Kat & Marty

Travelling at 35 knots out at sea is always going to be an experience. In the Clipper that carried us from Vancouver to Seattle that experience was a good one. Due to the 24 arrests that had just taken place in England for suspected terrorists the day before, it took a while to clear customs to get onto the ferry, almost as long as the actual ride itself, but once on board we were quickly made comfortable. The Clipper had complimentary tea and coffee which we immediately availed ourselves of and had great staff whose good service made the 3 hour ride pass quickly.

In Seattle customs once again took a little time, then we were free. We hiked up through the Pike Street Markets to our hotel - the Moore Hotel. This was an old theatre converted into a hotel and we loved our spacious room with a basin in the corner. We did have to share a bathroom with the rest of our floor. After unpacking our bags we went straight back down to the markets. Fresh fruit and produce was everywhere and at a fish stall men threw huge fish around while chanting sea shanties. A monkfish on a string would occassionaly rear it's ugly head revealing a notice saying: 'Hi, I'm a monkfish'. It startled many people to my amusement.

We took some vegetables and cherries back to our room and cooked some dinner. I ate so many cherries my stomach got upset. We were tired after the boat ride so instead of going out on the town, we watched a Lethal Weapon re-run on TV and drank duty free Royal Crown instead.

The morning dawned clear - apparently unusual for Seattle and we wandered downtown to do the Underground Tour. Seattle was built on a tidal flat as a logging/gold town. Houses were hastily thrown up all over the place including the hills that rose right above the flats. Mr Crapper made an invention at this time (guess what...) which was very popular and when the porcelein bowls arrived at the wharf everybody in town purchased one despite the lack of plumbing. A single pipe was installed and everyone attached their commode to this rudimentary infrastructure with dire results. When people uphill flushed, people down hill recieved a surprise and when the tide came in it pushed everything back up from where it had came. The result was carnage. A while later there was a huge fire and the whole town burnt down. The town planners decided to build things properly this time, but the store owners couldn't wait and rebuilt their establishments as before. The town planners then changed the road heights to one story high. Eventually, due to disease, the bottom story of all the buildings were closed off and the first floors became the ground floors. Yes, well, we learnt all about it on this tour we took...

After the tour finished we wandered around the streets and shops of Seattle, meandering our way up to the sky needle where Meg Ryan meets Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle. Near there we visited the EMP (Experience Music Project) which houses Seattle rock memorabilia as well as provides hands on opportunities to learn different instruments or try mixing etc. We saw lyrics handwritten by Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix, costumes worn by Kiss and I took a reggae drum lesson. I even convinced Marty to come into a 'recording studio' and sing/murder a Nirvana song with me - you will all be glad you weren't there to listen!

We stopped for refreshment at a Mexican restaurant and ended up staying there for dinner- delicous burritos and soft tacos. We then freshened up and went out on the town for some blues at one bar then some hip hop at another. The Seattle music scene is alive and well and the music we heard was pretty world class. It felt like an honour to listen to that calibre of music for the price of door entry though I never did learn the names of the bands we were listening to.

In the morning we got going early. It was a big driving day. Originally we had planned to stop the night outside of Portland at a golf hostel. Since I don't actually play golf we decided to drive further so our trip to San Francisco the next day wouldn't be so bad. We drove and drove. First along a freeway, then along a winding road out to the Oregan Coast which was once again foggy. In between clouds we caught glimpses of wild and rugged coastline with huge rocks jutting out of the water. Sometimes there would be perfect sandy beaches and other times there would be sheer cliffs dropping away to ferocious waves.

Eventually we stopped in a small town called Florence where we had Chinese takeaways for dinner and watched America's Funniest Home Videos for ages. Our relatively cheap motel room was right on the main road but we saw golden sandhills one or two blocks away from us in the back streets. At this point however, sleep was more important than exploring.

The next morning we started driving again. The road took us through the Redwood National Park. Through the giant trees there were many interesting places to stop at like a visit to the realm of Paul Bunyan - a legendary local figure - but for us we kept on driving. We wound our way down through the wine region of Sanoma and finally near the end of the day drove in over the Golden Gates Bridge of San Francisco. We were excited to be there and I started snapping lots of photos driving over the bridge. Suddenly we were amongst downtown traffic in all it's fury. It was quite intimidating as we tried to negotiate the narrow streets. At one point a teenage girl stepped right in front of the car causing Marty to jam on the brakes to avoid knocking her down although she had time to cross before we reached her. She was showing off to her friends but it gave us a shock and began my uncertainty of how well I was going to get along with this city.

We booked into the HI Hostel. It was expensive, rundown, dirty and worst of all noisy. We decided not to worry too much and immediately booked ourselves onto a wine tour for the Sanoma Napa Valley region the next day. Next we walked out around the streets to get a feel for the city. It was dark and no one smiled at all. Many homeless people shuffled along passed the luxury shops. Disheartened we returned to our room where we had to wear earplugs before falling asleep on our plastic covered mattress.

The wine tour was interesting. We went to 3 wineries. The first was an Italian winery run very successfully though none of the tastings particularly appealed to us. The winery itself certainly did. It captured the romance of wine making with wrought iron vines as door handles and stair banisters, painted tiles telling the story of winemaking from planting to drinking, polished concrete floors and walls finished with bricks and flagstones, and best of all lots of food samples - tapanades, sauces, spices, mustards, olive oils etc. I felt like I could have stayed there forever but the tour bus called so we went to the next place. This was a working winery and practiced organic growing and dry farming. To me the cabernet savignon there was delicous with a deep earthy flavour but Marty wasn't fussed by it. As a working winery none of the romance of the previous winery was shown and it wasn't hard to get back on the bus.

