Category: Blog

Since the food was generally extremely good in Canada, I thought a post to share the best places we ate would be worthwhile.

Toronto
Flippers – excellent breakfast, with soufflé pancakes being the highlight.

Banff
Farm & Fire – the pizzas here are extremely good, with plentiful and unusual toppings.
Sky Bistro – locally sourced menu which is made up from whatever is possible to get to the top of a mountain, cooked beautifully.
Three Bears Brewery – fantastic burgers, probably the best of the holiday, with local beers which you can order a sampler of 6 to save deciding which to choose!
Bluebird – we had breakfast, which was excellent (particularly the eggs benedict), but they also do a dinner menu.

Field
Evil Dave’s Grill – very small restaurant, be prepared to queue, but well worth waiting. The raspberry pie is exceptional.

Jasper
Famoso – a pizzeria of sorts, but the chicken wings are incredible.
Bear Paw’s Bakery – Canada seems very good at cakes, but this bakery was exceptional. Their sandwiches are also very, very good.
Estío – a sort of Jamaican vibe, the food is varied but excellent and the toasties the highlight.
Olive – upmarket restaurant, their Poutine was the best we had, laced with truffle.

Vancouver
Danbo – OMG. Ramen which was very, very close to what you’d get in Japan. Queue for 30 minutes if you have to, this was one of the best meals we had.
Breka – another bakery, again with exceptional baked goods. Massive selection, the chocolate almond croissants were superb.
The Sauce Pasta – doesn’t look like much, but an authentic Italian with huge portions and amazing flavours. Don’t bother with the garlic bread, you won’t need it (and it’s the only thing we had that wasn’t worth it!)
Dante Italian Sandwich – proper Italian sandwiches, huge portions.
Kozak – Ukranian, everything was excellent. The sausage is made by the owner’s mother, and it’s incredible.

Tofino
Tacofino – the original one (we also tried one in Vancouver). Fish taco was amazing, but most of the other dishes, including the watermelon and basil slushie, were exceptional.
Shelter – very nice restaurant with excellent food, the chuck was incredible.
Rhino – great but always busy café, the breakfast wraps were huge and amazing.
Big Daddy’s – sort of fish and chips, done casually. Extremely good, particularly the shrimp and chowder.

Victoria
Block – superb Japanese-inspired restaurant done in a tapas style. All extremely good, the Tokyo fries were excellent, as was the okonomiyaki.

When we were waiting for our food in the Ukranian restaurant we identified our best and worst points of the holiday. Here they are!

Danny – he quickly decided his beef chuck at Shelter in Tofino was the best food he’d had, and he’d enjoyed seeing bears the most. However, he said he hadn’t got any sleep (perhaps a slight exaggeration) and that this was the worst thing about the trip.

Mila – rafting was her highlight of things we did, and ramen at Danbo was her favourite meal (excellent choice as it was nearly as good as ramen we had in Japan). However, despite spending 45 minutes in a charity shop, the lack of “thrifting” was her worst thing.

Jo – obviously her choices are wildlife heavy. The sea otter was her highlight, as well as the Boston Cream doughnut(s) she had from Neate Donuts. Unfortunately our inability to see sea wolves (whatever they are) were her worst thing.

Keith – for me, seeing the Orca as we did was incredible, and a rare thing for anyone to see. I also think the ramen at Danbo was the best food (hard to pick though as we had some amazing food), but the bed on the train was clearly designed for midgets and I didn’t enjoy it at all.

First stop of the day, Jo and I walked to the good coffee and doughnut café we’d previously found a week earlier, to collect a snack for the airport. A nice 45 minute walk in the morning sun to Neate Donuts, with excellent coffee and a box of doughnuts, was a good start to the day. The coffee gets a picture by itself, it was that good.

We then headed down 8 floors to the hotel “restaurant” by which I mean a small conference room with a very small selection of not even close to the advertised continental fare (4 cereals, yoghurt pots, toast, small selection of fruit, small selection of pastries/muffins). It was rubbish, made worse because we sat at a table in the corridor between meeting rooms!! Appalling in every way, not a good hotel (see blog review for more).

We finished packing, checked out and ordered an Uber to the airport. We checked in to the flights with a person, as apparently we couldn’t do what 95% of other passengers were doing checking themselves in with the machine. Still not sure why, but our luggage got PRIORITY tags so perhaps only the person can issue that. Unclear. Our boarding passes were similarly PRIORITY. Perhaps they knew who we were.

Once through security (yes, I kept my 100% record of having my bag forensically analysed by latex-covered hands) we went to the gate and ate our doughnuts – 2 Boston cream, 1 raspberry with sprinkles and 1 ring.

Before long we were in the ridiculous scrum of people to be put on the plane, despite being famous passengers, and we took our seats – Premium Economy on the way back as we wanted to sleep. And because we’re famous.

Our drinks and meal arrived quickly, and the food was actually very good. After 4 hours we were ready to land in Toronto to change onto the Manchester flight, which left just 1 hour 40 minutes later.

Except it didn’t as it was delayed almost 4 hours. New departure time 1am Toronto time. At least we got meal vouchers, which allowed us to get some free food whilst waiting. It wasn’t bad at all.

The flight didn’t leave until about 1.30am. They had to bring a plane from a domestic stand by towing it, then they had to check it was cleaned, cater it, and the crew had to prepare and check it. It’s unclear why they couldn’t have done that in the many hours they had spare, especially as one of the crew told us he’d been at the airport for 7 hours by the time we boarded.

Once underway it was a quick flight, less than the 7.5 hours predicted. This time we didn’t eat the main meal, it was all about trying to sleep…mostly unsuccessfully. Eventually we arrived home at around 3pm.

Rather than return to Vancouver by sea plane we were booked on the morning coach and ferry crossing. We picked up more baked goods from the hotel’s in-house café/bakery (the closest for a long distance, apparently) and headed off for a short walk to the bus depot. Whilst waiting we ate some very nice pastries – top left is a chocolate almond croissant, something the Canadians seem very capable of baking to a high standard.

Before long Bob turned up, moving his checking-in trolley and scales into place. You could just tell he was not your average coach driver… His first customers victims were family whose English wasn’t the best, and he sullenly tried to get them to do what he wanted them to do with their boarding passes, cases, etc.. He looked peeved.

It was our turn shortly after, and perhaps because we (I) had been cheery with him his mood seemed to improve a bit and we weighed our bags, he tagged them, and we put them by the coach ready for loading and got on.

On the way to the port he shared some stories and anecdotes about the area we were travelling through, which seemed to be linked to his military background, or his relatives’ similar career choice. He referred to them all as “interesting facts from Bob the bus driver”. Turns out he used to be in the Canadian artillery, but when I pressed him for more information (I was sat on the front row as usual, for the legroom) he only offered that he’d been given all the rubbish assignments and that someone must have hated him. His facts, more accurately the way he presented them, were (for me at least) very entertaining. He then let slip he’d been a long distance truck driver. Something tells me Bob’s mouth had got him into trouble at some point in his past….

Just as were driving out of the suburbs of Victoria Bob said – “I invite you to listen to some music, read a book, or stare aimlessly out of the window, like I have to do”. That sums up his style of contribution to the journey. When we arrived at our stop (having agreed with him we’d get off a stop early, and he’d moved our luggage accordingly) he had a bit of an argument with other passengers who’d decided they’d also like to get off the bus. He refused and said their luggage, because it was in the compartment it was, would be going to the final stop with or without them. Bob’s mouth had definitely got him into trouble in the past!

We walked the short distance to our next and final hotel, found lunch at an Italian sandwich shop (excellent food!!) and gelato for afterwards, then I went to collect our stored cases from the Times Square hotel we’d left them at (to reduce weight for the sea plane) and got an Uber back with the least communicative taxi driver ever.

We’d already booked dinner for 6:30 so we headed out for a walk around Gastown again, stopping by at The Lookout, Vancouver’s less impressive version of the CN Tower. The views were fine, there’s just less to see as Vancouver isn’t that big!

Our final transaction of the day was dinner – a Ukranian restaurant called Kozak, in Gastown. It came highly recommended and they didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately it was $10 cocktail night, so we didn’t miss out on that opportunity. We started with bread with garlic and cherry spreads, then Borsch with beef, and finally opted for a sharing board of all the various dishes they sell. It was fantastic and everything was delicious – sausage handmade by the owner’s mother, pierogies of 3 types, roasted and smoked lardo (pork and pork fat), latkes, sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, bread, and more.

On the walk back to the hotel we sadly saw too many homeless people, some smoking crack or injecting. It’s a sad part of Canadian city life it seems, as we’ve seen it in all the cities we’ve visited.

WARNING: This post contains A LOT of photos of whales, but none of Wales.

The main event today was a whale watching trip. We’d been moved to an afternoon boat, from the morning, then delayed around an hour. Some sloppy excuse about a broken engine.

