Moose Tour part 2 - The Rockies
Day 6: Kelowna to Banff
We left Kelowna at 8:30am, and about forty-five minutes later stopped at a viewpoint near Vernon, overlooking one end of Kalamalka Lake. There was a brief rest stop somewhere along the lovely Mara Lake before continuing to Craigellachie: the place where, in 1885, the "Last Spike" of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven in, connecting eastern Canada with British Columbia's Pacific coast and creating the country's first transcontinental railroad.
Lunch was on the shores of Revelstoke Lake, a dammed part of the Columbia River. A few of the group then went kayaking while the rest of us were driven about fifteen minutes further up the lake to Martha Creek Provincial Park, where we spent about an hour and a half just relaxing - somewhat uncomfortably on the rocky beach, but still in the warm sunshine by a beautiful lake. I went for a paddle: it was colder than the Okanagan, but a couple of people went for a brief dip.
After this we started getting into the mountains properly, as we rejoined the Trans-Canada Highway which we had left at Hope, and the next rest stop was at the Rogers Pass Discovery Center, in the Selkirk Mountains of Glacier National Park. We only stayed there for about twenty minutes and didn't go into the little museum, but there were telescopes, a few information boards and cute ground squirrels outside.
Somewhere between Rogers Pass and our next rest stop in the town of Golden we lost an hour, crossing time zones into Mountain Daylight Time. We arrived in the early evening at the beautifully mirror-like Emerald Lake, our first glacial one, in Yoho National Park. The name Yoho comes from the Cree word for awe and wonder, and the park is the smallest of the four adjoining national parks (Yoho, Kootenay, Jasper and Banff) which, along with three of BC's provincial parks, make up the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. A handful of people braved a brief swim in the lake, the two guys deciding to jump off the bridge instead of walking in from the shore, which was amusing :) As we were leaving we saw a deer in the car park, and we sat watching it for about five minutes until an arriving car scared it off. The final stop before Banff was still in Yoho NP, at the Natural Bridge, where the Kicking Horse River has created a natural bridge through solid rock. There is a gap but it's small enough to step across and the power of the water was impressive.
Crossing the Continental Divide (river systems east of which flow into the Atlantic Ocean, west of which to the Pacific) and into the province of Alberta, we arrived in Banff about twelve hours after leaving Kelowna. All twenty-one of us went for dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory, haha. A table had been reserved but thankfully it wasn't quite so busy anyway, being quite late. It was something ridiculous like gone 11pm by the time we left and drove the several kilometres to the hostel.
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Tuesday 20th August 2013, day 40 - Vancouver to Kelowna
Moose Tour part 2 - The Rockies
Day 5: Vancouver to Kelowna
After heading east out of Vancouver at about 8am, our second stop (after grocery shop) was at Bridal Veil Falls near Chilliwack in the Fraser Valley, about an hour and a half away. Apparently the total height is 122m, but only the bottom 60-75m can be seen because the viewing point is at the base of a very steep mountainside. It was really nice, and we climbed the slope next to it to get closer. We had lunch on a park lawn in the town of Hope and made a toilet/snack stop in Merritt before arriving in Kelowna mid-afternoon.
Kelowna is located about halfway down the 135km/84mile-long Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, which actually extends down into Washington State. It's known as Canada's California, with a dry warm and sunny climate, lakeshore communities and dry landscapes that have lots of wineries and fruit-growing farms. It was odd to think that I was still in Canada there. We arrived at the hostel but didn't check in straight away, instead making the five-minute walk to the shore for the included houseboat party. We had a ride on a jet boat beforehand, which was so much fun! It went up to 80km/h and did a lot of maneuvers including 360-degree spins. Sat in the back corner I got a bit wet when it did those, but dried off quickly enough in the sunshine after it dropped us off on the houseboat. The 'party' was quite boring, but it was nice to be out on the lake.
Five dinners were included as part of the fifteen-day trip, and this was the second (the first was when the guide cooked in Tofino). We had salmon with potatoes, veg and salad. It was so tasty! The potato chunks were baked and seasoned with herbs, and the salad dressing was sweet with cranberries and pecans and I really wish I knew the ingredients! A while after dinner we walked down to the beach for a swim; the water was lovely and I stayed in for about ten minutes :)
I enjoyed seeing how the landscape changed, from hills and mountains in the Metro Vancouver area, to great flat floodplains in the Fraser Valley with farms everywhere and mountains in the distance either side (very pretty), then getting hillier again but drier and a bit desert-like nearer Merritt and Kelowna. It was interesting, and only a tiny distance in comparison to the whole country.