We stopped for lunch at a small village that was based around one of the original winery buildings. We had lunch at a very American restaurant serving mostly hamburgers and sandwiches. I decided on a baked potato while Marty had a burger. After we wandered around the fancy shops and looked at some art galleries before our final winery. This one was an old ranch that had been converted into a winery. The chandelier was composed of antlers and the furniture was covered in cow hides. Looking off the balconey we could see burnt yellow hills with clumps of Eucalyptus and in the distance a farmhouse with wide balconies. It could have been anywhere in Australia.

The drive back was long and sleepy. Once we got back into the downtown area it took nearly an hour for the bus to drop us off back to the hostel. We went to a cheap Thai restaurant that did really good noodle soup before retiring to our room. Once again I was frustrated by the accommodation. The washing machine was out of order, a shower door fell off in Marty's hands and the internet was expensive (though much cheaper than the cafe down the road). Still, at least we had a bed and the semblance of privacy.

In the morning we took a city tour. Our bus driver was extremely entertaining and for the first time I almost began to see a friendly side of San Francisco. The general unfriendliness of people passing in the street had started to get me down. We drove all over seeing the magnificent City Hall, China Town, the Seven Painted Ladies (a famous strip of 7 houses featured on Full House), Danielle Steele's suberb and once again the Golden Gate Bridge.

Getting off the bus and back into downtown San Fran burst the bubble of goodwill the driver had built up and I felt quite overwhelmed. We picked up our hire car from parking and didn't look back as we drove out of town. This isn't somewhere I will be in a hurry to visit again.

Yosemite was our destination and apart from one 13 mile sidetrack, we made a beeline for the park entrance. Once close by we found a quaint motel with a circle of teepee tents off to one side and had a delicous night's sleep in peace and quiet.

In the morning we drove straight into the park and arranged a place to camp - for free! The only condition was the rental of a bear container. We were delighted to take the opportunity to make up a little on our depleted budget. America is a lot more expensive than we had warranted and instead of $30US for a divy hotel it has been more like $60 - $100 depending on the area.

We drove into the friendly welcoming pine forests of Yosemite valley. Almost immediately we were stricken with awe by the beautiful rock walls. We stopped by El Capitan (one of the most famous climbs in the area) and took a while to absorb it's immensity as well as the beauty of the Bridal Veil Falls opposite it. I can well imagine how difficult it would be for serious climbers to ever tear themselves away from such a landscape. After picnicing by the gentle river that wound through the bottom of the valley, we drove past people floating down in inflatable rafts to another area of the park - May Lake - where we had a permit to camp. We enjoyed the drive immensely as it was so refreshingto be in the forest once more. At the May Lake car park we arranged our packs and found a trail head. Disturbed that it didn't mention May Lake we asked around and were reassured it was the right trail. In the face of such advice we followed this trail a mile and a half away to where it met the road! We could see a lake off to our left and assuming that was our destination we decided to cut across country instead of taking a triangular route. It was fun finding a route through pine groves and over large rocks, but were disappointed to discover that we had walked approximately another mile to the wrong lake. We walked up the road back to the track and slogged uphill to get back to the carpark. We discovered another trailhead for May Lake at the opposite end. It was uphill the entire way and even though it was only a one mile track we asked everyone we passed how much further to go. Our easy rest night had just turned into a mission but the lake was peaceful and the serenity made the effort so worthwhile.

We woke and left early to make our drive out to the Grand Canyon. Originally we planned to stay in Las Vegas on the way, but we wanted to catch the off weekend rates which could go as low as half price so decided to chance the Canyon first then go back to Vegas on our way to LA. We came out from the shade and waters of Yosemite to tumble weeds and desert as we drove past the Mammoth Lakes ski region. The desert became drier and drier as we approached Death Valley. Driving through this valley that goes lower than sea level felt a little scary. It was about 40 degrees and with our car and air conditioning we were fine. If anything went wrong with it I hate to think what would happen even though there was a lot of traffic on the road. Coming out on the Vegas side we began to see the Joshua Trees that inspired U2.

We had seriously underestimated how long it would take to drive to the Grand Canyon and ended up staying 80 miles out at a town called Williams. Otherwise unremarkable, Williams was full of Route 66 memoribilia and cafes. We got the last room at a Motel 6 and took the opportunity to finally catch up with laundry and stocking up on food for our two night hike. When we drove out in the morning we found out why it was so busy. One lane of the main street was roped off and a long line of classic cars were parked out on display.

We weren't sure wether we would be able to do our hike as it was meant to be prebooked months in advance. We hadn't decided on what day exactly we would make it on so hadn't booked at all. Fortunately for us a lovely Ranger helped us out and squeezed us in to the campgrounds. Because it is so hot in the Canyon we weren't able to start hiking until 4pm so we had 5 hours to entertain ourselves on the rim, taking in the famous Thelma and Louise views, visiting the info centre and perusing the shops.

At 3 we took a shuttle out to our trail head (easy to find this time) and soaked ourselves with water from a tap there before starting our walk. This trick is advised to keep you cooler and able to conserve energy. The descent down the South Kaibab Trail was steep and we stopped regularly to drink lots as we had been warned to do. Even so we made it down really quickly and made it to the bottom of the canyon in 3.5 hours. At the bottom in the twilight, bats started dive bombing us. To get to the Bright Angel campground we had to walk over the Colorado River on a suspension bridge. Leading on to the bridge was a pitch black tunnel and as I approached in the lead a bat flew out right at me. Needless to say I stepped aside and allowed Marty the honour of going first.

It was difficult setting up camp in the dark and we almost lost a tent peg. Marty cooked up a delicous Jambalaya for dinner and we saw some Californian Cats sneak past our campsite on their way to some sort of mischief. They aren't actually cats but look like possums with racoon tails.