Of course, before all of that we headed out for breakfast, this time a well rated diner. The food was good for some, less good for others. Then a gentle meander back into some of the shops we’d not had time for the day before – a thrift shop for Mila (whatever that is), a wooden jigsaw shop for Jo, a bookshop for Jo…..you get the idea….my phone battery almost died.

Then back to the hotel to collect optical devices (cameras, binoculars, sunglasses, etc….) before heading to Fisherman’s Wharf where the trip would begin – itself a picturesque floating village with large numbers of idiot tourists taking photos of themselves in Insta-poses (one leg cocked like a weeing dog, looking back over the shoulder, that kind of nonsense), most of them getting in my way.

Once suited up (a lot less impressive than the bear watching trip) we headed to the boat, pushed to the front (again) and headed out to sea. The (Salish) sea is actually the border between Canada and the US and a shipping lane. Our guides (Liam and Izzy) were very good explaining all about the animals we would be seeing, but didn’t promise anything, and the skipper Russ piloted the boat at mostly quite high speed. Izzy was from Wales and unfortunately when getting on the boat Jo made a joke about Newport, where Izzy was from, which she didn’t seem to like. From then on we were her targets, albeit nobody else seemed to talk to them so perhaps it was just because we were talking to them they engaged with us.

Before long we found our first sighting – a Canadian submarine on manoeuvres. It was a dinky thing, something Putin would probably not be too concerned about. Pretty cool to see though.

Our first stop was where Russ thought we might see some humpback whales. And boy did he deliver – they were all around us! Over the course of the next hour we saw around (I would guess) 10 individuals. Russ moved us around when they deep dived (tail, or fluke, in the air) as they would be gone for around 8 minutes but could surface anywhere. We saw so many doing their general surface… sink… surface…. then eventually deep diving with tail in the air. Photo bomb incoming….. but keep reading as there’s a lot more to say and see!

By this point we’d all seen a lot of humpbacks, so time to move on. Another 30 minutes or so towards the US coast we ended up in a bay and right there were a small number of Orca (killer whales). Then more appeared, around a couple of dozen in what’s called a “t-party” (the “t” meaning transient, as Orcas are transient not migratory) – a sort of social gathering of multiple matriarchal groups. Now, we thought this was pretty cool, but our guides were beside themselves. Apparently this is a super-rare event. We spent ages watching the group move together, the males playing with each other, lots of tail slapping and rolling. It was incredible to watch. To give a sense of scale, the big males’ dorsal (back) fin can be around 2m tall.

At one point a large police boat was heading top speed for the US coast straight into the path of the Orca, much to the guides’ disgust. We were only allowed to get within 200m of the Orca, the closest anyone is allowed (400m is usual) but the police clearly hadn’t seen them….then they did and stopped dead. Eventually the Orca glided right past them, and they clearly enjoyed it with their phones out videoing the event, before they motored off once the Orca had passed.

We then changed locations, found more humpbacks, seals, and the submarine (again), before heading back towards Victoria.

Back in Victoria and having missed lunch (late breakfast) we went into town to find pizza (which wasn’t enough, so we got kebabs too!) before heading back to the hotel.

Jo and I finished the evening with cocktails on the terrace of the hotel, and got to see a fantastic sunset.

A long drive back to Victoria today, but first a drive to Ucluelet, next nearest town to Tofino, for breakfast. After checking out of the hotel in Tofino, and on the way to Ucluelet, we quickly stopped at Long Beach for a look as the previous time we’d tried the car park was full, but early morning is obviously the right time as it was empty. We had a short walk on the beach, saw a newlywed couple being photographed (I assume the wedding was yesterday as it was 8:30am – either that or it was later today and he’s seen the dress).

Ucluelet was just another “surfer dude” town, and the café was full of young, blonde, tanned beach bums like ourselves. Breakfast was of course excellent with reasonable coffee – still nowhere near as good as the place in Vancouver.

Then the drive – in total about 5 hours plus stops. It rained for the first couple of hours, but as we neared our old friend Duncan (the town with the farm shop) it cleared up. We decided to stop for lunch at a fast food place, and A&W were chosen from the usual suspects (McDonalds, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut) because it wasn’t usual for us. Weird menu – every meal was called after a relative – Papa, Mama, Teen, they were all there. Perhaps Duncan has six fingers and three toes and spends too much time with his cousin.

Each burger came in a little paper envelope, actually quite a clever idea, and the fizzy drinks in huge, heavy glass mugs. I chose a strawberry milkshake, which I doubted had ever seen cow juice. As you moved it in the plastic cup it seemed to move in a most peculiar, even alien, way.

Back in the car, we made a quick stop at Niagara Falls – not the famous one, this was apparently just as tall but it was clearly not as impressive.

Once back in the car we were just 30 minutes from Victoria, and after a slow drive through the city blocks we found the hotel in the harbour area. Quite nice.

We then needed a quick walk so headed to drop the hire car off in downtown Victoria (weird experience as the Avis office was (permanently) closed so it needed to be taken into an underground car park and the keys deposited in a safe on the wall by a car cleaning area! Let’s hope that’s right. We then wandered over to the whale watching dock as we’d had a message to say the morning boat was broken (sunk?) and so we’d be going tomorrow afternoon instead.

Then showers and dinner. Jo found Block, which served Japanese-styled tapas dishes, and it was probably the best food in Canada yet – even if their Okonomiyaki didn’t have quite enough cabbage! On the way back we stopped for ice cream – rolled for Mila, and a Split of Death for Jo and I.

A walk back to the hotel with illuminated harbour and museum finished the day off.

We’ve had some bad hire cars over the years, but this was one of, if not the, worst. The only good thing was the boot size. Otherwise it was underpowered, understeered on the gentlest of corners, had way too little power for the size of car, and wouldn’t park straight. The reversing guides on the screen were simply not straight, meaning you ended up parking wonky every time. I started to reverse with the door open to see the white line, it was that bad. Sorry if you’re a Jeep owner – bad decision.

Today was our bear watching tour, booked for lunch time so Keith and I left the kids first thing to go and have another look for sea otters while the teenagers chilled. Around the other side of the peninsular we saw another sea lion mooching about off Tonquin beach and more excitingly a hairy woodpecker shouting its head off just above the tree line.

After a quick late breakfast we headed off to our tour. Funky red flotation suit applied and we were off! We saw two harbour seals from the pontoon before we even got on the boat which boded well. Then the first of many, many bald eagles perched on a dead tree on the water line. Next was a group of about 14 harbour seals pulled out and galumphing about. They weren’t worried about us but weren’t impressed by the bald eagle shouting overhead and a few galumphed back into the water. They did have a few pups which weren’t shiny and smooth but still had visible fluffy fur

We next travelled at pretty high speed across an inlet for about 20 minutes, pausing half way after Mila spotted a sea otter grooming itself at least half a mile from any land. I expected they would stay near land but apparently not- born, live, eat, mate and die in the water so land unnecessary. Derek told us it was an older one as it had a silver grey head. It carried on rolling around and grooming itself without really paying much attention to us. It did get a bit close accidentally and disappeared under the boat to pop up on the other side and carry on! A bucket list moment for me so I was very excited.

Next Derek wanted to find us a bear to see so he asked us to help spotting them along the shoreline. The tour was planned to coincide with low tide as then black bears come down to eat soft shelled crabs, shellfish and anything else they can forage. Seafood counts for about 15-20% of their diet on Vancouver Island. We had a lot of distance with no luck but then suddenly the Dutch/German tourist at the back of the boat shouted that he had seen one. His directions were rubbish (even in English!) but Derek found it and got us a bit closer. It was an adolescent black bear that went back above the tree line almost immediately. We hung around for a bit hoping but then Derek took us round and we started to head back.

The Dutch/German tourist struck again with another shout and we got an even better sight of an adult female flipping rocks right on the edge of the water and eating whatever was underneath. She kept looking at us so could clearly smell and hear us so we didn’t go too close but it was very cool. Derek radioed in to tell the other tour guides where to come and all the local boats descended on our location. Just behind us as we watched the bear was a harbour seals by itself nursing an injury on its neck which was bleeding. The rest of the herd/pod (Google says either) was on the far side of the island being sociable. Poor lonely seal.

Derek was worried we would be late back so we said goodbye to the bear and started motoring back. The boat was a lot of fun and we waved at multiple eagles and the same sea otter on the way back to Tofino.

Bear tour – 10/10 would recommend.

A big day with our bear watching excursion just after lunch, so before a late brunch Jo and I walked to the coast on the lookout for seals. No seals, but we did find a few woodpeckers. Very hard to photograph as they move around a lot, and very quickly.

Just after noon we headed to the bear watching jetty, signed something saying if the boat sank it was our fault, got our float suits, and then got a map briefing. Then onto the boat. We sat at the front together, much to the disappointment of a young boy who’d barged past us to get to the front of the line, despite his mother’s half-hearted protestations. Silly boy. Once on the water it was just a matter of time until we saw anything but a bear. The first of many bald eagles, seals, and yet more bald eagles were our first finds.

Then a very lucky spot – a sea otter, who was cleaning itself floating upside down. Normal apparently.

