keep right, Keep Right, KEEP RIGHT!!!

Greetings from Campbell River, Vancouver Island.  As the title suggests we are now in possession of our hire car!  The title is designed to be amusing rather than an actual recount of events thus far.  In fact as the driver I have only driven once on the wrong side of a minor road for a few metres with no disastrous results, so all is good. Mind you considering  the confidence with which I drove out of the hire car place in Paris in 1995 I did not start off as confidently even after our 2 x 7 weeks, the last of which being the sole driver.  Ah the confidence of youth!!!!  Our Malibu Chevrolet is lovely to drive and after 7 days I'm more confident with the Canadian challenges than I am with the size and quirks of driving an automatic. 

Terry (my eldest brother) has referred to our Vancouver Is time as 'marking time' before our next tour.  Which in some respects is true but what a delightful place to mark time.

We've had nights in Victoria (1), Chemainus (2), Parksville (2) and now Campbell River (3) with a move to Tofino (3) tomorrow before a night in Victoria on route to Toronto.  Our days have been quite repetitious really.  Mornings exploring the town and water front and afternoons enjoying delightful provincial parks with fabulous forest walks to stunning waterfalls, river or lakes.  No trouble doing 10,000 steps with 18,000 being the average.

First driving day- Malahat Highway

Chemainus - mural town

Parksville - dramatic tidal changes (see also below)

Campbell River

One of many waterfall/provincial park walks

Yesterday was the only exception to this routine when we headed out on a Grizzly Hunt!  We had seen 4 or so on our travels but all pretty fleeting and at a distance so we went on an organised tour with quality grizzly tales our aim.  The 2 hour boat ride there was exceptional.  We saw so much wildlife, the pod of orcas that we travelled with for some time the highlight.  Mind you the islands and snow capped mountains emerging majestically from the sea weren't bad either!  Our small band of 8 bear hunters were lead by a first nations (Indigenous)  guide to purpose built, river side hides to view our bears.  Alas the bears had other plans!!

Spawning salmon swimming up stream

Bear foot prints - the closest we got

The weather that I have been gloating about was the cause of our disappointment!  We have had a fabulous week of summer weather.  Have lived in the same four outfits for days as summer stuff is what is needed.  Good thing washing dries well in the warm bathrooms.  Well because summer has finally arrived the bears are still enjoying the bountiful berries and ignoring the salmon which is now in generous supply.  Our guide said it was the first Sept day in 12 years he has seen no bears!  Ah well.  The breathtaking scenery, ocean rapids and orcas on both the inward and return journey made it all worthwhile.

So yes --- we've had another wonderful week.  We hit the halfway mark this week.  Of course I'm over hand washing, eating out and living our of a suitcase, but that's life!  I sent myself a parcel earlier in the week of my warmest clothes that I wore in Alaska but don't plan to need now. I also included a number of items of clothing I had not yet worn so figured I wouldn't need.   I packed SOOO badly!! Next time I'll do better!

Please think of Lisa this week as she has to deal with the Birthday Princess celebrating for 41 hours - 17 hours Aust time in addition to Sept 6th Canada time!!  Getting rid of the grey roots may be the right thing to plan for Tues!

I hope all the fathers reading and associated to readers have a lovely Dad's Day.

I did omit one story last week which I meant to include on the theme of "perspective".   One night on the cruise we found ourselves dining with a lovely couple from Melbourne.  Liz referred to her girls at one point and I asked if they live near them.  One does, she explained, but the other died in the Vic bush fires with her husband and two young daughters!  They spent quite some time talking about what happened and their lives since.  Their positive attitude and incredible faith were amazing.  They have what seems to be a healthy level of anger about how the event and inquest were handled but overall their attitude was impressive to say the least.  Having such a personal first hand experience of such a story of loss and resilience will leave an impression on me for some time.  So Keryn (my partner in crime teaching Year 5) remind me next term when I'm having a hard day with year 5 that life could be much worse.

Until the east coast!

Oh yes ... I have received requests for pictorial evidence that we are really having as good a time as I claim.  Alas I do not have the technology to do so, but don't worry there are LOTS of photos to show on our return.  "Now which lake/glacier/snow capped mountain under blue sky is that?"!!!!