After our ferry delays we finally arrived on Vancouver Island to a very soggy evening where we travelled a short way up the east coast to our overnight stop in a little cabin near Qualicum Beach. This is supposed to be a great family beach resort – but we chose staying in the dry over an evening walk! The next day we were traveling to Tofino and Ucluelet on the West coast and our Airbnb host had advised us to get an early start to allow us to arrive there by lunch time. We should have listened, but a lazy morning was too appealing after arriving late the night before!

We eventually got going at 10am and headed to Catherdral Grove after a brief stop at the Old Country Market at Coombs for coffee and pastries, and to admire the goats on the roof of the shop. Catherdral Grove is an area of forest famous for its huge Douglas Fir trees which were far too tall to capture on camera. The trees were spectacular and climbing all over them was lots of fun!

We made a brief stop for supplies and petrol at Port Alberni, which we were told would be much cheaper than the tourist towns on the west. Then we were on our way again for a short while before we hit really bad traffic! We were stopped at the side of the road for about an hour for blasting on the only road to Tofino, so we had our picnic in the car and then got out to talk to our fellow marooned travellers. Once the road had been cleared of flying debris we were on out way again.

When we finally arrived in Uclulet we parked towards the south end of the peninsular and did the Lighthouse Loop section of the Wild Pacific Trail. It was full of amazing views made better because of the glorious sunshine. We had finally made it to the pacific coast! We then headed up the coast to our campsite, pitched our tent and headed down to the campsites private beach for a walk and to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean. The ocean was very cold, but the beach was picturesque and near deserted.

In the evening we headed to a takeaway on the edge of Tofino that had some good reviews, “The Wildside Grill”. We ordered some shrimp tacos, some gumbo and a ceasar salad, the first two of which we had never had before. Both tasted absolutely fantastic and despite eating them by torchlight, we enjoyed from our first taste and will definitely have them again if the opportunity arises! We absolutely recommend the Gumbo to anyone planning a trip out this way!

The next morning we headed back to Tofino to get breakfast and investigate some kayaking options. Unfortunately we discovered that the trips that really appealed (particularly the Broken Island group trips from Ucluelet) leave at 7am-8:30am so we were a good hour late. We made a note to ourselves to research and book in any future activities that we really wanted to do, and after a wander around Tofino decided to continue with our journey back to the east coast (with yet another 1 hour delay for blasting).

Our orginal plan had been to camp on Newcastle Island the next night, which involved leaving the car on the mainland and taking all our supplies for the night across on the mini passenger ferry. A camping adventure on our own private Island! However, by the time we had arrived back on the west coast the weather had turned, and the prospect of a wet, cold, dark evening suddenly became less appealing (we must be getting old!). Instead we did a quick rethink, found an air bnb and spent an hour wandering around the Island (camping there on a warm, dry summer evening really would have been special) before catching the last boat back at 4:45pm for an evening of downtime!

Another benefit of last nights decision making was that we only had a 90 minute drive to get to Victoria the next day so could enjoy a later start, with plenty of time for a couple of stops enroute on a beautiful sunny day. First on the list: Cochian bay with fabulous views across the Strait of Georgia, a great little bakery (picnic supply restock time) and floating houses.

Our picnic stop of choice was Goldstream Park, a nature lovers paradise less than 20km from Victoria, followed by a afternoon walk. We had two options easy valley walk along the Salmon spawning stream to the ‘other’ Niagara falls, or tough hike to the top of Mount Finlayson. Can you guess which one we went for?

The walk up Mount Finlayson turned out to be a wonderfully challenging scramble (made more accessible by frequent route markers on the rock faces to show you which line to take). It was brilliant and Claire was happy we had snuck in another adventure (it went a good way to appease for our kayaking fail) and we both enjoyed the views at the top. Next stop: Victoria.

At the end of our drive (a little wetter than the first one) down the Icefield Parkway we travelled West and crossed over into Yoho National Park (which also marks the border between the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia) at lunchtime. We had the next 2 days to cross BC on our way to Vancouver Island.