A jellyfish with long tentacles and a heron followed…but still no bears – and we’d visited all of the guide’s usual spots, and the other boats had reported none seen.

Then, one of the people on our boat spotted something – a bear on a distant shore. We headed quickly to it, but then it was gone. Only a brief view of a male. We waited but it didn’t reappear.

We began to head back to Tofino, but then another bear was spotted, even further away than before. This time it was a female. and the guide thought it had cubs hidden in the forest, so he kept his distance. Other boats eventually arrived, we were there for a while watching it flipping rocks on the beach to find crabs and fish and other goodies.

To finish the trip, another seal and a large boat which looked like a research vessel.

For dinner we chose to continue the nautical theme, going to see Big Daddy who serves fish-related dishes. Fish and chips, battered prawns with apple slaw, and seafood chowder, then an ice cream from elsewhere. Mila and Danny did not want ice cream so they got sent ahead to avoid begging for ours.

Our first walk today took us into some “Twilight-esque” forest. Totally different plants than we have seen before and an almost prehistoric feel to the undergrowth. Very little sounds apart from the crashing waves on one side and the traffic noise on the other, but in the middle everything feels muted.

I have never seen lily of the valley outside of a garden so that was interesting… I thought they were hostas to start with.

I didn’t see any birds in the forest but we did hear some. The rest of the family got sick of me stopping and shushing them.

At the end of the boardwalk, we popped out onto Combers Beach – no one surfing on this one so presumably rubbish waves or too dangerous, it wasn’t clear which. We almost immediately got flown over by a bald eagle who tried to catch something and failed and was totally unmoved by the helicopter. We also saw a flock of what I think were sandpipers scurrying along next to the water.

Our next walk was on boardwalks again, this time called a rainforest. I am not sure I could spot the different in the flora or fauna but it was a nice walk. The weird thing was the noise the many ravens were making. Merlin was convinced it was ravens but it was very odd. They sounded like they were imitating other birds. I think they can be trained to something close to speech so I presume it is possible but it sounded very strange. One sounded like bubbles popping!

A walk into town meant we glimpsed a raccoon ( spotted by Mila obviously!) but it dashed off too fast for a photo.

Our last trip of the day was to Meares Island to do a tall trees hike. We needed to get a water taxi over to the island which was good fun and we got a fleeting glimpse of a sea otter before it dove into the water and hid.

The plants were similar although the trees were bigger as the island had never been logged:

The birds were much the same too with the red crossbills apparently happy to eat Douglas fir cones as well.

We saw the Stellars Jay and a few more not Al sounding ravens but the little birds were high, quiet and well hidden – when the canopy is 40m above you, they are going to be tricky to spot!

There was evidence of some kind of rodent but we didn’t see any. We did see the famous banana slug which was disgusting and massive. Ooh and a load of teeny crabs on the shoreline of the island.

Finally we were treated to some exhibitionist behaviour from Diego during supper and afterwards as he publicly caught, tore apart and swallowed fish right in front of the marina. The waiter said he was there regularly and didn’t seem impressed but we were!

A day of shorter walks was planned, so we fuelled on café breakfast (which included a breakfast sandwich inside a fried savoury doughnut!) and a box of 6 regular ring doughnuts for 6 Canadian Dollars (about £3) and headed towards Ucluelet on highway 4.

We stopped twice – once at Combers Beach and then at the Rainforest Trail. Both were forest walks, one ending in a wide open beach. Apart from the trees, a helicopter and a bald eagle flying overhead it was a pretty standard pair of walks.

We returned towards Tofino, stopping at the town outskirts for lunch at the original Tacofino. It seemed to be more of a tourist destination than a food place, with huge queues waiting for food. However, it was definitely worth it, and we had tacos, gringas and what they called “freshies” which were basically slushies. I had watermelon and basil, which sounds disgusting but is actually excellent. And fish tacos. We returned to the hotel to pause before the afternoon activity.

Our plan for the afternoon was to get a water taxi across to Meares Island, a semi-protected 20 square kilometre island about 10 minutes’ boat ride from Tofino. The island contains 2,000 year old trees, is entirely unmanaged, and is only accessible by boat. Kayak trips stop there, as does a taxi service. It’s not cheap, but worth it for the experience of walking for 2 hours through dense rainforest. There are some boardwalks, but these are made from fallen trees using axes and hand saws. We were lucky to see a blue jay, which was quite hard to photograph as it kept moving and hiding. It’s really hard to explain how big the trees are – some are vast, easily 5m diameter at the base of their trunks.

Back at the hotel with just enough time to shower before dinner, and this time a short walk to Shelter which had a great view over the water from our table. Excellent food and we watched the sunset and a sealion feeding just off the end of one of the piers!

Another day, another café breakfast, Vancouver’s excellent and 24 hour Breka again. Then a taxi to the seaplane terminal for our fight to Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Danny was particularly looking forward to the flight, so I’m sure the slow build-up and waiting for the pilot to saunter out to his charge helped. They stowed smaller bags without electronics in them in big plastic bags inside the dock-side float, then loaded the passengers. Our pilot was from Manchester, and the safety briefing was simple – he told me to turn the door handle clockwise and then push the hatch to open it; Danny got told the same about the one in the roof. Let’s hope we didn’t need to use them. Either way we had 2 seatbelts – the seat and the life-vest. Oh good.

As you’d expect the take-off on water was bumpy but once we achieved a plane on the water’s surface it became calmer. Since it was a light aircraft (10 passengers, 1 pilot) the 35 minute flight varied from bumpy to not, bumpier over coastline as the thermals worked. The landing was crazy – the angle he pointed the nose towards the water was reminiscent of Japanese kamikaze fighter pilots at Pearl Harbour. He avoided the massive ferry, and we had a longer than expected taxi back to the seaplane jetty.

We called an Uber once on the ground, as mysteriously our second hire car was not at the Avis office just 100m away…it was at the international airport 30km distant! Not great planning/forethought.

The 5 hour drive to Tofino should have been relatively uneventful with a few stops to look at interesting places. We paused to collect an in-car picnic from a farm shop near a town called Duncan, about an hour from our entrance to Vancouver Island at Victoria, then headed inland.

A couple of hours into the journey we began to see light smoke in the air, then there were warning signs, and police and park wardens were closing parking areas. We then came across a big wildfire at Cameron Lake, on Wesley Ridge. Helicopters were taking water out of the lake and dumping it on the hillside forest fire. We discovered the next day it was spreading fast, apparently caused by humans. Idiots, as there were signs everywhere saying NO FIRES because the risk was so high currently.

Unable to stop (not that we wanted to as the air was full of smoke, which you could smell immediately when opening a car window) we carried on to Cathedral Grove, where 800 year old Douglas Firs slowly grew. One tree had a 3m diameter.

A bit further on, with Jo doing some of the driving on this journey (her first time driving on the wrong side of the road), we stopped at Wally Creek and just after at the side of the road for a picturesque lake view.

We arrived at Tofino, a small fishing and tourist excursion town, in time for dinner (another burger for some). Lovely hotel with some really nice cafés and restaurants. Excellent, more food.

The plan for today was an exploration of Vancouver by water taxi. After breakfast from a bakery less than 2 minutes from our hotel, we headed to the nearest water taxi stop.

First stop was Granville Island. The main attraction was a large indoor market, with other smaller shops surrounding it, street artists, etc. After a wander round the various stalls and shops, where we saw fruit stall attendants seemingly creating anti-gravity cherry stacks, we decided to pick from numerous food stands for lunch, culminating with a HUGE slice of lemon meringue pie.

We got back on the water taxi, this time for a longer ride to nearly the end of the line to the Plaza of Nations.

From here we wandered towards Chinatown, stopping at a Chinese supermarket – they had, amongst lots of the usual live seafood, crabs from Dungeness! The architecture on this leg was as usual interesting, and we got a sneaky look into the football stadium through the back door.

Once in Gastown we had a wander around the varied shops, finding an interesting and very well stocked vinyl record store, some very nice cars, and an ice cream dipped in chocolate! When done we wandered back to the hotel.

To end the day we opted against the hotel’s recommended Italian restaurant and picked a very small Italian street food place. Half the price, double the quantity and incredibly good. And because we tipped for a takeaway, the owner gave us a free Tiramisu!

Our walk into Vancouver at lunch time was rewarded by cormorants and seals (harbour I presumed but I am not sure) in the estuary by the mariner.

Then we popped out to see Stanley park after a particularly fabulous bowl of ramen for dinner as we had heard that Beaver Lake at dusk was a good bet. The park was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel (it would have been 5 but I forgot my phone and needed it for Merlin!).

I will admit to being pretty unimpressed when we got to the first lake (lost lake) as it is almost entirely covered in pondweed. There were a few dragon flies and red eyed ducks, but not a lot else. It didn’t seem very healthy and was very overgrown with rushes at the edges so you couldn’t see in at all.