Day 5: Vancouver to Kelowna
After heading east out of Vancouver at about 8am, our second stop (after grocery shop) was at Bridal Veil Falls near Chilliwack in the Fraser Valley, about an hour and a half away. Apparently the total height is 122m, but only the bottom 60-75m can be seen because the viewing point is at the base of a very steep mountainside. It was really nice, and we climbed the slope next to it to get closer. We had lunch on a park lawn in the town of Hope and made a toilet/snack stop in Merritt before arriving in Kelowna mid-afternoon.
Kelowna is located about halfway down the 135km/84mile-long Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, which actually extends down into Washington State. It's known as Canada's California, with a dry warm and sunny climate, lakeshore communities and dry landscapes that have lots of wineries and fruit-growing farms. It was odd to think that I was still in Canada there. We arrived at the hostel but didn't check in straight away, instead making the five-minute walk to the shore for the included houseboat party. We had a ride on a jet boat beforehand, which was so much fun! It went up to 80km/h and did a lot of maneuvers including 360-degree spins. Sat in the back corner I got a bit wet when it did those, but dried off quickly enough in the sunshine after it dropped us off on the houseboat. The 'party' was quite boring, but it was nice to be out on the lake.
Five dinners were included as part of the fifteen-day trip, and this was the second (the first was when the guide cooked in Tofino). We had salmon with potatoes, veg and salad. It was so tasty! The potato chunks were baked and seasoned with herbs, and the salad dressing was sweet with cranberries and pecans and I really wish I knew the ingredients! A while after dinner we walked down to the beach for a swim; the water was lovely and I stayed in for about ten minutes :)
I enjoyed seeing how the landscape changed, from hills and mountains in the Metro Vancouver area, to great flat floodplains in the Fraser Valley with farms everywhere and mountains in the distance either side (very pretty), then getting hillier again but drier and a bit desert-like nearer Merritt and Kelowna. It was interesting, and only a tiny distance in comparison to the whole country.
Monday, 19 August 2013
Saturday 17th August 2013, day 38 - Victoria
Moose Tour part 1 - Vancouver Island
Day 4: Victoria to Vancouver
I didn't really like
Downtown though, at least not on my own – it wasn't so daunting when we were in a
group later. The streets were very busy and people had been out drinking for a
couple of hours already. The place I was meeting Nicky and Suzi from the trip, and the others they were with, was full by the time I got there so I had to
wait in the queue for about an hour before I got in and met them inside. It was
a bar but had a dance floor and remixed music, so it wasn't a full-on club, but
I didn't enjoy it – I definitely prefer sit-down pubs/bars like we'd been to in
Tofino and Victoria, where I can listen to live bands, or at least decent
music, and where there’s no obligation to dance. But I did it, it was an
opportunity I took, however reluctantly. We left about 2:30am and the others
bought poutine - the kebab of Vancouver, basically chips with cheese chunks and
gravy – before we parted ways and I came back to the house. Now that was the
latest I've ever been out.
So to finish up, I really liked Vancouver Island, and would definitely like to go back to the places I've been on this short trip, and see more of it. Off to the Rockies next!
Day 4: Victoria to Vancouver
We didn't need to leave for the ferry until 3pm so after checking out at
11am we put our luggage in a safe room at the hostel then three of us made the
ten-minute walk to the Royal BC Museum. Fantastic place! The best part was the
Old Town – a bit like they have at Flambards in Cornwall, but better, or
Herberton (Australia) but all indoors. On the same floor were reconstructions
of a fish cannery, mine shaft and waterwheel, Captain Cook's HMS Discovery, and
the First Nations Gallery, which had a lot of information as well as houses and
totem poles.
That was just one floor! Thankfully we'd gone in there first, because we
had to hurry through the second floor, which had the natural history section
and also an exhibition on the Scott-Amundsen race to the South Pole. It's a
shame we only had a few hours, I could spend all day in there. The ticket
allows one to go in and out of the museum as much as they want all day until it
closes at 10pm, so maybe I'll go back to Victoria on one of my days off while
I'm Wwoofing, or before coming back to Vancouver, and spend as much time as I want looking at everything –
hopefully that exhibition will still be there in a few weeks.
