Oh Canada

I’m unlikely to leave Britain any time soon. I know the place is in a bit of a mess at the moment, the dark forces of the extreme left and extreme right are waiting to pounce on the Brexit mess, nationalism is out performing patriotism in certain regions and frankly, the weather is a bit shit, but I still feel the pros outweigh the cons even if I can’t really put into words what those pros are at the minute. If, however, I was forced into exile then I’ve got a pretty good idea where I’d like to spend the rest of my days. From the title of this piece you will have realised by now that this place is Canada and be wondering why when the weather there is probably worse than here but having spent over three weeks in the country recently, interspersed with a couple of weeks back home, I’ve become rather smitten with the place. 

First of all the bleeding obvious: Canada is big. Huge. Enormous. Massive. Only Russia can claim to be a bigger country and I’ve no desire to go and live there. I’ve visited bits of it before but it would take rather a long time and some seriously thermal underwear to get the feel of all of it. My recent visits have been restricted to the West and even in three weeks I only really scratched the surface. But what a surface it was. The reason I went there at the beginning of May was to support my daughter who had entered the Vancouver Marathon. She currently resides in Victoria which is three or four hours, no time at all in Canadian terms, by road and ferry from the large cosmopolitan city of Vancouver. In the end I entered the Half Marathon and you can read about that event in the blog two before this. Here’s a link so you can avoid the trauma of scrolling past the Sunday Swim blog: https://gladtobegrey.blog/2019/05/15/run/

Away from the race I spent most of the time staying with Rebecca in her boyfriend Warren’s flat in Victoria itself and got to like the place. It is the capital of British Columbia and whilst quite large – over 300,000 live in the Greater Victoria metropolitan area – has the feel of a smaller, more friendly place than it’s expanding neighbour of Vancouver across the water. It has, in Canadian terms at least, a mild climate. It also plays on its British heritage being named after Queen Victoria and with architecture, gardens and place names proudly remembering its colonial past. There are social problems of course – homelessness is a big issue as it is in the other cities we visited – but it came across to me as a genteel place where most people live happy lives. This comes at a cost as house prices have rocketed lately but that only goes to prove what a desirable place it is to live. 

A couple of weeks after that trip I returned with Elaine and our friend Caryn for a two week holiday. The itinerary was as follows: three nights in Victoria, fly to Calgary and pick up a hire car and drive to Canmore in the Rocky Mountains. Three nights were spent there before we moved on to Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley. Another three night stay was spent there before a two night stop in Whistler. After that we were to spend three nights in Vancouver before heading back to Victoria for a night and flying home. Rebecca was to accompany us on the road trip. Victoria again proved to be a most pleasant destination despite it raining quite heavily on the first day. There’s plenty to do there – we visited the Emily Carr House and the Royal BC Museum which kept us out of the rain. With the sun out, wandering round downtown was pleasant, Fan Tan Alley off Chinatown is supposedly Canada’s narrowest street and a popular place; in particular the Kid Sister ice cream shop impressed me no end on both occasions I visited it. The harbour is a great place to wander around and the unique water taxis are a fun way of seeing the city from the water. The harbour also serves as a floatplane base – more of floatplanes later – and if you are lucky you will see seals in the water and dogs on boats trying to out stare each other. Staying a couple of miles from the centre meant we got a feeling of what suburban Victoria was like and the pleasant theme continued there too. We watched Rebecca compete in the Oak Bay 10k to a backdrop of the Olympic Mountains in the USA, just across the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Large houses with well kept gardens, numerous specialist coffee shops and cafes and the odd babbling brook suggested a very nice place to live. Outside the city there are plenty of hikes – on my first visit we went out to the Sooke Potholes, a riverside trail a few minutes west of the city – and gardens to visit. The Butchart Gardens are well known but the HCP Garden, which we visited, is less so. Bald eagles circled overhead, hummingbirds buzzed around and, unusually, wild deer could frequently be seen in people’s gardens nibbling the lawn. As an avgeek I was also delighted with the BC Aviation Museum up at the airport.  As you might have gathered, Victoria impressed me greatly. It is popular with Canadian retirees attracted by the mild climate and year round golf, though maybe not the deer eating their rhododendrons. 