Without much expectation, we walked through into the forest and got a surprise – redwood trees! Lots that have been cut or fallen, but some younger ones are still standing. It almost looks as though someone thought it would be a good idea to plant them but they are not native and now they are being steadily removed again. We saw a grey squirrel straight away that posed beautifully for Keith. Another squirrel then started doing bird impressions and tricking me into trying to ID it with Merlin. It turned out to be a Douglas squirrel which are only found pretty locally to Vancouver. They live happily with grey and red as they have a slightly different diet.

As we walked through the woods and around Beaver Lake, Merlin found me some new birds that I hadn’t found before:

We sat down right in front of the beavers lodge and watched the ducks and dragonflies doing their thing. There was quite a bit of noise from the road, passing seaplanes and people on bikes but when they all went temporarily quiet, the bullfrogs started singing and it was so loud! It didn’t last more than a few minutes and we couldn’t spot any of them but it was very cool.

We kept still and quiet for about 20 minutes while people walked and cycled past, seaplanes whined overhead and the ducklings chirped to each other and then we were rewarded… I thought I had seen something moving the reeds about 100m from where we were sitting, then suddenly there was a big beaver swimming towards us from the reeds. It was very aware of us and twitched it’s backwards facing ears at Keith’s camera clicking. It turned around and nearly swam back to the reeds but then changed its mind and swam up to the front of its house and dove under the water, presumably to go inside. I was very pleased to have seen it!!

By this point the light was failing so we made a beeline back to the hotel and the resting teenagers.

We began the day waking up on the train after not a lot of sleep. Mike told us we’d definitely arrive into Vancouver for 8.30am but of course that didn’t happen, as they needed to split the train into two for the station (no real explanation given, but it wasn’t because it was too long!) Whilst waiting we had breakfast, nothing special and it turned out to be far from the best food of the day.

After disembarking, collecting our bags and getting a taxi to the next hotel, Times Square Suites, it was 10.30am. Fortunately they had our room ready for us, so we spent an hour or two resting before lunch. The hotel in on the edge of the financial district, in a mostly residential area, but with lots of food places around it, so we have plenty of choice for meals.

For lunch we headed out to find Tacofino – and what a place! Food (Mexican) was incredible. Then we decided to wander over to the Coal Harbor Bay area, and quickly found a café that sold the most amazing doughnuts, and coffee made by an Australian who once almost lived in Manchester. He made the best decaf cappuccino I’ve had in Canada, by far.

A continued wander towards the harbour we saw some interesting architecture, a Minecraft-inspired orca, cargo ships, seaplanes taking off from their dock and other interesting things and wildlife – including a seal!

Our target for the afternoon was the “Fly Over” experience, this time for Canada. It turned out to be exactly the same as the one we did in Iceland, and was just as good. For the same money as the so-called planetarium experience it was 100 times better (and then some). With all that done, we headed back to the hotel in readiness for dinner. We decided we’d give a ramen restaurant a go since the area was full of potential venues. Jo found the one which got best reviews, and when we arrived the queue of Asian diners outside Danbo Ramen suggested it was worth it. And wow, it was incredible – easily the same quality broth as we’d had in Japan.

Jo and I finished the day with a walk to Beaver Lake, where we saw – a beaver (amongst other things). The walk back was after dusk and the sunset was pretty good.

Mila was very annoying today… She sat in the bubble car reading her book with headphones on and then occasionally looked out the window to say – “ooh look deer!”, before going back to her book. I saw nothing, even though I stared out the window the whole time! Grrrr

We did all see a bald eagle on an island in the river after dinner – identified by Keith – look how far he has come!

We used our down time to play a few games of cards and eat and eat and eat and listen to detailed journey logs and “how to guides” of almost everything you could imagine. There was a coach load of be-lanyarded Americans, quite a few of whom were travelling solo, desperate to share their wisdom/conversation/jigsaw puzzle expertise… One man in particular (whose wife was conspicuous by her presence in a different car) talked without pausing for breath about the 198 countries he had visited and how he stored his photos. I felt very sorry for the Quebecois couple that he had ensnared and tricked into sharing their home address. Hilariously they started off too cagey for him, so once he had pinned down the locale, he got it up on Google maps and asked them to point!!!

The cabin was usable when the chairs were up and like the intro to an episode of casualty when the beds were out. Elbows, heads, backs and knees were all sacrificed in the process of getting into the toilet, getting dressed and undressed, climbing into the bunks and climbing out. I have no idea how the aged and mostly stick wielding Americans got into those bunks.

The toilet was an offense to every sense… smell, sight, sound, pressure and confinement were all issues.

Overall, the train journey was enjoyable but I would only repeat it in a bigger cabin and don’t think I could manage Keith locked up like that for four days!!

Today we boarded The Canadian train, on the last day of its journey from Toronto to Vancouver, boarding at Jasper. An early start to check the luggage in meant we had plenty of time for breakfast since the train was already delayed – quite normal in Canada given the majority of rail traffic is goods trains.

Once we had eaten and packed our overnight bags, we returned to the station and shortly after arriving the train appeared. However, it needed to be cleaned which meant all passengers needed to get off for an hour. Plenty of time for taking pictures of trains!

The Canadian consists of 22 cars and engines (at least, this one did because it picked up an additional engine, making 3, which needed to be taken to Vancouver for repair) and has a mix of economy, sleeper and premium coaches, dining cars, and the famous glass roof areas – our train had 5 of these. At the back of the train is another viewing car.

Our coach (113) was attended by Mike, who was 28 years into his career with Via Rail, and had plans to retire – 2, 7 and 10. In 2 years he could retire with heavy penalties, in 7 years with a slap on the wrist and in 10 years with full pension. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, but would decided in 7 years.

Once onboard we found our two cabins (113 B and C) and spent long while investigating how capacious they were – or not.

We then headed towards the front of the train and found the dining car, with a free table for brunch – so we stopped here and ate. Not bad food actually, but then this was the dining car for those not in economy (who had to make do with a very simple menu from an onboard café).

The view from the windows varied, but seemed to have 2 themes – either immense views of mountains, or close-up rock faces (obviously of cuttings).

Once brunched we went to one of the viewing areas and grabbed a table for four at the front of the area, giving the best views ahead. At first the viewing areas seemed busy, but quickly people left and it was no trouble at all getting our preferred seats whenever we returned.

An afternoon watching the view whiled away the time until our dinner reservation at 5pm. The food was again pretty good, a three-course meal with wine. The strawberry cake was particularly good.

After dinner we returned to our viewing spot, played cards, watched it get dark and then planned to get off the train briefly at Kamloops – unfortunately we were still delayed so we decided to go to bed (rather than stand on a platform of a station in the dark, and probably surrounded by insects of the biting kind). We’d let Mike know we wanted our cabin turned into night mode, with beds readied and chairs stowed, so when we returned at 9ish we found the rooms ready for sleep. Unfortunately this meant there was virtually no room in the cabin to move. Nor, as I then found out, was there sufficient space to sleep for me, as the best was 180cm long – not sure where the remaining 14cm was meant to go. Not a lot of sleep was had….

We had two hire cars, each for around a week, and this was our first to transport us from Calgary to Jasper. On arrival at the Avis desk in Calgary they said there were no more cars of the type that had been booked for us (a medium-sized Ford of US-market derivation) so we were offered a pick-up instead, which would be an upgrade. Sounded good to me, so I agreed. Then we found it in the car park – you couldn’t miss it. An ENORMOUS GMC Sierra.

We quickly discovered that the rear load section was useless. It had no load cover, so we couldn’t use it. Instead we had to pile all the luggage and bags in the back seat area, meaning one in the back and three up front, with Jo being smallest being relegated to the fold-down seat in the middle. Apparently it wasn’t that comfortable, something I had no experience of as I was the only driver and my seat was fully electric with heating bottom and back. I had to keep adjusting it just to keep it comfortable and didn’t tell Jo about it (much).

Getting out of the airport car park was an experience but we slowly exited. At this point I discovered (and heard) the engine was quite large – a 5.3 litre petrol V8 – and pleasurably noisy. It wasn’t hugely quick but had plenty of torque meaning acceleration was more than adequate. We later discovered it hit 100km/h (60mph) in around 9 seconds, though Jo wasn’t happy to time me doing this.

We did discover probably its best feature – the noise it made on cold startup.

However, being an American vehicle, I soon discovered its rather significant downsides – it wandered side-to-side on straight roads (probably due to the tyre width), and was utterly incompetent on corners and offroad surfaces, despite being four-wheel drive. So from a driver’s perspective it was much harder work than driving at home.

The only other point of note was the fuelling cost – before leaving Lake Louise for our near 300km trip through the Icefield Parkway (where there was only one fuel station) we filled it up from around half full – 55 litres of fuel (so I guess well over 100 litre tank) costing about £43. That would make fuel prices in Canada around half that of home.

So, not the best hire car we’ve ever had but fun to try something different.

For our final day in Jasper we decided to do a hike in the morning before it became too hot (30 degrees C was forecast, and happened), then back to Jasper for lunch. We drove out to Pyramid Lake, took a look at the island, then headed up into the mosquito infested woods to see what wildlife we could find, and what views we could see.