We left the museum at about 2pm and went down to the waterfront where
there was a dragonboat festival going on: lots of teams of amateurs raced,
several people paddling on each side of the boats. It's a fundraising event
that is apparently held in lots of different places, a bit like Race for Life
but paddling dragonboats instead of running. There were several food stalls so
for lunch I got a Phillipino curry that tasted like a Thai massaman :) and we stayed for about forty-five
minutes until it was time to get back to the hostel to go and catch the ferry.
Even though I only saw a small part of it, Victoria seems very nice. I'd
heard that it was quite British, and I know what they meant by that now. I
can't explain it, though. The ferry ride back to Vancouver went past lots of
beautiful islands, and it was still sunny and warm so we sat out on the top
deck – there was even a pod of orcas in front of the ferry at one point!
Cat, you'll be proud of me: I went out on Saturday night! Like properly
out, into town, to a bar, at a ridiculous time. Shocking! After leaving the
karaoke bar in Victoria at 2am, I said it was the latest I'd ever been out, and
that I don't go out much anyway, and one of the girls, Nicky, was shocked and
determined to make me come out the following night in Vancouver. She was
planning a night out with a few of the friends she'd been staying with
here, before going home. I was tired when I got back to the house and most of you know I've never been interested in going out on the town – but I did it. I was
stood at a bus stop at a time I'd normally be in bed, planning on staying up
for a few more hours. There were actually quite a few people around, and
there's a popular 24-hour restaurant by the bus stop, so I didn't feel unsafe,
and the bus was full of young people going Downtown too, it wasn't empty and
creepy.
So to finish up, I really liked Vancouver Island, and would definitely like to go back to the places I've been on this short trip, and see more of it. Off to the Rockies next!
Friday 16th August 2013, day 37 - Tofino to Victoria
Moose Tour part 1 - Vancouver Island
Day 3: Tofino to Victoria
We continued through the
lovely Cowichan Valley – rolling hills and farms rather than mountains – and
our last stop before Victoria was the viewpoint on Mount Douglas.
Wow! Incredible 360-degree view. It was so clear that we could even see the
mountains of the Olympic National Park in Washington State, towards Seattle.
The same four of us met up
with the guide at 9pm, and walked along the busy waterfront to see the
Parliament building and the Empress Hotel all lit up, then continued into the
main Downtown area. In contrast to the last two nights, it was dry and warm
enough here that I only needed a cardigan, not jacket and raincoat. I guess you
could call this my first pub crawl – we went to three bars in the end, though I
only had a cider at the first, then soft drinks at the other two. The last place
was out of the way and not one that tourists go to, but John took us just
for the entertainment of locals doing karaoke. The other three got up and sang "Baby One More Time" but even though I am doing things outside of my comfort
zone I'm not willing to do karaoke quite yet! So I didn't, haha. We left when
the place closed at 2am.
Day 3: Tofino to Victoria
After buying something to take for lunch at the great little
bakery-cafe, we left Tofino at about 8:30am on Friday, and about fifteen
minutes later stopped at Long Beach. The short walk through the rainforest was
really nice, and the trees kept the worst of the rain off. The beach is lovely,
but we couldn’t enjoy the half-hour walk along it to the car park at the other
end because of the pouring rain. Everyone got soaked through and changed into
drier clothes afterwards, though we couldn’t dry off fully so everything was
still damp and uncomfortable for most of the rest of the day, and my shoes were
still not dry twenty-four hours later.
We stopped next in MacMillan Provincial Park, at Cathedral Grove: a
magnificent 157 hectare stand of ancient Douglas-firs. It cheered me up after
the drenching at Long Beach, it was stunningly beautiful. The biggest tree
there is eight hundred years old, nine metres round and at
seventy-six metres is taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We were more adventurous here than at Wally Creek and did follow John walking
barefoot along some of the huge fallen trees, and on smaller ones at the edge
of the lake. It meant that the inside of my shoes got dirty as well as went but
walking barefoot on the slippery logs was easier than in shoes and actually
really nice!
After that we stopped for lunch at Coombs Old Country Market, aka
Goats-on-the-Roof (the main building has goats on the sod roof during the
spring). I love it there! There are lots of different shops: a deli, bakery,
grocery shop, ice cream place, souvenirs, gifts, clothes, restaurant, etc. It was a bit like a big farm shop, with extras, and you know how excited I get about stuff like that. However tempting the warm pies in the bakery were, I stuck with
the lunch I'd bought from the bakery in Tofino, a cold but tasty slice of
breakfast pizza.