Our flight from Victoria’s small airport to Calgary turned out to be an hour and a half’s delight. There was barely a cloud in the sky all the way and the views were stunning. They were also a reverse order prelude of what was to come with Point Roberts, the Okanagan Lake and the Rocky Mountains all looking at their best from 25,000ft. With a rather large hire car collected, there was much luggage to be carried after all, we immediately headed back west eschewing the delights of Calgary, a rapidly expanding city from what we could see. Our destination was Canmore. Located in the Rocky Mountains, it is some twenty miles from the larger and more well known Banff. A former mining town, the Trans Canada Highway passes through it as does the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is becoming a popular tourist destination in its own right and is situated just outside the Banff National Park meaning it is a cheaper option than it’s rather well to do neighbour. We were billeted in an Airbnb in a holiday village complex with views of the Three Sisters peaks. It proved to be an ideal base. The stars of the show are the mountains themselves and there are many activities to keep visitors happy. We drove the ridiculously scenic Icefields Parkway to visit the Athabasca Glacier where large snow buses take you on to the ice and later you can walk the glass floored walkway over the edge of the valley. Whilst in itself this was worth the early start and long drive, the sight of a black bear nonchalantly strolling down the hard shoulder of the road was one we will all treasure for the rest of our days. We saw several other bears that day though none as close as this one. We visited Banff on the way back. We avoided the hot springs but did discover the Bow River walk from the town to the huge luxury Banff Springs Hotel. It was delightful in the early evening sunshine. The following day Canmore itself provided the entertainment with a hike up to the small yet glorious Grassi Lakes and a raft trip along the Bow River. Here our fauna count increased significantly with, amongst others beaver, elk, ospreys and a Bald Eagle who appeared to be the boss of the area. Rebecca was particularly taken with Canmore and after only a short visit I can see why. It’s a very nice place in the summer, though I can only imagine how cold it gets in the winter. 

It took us a long time to get to West Kelowna. That was partially due to us stopping at Lake Louise. This is a popular stop on any tour of the area. It is extremely easy on the eye and the vivid turquoise colour of the water makes for a special photograph. The preceding winter had been harsh, however, and the lake was still covered in ice for our visit. It didn’t really matter, it was still outrageously picturesque, especially if you hiked up to the Fairview Lookout. This was made tricky by patches of ice and snow but Rebecca and I made it up and almost down again before I slipped and inelegantly landed in the slush. It was still worth it though. Much of the rest of the day was on the road. We passed from Alberta into British Columbia and later from the mountain to the Pacific time zone. The extra hour we gained came in useful. The Trans Canada Highway is being widened along the stretch we were driving on leading to some roadwork delays, and an accident caused a ninety minute hold up. As previously mentioned Canada is big. On a day like this it seemed it. Eventually we rolled into our accommodation in West Kelowna, another Airbnb with a view not quite as spectacular as the one in Canmore but not at all bad.

The Okanagan region of southern British Columbia is the area around the large Okanagan Lake. It has its own micro climate which is milder than the rest of the country. Indeed, whilst we were there the temperature hovered around the 30C mark. A fertile region, it was popular with fruit farms and still is today, though the major fruit produced is now the grape rather than the apple. Vineyards cover the slopes that rise from the lakeside. Sampling all the wines that are produced could take a very long time indeed though it doesn’t stop people from trying. Kelowna is the major city and is somewhat larger than we had expected. It has a lovely aspect, however, with the lake on one side and mountains on the other. Up in those mountains once ran trains. The Kettle Valley Railway connected the region with the main Canadian Pacific line further north. For some reason known only to the surveyors it was built high in the hills, through forests and across canyons, so high in fact that it didn’t even visit lakeside Kelowna, the largest town in the region. The last train ran in 1973 but since then a section has been restored as a cycle and hiking track. We walked some of it which entailed a drive up a distinctly dodgy access road to its start. The route across Myra Canyon is spectacular and all the more impressive being where it is. Tunnels and cuttings were carved out of the rock as the track clung to the hillside but the standout attractions are the eighteen trestle bridges that traverse the chasms that shoot off the sides of the Canyon. Further south there is a section of the railway that is still operational as a heritage line. We didn’t get to try it unfortunately but did view it as we sampled cider in what was a break from the vineries. Like Canmore and the Rockies, Kelowna and the Okanagan is a place that warrants further attention. 