Walking around and up Pyramid head we saw a variety of wildlife – a single bighorn sheep was the star, but we briefly saw several red squirrels and an osprey overhead.

On return to Jasper we went for toasted sandwiches and smoothies.

The hire car had to be returned by 5pm so Jo and I decided to head out towards Disaster Point (named after a problematic rail journey) to seek out sheep and/or goats. Success, we found a herd of all sizes on the rocks we’d not seen them on during our wildlife tour. On the way back we stopped at a vast floodplain of the Athabasca river which is less than knee deep across its full width. On the way back we came across a big truck fire at the side of the highway.

After returning the car to the drop-off point at Jasper station, and stopping for ice cream on the walk back to the hotel we started packing for our journey the next day, then we headed out for dinner.

After 9 days of calorie intake being greater than calories burned through exercise, Jo and I decided to go for a run before breakfast. We picked an out and back route north from the hotel in Jasper to the H.J. Moberly Bridge which is the first crossing point over the Athabasca River.

With an 8k run done, we went for a waffles breakfast – all had the same variation, with eggs, bacon, cheese and maple syrup. Jo also picked a banana and peanut butter smoothie.

Then a little stroll around town. Probably the biggest remaining sign of the huge wildfire that reached Jasper 12 months ago was a burned out petrol station. There were 4 in Jasper, now 2 remain. One exploded, this one didn’t but the damage is clearly severe. In total, 37,000 hectares of forest were destroyed.

Snacks and dinner followed – the Mr Big chocolate bar was mostly like a Kit-Kat crossed with a Picnic, but was huge. Clue is in the name.

On the way back from dinner, we came across a sign. Now, we have been having long debates about whether the term “handicapped” is still allowed, but apparently in Canada it is. We’re not so sure it should be.

After eating we headed off for our Jasper Dark Skies Planetarium Experience. That was $148 wasted. Utterly appalling waste of time, so saying no more about it.

That evening we decided to go for another drive up the Maligne Lake Road, given last night had been so successful. And wow, so much wildlife, more that the guided tour, with some serious close-up experiences. Before the wildlife though, we stopped at the Maligne Canyon to see for ourselves the extreme damage. It’s closed to all access, but you can see it from a viewpoint above.

Before long we spot our first wildlife, an elk and a mule deer on a ridgeline.

We stopped again at the bald eagle nest to try to see the adult and two young – we saw one of the youngsters in the nest calling (identified by Jo using Merlin), then both of them flying around in the distance, but little else other than a distant rainbow.

A little further on we saw the osprey nest again, no change from the previous visit.

Before long we saw mule deer which seem relatively plentiful in the area, and not at all afraid of visitors.

Then onto the main event. Moose. A seemingly young (or stupid) moose which kept testing a road sign, and wasn’t too impressed with it by the way it jumped back when it made a noise. After playing with it he (very) slowly crossed the road and began to feed on the other side.

We got some of this behaviour on video too!

After the moose we carried on up, then down from Maligne Lake and saw a white tailed deer very briefly before it disappeared, another moose with its calf drinking by a river, and a mule deer. A really good evening of looking for wildlife.

What a busy wildlife day!!

We had seen big soaring birds walking along the main road in Jasper, but only as silhouettes against a very bright sky so identification was pretty tricky.

Our tour guide was quite a character but she was very knowledgeable and did deliver!

She started by showing us the elk we had stumbled across on the way into town. They were split across the road but they didn’t seem upset by our presence. This was a maternity herd so we did see a calf that was still slightly spotty.

Our next destination was to see the big horned sheep at a location we had already seen them, but they were shy and didn’t put in an appearance. She told us all about them anyway.

We then drove out along the river (not a lake but a knee deep flood plain), where we saw a man wading much further out than looked sensible before she explained. On the right hand side of the road, she stopped to show us a beaver lodge that had been in use for 70 years and then we drove along the edge of an enormous beaver made lake. She said she hadn’t spotted one for 4 years so I might have to let that one go!! We did see their dam and discussed how parks Canada have to keep water flowing to prevent the highway from flooding.

We failed to see the goats on a cliff a bit further up, even though we all squinted at it for a while. Again, she told us all about how their hooves work so they can climb ridiculously steep rocky slopes.

We then did a (nearly) emergency stop on side of the highway to see some white tailed deer, but we only really saw their white tails as they bounced away to hide.

All the way through the tour she talked about the fire last year and the long lasting effects. In summary, it was bad because a lot of the trees were already dead as they had been infected by pine beetles, so they burnt really fast. Pine beetles only die if the temperature stays below -30 for 3 weeks continuously, and that hasn’t happened for two years, so the problems continue. They are also getting unusually hot summers so the normally cool ground is warming up and all the virus and bacteria are damaging the trees. It is not expected that the 37 thousand hectares of fire damage will ever look as it did before. This is not necessarily a negative as the trees were too thick to encourage the plant growth required to sustain a large population of wildlife.

She also talked about the effects of the fire on Jasper. The town was evacuated in the middle of the night as the fire started at around tea time. Everyone hiking on the maligne trail was given a free helicopter ride out. 2000 families lost their homes and while there is some temporary housing, a lot of people choose to leave instead. There are “help wanted” signs in practically every shop window.

We turned off the highway onto the maligne lake road and started our ascent to maligne lake. This was on our list of hiking destinations so we were interested to see what we would see.

Our first spot was a pair of mule deer, identified by their enormous donkey ears. They were a bit shy but Keith snapped them before they disappeared.

Then we pulled over at the end of the lake to see if we could spot the hoary marmots that normally live there. I was very disappointed when we didn’t see any, but we did hear some interesting noises and a fellow British binocular wearer spotted a bald eagle sitting in a tree further down the lake. We all hopped back in the bus to get closer.

Closer, we could see the nest, an adult and an all brown juvenile. Keith got an amazing shot of the adult and flight shot of the baby. If that wasn’t exciting enough, someone then spotted a hoary marmot wandering across the pebble beach below where we were standing and then another one sunbathing on a rock. I tried to get the bald eagles to sing for me, but caught a northern flicker instead. I didn’t manage to see it or get a photo which was disappointing as they are very pretty according to Merlin!

It took a while for everyone to have their fill of the eagles and the marmots, but then we were back to the bus. It didn’t feel like we had gone far when we stopped again at an osprey nest. The guide said there were two chicks but we could only see an adult head poking out the top.

We continued up the hill and drove across a bridge at the end of the lake that was teeming with gnats and (I worked out on the way down) masses of barn swallows. I watched a fat brown bird bigger than the swallows begging from an adult. I wondered if it could be a cuckoo chick, but subsequent googling has said they are not found here. Maybe just a fat chick then?

We had a comfort break in the (now empty) car park at the top of the lake. Wonderful flushing toilets instead of the normal open pit… Gulp! The guide showed us antlers of elk, moose and big horned sheep and then silicon footprints of both grizzly and black bears with a claw attached. A bit sobering to be honest. While we were passing them around, three more mule deer wandered out of the forest and then wandered away again.

Back to the bus and back down the mountain road, the guide talked about the bears and how to survive a “down and dirty fight” with either type. To be avoided. Another road based drama as she accelerated in response to a pair of moose (not meese, mice or mooses) crossing the road ahead of us. We arrived in time to see their haunches disappear into the trees, but she reversed expertly (with beeping) until the female could be seen through the trees. It was very tricky to get a good view/shot as she was eating with her head down and kept moving behind yet another tree, but Keith did his best out the door of the bus.

We saw the same (probably) mule deer in the same layby on the way back down and then surprised the guide by also spotting three buck elk split across the road a bit further down. The guide said that the male elk normally stay away from the female herds until at least mid august when they start getting more interested, but recently the local guides had noticed that the males were already identifying interesting females and following them around. Another potential consequence of global warming.

After some epic sunset photo opportunities, we completed the trip down the mountain and back to the hotel.

Highly recommended as an experience but you should be warned in advance that she may not remember to collect you, she will potentially deny any knowledge of you having been on her bus after a stop and she absolutely will not check you are back in before she leaves!!

Today’s plan was simple – late breakfast, washing clothes, late lunch then a wildlife tour with a guide.

After breakfast, we stopped at the supermarket for snacks, and came across some enormous peaches. Next stop, washing clothes. After getting some cash and working out how the machines worked Jo and I had coffee, tea and cake to celebrate (or rather, whilst we waited). I watched the women’s Euros penalty shootout then updated the holiday spending accounts!

It wasn’t long before it was time for a late lunch/early dinner as our wildlife tour left the hotel at 5.15pm. We shared pizza and poutine.

The wildlife tour was led by a local guide who thought she was funnier than she was, and maybe didn’t realise she was as rude as she was. We weren’t the victims of her chatter as she failed to pick up people, received phone calls, then had to return to collect one particularly angry passenger who’d been to the toilet and missed being collected. Serves him right for being late!

