I just returned from travels round Canada. I stated I might make some sort of report and was encouraged by lil. I was going to make a video diary, but the function on my camera wasn’t great, so I’m just going for good old text and pictures. I tried to keep this as short and sweet as possible considering there's 3 weeks of content.

We stirred the slight fog on a damp monday morning with a 4.30am rise. After a two hour taxi ride to the airport we pulled up at the brand new Terminal 2 building at Heathrow. It’s a vast and highly impressive building. It seemed strangely desolate at this time; it was a week before school holidays. Following some check-in problems, we get through customs and waited for the flight.

Roughly 9 hours later, we’re in Vancouver. Another taxi to the guest house, we set down our bags and headed headed straight to downtown. Though curbed by jetlag and an apparent heat-wave, we walked across Granville Bridge into the sprawl of high-rise apartments and offices. At first it was quite imposing. Even though I’d spent time in London and Manchester among others in the UK, the heights of the construction was a new experience. And I know that it probably isn’t even anything compared to other places. After a some perambulating, We head into Yaletown for drinks and dinner before retiring for a well-needed sleep.

The second day started with a visit to ‘Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden’. It was a beautiful place. Designed around Taoist principles of Ying & Yang, it offered new perspectives with each step taken. We continued to follow the seawall round till Sunset beach. We ate an early meal and retired early in preparation for the following day.

500km later we were in Summerland. We stayed here for 2 nights, a stop over before another leg of driving to Canmore, in a lovely house owned by a retired German couple. It’s primarily a retirement community so there’s little going on. However, there was some good restaurants, as well as fantastic scenery and walks. We explored the Giant’s Head park on both days before continuing on our way.

Our stay in Canmore was our first extended stop. Now deep in The Rockies, we had 4 days to explore the area and we wasted no moment. Two 10k+ walks, mountain biking (put to halt by my brother going other the handlebars), and breathtaking views stoked our excitement. This is where the holiday really began. A personal highlight for me is heading to Moraine Lake after hiking to the inkpots and back. We hadn’t intended to do much, but somehow ended up joining a couple who wanted to hike to Constellation Lake. The trail had a 4 person group minimum due to bear warnings and after the 45 minute trek we were greeted with this solitary gem.

From here, it was another 4 hour drive up the Icefields Parkway, considered one of the best drives in the world. We stopped at various points to admire the scenery, the best perhaps being this secluded view of Peyto Lake.

The next day, we drove back down the parkway on route to the Athabasca Glacier. This provided one of the highlights of the trip. We trecked roughly 2 hours up the glacier itself with an amazing guide by the name of Corin. We learnt about its nature, stared precariously into deep millwells, and then got a stunning view at it’s crest. An unforgettable experience. The next day was uneventful, save for a visit to town’s swimming facilities after a failed hike to the lakes. The heatwave was still in full effect.

Day 14 saw us continue on to Edmonton where had family, but not before stopping at the Miette hot springs. Relaxing in 40c waters in the middle of mountains was icing on the cake as well left the rockies. Getting in the comparably chill 18c afterwards was a... fun experience. On arrival, it turns out this family were millionaires (we’d never met them before). They had an amazing house and we met all our Canadian cousins over the best steak I’ve ever eaten. It was great. Early rise the next morning where we were greated by a mountain of Bacon, before another taxi to 24 hours train journey back to Vancouver.

After a delayed train journey, we arrive back in BC to find out that our accommodation has mistakenly been given away. It’s also bank holiday weekend, so everything else is booked up. After 3 hours of fuss, we managed to get some nice rooms in the Ramada hotel in downtown. The next 3 days saw us tick off some more tourist musts. Capilano Suspension Bridge, Vancouver Aquarium, The UBC botanical gardens, and biking around Stanley Park seawall. Friday 9th marked out day of departure, and after a solid journey home everything is back to normal, unfortunately. An outstanding trip.