2003 - Vancouver - Liz W

October: 12 hour flight from London to San Francisco, then straight through to Vancouver (after being held up by Nazi American customs officials)

What a trip. Saw two grizzly bears fighting, saw whales up close from a six-man skif, smelled whale breath as a cloud of vapour drifting across ocean, seen salmon leaping from calm waters in a cove, nearly walked into a moose, watched deer leaping along side of a road, and seen male Elk swing round to challenge a stupid human getting too close. So many other things, sights, moments, memories, all bundled up in the fleshy tissue of my brain. A 3000 mile train journey, several nights of intense and disturbing dreams, waking up for no reason to find the Northern lights unfolding across the solid black sky above Saskatchewan, waking up again to see the train racing through fog toward the burning eye of the rising sun.

Lizz is the other half of Jake & Lizz, the two characters who crashed at my place for a few weeks back in 1998 - following chance encounter with Jess clubbing at Lakota in 97. Here I am now, with Jo, crashing at thier place in Vancouver.

Utterly lovely couple, with the marvelous capacity to make you feel totally relaxed in sharing thier living space.

Or should I rename it 'Ralph's Place'.

Ralph? Ralph lives there and savagely hissed and clawed anybody who came near him, but, I have to say he's also a cool dude, psychotic, but a dude. I showed him who's boss though, counter attacking in a frenzy of tummy tickles and head rubs.

2003 - Vancouver - Jake W, Oj

Jake. We've not seen each other for 5 years but within moments of our reunion it was as if it had only been yesterday. Top bloke.

We were there for six nights in all, with a short trip to Tofino in between. Those days are smeared into my memory as a deliciously relaxed series of days, all starting with me getting up and doing the 20 minute walk to the local Public Market (heaven) and coming back with coffee and freshly made croissants and Pain au Chocolat. Evenings revolved around large amounts of wine and DVD's ripped off the internet: the film Session 9 has now become one of my all time creepy favourites, as is Identity with John Cusak, something I have already seen in the cinema twice, and watched twice again this trip. Just easy to watch.

2003 - Vancouver -Granville Island Market

October: this is where I came every morning, whilst sleeping at Jake & Lizz's... a 20 minute walk, pick up a paper bag stuffed with croissants and several cups of coffee-to-go. I was enthralled by the abundance of beautiful produce here.

2003 - Grouse Mountain

Jo and I are wandering through these deserted forest trails, way up in the mountains, and then, through the rain mist I see this bloody bear charging out from the tree line. Really fast. My guts froze and my jaw dropped. Then I saw the thin wire mesh fence. Two Grizzly's here, playfighting but really giving each other a whack around.

2003 - Nanaimo

Canada is nothing like New Zealand in the sense that with NZ we would cram a whole load of sites/places into a short period of time; with NZ we did both North and South Island in a month. With Canada... well, it takes 3 days just to get between two places sometimes!

Vancouver Island is about the size of England, and not far from the size of New Zealand, and this thing is just a tiny blob of land off the West coast of the Canadian mainland. Jesus.

Everyone we spoke to got this dreamy look in thier eyes when we said we were going to Tofino. The place has kudos, even with people who have never been there.

Sadly, by time Jo and I got to Nanaimo, the port on the East coast of Vancouver Island, we had missed single bus a day that crosses the island to the West coast Tofino. So, we were stranded in Nanaimo, bit of a rough and tumble town, lots of guys wearing thick chequered shirts and steel toe capped boots, with scruffy beards and oil smeared caps.

Saw lots of people commuting back to the mainland in these chartered planes.

2003 - Ferry to Dinghy Dock Pub - Oj

Saw this tiny hand made sign in the marina for the ferry to Protection Island and the floating "Dinghy Dock pub". Seemed better than where we were so we jumped aboard this tiny boat that came round once an hour to pick people up. The place turned out to be a gem. Great people and great food.

2003 - On Route to Tofino

This has to be one of my favourite parts of the trip to Canada. Woke up mega early, checked out of our hotel, behind which was the greyhound bus terminal; quick trip to a cafe to pick up coffee's and croissants, munching them in the early morning rain. Then onto the coach and the start of a 5 hour East to West trip through ancient woodland. UNKLE in my headphones, a song with lyrics that touched my soul, "Rain Rain Rain, I am the drop that hits the sea that creates the ripple that makes the waves crash upon the shore". Just as everyone we had talked to had said, Tofino has an energy about it unlike anywhere else. Truly magical.