The tour itself focused on the road into Jasper we’d travelled in on (where we only saw the elk we’d already seen) and the area up to Maligne Lake. The guide shared a literally constant stream of information for the 5 hours we were with her about wildlife, geology and the history of the area. Once on the road to Maligne Lake we saw a lot more – mule deer, bald eagles, a hoary marmot, a nesting osprey, and a pair of moose.

The views were pretty good too, especially as we were travelling back at sunset.

We arrived back after 10pm and ended the day with snacks, before bed.

3 x deer
Tall stork/heron thingy x2 by brook, mostly white- great blue heron
Eagle? Fingers on wings, white head, white band on tail- decided on bald eagle for this one having done lots of image comparisons!
3 x goats
Big bird – White underside, dark on top, large wings small head and tail, seen at bridge- not sure, could be osprey as near water but wasn’t too big so could have been the red tailed hawk

2 ravens- noisy buggers! One adult one begging juvenile, in the car park at a rest stop
1 deer
1 male elk – 5 tines, caused our only traffic jam in the parkway as tourists stopped to take photos.

8 female elk plus one juvenile- right outside Jasper

Very pleased to have finally spotted some raptors!

The big shock of today was the amount of fire damage evident during the last part of our journey. The lady at the front desk of the hotel reckons the temporary accommodation (they are shipping containers essentially) will be in place for another 5 years while they rebuild. Her mum is living in one and she said the major issue is the restriction on water supply as struck delivers once a week!!

We left Field after another tasty hotel breakfast, sat by their fire as it was a little colder this morning.

The plan for the day was a 4-5 hour drive along the Icefield Parkway, which connects Lake Louise with Jasper, and is the biggest non-polar icefield. After a quick stop at the spiral tunnel, where the long trains do two figure of 8 loops INSIDE the mountain, we stopped to collect some rations at Lake Louise, and fill up with fuel as there was only one filling station on the Parkway and was renowned for being very expensive!

The drive along the Parkway was punctuated with lakes, glaciers and waterfalls. We stopped to hike up to a couple of viewing points at Bow Lake and Peyto Lake first, finding an incredible wildflower meadow after taking a shortcut.

A little further on, we stopped at Waterfowl Lake, where numerous tourists in high heels and designer gear were taking posed photos of each other whilst we ate lunch. Clearly they were just stopping at roadside viewpoints for their Insta shots.

We then found a short hike to the incredible Mistaya Canyon with waterfalls and eddy pots. The noise was quite something.

A short stop at Howse Pass, we headed on to Sunwapta falls for more crazy powerful water action.

Another stop as Saskatchewan for coffee (appalling) we drove on via the main glacier in the area which they bus tourists onto (literally) – we elected not to take part in this activity due to the environmental damage it must cause. However, we did see a huge bald eagle soaring above.

On the approach to Jasper we began to see the damage the infamous wildfires caused a year ago – incredible to see vast swathes of land mostly devoid of life, with matchsticks poking up from the ground where trees had once stood. We did see some elk at the side of the road in a couple of places.

We arrived at our hotel shortly before we had a booking at Evil Dave’s Grill for dinner – highly recommend this place, food was superb!

We saw a grizzly bear! It was eating berries and nibbling on the bark at the base of some mini silver birch trees at the side of the road (bow valley parkway). The ranger wasn’t happy about its proximity to the road and the idiot tourists so he shouted at it and it trombled a bit further away. He also shouted at the tourists to get back in their cars. He was polite but exasperated and lost sight of the bear while dealing with the people. He looked relieved when more rangers turned up to help.

We then saw a red napped sap sucker (which finally explains all the damage to trees we have seen) flitting about a rest stop off the same road. We tried to ID it at the time but ended up having to do an image search once we had WiFi again!

We then saw some big horned sheep by the side of the Trans Canada Highway. Both them and  their horns are genuinely big. There are signs on the side of the road warning about them so presumably they hang about in approximately the same place most of the time.

We nearly saw some eagles (got told they were usually there!) and I did see a big raptor briefly but we were concentrating on the terrifying instructions for white water rafting so we didn’t get an ID. We did see lots of ravens in the same place though.

Many more chipmunks and ground squirrels obviously.

Our only full day in Field was filled by advice from the hotel staff, who said we should go to Moraine Lake (back at Lake Louise) and go canoeing then hiking up to other lakes in the area. Before that, breakfast – best so far.

After collecting our hiker’s (packed) lunch from the hotel reception we go into our transfer bus – a Transit minibus driven by New Zealander Will, a marine biologist who had ended up in Canada enjoying himself climbing and other fun things. We had a good chat about travelling for the 30 minute journey to Moraine Lake, made better because it was free!! Our hotel is owned by the same company who own the only hotel at the lake, so they have the ability to come and go for free as “residents” – other minibuses pay $700 a trip to access the long private road leading to the lake.

Once at the lake we used the hotel’s facilities and headed over to the canoe hire. We were treated like VIPs as we were waved through the queue with our free canoe hire tickets (courtesy of our hotel), with others receiving slower treatment with lots of safety briefing information (we got very little!) We were also allowed unlimited time on the lake, with everyone else getting an hour for $160 per boat.

With a length of the lake and back complete, we headed off for our hike to Lake Consolation. We chose this as a shorter route because the weather didn’t look ideal, and had a nice walk through the bottom of the scree slope and into a dense pine forest. Just as we arrived at the lake it began to rain. A lot. We sheltered under trees and ate the hiker’s lunch to see if the rain might stop. It didn’t. So we had a quick look at the lake (normally spectacular) and headed back through the forest and to the hotel, where we waited for Will to return to collect us.

Once back at the hotel we installed ourself in front of their fire. Whilst some of us updated the blog, others did other things.

To end the day we went to a popular local (and the only) restaurant in Field, Truffle Pigs. With 28 covers it’s not the biggest, but the food was excellent.

To get back to the hotel we had to cross a railroad track – sadly one of the really long trains blocked our way, so we headed back the long way round along an avalanche-prone dirt track. For once we were back at the hotel at a good time of day (7pm vs the usual 9 or 10) – and listened to other trains crawling past.

Before leaving Banff we visited Bluebird for breakfast, which turned out to be fantastic – full breakfast of varying varieties, an enormous Croque Madam, and avocado on toast. We needed our energy for what came later in the day.

The route from Banff to our next hotel in Field, a very small town (we’d call it a village) located on the Trans Canada Highway between Lake Louise and Golden, took us along the Bow Valley Parkway which we had been told was a great location to see big wildlife. We stopped a few times at viewing points, found a few birds and squirrels, saw some nice vistas, but not a lot more.

Then we turned a corner and saw a dozen or so vehicles on each side of the road, and a park ranger with a paintball gun on the road shouting at people to get back in their vehicles. Of course, the first thing you do when you hear there’s a dangerous animal in the vicinity is leave the safety of your vehicle. Contrary to the idiots who did, we stayed inside and tried to see what people were looking at. Then we saw him – a massive grizzly bear. The ranger said he’d not seen this one in the wild before, but knew him to be a very big male. He was definitely very big.

The bear was hard to spot, and spent much of his time moving around in the bushes – you could see them moving, but not him. He rarely became visible, but when he did I took my chance and fired off the camera in his direction.

With that box ticked we carried on, but sadly saw nothing else similar. Lots of more great views, and a very long train which was still quite exciting given its size.

We stopped briefly at the new hotel to collect towels, then headed off to our next activity – white water rafting. Given it’s one of the best places to do it, it seemed daft not to give it a go. We did a half day session, which equates to about 90 minutes on the water, which was plenty. The 5 mile stretch of water comprised class 3 and 4 rapids – apparently class 5 are dangerous, and class 6 are death. The also have names – car wash, g-spot and roller coaster. Either way they all made you wet. Nobody died, and nobody fell in. The on-board photos below are from a video I recorded – which will be edited and added to the blog later.

With wet suits, boots and safety equipment handed back we returned to the new hotel and checked in. It was a hotel with lodges instead of standard rooms, and a very nice fine-dining style restaurant.

Dinner was excellent, as was the wine.

Big day of walking today. In summary – very early start; walking; cloud; helicopter; no cloud; helicopter; lunch; more walking; owl; more walking; insert lots of little wildlife; amazing dinner.

We headed out of the hotel, picking up breakfast and lunch on the way, for the ROAM bus which took us to Lake Louise – leaving 7am. The café that prepared our food got slightly confused between the person taking the order (where we said don’t heat it up) and the person making the order (who began to heat up 7 sandwiches). When reminded, the person making the order proceeded to throw all the food away and start again. If only they’d talked to each other!

After a 50 minute bus ride we arrived at Lake Louise, just before 8am and began what would turn out to be an 11.5 mile hike with 2,500 feet of climbing, that took us around 8 hours (though just under 5 of that was actually walking since we were stopping to look at things, and to eat).