One of Yoho’s main visitor attractions is actually a man-made one. In Canada Pacific Railway’s venture to link the two coasts of Canadia together by rail, they hit a major stumbling block in Yoho, where the dramatic Rockies begin to fall away steeply and you can drive for about 20 minutes without hitting the accelerator! Initially the trains were directed straight down the hill at a grade of 4.5% (one of the steepest sections of railway in the world to rely purely on friction between wheels and track). Despite three safety runaways and a speed limit of 8mph, accidents involving runaway trains occurred with “alarming frequency”. They eventually solved this problem with two loop the loop sections of track where long trains travel over the top of themselves through tunnels in the cliff faces. Sadly, no trains were present during our visit and the tunnels were hard to pick out through the cloud.

Our other (and final) stop in Yoho was to Takakkaw Falls, the second highest Waterfall in Canada. With a main falls drop of 254m it’s pretty impressive even on a rainy day! The rest of the afternoon was spent driving through Glacier and Revelstoke National Parks. We had been looking forward to the promise of a drive through hundreds of glaciers but sadly the low lying cloud meant we didn’t see a single one!

One benefit of travelling across to BC was that it meant we had gained another hour, so with walking in the rain less than appealing Claire took this as an opportunity to add another stop into the itinerary – to the Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre near Golden. It is very rare to see a wolf in the wild in Canada, where cash rewards for hunting and killing wolves are still in place. This sanctuary offers a home to wolves born in captivity (i.e. Zoos), and raises money to try to protect the now endangered wild wolves of Canada. Unfortunately, on arriving at the centre we found out that BC ‘mountain time’ (the Alberta time zone extends beyond the border so that all of the Rockies are in the same time) extended into Golden, despite being out side the National Parks. In essence, our 90 minute visit had just been reduced to 30! 😦 On the plus side we got to witness an awesome wolf chorus / howling competition just as we were leaving.

The other plus side, it transpired, was that our journey to the Wolf Sanctuary had led us off the main highways, down some single track country lanes. As Gareth patiently continued to try to teach Claire the difference between left and right, we suddenly came across a black bear sitting just in a field at the side of the road. After staring at each other in a ‘did we just see what we think we just saw’ kinda way, we span the car round and did two very slow drive passes with the bear kindly sticking put for the photoshoot!

The rest of the journey to our overnight stop in Revelstoke was very rainy with such poor visibility that to be honest, we were just glad to arrive and have a roof over our heads for the night. The next morning, a run around the riverside gave Claire a chance to look back out across the National Park, before we set off southwest into the Okanagan region of British Columbia.

With our tent and food loaded we excitedly set off early morning for our adventure into the Rockies. Over the next 2 hour drive the landscape slowly changed from city to rolling hills to dramatic peaks as we entered the south of the national park.

We arrived in Banff at 11am, dropped off the car and after a quick browse around the tourist information office (which is also the train station), we took a shuttle bus up to the Mount Norquay chairlift station to meet our Via Ferrata guide Kim for an afternoon of traversing the cliffs above Banff town. Luckily, no one else had booked onto our tour so we had the 4 hour session to ourselves. After a quick safety briefing, and kit out in harnesses and hard hats we were on our way up the chairlift. The next four hours were EPIC!

Our Via Ferrata course took us across gorges, scaling sheer cliff faces and up to the peak ridge of Mount Norquay for 360 views across Banff national park. It was a day where the sun seemed to come out just at the right time and the rain seemed to be avoiding us. We took in the incredible views that without the Via Ferrata routes would only be accessible to extreme climbers and mountain goats; and we had them all to ourselves. What a way to kick off our Rockies adventure – we would recommend to everyone (except CJ and anyone else with a fear of heights!!).

After an adrenaline filled few hours we headed back down the mountain to find our campsite, set some bear traps (only joking!) and headed back into Banff town to admire the Bow River before head to Bare Street Tavern to celebrate surviving the mountains, and plot our next scheme before heading back to camp to test out our $25 tent – fingers crossed!