We got up at 4:30am to beat the sun and packed up in the dark also. Daylight was just sneaking in as we made our way out of the campsite and began our walk halfway up the Canyon to the Indian Garden Campground. The Bright Angel Trail we were taking up was not nearly as steep and we enjoyed the walk. We stopped often for Marty to take photos and to drink water. The heat was present but not unbearable at all. Many other hikers were also on the trail early so this walk was quite social. At 8am we arrived at the Indian Campground. We were surprised to be there already and felt a bit lost as we didn't have to do anything else for the day. We picked a campsite then grabbed some food and went down to the creek that flows through the camp ground. The creek was really not much more than a trickle but we sat in it anyway amongst the vividly coloured blue and red dragonflies. Marty built a dam then smashed it. We eventually made our way back to our tent where I managed to nap away a few hours before getting up and journaling as Marty napped. While I did this several deer walked right up to our camp site not at all perturbed by my presence. Squirrels ran through as well. After that there was nothing for it but a few rounds of yahtzee and some Spanish study. We had an early dinner then walked out to Plateau Point for sunset. This is a one mile flat walk out on a plateau that juts out over the Colorado. The view was pretty spectacular and as the only ones out there felt very romantic. We set up the camera on a rock and took a photo of ourselves. After the sun dipped over the horizon I got Marty to start walking back with me. 400 metres down the track we realised my mistake as the sky suddenly lit up with pinks and purples and the canyon walls caught fire. Walking back into camp we were startled by deer just off the trail - they weren't afraid of us at all.

We woke early again - 3:45am - to make our final climb out of the canyon. Our plan was to get out early, stop to fill up with gas and book a room on the strip in Las Vegas then get into town around lunch time. The hike was a series of switch backs up the canyon wall. At one point Marty surprised a scorpion laying out on the path - it was the only bitey we saw. The trail was thick with dust but we had beaten the heat and in a record making moment, been the first to leave the campground. A nice hotel was a great incentive to get me moving. By 7am we started seeing day hikers walking down into the canyon and at one point a mule train came down past us too - the source of all good smells on the track...

We got over the rim at around 8 - around the time we planned but had a terrible time trying to fill up with gas. We needed an ATM that could take our card and it took a long time to find one. Then it took a long time to find a payphone that worked as well. I was naughty and booked a room above our budget at the Bellagio even though it was still a heavily discounted rate. Marty was torn between being annoyed at me and looking forward to a comfortable night. He had said I could stay wherever I wanted and Helen had told me about this hotel before. It took almost an hour to sort that out. Because we were driving back the way we came I didn't pay much attention to the map and we missed our turnoff to Las Vegas. By the time I realised our mistake we were too far on to make it worth turning back so we took an hour and a half detour. I was really upset as this was cutting into the time we were paying for our nice room and I felt guiltier for breaking our budget only to waste it.

We got into Las Vegas around 2:30pm. It was really hot - hotter than it had been in Death Valley. We stopped and got more gas and a bottle of champagne to celebrate our night of luxury. In the last two blocks before our hotel we got caught in traffic and it nearly took another hour to the hotel - oh the frustration. Finaly we parked and went in to check in. It was like walking into another world. The floors of the immense lobby were polished marble and the roof was a mass of glass flowers. As we waited to check in I stared about me like an idiot. When we checked in the gentleman looking after us said we had a saloon room. At my look of confusion he told me we had been upgraded. We went up to our room on the top floor beneath the penthouses. As we walked in I almost screamed - it was easily as nice as the room we hadn't ended up taking at the Empress. You will have to look at our photos to see it for yourself, but after the hostels we had been staying in and our tent, I was in heaven. We were way too pumped to take a nap like we had planned so we popped the champagne and took turns in the spa bath that looked out to the water fountains seen in Oceans 11 for which the Bellegio is famous. Eventually we tore ourselves away from the room to find food and check out the strip which we were right in the middle of. There are too many sights - glitz, lights, volcanoes, tigers, fun rides, glamorous shops and casinos to describe. It was an assault of the senses. By 10:00 I was so tired I felt sick. Marty was pretty wiped out as well so we called it a night and on our big night out in Vegas we were in bed asleep by 11pm.

Waking up was gorgeous. We went down and had an early morning swim and spa in the pools then I lay in the sun on a lounger while Marty went and got croissants and coffee for breakfast. We spent the morning enjoying our room then after checking out had a further look at the strip in daylight - it wasn't quite the same.

After suffering the oppressive heat for long enough, we drove down to LA. We drove out to Venice Beach near Santa Monica and stayed in a cheap hostel there. It was great to finally feel we were paying something more within our budget. The room was only available for one night so we took the second night in a nearby hostel who charged a bit more.

After a good night's sleep we set out to explore the sights of LA beginning with the Tar Pits. Marty has a love for the scientific history of our world and in the middle of downtown LA there are tar pits from which thousands of fossils dating to 40,000 years ago are being found. The muesem was small but good and we could see people excavating more bones from Tar Pit 91 as well as the lab where the bones are catalogued.

Next was more my thing as we went down to the Hollywood walk of fame - it was in a pretty seedy area actually, I was quite surprised. Hollywood is meant to be having a facelift to pick it up again but it wasn't too pretty. The Chinese Theatre with all the handprints and footprints out front was fun and we saw a news crew filming as well as famous characters walking the streets like Batman, Starwars figures and Jimi Hendrix. Still on my vibe we went for a drive down Sunset Boulevard admiring some of the famous star houses (or actually the hedges hiding their houses), then took a turn down Rodeo Drive. I didn't feel up to the occasion so will shop there some other time... Beverly Hills homes are gorgeous but there are only so many hedges one wants to look at so we went back to our hostel and found out why our room was more expensive. We had a view out over Venice Beach and had a huge room with a couch, TV, and the luxury of a private bathroom. After ditching our bags, we headed down to the Beach and saw the Muscle Gym where Governor Arnold Swartzniger used to work out, then walked down the boardwalk filled with art stalls and buskers. I love Venice Beach! I would live there if I could. All the crazy artists and hippies live there and it is so fun! We watched the sun go down with coronas in our room and fell asleep tired and happy. The only thing that hadn't happened was bumping into Angelina Jolie on the street - oh well, another time.