The rain had gradually been lessening as we went east and there wasn't a
cloud in the sky when we stopped at Chemainus, a town famous for its outdoor
murals. Thankfully we dried off quickly as we walked round to look at them. The
town is really nice, and still has all the frontier-era 19th century
buildings, which was really cool.
The first thing we did upon arrival at the waterfront hostel in Victoria
was to go straight to the laundry room! Thankfully I had a spare pair of shoes
to wear for the evening so I could leave my wet ones to dry. Four of us went
across the road to a pizza place for dinner. It looked nothing fancy, just a
take-away place with a few tables, but the pizza was great! Interesting
variety, they all sounded good, and mine was very very tasty! I took a take-away
menu so I can make pizzas with those sorts of toppings at home, hehe.
Weds 14th/Thurs 15th August 2013, days 35/36 - Vancouver to Tofino
Moose Tour part 1 - Vancouver Island
Day 1: Vancouver to Tofino
We took the ferry on Wednesday morning from North Vancouver to Nanaimo, then drove west across the island. Our first stop (after the shop to get food) was at Little Qualicum Falls, where we had lunch and went for a walk to see the falls. It was so beautiful! After that we made a short stop at Sproat Lake to see the petroglyphs there. Nobody knows how old the rock carvings are, but they were there when the first Europeans arrived in the area so are at least two hundred years old. Sproat Lake is really nice, very quiet and peaceful with little gravelly beach areas and it'd be a lovely place to go swimming. It's also where the water bomber plane (used to help put out forest fires) is kept, so we saw that. We made another stop at Wally Creek, just a good place to go walking over the rocks and look at or go in the river, where our driver/guide John went clambering barefoot across the rocks and through the water. None of us were quite adventurous enough to follow him.
Tofino is a fishing village located in the Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I love it. The sea was calm but the cloud was low and it was lightly raining (as had been the case since we stopped at Little Qualicum Falls), but some of the islands were still just visible across the water. The small hostel we stayed in is owned by Moose and has enough beds to accommodate a full tour bus (twelve people including driver) so there were no other travellers there for the two nights we stayed. After a dinner cooked by John on the first night, some of us made the fifteen-minute walk in the rain to the pub at the other end of the village. It was very busy because of karaoke night, but most people in there seemed to be young travellers like us, and we stayed maybe an hour/hour and a half before most of us went back to the hostel.
Day 2: Tofino
Thursday was spent on the wildlife-watching/hot springs trip, with three other people from the group. I loved the two-hour boat trip up the coast, past some of the numerous islands - some were large and had mountains, beaches and forests, some further out were just plain rock. It was so beautiful, even though it was still drizzly and cloudy so not all of them were clearly visible... though I think I preferred it like that, instead of having cloudless sunshine. It all reminded me how much I love the sea. We were lucky and saw a lot of wildlife: bald eagles, sea otters, sea lions, seals, grey whales and orcas! Orcas aren't sighted very often, unlike the greys, so were were very fortunate.
We arrived at the hot springs about 2:30pm, had lunch and went along the boardwalk through the beautiful rainforest to the springs, which took about half an hour. The hot springs was a waterfall and stream with a few pools in, next to the sea, and there were a lot of people. Obviously it was very hot but I did immerse myself up to my shoulders, and like with the sea it wasn't so bad after a few moments - but I did only stay in for a minute or two.
We returned through the rainforest to the boat and set off around 5:30pm. We saw the grey whales again on the way back, in pretty much the same place as they had been before, quite close to shore on one of the large islands. The cloud had lifted a little by then and the mountains on some of the islands were more visible, and I noticed a couple of definite crater shapes, which was cool. We arrived back in Tofino at about 7pm to some hot peppermint tea (yum :)) at the activities centre, returned to the hostel and got ready to go out for dinner. Nowhere had room for all nine of us that had come out, so we split up in the end, although seven of us went to the first place we'd tried anyway but couldn't sit all together. It was a fantastic restaurant that was expensive but worth the money, the food was amazing!
