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Bear About

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Summer's End Tuesday 8th Time for a nap - just look at those claws! The first weekend in September is the long Labour Day weekend which signals the end of summer holidays.  Kids go back to school over the coming week.   Yippee!😀 It also means the end of the BC Ferries unreliable hourly summer schedule, dropping to an even less reliable two hourly fall and winter schedule.  It assumes the ferries are working.    Saturday August 29th both ferries 'went tech' resulting in cancelled sailings and passengers enjoying a 4-hour+ wait to get to where they were going.  Fortunately we weren't travelling that weekend.   Wildfires & Weather A number of friends in the UK have got in touch to ask if we have been affected by BC wildfires this summer.  The short answer is no, thank goodness!  At the start of our road trip at the beginning of July, the Icefield Parkway (in Alberta) was socked in smoke, but that has been it.   Catastro...
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Grand Tour 2026 - Journey's End

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Home The beginning of Highway 101 - Lund We finally arrived home in Gibsons on Tuesday 4th, after six days exploring the top of the Sunshine Coast around Powell River and Lund.  Lund is Km 0 of  Highway 101 which stretches 156 Kms from Lund to Langdale, where the ferries from Horseshoe Bay dock, and onwards for another 17km to Port Melon Mill.   Powell River is separated from the lower part of the Coast by the Jarvis Inlet and requires a ferry ride between Saltery Bay and Earl's Cove. The ferry ride between the two sections is variable but just under an hour, a 19km ferry ride.  Near enough for us to pop up there again and explore more of the fantastic lakes and mountain ranges. Getting to Powell River required a ferry from Comox on Vancouver island which takes about 1hr 40m.   The crossing to Westview is well known for whale sightings and we spotted three separate Orca pods and a Humpback, which put on an impressive breaching and fin flapping di...
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Grand Tour 2026 - pt 3

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Grizzlies Grizzly mum with cub born earlier this year Not uninvited ones you'll appreciate, but wild nevertheless.  More later. A relic at the awful 'one night only' campsite -  a project probably long planned and never started We've been exploring the top of Vancouver Island in the last few days, having driven up via four nights at Qualicum Beach.   In fact we had an extra day there as we escaped the previous camp a day earlier than planned.  Not a location we felt comfortable in. Our past visits to southern Vancouver Island, largely along the coast road, have not been that inspiring, so this trip we were determined to explore more widely and inland and some islands.  With the exception of our first night's campsite it has been much more rewarding.   The main town of Qualicum Beach, as distinct from the part of town on the coast highway, was full of character and though the RV resort was ok, it gave us a good base to explore from.   Nic...
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