It was another long journey to our next destination, Whistler. The quickest way would to have stuck to the freeway and passed through the Vancouver suburbs. For a short time penalty you can also go the scenic route via Cache Creek and Lillooet. The views on this route are spectacular and if you can, take it in turns to drive so everyone gets a chance to enjoy the views. You can also do worse than stop at Historic Hat Creek just outside Cache Creek. This was a roadhouse on the Cariboo Trail goldrush of the 1860s and remains as a tourist attraction, and a handy refreshment stop, to this day. Thankfully there were no hold ups on what was a quiet road, though the temptation to stop and just take in the views was high, and we arrived in Whistler for a couple of nights of R&R. Whistler is a ski resort and the village itself is less than fifty years old. Out of the ski season it still receives hoards of tourists drawn to the mountains for the many outdoor pursuits that take place, or just the scenery. It is a party town and sometimes those parties go on a bit too long. Our hotel was in the middle of the village and just across the way from our room was one bar that proved rather noisy. Lesson learnt, stick to out of town accommodation next time. The cable car up the resort’s two mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb, is expensive and as the hiking trails up the top were not yet open we gave it a miss choosing a walk that commenced in the village itself. Zip wire runs, white water rafting and mountain biking were just three of the activities that could be sampled. Rebecca and I decided to try the RZR off road adventure. These 4×4 buggies bounced us around trails through the forest where no vehicle should have been able to pass, covering us in dust and affording us some spectacular photo opportunities. It was great fun and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. If that doesn’t really sound like R&R then the hotel pool provided that but I was sad to leave Whistler with the zip wires untested. 

The drive to Vancouver was a short one but, as with just about any drive in BC, scenic. The Sea to Road Highway offers a direct connection between the popular resort and the huge metropolis and, after a brief stop to admire the Shannon Falls just south of Squamish, we hit the inevitable traffic before reaching our Airbnb in a suburb just a few minutes southeast of downtown. Vancouver frequently pops up as people’s ideal city. It’s true that it is located in a lovely setting with the harbour backdrop being mountainous, the other side of downtown having English Bay with the large green space that is Stanley Park to the north. The city itself is, however, a fairly typical north American grid, the blocks populated with high rise office blocks and numerous apartment buildings to accommodate a burgeoning population. To the south the suburbs seem a nice place to live but go on for many kilometres, again in a grid pattern of named streets and numbered avenues. One tip is to avoid East Hastings street on the edge of downtown. We went down it on the bus and we were shocked at the amount of people living rough there. Homelessness is a big problem everywhere it seems. Here it appears to be monumental. I had run one street away in the Half Marathon and was completely unaware of what was happening just a block away. Vancouver does have its attractions, however, beyond the aforementioned setting amongst water and mountains. Grouse Mountain is one of the peaks that provide the backdrop to the harbour. You can ascend it by cable car or, if you are feeling energetic, you can take a trail that is worryingly called the Grouse Grind. We did. It was serious hard work. You climb 2800 ft over less than two miles. It is stepped, though the word step has a rather loose meaning here. It took Elaine and I an hour and a half, Rebecca with youth on her side did it in twenty minutes less. It’s not a task to be taken lightly but it is some sense of achievement when you reach the cafe and a welcome beer at the top. Once there you have a choice of activities to enjoy – falconry and lumberjack displays, chairlift to the peak, zip wires, a full waiter service restaurant amongst others, or you can simply admire the views. Don’t even think of walking back down, however, it’s dangerous and against the rules. A one way ticket on the cable car gets you back to the car park in six minutes. 

