Expedition Canada

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...

Now Fred Not content with having to manage Jack's broken leg, Fred comes out in sympathy, goes A over T at tennis and fractured the radial bone (top/neck end) of her left elbow.  I always thought tennis was a rough game.   No plaster-cast or brace, just a sling for a few weeks and no driving for four weeks. More importantly, no skiing at Christmas.  Still on the positive side we now have a built-in dogsitter while I go skiing! Jack on the other hand is now walking and playing normally, no limp, which disappeared a couple of weeks after he hit the car.  If we had not seen the x-ray we would have him labelled as a complete fraud. Fred managed to arrange the 'incident' a week before we hosted Sebby for five days while Nick and Lizzie jetted off to NYC to celebrate her birthday.  The same weekend (Dec 8 & 9) that I had two concerts with the A Cappella Strait choir I belong to.  It was, to say the least, a full-on weekend.  After dropping him back ...

Two Years in Canada  Monday April 17th T087 Harbeson  A stroll down to the beach on Wednesday evening was rewarded with the sighting of a pod of Orca, about 4-6 of them, splashing around about 200-400m off the beach.  It is the first time in nearly two years on the Coast that we have seen Orca from this beach.  A year ago Fred had spotted a pod just 50m off-shore at Hopkin's Landing beach when we lived in Langdale, we have spotted them from afar on one of our ferry rides a year or two back and I've seen them from a distance when out sailing, but never this close and this active!   You can just see the water spout from the smaller whale They had been seen earlier during the day further up the Coast and two were identified as T087 Harbeson and  T06A5  Indy, but what species of Orca? According to a website that covers Salish Sea Orcas  there are only about 73 Southern Orca remaining in the Salish Sea in three distinct pods, JPod, KPod and LPod a...

Plus a Bison Banquet Thu Nov 24th  After putting my pre-order deposit down in Nov 2021 for the all electric Rivian R1S (SUV), I finally heard last week that delivery will between October and December ........ 2023.  That's the good news and bad news in one!   I have finally been able to see one in the flesh at a customer event last Saturday in Vancouver.  Nick and I had a boys day in town checking out the vehicles, which continue to get amazing reviews.  Top Gear reviewed the R1T pickup .  They are impressive vehicles and the larger battery pack has a range of circa 320m (514k), though if I test the 0-60mph in 3 seconds regularly I suspect that may be a tad optimistic .    The event was busy, suggesting there are quite a few pre-order customers in BC, the launch province for Canada, the only country outside the USA where Rivian vehicles are being sold at the outset.  It's not surprising as BC has the highest proportion of EV sales in Nor...