Expedition Canada

Covid Sat Sep 2nd Fall has arrived with a bang.  Actually several of them as we had a thunderstorm overnight on August 28th that rumbled on from late evening on Vancouver Island before moving across the Salish Sea and echoing around the mountains and lighting up the Coast.   Not only did we enjoy a rather noisy thunderstorm (Jack was on our bed in seconds - a place he is usually denied access to), but it started a couple of forest fires on opposite sides of the Sechelt inlet.  One was extinguished reasonably quickly, the other is now under control .  The 29c Summer dropped to 19c Fall overnight and it has remained cool since.  Despite the rain, water use has now been restricted to Level 3 (Acute), further limiting the times for watering gardens, fruit and veg. By coincidence I stumbled across a video which talks about Canada having 20% of the world's fresh water and more lakes than the rest of the world.  I have not been able to validate the data, but...

Ship Heads to Southampton Queen of Surrey out of the fog inbound to Langdale  Sat Feb 12th Canada's latest export heads to Europe and the US, but not on the ship that's heading back from Montreal to pick up our container in Southampton. The export, 'Freedom Convoys' anti-mandatory vaccination trucker blockades,  have arrived virtually in France, NZ and the US.  It has greater news coverage than Maple Syrup and Ice Hockey! It will add to the current global supply-chain challenges (at least locally) and it's difficult to see what has been achieved and what domestic agenda has inspired the movement.  Perhaps it has wider sponsorship.  In the current global disruption climate nothing would surprise me.   Love it or hate it The US has offered to help remove the US/Canada border blockades and the Canadian courts have issued injunctions to remove the truckers who have closed some border crossings.  It appears that disruptive disorder is the new...

Happy New Year! Looking across West Howe sound to West Lion Mtn Fri Dec 31st 2021 Just as the road was becoming more passable after the snow on Christmas Eve, another 200mm fell overnight of the 29th/30th.  The snow-shoes came into their own Thursday morning, just for getting Jack down the road.  What a great Christmas present. With temperatures remaining below zero the snow is expected to stick around until at least Sunday when we have a couple of days when the forecasts suggest we will get up to a balmy +5c. Although the council snow-ploughs and gritters have been out, even the main roads still have some snow on them so we have not ventured far.   He loves it! A neighbour with a plough attachment for his tractor/lawn mower again cleared the road below us as far as the section where it levels out and I decided to take on the drive.   I wish now I had bought a snow-blower rather than a snow shovel, as it took me the best part of two hours to clear our steep...

Boys Day Out Hopkins Landing - Sunrise Tue Dec 21st The winter solstice has arrived and the days will soon start getting longer and nights shorter.  If we on the Coast needed a reminder that Dec 21st is the start of winter the -1c outside left us in no doubt, that's 6c below average.  Snow is due later in the day.   Six months ago it was 27.6c; the start of the heat dome that engulfed west coast North America and pressaged the 1600 fires that destroyed 8,700 sq km of BC forests, the third worst season on record.  That's five and half times the area of Greater London.   The lack of rain that accompanied the  warm summer led to water restrictions on the coast.  Locally, the Gibsons Well supplied water without problem, as distinct from Chapman Lake reservoir that serves Sechelt and the northern west coast.  Gibsons actually piped water to Sechelt at the height of the restrictions.  The dry summer was closely followed by a very wet Oct ...

Shipping Scheduled Ferry inbound to Langdale Fri Dec 17th With Christmas around the corner there can be few who are not contemplating the impact of the latest Omicron variant on being able to get together with family, particularly if they are overseas.  Although the stats for BC and Canada as a whole are proportionality lower than the UK's figures, Canadians are being 'advised' not to travel internationally at Christmas.  More announcements are being made daily and visitors have to self-isolate/quarantine for two days in non-shared accommodation.  Fred's sister who was due to arrive on Christmas Eve, has had to postpone her trip, as we feared, further restrictions are likely to be put in place in the next few days.   Snow capped mainland mountains Canada is significantly behind the UK in rolling out booster jabs so it is a surprise that the numbers are not worse than they are.  BC had 763 new cases yesterday and 183 hospitalize...

Quiet Day  Sunday April 25 A local walk this morning around the trails north of the house.  It was quiet as we left but Vancouver had woken up as we made our way back. There are a number of good Apps for mobiles that hold maps and trail information, tracking you as you walk.  They are definitely a handy tool and avoid wet maps.   More importantly they show your location  when it would probably have been more difficult working out where you are when there are fewer visible reference points if you were using a map and compass . On recommendation from the younger branch Fred has acquired a set of hiking poles, which makes the uphill and downhill easier.  I've yet to convert from grabbing rocks and trees! This is our last week in North Van as we head across to the Sunshine Coast next Sunday.  Fortunately it is part of the same 'Coast" health region, so we aren't anticipating any major issues being stopped on route.   At the moment non-essent...

We Hope Tracking tells us that our tests have been delivered, to ‘Glen @ Ship Dock’ in Vancouver, which we assumed was a local testing station, rather than being sent all the way back to Ontario.  It turns out that ATS, where Glen works, is not Advanced Testing Services, but Advanced Transport Services, who specialise in medical and associated transportation.  It looks as though they have been shipped back to the laboratory at Mississauga ON, where we started our Canadian quarantine in the mandatory hotel, two weeks ago tomorrow. How do we know all this you might ask.  Well there isn’t much else to do when you are in quarantine! On a more serious note, it does make you appreciate the freedom we have compared to many living in urban flats and apartments, who had to tolerate weeks of self isolation.  It is easy to understand how for some it was a real mental health challenge.  Behind the humour, we recognise we are very fortunate.   Reading the small print, i...

Four to go Covid - Self Test Kit Day 10 is Covid test day using the kit were were given on arrival in Toronto a week last Saturday. A quick scan of the pack's QR code and we were individually linked to the online system for carrying out the test.  Heart sank when we saw 338 people ahead of us in the queue though within 10-15 minutes we were both connected with a nurse who talked us through the procedure.   The finished result is picked up by a courier tomorrow afternoon.  Our address that we entered when setting up the App at Toronto airport, before our first test, was already in the system.  It is amazingly efficient and well designed, from the technology behind the App and tracking process, the design of the self test box and kit, through to the overall workflow.  It is pretty impressive.   More efficient than the vaccination programme in Canada, says our son.  Certainly the programme got off to a slow start and is well behind the...

 Nine days to go Garden Quarantine Having escaped our mandated 3 nights hotel quarantine in Toronto a day early after our Covid tests came back negative, we have been settling in to our Vancouver rental. Nine more days of quarantine, restricted to the house and garden, and we'll be allowed out if our 10th day Covid test comes back negative.  Daily emails checks from the Canadian health care system wanting confirmation that we are symptom free and a potential visit from an official to check we are in quarantine could take place at any time.  I remain impressed by the way Canada is managing the risk of people arriving in to the country and minimizing exposure.  The good news is that Jack should be with us in about 48 hours and is being picked up at Vancouver airport by Nick Saturday morning. Much like the UK the news agenda is dominated by Covid.  With the British media's focus on the domestic agenda, the USA and Europe, it is unsurprising to find the Ca...