Both we and the tent survived the night and the next day we only had to head an hour up the road to Lake Louise. First we took a short walk over the road to look at some Hoodoos.  These are tall thin columns of rock that stick up out of the landscape and are usually formed of a soft easily eroded rock that is topped by a harder rock that protects the rock below from erosion.  These weren’t particularly impressive, but the views of the surrounding mountains – Mount Rundle, Sulphur Mountain and Tunnel Mountain – and the Bow River valley were.  We also stopped briefly at Surprise Corner Lookout, where the surprise was…. a view of a big hotel.

When we arrived in Lake Louise we were extremely glad that we had pre booked the Lake Louise camp site as the village was heaving and the national park strictly controls the amount of tourists that drive up to the lake itself, with parking space for the shuttle buses also limited. As a result, we checked into our campsite at midday, left the car there and walked the 4km trail to the lake shore. What a view! Whilst Lake Louise is busy, the view is most definitely worth it and the shore line is so long that if you’re reasonably able bodied you can walk round to find a quiet spot to enjoy it all to yourself.

Of all the hikes in the area Kim, our guide from yesterday, had recommended the one to the teahouse at the Plain of Six Glaciers. Gareth had visited Lake Louise on his previous trip to the Rockies so it was also a great opportunity to extend our walk to give him a bit of a different view of the area. By the time we had had reached the far shore of the lake, we had completely left the tour groups behind and were soon resuming our ‘clap and shout’ approach to Bear avoidance!! The route wandered gently up the valley, through forests and cliff faces, with intermittent fantastic views back across to Lake Louise and the famous hotel on its far shore.

The trees were just starting to turn autumn yellow, which gradually increased as we drifted up the mountainside and the glaciers became more prominent features. The last kilometre was steeper uphill so by the time we reached the teahouse we were in awe of those crazy first summiteers who had made it to the top of the mountains at the end of the valley. It’s impressive to think that people had built a teahouse in the middle of the mountains in 1927 and that the amazing staff still live there during the week and carry in and out weekly restocks on foot so that hikers don’t go hungry! We were therefore obliged to sample some mountain soup, stew and (of course) tea as we sat overlooking the glaciers and jumping at periodic avalanches/ ice calving (we heard and saw 3 whilst we were there!).

We got back to our campsite by the shuttle bus, which is free on the way down.  We tried to get an early night, because the Moraine Lake car park also fills up quickly and the walk there wouldn’t have fitted into our day.  This was helped by sharing a bottle of red wine and the relaxing feeling that we were safe from bears as this campsite had an electric fence around the perimeter.

When Gareth was came to the Rockies with his family, one of his highlights was the view from the top of “The Rockpile” over Moraine Lake and down “The Valley of the Ten Peaks”. As a result he was keen to go back and share this experience with Claire. Unfortunately we woke up to rain and grey sky, but not to be deterred and with weather reports suggesting the rain might ease off we drove up to across to Moraine Lake for 9am, just before the car park filled up. When we got to the viewpoint the lake was just about visible, but the mountains around it were still tucked under a duvet of white clouds. As we stood and looked at the lake and read all the information signs, the rain started to ease and after 20 minutes of mist and drizzle we were rewarded. The clouds retreated and we were left with a truly spectacular view!

After enjoying the view we headed off up the Icefields Parkway and on towards Jasper. That will be another post though…

We arrived in Calgary on a rainy afternoon (rain was a theme of our stay here). We had two nights to take a deep breath before diving into the Rockies and our first afternoon was mostly devoted to getting ready for the next stage of our trip by buying a second-hand tent, sleeping bags and food. Between chores we managed a wander through the Calgary’s riverside park which included some interesting Wetlands treating storm water from the city. Ever food orientated, the highlight of the day was finding a brilliant Vietnamese restaurant for dinner that in Claire’s opinion served the best Pho in the world.