Day 1: Vancouver to Tofino
We took the ferry on Wednesday morning from North Vancouver to Nanaimo, then drove west across the island. Our first stop (after the shop to get food) was at Little Qualicum Falls, where we had lunch and went for a walk to see the falls. It was so beautiful! After that we made a short stop at Sproat Lake to see the petroglyphs there. Nobody knows how old the rock carvings are, but they were there when the first Europeans arrived in the area so are at least two hundred years old. Sproat Lake is really nice, very quiet and peaceful with little gravelly beach areas and it'd be a lovely place to go swimming. It's also where the water bomber plane (used to help put out forest fires) is kept, so we saw that. We made another stop at Wally Creek, just a good place to go walking over the rocks and look at or go in the river, where our driver/guide John went clambering barefoot across the rocks and through the water. None of us were quite adventurous enough to follow him.
Tofino is a fishing village located in the Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I love it. The sea was calm but the cloud was low and it was lightly raining (as had been the case since we stopped at Little Qualicum Falls), but some of the islands were still just visible across the water. The small hostel we stayed in is owned by Moose and has enough beds to accommodate a full tour bus (twelve people including driver) so there were no other travellers there for the two nights we stayed. After a dinner cooked by John on the first night, some of us made the fifteen-minute walk in the rain to the pub at the other end of the village. It was very busy because of karaoke night, but most people in there seemed to be young travellers like us, and we stayed maybe an hour/hour and a half before most of us went back to the hostel.
Day 2: Tofino
Thursday was spent on the wildlife-watching/hot springs trip, with three other people from the group. I loved the two-hour boat trip up the coast, past some of the numerous islands - some were large and had mountains, beaches and forests, some further out were just plain rock. It was so beautiful, even though it was still drizzly and cloudy so not all of them were clearly visible... though I think I preferred it like that, instead of having cloudless sunshine. It all reminded me how much I love the sea. We were lucky and saw a lot of wildlife: bald eagles, sea otters, sea lions, seals, grey whales and orcas! Orcas aren't sighted very often, unlike the greys, so were were very fortunate.
We arrived at the hot springs about 2:30pm, had lunch and went along the boardwalk through the beautiful rainforest to the springs, which took about half an hour. The hot springs was a waterfall and stream with a few pools in, next to the sea, and there were a lot of people. Obviously it was very hot but I did immerse myself up to my shoulders, and like with the sea it wasn't so bad after a few moments - but I did only stay in for a minute or two.
We returned through the rainforest to the boat and set off around 5:30pm. We saw the grey whales again on the way back, in pretty much the same place as they had been before, quite close to shore on one of the large islands. The cloud had lifted a little by then and the mountains on some of the islands were more visible, and I noticed a couple of definite crater shapes, which was cool. We arrived back in Tofino at about 7pm to some hot peppermint tea (yum :)) at the activities centre, returned to the hostel and got ready to go out for dinner. Nowhere had room for all nine of us that had come out, so we split up in the end, although seven of us went to the first place we'd tried anyway but couldn't sit all together. It was a fantastic restaurant that was expensive but worth the money, the food was amazing!
Friday, 9 August 2013
Friday 9th August 2013, day 30 - Moose Tour booked
I'm going to the Rockies! Yay. I've booked myself onto a Moose tour. Moose is an adventure travel company for young people/backpackers, the Canadian equivalent of the company I did the trip in Ireland with. So I'll be going on my own but with a busload of other individuals. The one I've booked is a hop-on, hop-off minimum fifteen-day trip that goes across to Tofino and Victoria on Vancouver Island, then up to Whistler, then across to the Rockies. I leave this coming Wednesday, 14th August. That may seem soon, but after mid-September there are no trips until mid-May... and seeing as the Rocky Mountains are pretty much the reason I came to this country, I didn't want to wait until I'd been here for ten months before I go there.
The itinerary is here: http://www.moosenetwork.com/content.php?id=4
Now that says there's an overnight stop in Vancouver before heading up to Whistler. However the departure for Whistler for the 18th is fully booked, so from Saturday evening til Tuesday morning I'll stay in Vancouver before departing for the Rockies on the 20th, and will go to Whistler last. I could even go to Whistler after my two weeks Wwoofing, if I wanted to.
I've mentioned to a couple of people that there's another trip, a big MeetUp event, that I've been thinking of going on. I haven't told them where it is, though: I wanted to wait until it was booked and then surprise you all with "I'm going to Yellowstone!"