We had a relaxed wake-up knowing San Diego wasn't too far away. We would have stayed another night in Venice Beach if we could have had the same room but it was already booked so we decided to keep moving on. We drove down through Orange County for which the TV program OC is named. The real thing looked nothing like it - or at least not from the freeway. We pulled into the San Diego visitor information center and got stung for $10 when we let them book us a room. We keep getting tricked as tax and other charges are added on after you are told the price. Sometimes it makes me quite mad but it is how things are done here. We couldn't check in until 3pm so we organised our gear then drove around San Diego for a while. Our hotel had a really great glossy pamphlet that made it sound wonderful but as a renovated HI building our bedroom was tired. They boasted a state of the art kitchen but there were no utensils, plates or pans to use, not even kettles and toasters! The shared bathrooms that were reportedly cleaned every 20 minutes were definitely not!

We dropped our hire car off rather than pay the $20 parking fee over night and a lovely gentleman dropped us back off to our hotel - for free! We couldn`t believe it! We cooked pasta in what turned out to be someone elses pot in the kitchen and had a much needed early night. To our relief the bed was superbly comfortable and with earplugs the contingent of men staying in the room next door didn`t keep us awake.

The next day was beautiful. Perfect for a visit to the world renowned San Diego Zoo. We walked all over the place and I saw animals I had no idea even existed. I think my favourites were the cats, there were leopards, lions and tigers from all over the place. The monkeys were as entertaining as ever and the crocodiles and aligators were deceptively complacent. I think due to the heat, most animals were sleeping, but mostly in view so we didn´t miss out on much. It was amusing to see all the children more entertained by a small whirlpool in the polar bear pool than the snoring polar bears.

The next day we spent at the internet cafe and at the last minute, the post office where we sent home our sleeping bags and tent. We decided we aren´t really game enough to camp out in Mexico. At 4pm we showed up to the bus station for our imminent 5pm departure. 5 turned into 6 which turned into 7 which turned into 8pm before a bus driver showed up to drive us the first leg to El Paso. Since we were so late we missed our connection and had a 5 hour wait in a terminal at Phoenix. At 3 in the morning this wasn´t popular but there weren´t any other options. Finally at around 6pm on a Sunday night we rocked into El Paso. It was dead! We were terrified the hotel we planned to stay at wouln´t be open but to our relief it was. The heat was intense but nothing was going to stop us from sleeping. Not even the thought of crossing the border into Ciudad Juarez the next day - the city infamous for over one hundred murdered females being found in the last decade and the killer never found - the city most infamous for it´s drug cartels, kidnappings and gang wars. We slept like babies.

Ferrying into Vancouver Island was a great introduction to the coastline we would soon be walking on foot. From a cold, windy, yet sunny deck, we could see glimpses of golden beaches, artist's houses, forests of cedar and redwood, and lighthouses. We received a call to reboard our bus we had taken from Vancouver and were driven into the heart of Victoria - the biggest city on Vancouver Island. The ride terminated right next to the Empress Hotel where we planned to stay a night to celebrate our first anniversary. It looked like a big old castle with ivy covered stone walls and a turreted roofline.

We shouldered our backpacks and walked a few blocks down to Ocean Island Backpackers where we had a room reserved. Ocean Island was a colourful, party hostel with friendly staff and murals painted all over. We were on the 4th floor, so hiked our packs up and then began our preparations for the West Coast Trail hike we were due to start the next day. Soon our little garret room was overflowing with camping paraphenalia and food. To take a break we went down and got fish and chips for dinner by the waterside at a quaint pub, then bought Marty some fishing line for just in case.

The following morning, August 2, we were woken by a loud motorcycle revving it's engine beneath our room for at least 5 minutes at about 4am.  At 5 we were up and getting ready to be back at the bus terminal by 6am to catch the shuttle bus to Port Renfrew where we would begin our walk. The bus was an ex-navy one and was a bit rough around the edges. The road up the island was incredibly windy (lots of bends in the road not air movement) and when we pulled into Port Renfrew two hours later I was feeling pretty rough around the edges myself. Our driver seemed a bit mad hatterish and I wonder if perhaps the journey should have taken a little longer... We got off at the trail head and went straight into the track induction. This was a talk telling us what to look out for on the trail and how to react to any bears, wolves or cougars we may encounter. I think this talk was sadly remiss in not warning us of the immense black and green banana slugs we were about to come face to face with.

Before we knew it we were taken over the Gordon River by ferry and were on our way. We chose the roughest end of the track to begin on. We balanced out the harder walking with shorter days. We walked through tall redwood forests formed of gigantic trees with a surprisingly sparse ferny floor covering. The track went up and down a lot and frequently fallen trees created large steps. We were given a small taste of the long wooden ladders the West Coast Trail is so famous for. We stopped for lunch next to a donkey engine, a massive machine relic from logging days left to rust away on the forest floor. It is hard to imagine how they managed to get such a massive piece of machinery up the hill there through such dense woods. The guidebook we used suggested early hikers ran up and down the trail with the engine on their back to stay fit. Likely story!

Actually the West Coast Trail was originally a track where a communication cable was run through from Port Renfrew to Bamfield. In the early 19th century a ship of passengers went aground and 133 people died due to not being able to escape the shores they were washed up on. Help was only a couple of hours away. This tragedy meant a decision was made to turn the cable track into a road. They began from Bamfield but it wasn't long before the idea ran out of steam and in the 70's the cable track was turned into one of the world's great walks instead.