The next day, after a morning run around the river we headed off to Drumheller and the badlands which are famous for cowboys (previous home of the ‘Sundance Kid’) and dinosaurs (ie the Albertasaurus) so basically unmissable. As we entered the badlands the landscape suddenly changed from flat prairies to plunging canyons with weird eroded rock columns (called Hoodoos).

We headed to the Royal Tyrrell Museum to escape the rain and see some truly amazing Dinosaur whole skeletons, and palaeontologists at work in the fossil lab.

In the afternoon we drove along the 48km Dinosaur trail. Whilst we are disappointed to report that the only dinosaurs we saw were plastic (see below), we did enjoy a trip on the Bleriot Ferry (first ran in 1913) and the views from Horsethief Canyon.  It was named after Andre Bleriot, the brother of the famous Louis Bleriot, who lived nearby for a short while and was operator of the Ferry.  We also came across some oil derricks nodding away here and there in the middle of the farmland, which was quite surreal.

We headed back to Calgary for the evening, to make our final preparations for the Rockies!

We arrived in Mississauga, a town just outside of greater Toronto in the early afternoon and after a quick grocery shop headed to our basement apartment for the next 4 days. Claire wanted to go for a gentle jog around the neighbourhood, which meant Gareth had to go too to stop Claire getting lost (she would have at least 3 times). As Gareth’s reward, he got to watch baseball on TV when they got home.

The next day was Niagara day. On the way we stopped off at Bayfront Park in Hamilton for a quick walk and to admire the views around the Lake Ontario shoreline. We arrived at the Niagara Floral clock centre (literally a big clock with the clock face made of flowers) in perfect time to jump on our shuttle bus to the jet boat dock. With Captain Jordan and Taylor our guide, our group spent the next hour racing round the Niagara Gorge, doing 360 degree turns and hurtling through the grade 5 rapids created by Niagara Falls! Claire’s advice to Gareth that because he had a poncho he didn’t need a change of clothes wasn’t entirely correct…. We got soaking wet but it was sooooo worth it!!! After a cup (or two) of coffee to warm up we headed back to the car in time for a late lunch picnic (there’s going to be lots of those in this blog – blame Claire’s Granny) overlooking the gorge before heading to ‘The Falls’ themselves.

Gareth had been to Niagara Falls before and had tried to down-play them a little to Claire, as he had been slightly unimpressed by the commercialisation of the area surrounding them when he had been before. However he had been a bit hungover at the time which had perhaps contributed to the negative memory. As a result, despite the rain showers we both enjoyed seeing the Falls more than we thought we would, and Claire was quite impressed by how close you could actually get (if you had wanted to chuck yourself down them in a barrel you could have definitely managed it – but we decided we had had enough adrenaline sports for one day so would just take pictures).

As the weather had started to improve (and after a number of recommendations) we popped over to the very quaint Niagara on the Lake for an evening stroll, more views across Lake Ontario and a yummy meal before heading home.

Excitement of all excitements, the next day was a Saturday and by complete coincidence there was a parkrun just down the road. So in true Riverside Runner fashion we donned on our green and white vests and headed to Meadowvale parkrun. The vests were immediately recognised by another running tourist, Nigel, from Eye Community Runners in Peterborough!  The park was a very pleasant part of a large network of green spaces around the Meadowvale suburb of Mississauga that we were staying in.  The run was three laps and had a very friendly community of volunteers despite the low turnout by UK standards of 51 (“a good week” at Meadowvale).

Claire came second lady (the first was first overall in a female course record).  Gareth did come a place ahead of Claire overall, but only just.  Both were beaten on the final lap by a chap in his sixties, who seemed to have run every race in the Toronto area and was training for “The Airfield Run” in a few weeks.  Sounded like an incredibly boring multi lap course of an airfield, but good on him!

After a quick shower and some power walking to the bus stop, we were on the GO bus into the centre of Toronto (for St. Neots people, it was a bit like getting the X5 in to Cambridge).  We were sat next to a four year old who seemed to have already developed road rage and his dad who seemed to be the most patient man in Mississauga. 

“Why aren’t we going anywhere dad?”