The start point was at the built up part of Lake Louise, with a massive hotel overlooking the lake. With the morning cloud on the mountains it was quite mysterious and beautiful, and the crowds were light. Most people looked ill equipped for any kind of meaningful walking on the expected terrain, but we set off, bear spray readily available.

As we walked the cloud began to lift. Our first destination was Plain of Six Glaciers, the furthest part of this set of National Park trails from the start point. As we walked we saw fewer and fewer people, but all had their bear spray – and important part of hiking in the area. It’s essentially pepper spray in a small container which looks like a fire extinguisher, which you fire at any bear who might want your marmalade sandwiches. As we neared the first destination, we saw a helicopter go overhead with something slung underneath on a long rope….

I won’t comment too much on wildlife in this post, Jo will do that in another post, but here’s some pictures of what we saw in the first part of the walk – mostly plants.

We did come across this cheeky chap, and later on lots of his friends….

On arrival at the Plain of Six Glaciers we found two things (aside from the incredible mountains which had now fully emerged from their cloudy shrouds). First, a tea house, which was a log cabin staffed by mostly quite happy people (aside from the person you met first who was quite grumpy and kept ordering us around – she got mostly ignored, by me at least). The tea house was entirely cut off from anything you’d need to serve food (no running water, no electricity and definitely no mobile signal) so at the start of the season they had pallets of supplies helicoptered in, then any fresh food had to be walked in.

The second thing was the toilets – basically all human waste fell into steel barrels under the toilet (you could see them) and these were removed by helicopter every 2 weeks. And we were there on collection day! The helicopter visited 5 times whilst we were walking in and sat eating our first lunch of the day. We got really close to it lifting barrels away, returning them, then landing to collect the cargo net it had brought in on its first trip. Quite an experience – and quite windy!

Fed, toileted (one person had to hold the door shut whilst the other tried not to breathe in or touch anything whilst inside the little shack with the toilet seat above the barrel below), and ready to continue on, we headed back the way we came then branched off up an incredibly steep and rocky section towards Big Beehive, the highest point of the day.

Once at the highest point, Jo spotted an owl, which she thinks is a juvenile great horned owl, say in a tree near the trail. It wasn’t close enough that most people would have seen it, but with our binoculars and cameras once we saw it we stayed for 20 minutes watching him watching us.

We also saw other wildlife at the top, Jo will talk about these in her blog post. She didn’t feed the wildlife, but other people were – idiots.

The view from the top was OK – it was a long way down, you could see a lot, but as it faced away from the larger mountains it wasn’t a view as spectacular as we’d already seen that day.

Next stop on the walk, Lake Agnes. A seriously steep hair-pinned descent saw us arrive to another spectacular lake view.

The lake itself was quite photogenic – the left image below is from my camera, the right image from Danny’s smartphone. It’s amazing how smartphones capture pictures, and whilst they look dramatic the colour rendition is hugely saturated (which is why they look so colourful and why Instagram is stuffed full of them!). Nice picture though.

A bit more wildlife at Lake Agnes, where there was another tea house (and it was a lot busier as by now we were only 2 miles from the start point. I’m particularly proud of the first photo below, this time two cheeky chappies having a chat (probably).

The final leg of the journey was mostly downhill – a long way downhill! We made really good progress, as by now we were all quite tired and wanted to get to the bottom to catch a bus back to Banff.

Back in Banff and showered we headed out for dinner at the Three Bears Brewery – I highly recommend this restaurant!

An amazing day for wildlife today!

Not a great variety of birds today, but I did spot a juvenile great horned owl at the side of the path. It was snoozing on a branch and even treated us to a few head bobs while we watched it. We shared our spot with a few other hikers as well.

We did see an astonishing number of different plants and I enjoyed using seek to identify them. The app has clearly had an upgrade since the last time I used it as it was really fast, even with no internet. Keith took some great photos of the prettiest ones.

I also saw quite a few fungi in the forest areas, but only managed to ID one from the photo Keith took.

We also saw a huge number of small mammals, including chipmunks and ground squirrels and witnessed idiot tourists feeding them. Because of this they are very brave and run up to your lap if you sit down to eat. Very cute and fun to watch and take photos of, but essentially a problem to manage the population if hikers don’t respect they are wild.

I saw a mouse/vole sized rodent on the path but wasn’t quick enough to get a photo or ID. Research hasn’t really helped so it will have to stay a mystery.

The surprise of the day was that we didn’t see a single raptor hanging in a clear sky and with the number of pine siskins and chipmunks/squirrels I would have expected a few. We did speak to some Dutch Merlin users who said they had seen something big, but didn’t get a chance to ID it.

The disappointment of the day was that three young American hikers in the queue at the tea house had just seen and photographed a porcupine, but we didn’t manage to get a glimpse!

Today was a pretty good bird day. Merlin (bird identification app) did a great job at hearing tiny well hidden winged things in conifers. I got very annoyed at one point today as it kept telling me it didn’t know what a very loud chirruping was. Pretty sure in retrospect that it was a ground squirrel so outside of its remit!

I watched a flock of tree swallows (shouting loudly enough to be identified) mobbing and in turn being hassled by a small raptor. I am fairly confident it was a merlin, but only based on size and aerobatic feats as it wasn’t at all close and I couldn’t get a lock on it with the binoculars as it was too fast.

Aside from the birds we had a great time watching the ground squirrels who were surprisingly brave around humans and kept popping back up out of their holes to see if we had gone away yet. Mila gets bonus spotting points for shouting “deer” many times after spotting the seemingly solitary animals just off the road. We all saw the herd of Elk- and the tourists trying to get closer and trespassing on a restricted access area- but we chose not to stop thinking we could return. Sadly when we did they had moved further away from the road, but the new binoculars came into their own finding them lying down probably a kilometre away. A park warden told us that it was a maternity herd and they had just given birth. The males wander off on their own at that point apparently. Just saying.

What was really surprising today was how little we had to travel outside the town to experience a little bit of wilderness and the animals that live there. With that in mind I have borrowed bear spray from the hotel for our hike tomorrow…

Today was split between resting after a supermarket breakfast, and taking a trip on a cable car (they call it a gondola, but it was definitely a bog standard cable car) up to the top of Sulfur Mountain.

Once at the top we were really lucky to see the spectacular view.

Unfortunately we’d picked the only day when it was entirely covered in cloud, and was snowing at the top. Fortunately we’d booked lunch at the Sky Bistro, which had huge windows overlooking the aforementioned view. At least the food was good, and we hoped the view would improve after lunch.

The view didn’t improve much, so I made the best of it and took a few photos of other things which I could see.

Towards the end of our allotted time the cloud did break in a very specific place, so we at least got to see something, and a little more on the way back down.

We took the bus back to the hotel and collected the car, to take a drive round the Lake Minnewanka (I kid you not, that’s its real name) loop, which is about 14km long and takes you through some pretty good scenery.

We stopped numerous times to hunt for interesting wildlife. We saw ground squirrels, a herd of elk from a great distance, some deer and an American Robin. Not bad for an ad-hoc hour of driving locally to Banff.

Once back at the hotel we opted for a supermarket tea given the lunch we’d had – fresh soup with bread, a giant salad, some dubious cheese cubes which Danny chose, and some fruit. On the way out to collect it we saw a Tesla Cybertruck – monstrous thing, with panel gaps you could fall between and the corners of the bodywork had lost their paint through wear.

Today was another travel day, into another time-zone, and the chance to double our jet-lag! With an early afternoon internal flight to Calgary, we started the day with another breakfast venue – Egg Club. The first rule about Egg Club is don’t talk about Egg Club. The second rule about Egg Club is don’t talk about Egg Club, so I can’t say more than that.

Actually it’s an online viral fast-food chain that serves the most amazing egg rolls. They take a slab of Japanese milk break, cut it down the middle around half way, then insert a slice of omelette and the requisite extras for that particular sandwich into it. We had three variations – Bacon & Cheese, Egg Club, and “Meat Lovers”. Menu is here if you want to find out more!

On the way back to the hotel to finish packing we called into the supermarket to get some water and lunch for the plane. Danny particularly enjoyed the food trolley….

Rather than return to the airport on the train (been there, done that) we booked a car. At only 75 Canadian Dollars (around £40) it was barely more than the cost of the train and subway tickets and made things a lot easier.

The transit through the airport was really simple since it was a domestic flight. Security was yet again another chance for the staff to take my bag apart, inspect and drugs wipe my camera lenses, this time with absolutely not a word of discussion – the security lady who took my bag away didn’t even give me eye contact, let alone speak to me.

The flight was just 4 hours, and it’s a good job we took food as there was none on offer! Another plane picnic, this time fresh supermarket sandwiches and sushi, which were surprisingly good and a lot better than you’d find in the UK.

The most exciting part of the journey (apart from being able to watch a couple more episodes of the Dune mini-series) was the in-flight entertainment included real views of the outside of the plane – one from the tail fin looking forwards, and one from the belly looking forwards at the front nose wheels. Danny was super-excited about this, and took photos and videos. You could watch the plane land from these views, lining up for the runway, touching down, taxiing and then the chocks being put under the wheels. And once on the ground, I got the customary messages saying exactly where the bags were on my phone.