After 4 hours we got to the turn off for our first campsite - Thrasher's Cove. To reach it was a hike 1km down steep hillside and ladders. The ladders that pepper the West Coast Trail are one of the things it is really famous or perhaps infamous for and this was our first taste of them. They weren't actually so bad - not when you looked through to the terrain they were helping you bypass. Thrasher's was idyllic. The beach was a little crowded but we found a place to put up our tent. From inside you could see the waves gently lapping the shore as the sun went down. Marty found some firewood and started a campfire and too lighten our loads a little, we feasted well.

1st Course: Bean & Vegetable Soup

2nd Course: Spaghetti with Tomato and Parmesan, garnished with fresh carrots and courgettes

3rd Course: Campfire baked potatoes with butter and garlic salt

4th Course: Marshmallows and chocolate accompanied by coffee with just a dash of kahlua.

Needless to say, we went to bed happy and replete. Over the still water boat lights reflected and stars shone full and heavy. It had been a great first day.

We slept for 12 hours straight on our comfortable sand beds. When we woke and looked out of our tent almost all of the 16 tents of the night before were gone. We hastily breakfasted on Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar porridge and packed up our tent then hit the track. Our next destination was Camper's Cove, a four hour walk. First up we had to take on the infamous ladders to get back out of Thrasher's. Thankfully due to the feasting the night before, our packs were lighter so we didn't have too many problems. Back on the track we faced a fun yet challenging trail. Old fallen tree trunks were often the only bridge to cross small gorges or rivers. I came to grief on one, managing to throw myself back where the falling wasn't so far down, I scraped my arm and bruised myself but was otherwise ok. Marty made sure I was alright, then while I sat down to recover, he photographed one of the many gigantic slugs. Then he turned the camera on me to capture my unimpressed expression.

For lunch we went down onto a rocky shelf right next to the ocean. To our surprise there was a thick fog hanging over the water. We ate pepporoni, cucmber and cheese pita breads then set off along the beach toward another trail access further down. Seaweed popped under our feet and Marty pointed out an enormous green sea anenome. Once we entered the trees again I almost followed another hiking party the wrong way down the track. Marty picked it though and we made safely through to Campers. We had to camp on the windy side of the trees due to sheltered spots already being taken. Marty invited me for a romantic walk down on the beach so we rock hopped a small river and went and explored rock pools and a deep surge channel for a while until hunger led us back to camp.

Our menu pretty much followed the first night. After our feast the wind died down so we put out our fire then retired to our tent for a round of yahtzee. Once again I came out the victor.

The next destination was Waldron Creek, reportedly one of the best camping sites on the trail. We woke late despite our best intentions to be up early and once again the mass of tents from the night before had disappeared before we even looked out of the tent. Marty cooked up some pancake mix for breakfast. It tasted pretty different from what we expected - very baking sodarish. It was more like crepe mix that required some sort of topping. I still enjoyed mine though and set off up the first set of ladders for the day merrily enough.

Once again the path was a mess of roots, branches and trunks. The dirt layer is quite thin so the tree roots spread out rather than down. Campfires aren't allowed in the forest as they actually burn down into the live roots killing the trees. This day was our longest and hardest. Now we truly had to come to grip with the ladders as they took us down and up many steep river gorges.

Waldron was beautiful and we put up our tent by a deep swimming hole that we had a very quick dip in. It was freezing! One game Australian also from Perth swam to the other side, but no one else followed his example. For the first time we didn't have a campfire but used instead Marty's little MSR stove to cook fried rice.

From here the walk became more beach oriented. We walked along a mixture of slippery rocky shelves and hard sand, making quick time. Today was particularly great as we came to Chez Monique's hamburger stand. Chez Monique is a local resident of the Indian reservation we were walking through and was a major player in local native land issues. She has a hamburger and beer stand for all the hikers on the trail. Almost everybody stops there for very expensive barbequed hamburgers with kettle fries. Though plain, they were absolutely superb and worth every single overpriced cent. After feasting, we flew up the next ladder walking past a lighthouse with surprisingly well kept grounds and joined a Calgary electrician to walk to our next campsite.

This was KM31 and due to having no water no one else was staying there. The coastal fog now lifted for us and I lay out in the sun beneath a startlingly blue sky while Marty looked for fish. He didn't see any which surprised us both due to what seemed like perfect conditions. We had a campfire and ate well again. After all the crowded camp areas we stayed in it was nice to have space to ourselves. Back in NZ it was my sister, Helen's, birthday. I wondered what she was doing to celebrate.

We got going the next morning in time to be on the first ferry crossing of the ocean strait that cuts the trail in half. The ferry runner dives for enormous crabs that he cooks up and sells to any takers before taking them across. We hummed and hahed but finally said no as neither of us were too keen on the look of the massive crustaceans. Once on the other side we decided to try and walk out a day early. We dropped back down on to beach walking again but now it was hard going with stones that sank beneath our feet, sucking out all of our energy. At one point we stopped for a quick break and I surprised two snakes in some long grass. Fortunately none of the snakes on Vancouver Island are poisonous. Fog hung over the ocean but drew back enough to reveal a colony of sea lions.

 We stopped for a break by a waterfall where most of our fellow hikers would camp the night. Instead of relenting we kept going for 2 more hours and camped alone once again. This suited us well as it was our wedding anniversary. Marty had carried a small bottle of champagne, salmon, fancy crackers, olives and candles that whole way for a special romantic dinner. He made a driftwood table and chairs and lit a fire to keep warm next too and we ate like king and queen while watching the tide come in over the rocky beach shelf. We had crepes with a melted chocolate sauce for desert. We were so exhausted from the beach walking we went to bed straight after eating. Marty fell asleep quickly but I lay awake listening to the tide creeping closer and closer. Even though we were high up under some trees I felt like the tide would keep coming up and sweep us out to sea. Finally I couldn't stay awake any longer and the next thing I knew it was morning.

