After just over a month in the US we were ready to see what the rest of North America had to offer – which of course means heading over the border (or in our case across Puget Sound) to the second biggest country on the planet and our final country on this trip – Canada.
Our arrival into Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, coincided with (sort of) lunchtime so with a rush of nostalgia for all things British (and Kiwi, and Aussie) we headed straight to a fish and chip shop.
This wasn’t entirely random as we had read that Victoria is known for being very British, and it really was – in very marked contrast to everywhere we had been in the US. A culture shock of a very different sort as we did a mini cycle-see of the city.
Beautiful views, bike infrastructure everywhere, Victorian architecture and best of all – a very warm welcome from our WarmShowers hosts for the night – Mary (Canadian) and Les (British – from St Helen’s!) After our self-guided cycle tour of the city we were whisked around for a local’s view of things from the comfort of Mary’s electric car, followed by a walk around the city centre including a stop for tea and scones, and a visit to the British Columbia legislative building. The evening was spent enjoying delicious food and wine with Les and Mary – thank you both! A very strong start for Canada – almost too good. Could this be sustained?
Quite possibly, as our time on Vancouver Island continued to be a lovely and relaxing combination of easy cycling (some of it on dedicated cycle paths), wine tasting, ferry catching, small towns and another WarmShowers stay at Sandy’s and Alan’s place near Duncan. Sandy and Alan have a permaculture smallholding and again we enjoyed delicious food, wine and conversation, as well as watching hummingbirds take a drink whilst we enjoyed our breakfast! We felt particularly inspired by tales of their approach to slow travel, including taking a cargo ship to Europe and back a couple of years ago. One for our expanding bucket list, thank you both!
Despite in every other way being near cycle touring perfection – Vancouver Island, and Canada in general does still on occasion have inclement weather (where doesn’t?) So our third day in BC was spent trying to get ahead of a very wet forecast, with a speed cycle to the ferry from Nanaimo to the mainland, followed by cycling the first part of the Sea to Sky highway from Horseshoe Bay up to Squamish. On the ferry we were joined by Jude who was at the end of his trip cycling from Florida, to Los Angeles, and then up to Vancouver. We were impressed and inspired, as we always are when we meet other cycle tourers. Especially because Jude had completed his trip in super quick time, and he is only seventeen!! What an achievement.
Like Jude, our original plan had been to head straight to Vancouver, but with some time in hand we decided to put Plan B into action and take a swerve up to Whistler, via Squamish. We had read that you can cycle the famous Sea to Sky highway’s ‘generous’ shoulder up to Squamish and then take a combination of highway and off road trails to Whistler. Unfortunately the shoulder was not as generous as advertised, and with Sunday afternoon traffic made for a bit of a hairy ride up to Squamish. However we were rewarded with better and better views – the contrasts of BC’s coastal range rising up from the sparkling waters of the sea. And the long and latterly hairy day was doubly worth it as it meant we had time to sit out a day of non stop rain in Squamish from the warmth of our hostel room.
The next day the sun made a reappearance from behind some clouds so we both decided it was still shorts weather, despite the fact that we were cycling up to a ski resort (in ski season). We were able to leave a lot of stuff in storage at the hostel which meant we packed an overnight bag each (all of our warm and waterproof clothes) which Matt carried (thanks bud!) and I enjoyed climbing with a normal weight bike for a change. It was a stunning ride with some more challenging single track and (as we got closer to Whistler) paved cycle paths taking us all the way into the middle of the iconic ski resort.
We immediately felt like fish out of water in our cycling gear as our arrival coincided with the end of the ski-ing day. Everyone else was lugging skis/snowboards and clomping around in ski boots. We were still in our shorts!
This was soon rectified. In another amazing stroke of luck it turns out that we (sort of) know someone in Whistler! Sam (son of Matt’s godparents Jenny and Dave who have been following our trip via this blog and Strava) has lived there for 5 years now, working at a restaurant at the bottom of the gondola. Very generously Sam sorted us out with arrival beers at the bar, 50% off lift passes and free ski rental. So it would have been rude not to hit the slopes whilst in town, donning our waterproof trousers and jackets as surprisingly appropriate alternatives to salopettes and ski jackets. Thank you so much Sam!
Hitting the slopes means different things to different people. For Matt this meant a high octane day of trying to ski as much of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains as possible. For me it meant remembering how to ski (last time I slid down an icy slope was 10 years ago in NZ) and snow ploughing my way down the easiest runs (which in Whistler weren’t quite as easy as I needed them to be). We shared one priority though – not breaking anything! We both succeeded and felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to see what all of the fuss is about at Whistler with a bluebird morning and mountains stretching in every direction from the top. Epic.
Our second day in Whistler was spent finding aches and pains in totally new parts of our legs whilst paying a visit to the Squamish-Lil’wat Cultural Centre and generally putzing around town in the drizzle. We also made the most of being able to cook our own ‘home cooked’ food in the apartment we were staying in – a real treat.
We were both very sad to leave after three nights of pretending to be on a ski holiday – but we needed to jump back on the bikes to head back down the mountain to Squamish to be reunited with all of our stuff. After a bit of deliberation we decided to catch a bus from Squamish into Vancouver. We had no desire to repeat the busy highway experience of a few days prior and it meant that we could enjoy a full three night stay in the big smoke.
More good fortune was awaiting us there as we were welcomed to the city by Jeremy – a fellow cycle tourer we had met back in California, amongst the Redwoods. Jeremy and his buddy Jesus had at the time been proof that some of the best people we have met on this trip are Canadian. He upped this to officially the very best when he offered us his Mum’s condo as a place to stay in the middle of the city for our time there. We of course jumped at the chance (and even got to meet Jeremy’s cute daughters Maya and Natalia in the process!) The apartment was lovely – another home from home – a long way from home. How awesome is that?
And what about Vancouver itself? Well we always knew that we would be re-entering the Danger Zone* in this part of the world. We have visited Vancouver once before on a 24 hour stopover on a trip back to the UK from NZ when we were living there in 2013. It was a brief visit which we remember very fondly – mainly due to packing so much in, in such a short time but also because of the beauty of the city and the surrounding mountains and ocean.
We took things a little slower this time (mainly because we had managed to tick off so many sights the last time we were here) and enjoyed sampling some of the city’s famous Asian food, exploring Stanley Park and beyond on the bikes, revisiting Gastown and the Steamworks Brewery and meeting up with an old friend of Matt’s from Japan – Josy (who is actually British!) The city felt vibrant, multi-cultural and colourful. And we had somehow timed it just right again for the springtime blossom. Fluffy pink and white blooming at every turn – I’m not sure if even Japan is this good..!
Despite being the most dangerous of the danger zones we couldn’t stay forever though (don’t worry Mums, we are still coming back). We had a train to catch. The 3pm from Vancouver to… Jasper, in the Canadian Rockies.
*the Danger Zone is our code for places in the world which we think we could happily call home. We’d managed to make it through the Danger Zones of Australia and New Zealand but had always expected to find Canada, and BC in particular, a tempting proposition to stay a little while longer…
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