So yes, somebody on MeetUp is organising a six-day trip down to Yellowstone National Park - but now I don't think I'm going to go. After going to a meeting on Monday to discuss it and meet the other people going, the only reason I would go now is because it's cheap. Most of the time is spent travelling so we'd only have two days in the park. The tour company is a small Chinese one that isn't well-known and reputable, and the tour guides don't speak English. Also after meeting the handful of other people thinking of going, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable or enjoy spending six full days on a bus with them.
Most of you know how I hate spending money, but I realise now that this sort of thing is what I saved my money for. I'd rather spend twice the amount and go by myself in May, spend as much time in and around the park as I like, listen to expert local guides, do everything I want to do and have the best possible time. Unlike for the others going on the MeetUp trip, I can't drive down there in a couple of years and do what I want then. Maybe I'll meet one or two people between now and spring that I'd be happy to go with, too.
:)
The itinerary is here: http://www.moosenetwork.com/content.php?id=4
Now that says there's an overnight stop in Vancouver before heading up to Whistler. However the departure for Whistler for the 18th is fully booked, so from Saturday evening til Tuesday morning I'll stay in Vancouver before departing for the Rockies on the 20th, and will go to Whistler last. I could even go to Whistler after my two weeks Wwoofing, if I wanted to.
I've mentioned to a couple of people that there's another trip, a big MeetUp event, that I've been thinking of going on. I haven't told them where it is, though: I wanted to wait until it was booked and then surprise you all with "I'm going to Yellowstone!"
So yes, somebody on MeetUp is organising a six-day trip down to Yellowstone National Park - but now I don't think I'm going to go. After going to a meeting on Monday to discuss it and meet the other people going, the only reason I would go now is because it's cheap. Most of the time is spent travelling so we'd only have two days in the park. The tour company is a small Chinese one that isn't well-known and reputable, and the tour guides don't speak English. Also after meeting the handful of other people thinking of going, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable or enjoy spending six full days on a bus with them.
Most of you know how I hate spending money, but I realise now that this sort of thing is what I saved my money for. I'd rather spend twice the amount and go by myself in May, spend as much time in and around the park as I like, listen to expert local guides, do everything I want to do and have the best possible time. Unlike for the others going on the MeetUp trip, I can't drive down there in a couple of years and do what I want then. Maybe I'll meet one or two people between now and spring that I'd be happy to go with, too.
:)
Tuesday, 6 August 2013
Monday 5th August 2013, day 26 - BC Day Bowling
I went to another MeetUp event today, this time ten-pin bowling. It was part British Columbia Day celebration, part 4000-member-milestone celebration for the group. (Not all 4000 members came! Maybe about 40.) $10 for 2 games, shoe rental, pizza and cake =] It was a lot of fun, the other people in my lane were really nice and friendly, and some of us went to English Bay Beach afterwards for a short while before I left at 6 to go to a meeting to discuss another possible event with a different group.
East Vancouver is horrible. It's like a massive Shirley in terms of appearance, except you wouldn't want to walk on your own there even during the day, and it'd be insane to do so at night. The bus to the Skytrain station (had to catch the Skytrain to bowling place) goes along Broadway into East Vancouver and frankly I'm glad I don't live anywhere near it. East of Main Street was the one place that the people at Work'N'Holiday specifically told us not to look for accomodation in.
On the other hand, what I saw of the southern part of Downtown Vancouver, around English Bay Beach, Davie Street and Yaletown, was really nice, and I definitely wouldn't mind going there again. One of the bowling people pointed out and recommended a particular Thai restaurant and an ice-cream shop. Sure enough the latter had a huge queue outside.
That's all for now, just a short post this time. :)
East Vancouver is horrible. It's like a massive Shirley in terms of appearance, except you wouldn't want to walk on your own there even during the day, and it'd be insane to do so at night. The bus to the Skytrain station (had to catch the Skytrain to bowling place) goes along Broadway into East Vancouver and frankly I'm glad I don't live anywhere near it. East of Main Street was the one place that the people at Work'N'Holiday specifically told us not to look for accomodation in.
On the other hand, what I saw of the southern part of Downtown Vancouver, around English Bay Beach, Davie Street and Yaletown, was really nice, and I definitely wouldn't mind going there again. One of the bowling people pointed out and recommended a particular Thai restaurant and an ice-cream shop. Sure enough the latter had a huge queue outside.