This was now our last day on the trail and we had 20km to walk out. We finally hit the smooth 'road like' paths the ranger had promised us and we made good time. We were making such good time that we decided not to take breaks but try and catch the 1:30 bus back to Victoria a day early. Just at the end of the trail, in the last km, a new set of ladders had been inserted. They were over 100 steps high and were a surprise as the ladders were meant to all be behind us. We missed the bus by 5 minutes.

It took us a while to sort things out but we eventually organised a ride into the township of Bamsfield where we booked into a B$B. This place was fantastic - a room crammed with books and videos, perfect for relaxing after our long walk. We were both so pleased to have showers and feel clean again. It was a miracle that we completed the walk without being rained on. It must be one of the first times in history that has happened. Of course when we woke the following morning there was a steady rain falling. We lay in bed smugly thinking of all the people we knew were still on the trail while we had been clever and walked out before the bad weather came in. Sure enough, when we caught the bus, there were many very sodden and miserable looking people who had their last day in the mud instead of in the sun.

Back in Victoria we did laundry, caught up on news and got ready to go over to Salt Spring Island.

Salt Spring Island is the second largest off Vancouver and houses a large artistic community. It has a strong ethic against chain businesses so all the shops sell local produce and art. Most of the food is organic and the salmon is caught wild instead of farmed. One of the best things for Marty and I were the blackberries growing wild by the road sides that we could feast on as we walked from our campground into the township of Ganges. We had a whole day over here and spent it wandering around the many art galleries, walking through a frisbee golf park and finally hiring a canoe that we rowed around the marina and into the next bay. Here we saw a seal and it's baby look at us from nearby in the water.

After returning our canoe we bought a slab of wild salmon and took it back to our campground to cook up. We borrowed cooking implements from the RV parked next to us and Marty ended up talking to the couple there for ages. It was very pleasant to relax in the warm summer air.

Early the next morning we caught the Ganges Faerie - a mini van - back to the ferry to Victoria. Once there we walked around the front of the Empress that we had decided not to stay in after all as we had already had a lovely anniversary celebration, and admired the beautiful arcitecture before buying tickets for the Clipper to Seattle and the USA.

We fell from the Canadian skies into the arms of friends. Scotty (Marty's old university friend), picked us up at Vancouver airport and whisked us off home to a true Australian welcome. Cold beer out on the front porch. We stayed with Scotty, his hospitable wife Lyn and their lovely son Sage for the next 3 nights. I am convince Sage, at the ripe age of one, is going to be either a professional stuntsman or a professional climber as his acrobatic abilities were amazing. He climbed everything, including me at one point, with great determination.

On our first morning in Vancouver, Scott dropped us off to Stanley Park. This is a park located on a headland that combines manicured lawns with wild forest. Squirrels bounced about everywhere to our great delight. They are way too fast to catch! We were entertained by small seagulls trying to eat huge starfish and getting stuck with only one starfish leg down their throats. Actually at first I was horrified, but by the time we saw this happen two or three times I began to see the funny side. From Stanley Park we walked down Vancouver's main shopping street, Robson Street. We paused at a deli to get fresh bread, cheese, tomatoes and fruit to picnic on washed down with Rasberry Lemonade. A perfect feast and well needed as from there we still had a lot of walking ahead. If only I knew then...

We caught the seabus from the center of Vancouver over the bay to Grouse Mountain. The seabus is a ferry that takes about 15 minutes to cross. Grouse Mountain is a ski field that overlooks Vancouver. In summer the gondala stills runs ferrying tourists and day-trippers up and down the steep mountain. Or you can walk. The Grouse Grind is basically a staircase of tree roots, rocks and dirt that continues straight, and I mean straight, up for an hour. This day was over 30 degrees celcius so you can imagine the state we were in when we reached the top. Beetroot was too pale a colour to describe the shade of my face. Even Marty's usually composed complexion looked quited flushed. Thankfully, after feasting on left over apples, bananas and mangoes, Marty relented on the punishment being dished out to my legs and bought us tickets down on the gondola. I was happy about this until we started descending and I saw out of the huge glass windows a death inducing drop that we would fall down if anything went wrong. Of course nothing did and by the time we were half way down I was enjoying the view like everyone else. We caught the seabus back and headed on foot through Gastown and Chinatown back to the MacIntyre residence.

After finally turning up dusty and foot worn two hours later than planned to Scott and Lyn's, there was nothing for it but too shower and put on our party clothes. We went to the Sandbar on Granville Island where we ate oysters and I went back to my new favourite fish the Halibut. Marty had salmon. Scott and Lyn thought we had missed out by not ordering the Ahi Tuna which is served almost like sushi with wasabi on the side. It was here I tried my first Ceaser. This is a cocktail made from Clamato Juice (similar to V8), Tabasco Sauce, Vodka and garnished with green beans in a glass rimmed with celery salt and pepper. It nearly knocked my socks off! As Scotty and Lyn were a week from moving to the UK we decided to draw the night out a bit longer. We played pool at the Soho, Lyn's old haunt. Then there was a cranberry martini in a cocktail lounge before heading home and more conversation on the front porch.

In the morning we got up reasonably early and went out to White Pine Beach on a lake shore. We met Julie and Mark, good friends of Lyn and Scott. Julie and Lyn convinced me to almost swim across the lake with them. They swam at a leisurely pace making conversation while I concentrated on not letting my arms fall off my shoulders and not lagging too far behind. It was great fun to have some girl time. After we went back to Julie and Mark's for refreshments. They had a lovely backyard with lush green lawn any Perthite would envy, but even more wonderful were the humming birds that flitted around. They are such minute birds it was difficut to follow them with my eyes, even with my glasses on.