“Well, it’s because there’s traffic son.”

“Why isn’t the driver going any faster?”

“Well, there are other cars in front of him, and he doesn’t want to cause and accident.”

Anyway, we got into Toronto without the four year old having to be restrained and took the obligatory pictures of the CN tower (not that it isn’t impressive – it really is) and Rogers Stadium before heading to the Harbourfront Centre based on a guide book recommendation. The centre is an arts exhibition area which was currently hosting veggie-fest (all vegetarian & ethical food) a ‘what item best describes your last failed relationship’ (not even kidding) and a tap-dancing band who were actually pretty good.

Having had our fill of skyscrapers (we are slight country bumpkins) we took a ferry across to Toronto Island, for some great views of the city from a more rustic surrounding. Our afternoon mostly consisted of an intense game of an (18-hole!) Frisbee golf match where Gareth’s actually Frisbee ability just pipped (by a mere three throws) Claire’s remarkably effective ‘roll the Frisbee along the ground’ approach. There was just time for an ice cream (sadly not a Mr Whippy) and a wander along the beach before taking the Ferry back to the city proper, so that Gareth could take a trip down memory lane with a drink at the Steam-Whistle brewery, where he had earned the hangover mentioned above. We headed home on a (double decker!) train to finish another excellent day in Canada.

For our final full day on Ontario we headed west. Our first stop was Fergus, a small town with Scottish roots which is located on the banks of the Grand River and has some pretty gardens along the river banks. After a quick wander we continued on to our primary objective: Elora. As well as being a picturesque village in it’s own right, with riverside parks and a large old mill (which seems to own 90% of the village) it’s main attraction is the stunning 80 foot limestone gorge just outside the town. We took a fantastic circular walk around (and into) the gorge, include a picnic stop (of course). Sadly the zipline across the gorge was closed (next time!).

Our afternoon drive took us through Menonite country (a Christian group with similar roots to the Amish) which felt a little like we had suddenly driven into the 19th century, with the road dominated by pony and trap’s and people in traditional smocks and bonnets.

In the late afternoon we arrived in Stratford (on the Riven Avon of course); which has taken advantage of its name to become Ontario’s Shakespeare country. The Stratford festival runs from May to October and includes a variety of art, theatre, local food & drink, and music. We wandered through the town, catching the end of the ‘art in the park’ exhibition before heading to the Boar’s Head for some live music and supper. This turned out to be an awesome choice. Not only were the band amazing, but half of the audience had brought instruments or songs to sing and were intermittently asked to join the band. On top of this with two separate American football games on different walls, an immense game of stack the beer glasses and some tasty food Gareth had found his mecca! The whole atmosphere was brilliant – a great last night in Ontario.

Having woken up relatively early again we had breakfast as early as we could and went for a quick walk round the local area. It had rained overnight but the colourful street art kept everything looking cheerful.

There was quite a big queue at the car hire depot, so it was a while before we got going, but we eventually headed out of the city on the highway and fortunately the traffic wasn’t too bad, so getting used to driving on the right was easier than expected.

We arrived in Val-David at 12:00, checked into our quirky basement flat airbnb and set off to buy a picnic and hire some bikes to explore the surrounding countryside. Following a recommendation from Hans (our airbnb host) we decided to travel south on Le P’tit Train do Nord recreation trail which is a long distance cycle route connecting many of the villages in the Laurentians area (the route doubles as cross country skiing in the winter). We were told this section was the most picturesque of the trail and it did not disappoint.

We pootled past the beautiful Lac Raymond, stunning waterfalls and rock formations along the Riviere du Nord and old signal boxes and trains stations. One of these had been converted into a café which was a great place to stop for a cuppa before turning round to get the bikes back before closing time.

In the late afternoon we wandered through the village which was full of mini art galleries and craft shops alongside cafes and an outdoors ice rink (sans ice!). After dinner we found our second microbrewery of the trip (is a theme emerging?), Le Baril Roulant where we settled in for a relaxed evening drink.