2003 - Tofino - Djr

Checked into Duffin Bay Resort room 103.

We walked into our room and laughed with glee. One wall was entirely glass, with a sliding door leading onto a balcony, the ocean right below us, sound of pounding surf, smell of ozone and brine, a view of coastal wilderness.... just so beautiful. I sat for ages gazing and soaking it all in.

I'm sitting on the edge of the balcony of our room. This was our view. To the left of the picture is another island and then the open Pacific Ocean.

Jo lost the paper-scissors-stones-decision maker on whether we were to have the doors open that night. I wanted to fall asleep and wake up to the booming of the waves below; Jo didn't want a bear or some nocturnal monster to walk into our room through the open doors. In the end I regailed and we left the doors closed. Gotta love her.

2003 - Tofino

Small beach down below our room.

2003 - Tofino - Djr, Oj

Here we were, on the far West Coast... overlooking the Pacific Ocean... and here with my best friend, lover and spa...it was blissful.

2003 - Tofino

2003 - Tofino

2003 - Tofino

Love the geometry of the wires.

2003 - Tofino - Whale Watching

Whale Watching time. Six of us loaded onto this rigid inflatable raft with some super-nitrous-boosted-batman-jet-engine on the back. This thing was insanely fast. We flew out of the harbour and right into the open ocean.

2003 - Tofino - Whale Watching

I was surprised and delighted how close we got to the whales. They come up for a few breaths then dive down again for 7-10 minutes. Whilst they're breathing we got to see them sliding past us, sometimes higher because they we up above us in the swell of the ocean. It's when they dive that you get to see thier tale. Beautiful sight.

A huge cloud of this stuff drifted across the ocean towards us; I sat there eagerly sniffing.... pheeewwww, what a smell!

2003 - Tofino - Whale Watching

Got to give a big shout to the company that took us; Ocean Outfitters. Not only was Ike the best captain in Tofino, we got a hell of a lot more for our money. After watching the whales Ike took us for a high speed cruise through some of the bays, coves and inlets that pepper the coast around Tofino. We saw eagles, giant salmon leaping from calm waters, blue heron gliding over mercurial surface, and just the thrill of blasting through this amazing scenery.

2003 - Tofino

My memory: making a coffee every morning and sitting outside to watch the sun rise. Very Whakkapapa Village, Very Skotel. Ahhhhh, Skotel. Only 6 months ago. Miss you. x

This particular morning sitting out on balcony wrapped up in coat and hooded top, hugging hot cup with Vangellis Mithodea in my ears, the crashing pounding rumble of waves on the rocks audible and felt above and through the music. Feel the whole wooden structure shuddering at regular intervals. Rain comes in out of nowhere from a blue sky, dropping a grey veil between me and the green trees of the next island, and Mithodea plays with such aquatic and angelic grace, fusing perfectly with the moment. And the smell of the ocean, like salt on your lips, pungent, cleansing, vigorous, divine.

2003 - Tofino - Jo

October: this is the view from inside our room.

2003 - Tofino - Jo

October: always time for some nature watching.

2003 - Vancouver

Rain. That's my main recollection of the atmosphere of the place. Either overcast, or rain. But the city has this architectural integrity going on, a theme of green glass, a city of glass, and it's really effective on these moody days. Very cyber, I thought.

2003 - Vancouver - Djr, Oj

More evenings drinking wine, chatting, smoking, more mornings buying in coffee and croissants. Bliss.

2003 - Vancouver - Stanley Park

Jo and I were doing our own thing. I was downtown, in the rain. Found a bus that took me to Stanley Park.

2003 - Vancouver - Stanley Park

One ugly fish, and well over 7 ft long. The thing was huge!

2003 - Vancouver - Stanley Park

Shark tank.

2003 - Vancouver - Stanley Park

2003 - Vancouver - Ralph

2003 - Vancouver - Lizz W

This was the night we all went out clubbing, and later found Jake crashed out on a stool with his head arched back, resting against the pillar of the club.

2003 - Jasper - Oj

Time to leave the West Coast and head inland on the 1st leg of a 3,000 mile train journey. I was really impressed by the train. We had to sleep in chairs but there was tons of room and the chairs reclined way back with funkly knee and foot rests. These bubble cars were cool; downstairs was a cafe, and upstairs was this 360 observation area.