I previously mentioned the seaplanes in Victoria Harbour. This neck of the woods is a seaplane heaven and both Harbour Air and the smaller Seaair operate services out of Vancouver Harbour. There are many scenic flights operated alongside scheduled services. On my first trip, the day after the Half Marathon, I indulged in Harbour Air’s ‘Mail Run’. This involved an early start with an 08:40 departure from Vancouver Downtown Airport (ie, the harbour) but was a magnificent experience. I flew to Ganges on Salt Spring Island. There I transferred from a fourteen seat Otter to a six seat Beaver to make the short hop to Maple Bay on Vancouver Island. The stay there was brief before returning to Ganges where I was left to discover the town for two or three hours. That’s plenty of time, believe me, nice though the place was. Then you take the scheduled flight back to Vancouver completing a memorable morning with four water take offs and landings. I don’t know why but there is something special about taking off and landing on water.

If you happen to be in Vancouver in the summer you can take in a Bard on the Beach performance, a Shakespeare festival that has been running for thirty years now. We just about made it – the performance of Taming of the Shrew was the festival’s first preview of the season. We enjoyed it greatly but if Shakespeare is not your thing there is another open air theatre in Stanley Park that performs shows like Mama Mia. Remember to take a few layers as it can get a bit chilly in the evening. Our final day in Vancouver saw us do a day trip to the USA. Point Roberts is a geographical oddity, a Canadian peninsula south of Vancouver that dips below the 49th parallel  meaning the five square miles of it are in the USA. This tiny piece of land is the home to 1300 people and full border checks take place both ways at the one point of entry. It costs $6 for the visa waiver – your ESTA does not apply on land crossings -, a recording of your fingerprints and an honest answer to the question “why are you visiting Point Roberts?” Tourism worked for us. Once you are cross the border there really isn’t a lot to see but just being there felt strange, a US enclave where the 5th grade and over kids have to travel 27 miles through Canada each way to get to and from school at Blaine in Washington State. It is possible to walk along the border on Roosevelt Way, a road where the demarkation line is the northern grass verge. Whilst it is illegal to cross the border without presenting yourself to the border officials there really isn’t much stopping you. Just for a photo I stood in the USA with my left hand on a low wall in Canada. I wasn’t arrested. Having crossed legally back into Canada we met up with my third cousin for dinner. That’s the thing about Canada, you are almost assured to have relations there. My family and hers found out about each other through genealogy a few years ago, I share a common great great grandad with Donna on my mother’s side. 

And that was about it. We needed to get back to Victoria for two reasons – firstly to deliver Rebecca back home and secondly because our flight went from Victoria Airport. It meant a scenic cruise through the Gulf Islands on the ferry, a night in a traditional B&B which was an interesting but comfortable experience. The girls took the opportunity to go to the Fairmont Empress Hotel for afternoon tea as one really should when in Victoria – hint, the Earl Grey wasn’t very good – whilst I went on another seaplane ride, a forty minute jaunt round the local area, just for the hell of it.  

Canada is a magnificent place for a holiday. It has so much in its favour it is almost embarrassing. It’s easy to get to, the scenery is beyond compare, it might be big but the travel is generally easy, there’s activities aplenty to try and the people are warm, hospitable and speak very good English! In the bit where we were the weather was good, though it can of course be harsh in winter in the mountains. I get the feeling that the Canadians deal with the harsh conditions well, they have had enough practice by now. I’ll maybe have to go in the winter just to experience it. The country is, of course, more than just what lies west of Calgary – there’s an awful lot of North of course but the other areas that are likely to be visited are quite a long way to the East. I visited in Ottawa and Niagara last year and have also been to Toronto and Quebec in the past. I hope at some stage to visit the Maritimes, the eastern extremities of the country and nearer to where I live in Scotland than they are to where Rebecca resides in Victoria. As I said, Canada is a big place. I love it.