We returned back to town for a barbeque and socialising with Lyn's cousin Holly who had kindly babysat while we went out to dinner the night before, and Lyn's twin sister Marie-Anne and her partner Bruno. We tried a delicous new salad of spinach leaves, strawberries, blueberries and feta drizzled in a vinagerette.

After such a relaxing time it was time to pick up a hire car and head out of town. We acquired a Chrysler Sebring. It was red too so it went faster! It was a little intimidating to be driving on the right hand side of the road for the first time but Marty handled it like a champ and we cruised off down Highway One East out of town through the fruitlands of the Okanagan Valley to the wine region of Penticton, our belongings strewn through the back seat and boot of the car like they had always lived there.

The Rockies are a spectacular mountain range and the 6 hour drive to Pendicton was full of treats, not least the cheap fruit stalls lining the Okanagan Valley. We bought loads of cherries and blueberries for under $5, almost as much as we could eat (with these things I can always find room for a little more...), and tried cherry cider. I found it quite terrible but if you like Christmas cake icing you might like cherry cider. I will run the other way if I see it coming.

Penticton seemed very dry. It is a township caught between two lakes. A canal joins the lakes and it was thick with people lying floating down on their air mattresses. The campgrounds looked dry. dusty, extremely overcrowded and we knew they were expensive so we enquired at the Information Centre on local free camp spots. A helpful young lady directed us up the wrong side of the lake for where we wanted to go, to the Okanagan National Park. It seemed like a great idea until we hit a gravel road. The turn off to our camp site turned into a four wheel drive track and I was extremely concerned we would get stuck in our little hire car with no way out. We did make it through some mud and scrub unscathed to the campsite. We just had time to put up our trusty little tent when a thunder storm unleashed it's fury. It was a relief to take shelter in the car. I probably would have stayed there all night if Marty hadn't insisted on help with dinner and setting up the camp.

Compared to the paid sites in town where we saw tents pegged half under and half between the popular gigantic RVs people drive around for their holidays over here,  our clearing was paradise with the smell of pine needles and a small stream running past. We played yahtzee then slept like the dead.

On our drive back into Penticton in the morning we picked up two hitch-hikers - cherry pickers - to drop off in the township. The conversation was rather strange as they were French Canadian and hardly spoke English. From what I understood they were heading down to a town close to the American border where the herbs were good and the pine cones gigantic. We decided we didn't need to go there and headed in the opposite direction on the Trans-Canadian highway to Calgary. From my passenger seat I was able to enjoy the Rockies in all their glory. Each mountain looks like a giant slab of rock has been violently thrown up in the air, then has never come down. Huge jagged ridges tore the skyline and occasionally glaciers poured down their faces. There were many mountain lakes too. One of my favorites was the lake at Sycamore - Houseboat Capital. The weather was perfect and it looked like such a great place to camp, but on and on we drove. It was a shock to suddenly shoot out on the Eastern side and see nothing but flat land. Calgary was visible very soon after.

We drove straight to Charmagne and Pat's house. Charmagne flatted with me in Taiwan and has stayed in touch all these years so I was really looking forward to catching up with her. We arrived just as they were putting their gorgeous daughter, Catie, to bed. Of course it was too exciting with new people around so we got to meet her for a while, a lovely treat.

Charmagne spent the next day as our tour guide, escorting us through the Davonian Gardens - indoor so people can enjoy them in the harsh winters, and around Prince's Island. Here we had coffees and desert at the River Cafe, an idyllic corner of trees and sunlit water dancing past in the Bow River. I do have to say that I rate this cafe on it's bathrooms, I could have messed around with the soaps and hand lotions in there all day. Alas it was not to be, we had bookings to make for the next leg of our trip.

That night Charmagne and Pat took us and another Taiwan friend Sherri, out to dinner at The Tower. This is a concrete pillar with a viewing platform and restaurant at the top and is shaped like an Olympic Torch. It was built when Calgary hosted the Olympic Games back in the day, along with the most enormous ski jump I have ever seen (but I digress). We were whisked up the handle of the torch in a smooth elevator then ejected onto a viewing platform that had a glass floor from which you could see down the dizzying depths to the distant cars and roads below. I could only stand on it while firmly grasping the steel girder. Marty joked he could smell chicken, but I couldn't help but notice he was a little tentative when he first stepped out on it as well.

The restaurant was lovely. It revolved, so in one hour we gained the entire panorama of Calgary. The city ascended down to the prarie floors away from us and the skies put on a spectacular light show against the distant rockies with black clouds split by lightening then pierced by golden rays of sunlight, finishing with a rainbow. It could not have been more perfect! This wonderful dinner was a wedding present from Charmagne and Pat to us and was greatly enjoyed.

In the morning Charmagne outdid herself in the hospatality stakes by getting up early to cook bacon, eggs, perogies (a type of dumpling), and waffles to see us on our way. We got up early enough to join Pat before he left for work. It is always so sad to say good bye to friends we see so little of.

By 11:00 we were on our way into town and met Caveman, Marty's old engineering friend from his Calgary days, for lunch. Caveman had lots of interesting stories for us as he has hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island and the Grand Canyon, both of which we are planning to do ourselves. We left with the hope that he may join us at Rio for Carnaval.

The road to Banff was not too long. Two hours later we pulled into the pretty township. We took a campsite at Village 1, 5 minutes drive out of town. The earth was rock hard and we had trouble driving in the tent pegs. Marty had to take over with a rock to put them in enough to hold up our tent. Instead of climbing Sulphur Mountain we window shopped through all the giftshops looking for a replacement Mountie keyring for Judy (Marty's Mum). We couldn't find one to the same calibre as the one Marty had given her before but saw many wierd and wonderful things. Due to the shale in the earth around Banff, many fossils have been found and the shops were full of sand blasted ammonites and all sorts of interesting fish and leaves cast in rocks from thousands of years ago.