With the hire car keys collected, and being given a free upgrade (probably because they’d run out of the cars we had booked) we went into the car park to find the vehicle. Turns out it was a vast pickup truck. Gigantic thing with a 5.8 litre V8 engine. The only issue was where to put the bags as the flatbed was open – and good job we stowed them all in the cabin (plenty of space!) since on the way to Banff we encountered a rainstorm so strong drivers were stopping at the side of the highway and our windscreen wipers couldn’t clear the volume of water hitting us at 110km/h. I carried on. It’s just a bit of water. There will be more on the car once I’ve got used to it, likely in a Clarkson style blog post.

Once at the hotel and checked in we were told the truck was too big for their underground car park (in fact they laughed at me for having it) and suggested I park it on a street overnight then they’d make space for me in the morning once other idiots with big cars had checked out. The hotel itself was far nicer than the Toronto digs, so we were happy with Audley’s choice – which was actually a second choice because their first choice decided to close for the summer (or something like that).

Once suitcases were opened we headed down to the hotel restaurant, which is more a restaurant attached to the hotel. Three of us had amazing pizzas; Jo had a vegetable wellington. We ate half, so that’s tea tomorrow night sorted! Then off to bed to try to sort out another 2 hours added to the jet lag tally.

Our only whole day in Toronto and we’d planned a busy schedule. But first, breakfast. Flippers are famous for their soufflé pancakes, so we headed there for breakfast. Note fries for breakfast.

After breakfast we wandered towards the CN Tower and Rogers Centre, and found Union Station and an impressive old railway roundhouse (now shops and cafés).

The first activity of the day was a baseball game. We were very lucky to have been given free tickets for the Major Baseball League game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the San Francisco Giants, and whilst they do not play in the same division (due to geography, The Giants being on the US West Coast) they are playing at roughly the same level currently (so I later found out from the man sat next to me in the stadium), so should result in an exciting game. It was also a “Junior Jays Sunday” event meaning nearly everyone was at the game with their kids, and the stadium was surrounded with activities for the thousands of children there.

The first surprise was where we were sat in the Rogers Centre. On entering the stadium (the pitch is actually below ground level, so from the outside it doesn’t look as big as it actually is) the roof was closed, and it looked impressive enough. Shortly after sitting down the roof began to open. Around 30 minutes to roll back each half of the roof, it was a piece of engineering genius the way it folded back into itself.

Of course there was plenty of food available – we had fried chicken and chips, nachos and ice cream.

The view of the pitch was incredible, with the CN Tower right in front of us. I won’t begin to explain what we learned about the game itself, other than the home team won and the crowd were more than slightly partisan. In fact I don’t think we saw anyone not in Blue Jays kit.

Once the game was done we headed back to the hotel to collect cameras (real ones were not allowed in the stadium) and then straight out again. We walked back down to the CN Tower via “Graffiti Alley”, a real road name and a place where every wall is covered in artwork. Some were hugely impressive.

From here we walked to the CN Tower for our trip to the top. It used to be the tallest freestanding building in the world, unless numerous others took the title. It was nowhere near as tall as the Skytree tower we visited in Tokyo, but nevertheless some good views. Danny yet again was not that happy, particularly with the lift which had a glass front so you could watch out as you went up or down in it. And they had the requisite glass floor – I don’t really understand why people don’t like them, and I happily strolled around it taking pictures of the ground below whilst most other people looked like they were about to be launched off the observation deck.

Back on the ground, it was getting late so we headed off for dinner by the lake. Not that exciting, and slightly overcooked, but the beer was locally brewed and was pretty good. Fries again (3 times today).

A walk back to the subway in the dark was a nice way to walk off the carbs and end our first full day in Canada.

Apparently related to the grey not the red, the black squirrels in Toronto have adapted to retain more heat when it is cold. I imagine they suffer a bit when it is 27 degrees like today.

Although shy of the dog that really wanted to chase it, they were not at all bothered by us and wandered really close.

Although Toronto did not offer us bears- only squirrels, sparrows, pigeons and seagulls, we did get an awesome thunderstorm on our first night which gave us an excuse other than jetlag to be awake for a few hours in the early morning.

The trip to Toronto was quite unremarkable and straightforward….with a few exceptions!

The first excitement was at Manchester Airport. They have the new scanners in terminal 2 meaning you don’t need to unpack your bag. However, I always have my bag searched, probably not helped because it’s stuffed full of camera equipment and electronics. This time they were most interested in my laptop, and after 10 minutes of detailed inspection on their fancy machine a security person came over to ask me some questions – they were still looking at my bag on the scanner.

What do you do for a living? What’s in your bag? I enjoyed telling them I no longer worked, and listed the bag contents. When I got to the laptop I was asked if it was a special kind of laptop? Not really, just a new Snapdragon Microsoft Surface. Does it have any magnets in the lid? Not that I knew about. This concerned them – a lot. Apparently they’d not seen this kind of laptop before and didn’t understand why the internal looked the way they did. I offered to show them the receipt, they looked up the laptop on their own, and after taking it out and unlocking with my face they were satisfied. No idea what they found/saw but several of the security people were quite excited, and not in a good way!

Getting onto the plane was also generally unexciting, apart from the getting on the bus, getting off the bus, getting on the bus dance because they’d loaded us before cleaning the aircraft – strange as it had been on the apron unused for 2 days before our flight!

Good seats, plenty of space, and a splendid new (to us) in-flight entertainment system which impressed. Not only was there proper power for real plugs (meaning we could charge devices properly with our own fast-chargers), but the entertainment system allowed you to connect your Bluetooth headphones directly to the screen, and they had AppleTV, MAX and other streaming service content. I settled on the Dune Prophecy mini-series on MAX.

We decided to bring our own food in case of delays, or other food-related catastrophe. So just after take-off we enjoyed our M&S picnic lunch. And good job, the first meal they provided was worse than unremarkable – it was awful. a lump of chicken (which was actually OK) with some kind of unidentifiable tepid additions, a salad covered in dill, etc… Very glad for our own food. Later on they served what is best described as an Air Canada Greggs chicken plait. It was actually pretty good.

Landing at Toronto was fine, and we were very quickly though border control as I’d done our landing applications and bought eTAs before we left. We were waived straight through whilst most other passengers had to queue to speak to a uninformed person with a gun.

Luggage collection was not unremarkable. Our Air Canada app told us to wait by luggage carousel 8, which we did. Then I got 4 messages on my phone from the app telling me the luggage was about to appear….and it did!! All bags together. Well done Air Canada.

We’d decided to use the train and subway to get to the hotel as it wasn’t too far (about 45 minutes with short walks either end and between). This process was actually pretty simple – the UP Express into Toronto Union station, then the yellow subway from Union to Finch, just 3 stops. Nothing remarkable about this journey.

We found our hotel, sorted ourselves and bags out, had a short rest then headed out to find food. Jo had found us a pub/restaurant called Hair of the Dog which turned out to be really good – we had poutine (chips, veal gravy and cheese curds) which was excellent, nachos with the usual toppings plus black olives (surprisingly good!), shrimps with garlic bread and Danny had a burger (though he was quite keen to eat the rest of the food too!) Jo and I had a local beer each (didn’t seem strong but was very nice) Danny had a weird lemon flavoured vodka drink (after I showed the waitress where the date of birth was on a UK driving license) and poor Amelia couldn’t have alcohol so had what turned out to be a very sweet lemonade.

On the way back to the hotel we found a massive supermarket and picked up a few things. It, too, was unremarkable apart from their VAST cheese fridge. Why arrange/display cheese like this? No idea. Looked fancy though.

This will be our first holiday with both children being at least 18 years old. This means two things.

First, they can both drink alcohol….in theory. But Canada has different rules depending on which province you’re in. For example in Ontario the minimum legal age is 19, so Danny could drink, Amelia couldn’t.

Second, they MUST have Internet connectivity. The problem is that we don’t have UK mobile tariffs that can be used in Canada (or they can but it’s hundreds of pounds per MB of data. So for this trip we tried something new – an “eSIM”, which is basically a SIM card without the actual card. You order online before you leave, then install it using the instructions in the email the eSIM provider sends you. It appears under your normal SIM card (in settings on your phone) but will be disabled. When you arrive at your destination you simply enable the eSIM (making sure you’ve disabled the UK SIM card to avoid roaming charges!) and a few minutes later it’s on the local mobile network! We opted for a data-only plan as we had no need to make telephone calls in Canada (at least, not those we couldn’t do from a hotel) – UNLIMITED data for 21 days cost just under £50 with Holafly. To allow the rest of the family to use it, I just create a hotspot on my phone and they connect their phones via wifi.

Our official itinerary and tickets have arrived, marking the end of the planning for this adventure. For the first time our agents, Audley Travel, have provided our itinerary and other travel details in their app. This includes flight information and prompts, and details, maps, and weather for each day – we’ll see if the app is better than the book!