand, but on a massive scale. Huge snow-capped mountains (even in June), beautiful bluey-green rivers and lakes, acres upon acres of pine forest. Just stunning. Then unfortunately bits of it devastated by widescale logging. However, we have been amazed by the beauty of the area and Molly Too hasn’t had too much in the way of steep winding mountain roads to handle.

We’re sitting in the forest at Tunnel Mountain campground writing this, surrounded by marmots and thinking about more foccary* tonight. The sky is a deep blue, it’s about 32C – wasn’t expecting this! Last night was epic – warm enough to sit out till after 10.30 – still light – in t-shirt and shorts with the fire going beautifully and as much firewood as you want. As we said in the facebook post ‘foccary fuckin heaven’!

*if you don’t know what it is – look it up! If you can’t find it, you may never know…

PS. Hi there, happy Wimbledon, Glastonbury, lovely summer evenings to you all. The schools in Canada finish today, so it all kicks off and we’ll have to fight to get a camp spot (luckily, being pensioners, our elbows are sharp!)

Now what about Canada…Wow, what a place, it’s fabulous!! I’ve been to the east coast several times during my flying career (and no, I didn’t have an ‘incident’ with a pepper spray – I thought he was joking but border control don’t joke, do they? Anyway it was someone with a name ‘like mine,’ Andy pointed out that I wasn’t called Rogers last time I came, so they let us through!!)

I loved Toronto and Montreal, however I’ve never been to the west and as Andy said, it’s just breathtaking. The people are so friendly, the weather is gorgeous and the scenery is wow, wow, wow. We couldn’t believe it when driving through the Rockies we found we had to put our watches forward an hour which means that the sun is still shining brightly at 9.30pm…wonderful!

We’ve just spent two nights near Banff, which is a perfect little town, surrounded by snowy mountains. it has the air of Queenstown in New Zealand, really busy and buzzy, a real fun place. Tomorrow it’s Calgary and then east… Andy and I are thinking about doing GCSE geography when we return, or at least going on Mastermind, to show off our newfound knowledge of the world.

Oooh, I forgot to mention Vancouver, another Wow! I just loved the city, it has such a lovely energetic feel and it was made all the more special by having Tyson to show us around, thanks again! Golly, I’ve gone on a bit haven’t I? We are just so taken with Canada, so if you ever have the opportunity you must come to see for yourselves. A final word, we are on series 5 now of ‘Breaking Bad’ and I’d just like to know if there is life afterwards??? Bye for now from gorgeous, sunny Canada. Love G xxxx