I woke up during the night, climbed up into the observation pod and played Marilyn Manson and some of the Resident Evil soundtrack, was a full moon shining down outside and was a truly atmospheric experience sat up there in the dark, the only light was the soft glow coming from the cafe part downstairs. Memory: Red glow of stop lights outside on the track, we're in the middle of nowhere with vast forest all around the train.

Stepping out of the train in Jasper the cold air sucked all the heat from your flesh. Delish. We hired a car and drove out to the Sky Tram at the base of Mount Whistlers. A 2km ascent.

2003 - Jasper - Sky Tram

You can see our cables descending back down through the cloud level.

2003 - Jasper - Djr

The guide book said there was a good 1 hour walk from the top of the sky tram to the top of the mountain; the snowstorm was a bit of a surprise. The wind came and went, but when it was there it was howling. Jo turned back. I tried to carry on. It was so cold the batteries on my camera died even though fully charged.

2003 - Maligne Lake

Breath-taking; I must have taken a thousand photos standing there. Hard to believe I was actually seeing this with my own eyes.

2003 - Maligne Lake

2003 - Maligne Lake - A moose

2003 - Maligne Lake - Djr

2003 - Athabasca Falls

A great surprise is when you walk away from the falls and follow some of the routes; one route led down to a hidden cove with a rocky beach. Stepping down to the beach you discover it littered with these odd figures. Very Blair Witch. They are called Inukshuk.

2003 - Jasper - Ralph

Not a scratch on our car from New Zealand "A Might Fine 915" but he did the job. Kept getting electric shocks every time I climbed out, so called the damned thing Ralph.

Memory: driving out to meet Dave & Cath with Timo Mass playing out; leaving Dave & Cath's log cabin after Thanksgiving drinks and having to hurry back to car in case any bears had entered the area - not often you leave somebody's house with the risk of being eaten.

2003 - Sunrise over Manitoba

Back on the train. It was about to be our home for 3 days. We had a solid non-stop journey to Toronto ahead of us.

The scenery changed really fast after leaving Jasper. The Rockies fell behind us and the landscape flattened. Some people might wince at the idea of spending so long on a train but it was an amazing experience. The service was great - just don't eat the sandwhiches from the cafe car- and the food on the dinning car was fab. You enter this timeless state where you don't know where or when you are, you're travelling across three time zones and the scenery is forever changing. The only things that are constant are the chairs you're sleeping on or the comfort of the bubble car observation deck. My favourite moments were a) waking up 2am for no reason whilst crossing Saskatchewan to see the Northern Lights peeling across the sky: I woke Jo and we went up into the observation bubble where there were no lights to intrude on the view. Magical. Also, waking up one morning to find the train racing through dense fog. Climbing up to the observation bubble I saw the fog slowly peeling away whilst we headed into the rising furnace of the sun.

2003 - Alistair

Alistair was a lovely guy, always scribbling down poems and trying to come up with a follow on to the famouse saying "If Winter Comes will Spring Follow?"

Great moment when Alistair was smooching his wife, Pat, and said outloud to a crowded car, "Lets make love darling."

Pat laughed and flapped him away, he replied with, "You've been giving me coffee all day, you've got me all frisky."

2003 - Heading into Ontario

Autumn colours

2003 - Final Sunset

We were about to arrive in Toronto. I wasn't happy. I was missing Tofino. I knew that the big city was no longer an attraction to my soul. I missed the vast open spaces, the mountain peaks, the rugged coast and crashing waves. I don't know what my future holds for me in Bristol but I hope that somehow, someway, I manage to move away to a better place away from the fury of urban life.

I was heading back to the UK tomorrow. Jo was staying on another 2 weeks.

2003 - Toronto - Jess

October: I last saw Jess in Toronto last year. Since that encounter she's met Mikkel, a Norweigan film animator, on the Internet and got married to him. Mikkel is a lovely guy and obviously impressed by the high speed, often manic pace of life in Toronto. We arrived. Drank whisky. Then blasted downtown to a club where the DJ was playing awesome awesome tunes. Back at 6am, all Jo and I wanted to do was lie in bed and get naughty but Jess dragged us out at 11am for breaskfast - Gritts and Corned Beef - which I have to admit was bloody delicious - and then out the door. In retrospect I wish we'd stayed at Jess's flat drinking coffee and chatting until it was time to go to the airport. Instead we went downtown, it was raining, I was tired, I was miserable about leaving Jo behind.