That's all for now, just a short post this time. :)
Sunday, 4 August 2013
Saturday 3rd August 2013, day 24 - Jug Island Hike
I went hiking today :) It was a MeetUp event, and there were 14 people in total. We went to Belcarra Regional Park, about an hour north-east of Vancouver. I took the Skytrain (like the Tube but elevated overground with only three lines) to Lougheed and got a lift from the event organiser with two other girls. We met the others at the Belcarra Picnic Area, a nice large grassy area on the waterfront with a dock, a couple of rocky beaches, kayak rental hut, small cafe or snack booth, and a barbecue area with lots of covered picnic tables. A very nice place to go even without the hiking trails.
The Jug Island Trail is a fairly easy hour's hike through the forest to Jug Island Beach, so named because said island is right in front of it. We got there at about half eleven and stayed for a while to rest and have something to eat, then made our way back to the Picnic Area - where some of the group stayed to relax when the rest of us decided to do the shorter, easier trail as well. That one took about half an hour to get to a smooth rocky outcrop overlooking where the Burrard Inlet meets the Indian Arm, the larger of two side inlets and where Belcarra RP and Jug Island are located. I didn't realise but Burrard Inlet and the Indian and Port Moody Arms are actually fjords.
Most of the group left after we got back to the Picnic Area but five of us decided to go for a late lunch/early dinner (4pm-ish) of fish and chips at an all-you-can-eat place in Coquitlam on the way back to Lougheed. The two other carpooling girls and I just had the 'smaller appetite' portions, just one peice of fish with chips instead of the all-you-can-eat, which was enough for me. But the organiser ate 10 peices of fish and a full plate of chips, and the other guy 13 peices and a full plate of chips. (The fish portions were half the size of what you get at home but still) Haha!
So I enjoyed all that, and had a nice day :) The weather was good, the hike wasn't too strenuous and I talked to a few people.
Tonight was the last night of the Celebration of Light, basically a series of big firework shows. Apparently it's international, and a bit of a competition between different countries. This week was Vancouver's turn, so the first show was last Saturday, the second Wednesday and the last one was tonight. The fireworks start at 10pm and last for about 25 minutes, and are set off from barges in English Bay between the Downtown peninsula and Kitsilano. I hadn't been to watch the other two so I walked about ten minutes to a park at the end of the road where there was a good view and lots of people. It was really good =]
I have my first WWOOFing experience sorted out! I'm going to a farm in the south of Vancouver Island, on September 8th or 9th for a couple of weeks. Hopefully that'll go well :)
The Jug Island Trail is a fairly easy hour's hike through the forest to Jug Island Beach, so named because said island is right in front of it. We got there at about half eleven and stayed for a while to rest and have something to eat, then made our way back to the Picnic Area - where some of the group stayed to relax when the rest of us decided to do the shorter, easier trail as well. That one took about half an hour to get to a smooth rocky outcrop overlooking where the Burrard Inlet meets the Indian Arm, the larger of two side inlets and where Belcarra RP and Jug Island are located. I didn't realise but Burrard Inlet and the Indian and Port Moody Arms are actually fjords.
Most of the group left after we got back to the Picnic Area but five of us decided to go for a late lunch/early dinner (4pm-ish) of fish and chips at an all-you-can-eat place in Coquitlam on the way back to Lougheed. The two other carpooling girls and I just had the 'smaller appetite' portions, just one peice of fish with chips instead of the all-you-can-eat, which was enough for me. But the organiser ate 10 peices of fish and a full plate of chips, and the other guy 13 peices and a full plate of chips. (The fish portions were half the size of what you get at home but still) Haha!
So I enjoyed all that, and had a nice day :) The weather was good, the hike wasn't too strenuous and I talked to a few people.
Tonight was the last night of the Celebration of Light, basically a series of big firework shows. Apparently it's international, and a bit of a competition between different countries. This week was Vancouver's turn, so the first show was last Saturday, the second Wednesday and the last one was tonight. The fireworks start at 10pm and last for about 25 minutes, and are set off from barges in English Bay between the Downtown peninsula and Kitsilano. I hadn't been to watch the other two so I walked about ten minutes to a park at the end of the road where there was a good view and lots of people. It was really good =]
I have my first WWOOFing experience sorted out! I'm going to a farm in the south of Vancouver Island, on September 8th or 9th for a couple of weeks. Hopefully that'll go well :)
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