The next morning Claire explored the north section of le P’tit Train do Nord (also beautiful especially with mist clinging to the surface of the river in the fresh but bright early morning) whilst Gareth made a yummy breakfast. Next stop: Quebec City.

An early start to the day with a 7am train to Gatwick.  Everything went well apart from almost getting on the wrong train at Victoria.  We got our first ever seat upgrade on the flight! Just to seats with more legroom but still.

Gareth’s in-flight film reviews:

Avengers Endgame – 9/10 Only downside to this film was that we hadn’t seen the last one before hand. Great end to the series. Classic mix of comedy, action, tragedy and a bit of romance.

Alita: Battle Angel – 6/10 Was disappointed as Alita was a really weird mix of badass heroine and very naïve teenage girl and I found it a bit hard to root for her. Also the story line was a bit all over the place and I don’t really like films that try to set themselves up for a sequel, which this one definitely did.

And so we arrived at our first destination: Montreal. Gareth spent a couple of weekends here whilst on his university year abroad in Plattsburgh so has at bit of local knowledge, although Claire’s hopes at having a ready formed tour guide may be a bit optimistic as it’s 11 years since he was last here!

First on the to-do list = poutine. A classic dish in Montreal and across Quebec. After checking into our hostel we went out in search of food – fortunately Montreal has the largest number of restaurants/capita in Canada so this wasn’t exactly difficult! Found a place called Saint Houblon with tables outside, poutine on the menu.

We ordered a variant of poutine that came with Peking Duck and of course contained the main ingredients of cheesy chips with gravy. It was brilliant. We also had a vegetarian version (not proper poutine – according to the waiter) which came with tofu, black beans and cabbage and tasted a bit like Chinese food. It was ok, but we preferred the real deal.

The other selling point of this place was the microbrewery. Claire was brave and had an unusual (ie not Corona) lager, Gareth had an East Coast IPA, which was quite citrusy (Claire says “Tasted like beer with orange squash – not impressed”) and tried an “English Brown Ale”, which tasted more like a Mild, both went down well and were easy to drink.

After a walk round the block (amazing street art), we headed back to the room and at 9pm (2am UK time) we couldn’t hold out much longer and fell asleep.

With our body clocks still on UK time we stopped pretending to sleep at 5:30am. Claire had found an app called Runnin’ City which provides you with running routes and commentary about the different sights you are passing along with other interesting facts about the city (‘Mark Twain once commented that you couldn’t throw a ball in Montreal without breaking a church window’). So by 6:15am we were out doing a 7km sightseeing jog around the old city and taking advantage of the crowd free streets.

A quick shower, change and breakfast later and we were off, meandering through the city streets on our way to Parc Mont Royal, a beautiful forested hillscape with lakes, sculptures, monuments and fantastic views looking out over the city. What a wonderful place to spend a sunny morning.

For lunch, friends had recommended we head to a bakery to try the famous Kouing Amman ‘Butter cake’ – as unhealthy as it sounds but so popular that if you’re not in the shop when the next batch comes out the oven, you miss out. After two failed attempts (second time we were one person too late less than five minutes after the batch had been served up), we grabbed a quiche and a cheese and ham croissant and took the risk of pre-ordering half a cake (about half a pizza worth but twice a thick)! This was the minimum advance order and the only way to guarantee to try it as the shop would be shut for the Labour Day holiday on Monday.

It was definitely worth the wait. We took the cake out to the 1976 Olympic Park and Parc Maisonneuve, where we sat in the sun and read and ate cake.

After exploring the Olympic Park and the Botanical Gardens, we jumped on the Metro and headed down to the St. Lawrence River and the docks. The river looked quite special in the late afternoon light and it is a huge river, considering that Montreal is basically on a huge island in the middle of the river and we were only looking at one branch of it!

The quiet of the morning had disappeared and the docks were bustling with people enjoying the long weekend, there was a concert on and a zip wire and loads of fairground rides.

After our early start and 40,000 steps our energy was starting to flag so after a quick dinner, we headed back to the hotel.