We had a drink on a rooftop bar, then went to our campsite and cooked dinner on our campstove. We were exhausted and enjoyed having an early night. The hard earth felt it's way through our foam mats and we both felt a bit sore when we woke in the morning.

We drove out to the famous Lake Loise which I found as beautiful and as striking as all the pictures promised. The lake water is a turquoise green colour due to all the glacial water that feeds it. At one end a Fairmount Hotel - The Chateau - stands in full grandeur with views up toward the glaciers. To stay there one must pay hundreds per night. We walked up to the 6 Glacier teahouse then on to see where the glaciers poured down the valley. From there we went back up the mountain on the side of the lake to see smaller lakes and another teahouse by Lake Agnes. By the time we got back to The Chateau our legs were tired, but not too tired to go and wander around the hotel ground floor gift shops. We drove to Morraine Lake for a quick look but were too tired to stay long so drove back to Banff for burgers at Wild Bill 'Peyto' Saloon. Wild Bill was apparently the best packer and guide in the West. We returned to our campground to see a White-tail Deer grazing by our tent. A little while later a herd of Elk moved through the campground - very surreal as they were not afraid of people at all.

We were woken in the morning by rain on the tent. I just managed to drag myself out of it after Marty, before it collapsed, the pegs falling over in the mud. We threw everything in the car and drove out, headed for Jasper, another National Park township with a nearby ski resort.

Jasper was a small town that reminded me of Wanaka before the housing boom. That is Wanaka without the lake or anything else much the same at all - it was the vibe of the thing. We were exhausted so bought some food at Coco's Cafe recommended by the Lonely Planet Guide then collapsed in our tent at the Whistler Campground for a sleep. It began to pour with rain again so we went and cooked dinner in a concrete rain shelter and passed time talking to a Swiss couple on a four week holiday.

We tried to get up early the following morning but it didn't really happen. Fortunately crossing back from Alberta to British Columbia we gained an hour so we had a little extra time to waste. Though waste time we did not, as we drove pretty solidly for ten hours through to Whistler. Stopping only for a Subway Sandwhich to remind us of home and later, some petrol and a packet of salmon jerky (would you believe?) which tasted more like salt than salmon but soon had the car smelling fishy!

We hit Whislter just in time for the culmination of the Kokahnee Mountain Biking Festival. We got in to town too late for the Information Centre but managed to catch a desk clerk who directed us to The Aspens. These are privately owned apartments that are rented out and sit at the top end of Whistler - I mean top end literally as they are a little up Blackcomb. Our apartment looked right over the ski lift which still runs in summer for hiking and taking in the scenery. It would be magic in winter as we could ride right from our room to the lift...another year perhaps. Though to be honest I wouldn't want to be paying peak rates for our room with a view.

On Sunday morning we went downtown and joined a Lutheran/Anglican church service and were blessed to be there while the bishop was visiting. A group of 13 year olds were being confirmed into the church and the Bishop spoke a wonderful sermon on how to live a Christian life. We shared communion, bread dunked in (to my surprise) real wine. Usually we just have grape juice or ribena.

In the afternoon we hired mountain bikes and cruised around on the valley tracks. After a while Marty encouraged me onto some steeper and narrower dirt trails which were a lot of fun to ride though I am pretty slow. We saw a woodpecker attacking a tree with great vengeance and rode through a suberb of lush holiday houses, one with a float plane parked outside. To finish the day off Marty treated me to poutene, a Canadian dish of hot chips with gravy and cheese curds poured overtop, delicous! We ate while watching extreme bikers take on the an enormous dirt bike track with jumps so big they made the riders look like ants. In the malls there were different riders giving demos on trick riding - we were treated to seeing some of the world's top experts.

Monday brought an early start as we needed to get our hire car handed back in early or risk paying another day for it. Once in Vancouver we paid a quick visit to a supermarket to pick up hiking food for the West Coast Trail and also stocked up on yet more camping equipment at MEC (Mountain Equipment Coop) a vast outdoor store chain with everything you could dream of - even camping ice-cream machines!

We tried to drop the car off but despite our best efforts we were late so ended up having it for another day. We drove it to Granville Island and had a fantastic time walking around the markets there. There was fresh produce to die for - huge punnets of berries, barrels of different fruits and vegetables and stands of cheeses and salami. My mouth was watering so badly. For lunch we ate beef pot pies followed by cherries, and bought chicken kebabs for dinner. We also stocked up on pepperoni sticks for hiking and cheese too. Then we wandered through a variety of pottery stores, sailing stores and even a paper shop which I could have spent hours in. I think it was pretty hard for Marty to get excited over paper though.

Finally we went back to the HI hostel. For the first time this trip we found ourselves sharing a room with two others, also from Australia. It was nice to converse, but strange to be sharing sleeping space. I am planning to avoid dormitories as much as I can - reason 101 why it is great to have a tent.

The next day was our farewell to Vancouver for the last time. Marty dropped bags and me off at the tourist info centre then took the car back, fortunately in time this time. We ended up needing to take a taxi to the bus terminal for our ride to the ferry to take us over to Vancouver Island and the taxi driver tried to convince us in broken English to take his taxi right to the ferry. We were already happy with our arrangements so he went away shaking his head and muttering. We took the front seat in the bus and had uninterrupted views of another side of the city - the industrial side. We drove straight onto the ferry and were free to roam the massive boat for the hour and a half ride to the island. Time to reflect and plan.

Marty has got our photos online now so please check them out at this link:

http://katmarty.smugmug.com