English news about Vancouver and more !

Hello Canadian friends !

After this incredible KVR, we arrived in Vancouver city where our Friend Tonia was waiting for us. She’s a student in UBC and offered us to share her room for a couple of days. But before, we left some stuff (bags and trailer) in UBC to go up on the bikes to Whistler….We wanted to have a look to one of the Olympic village and the mountains around. But it’s not very interesting when you have to go and come back on the same road…So that’s what we decided to get our bikes lighter 🙂 To avoid sleeping in the streets, we found a small hotel which was cheaper than the hostel….And by the way, this hotel was awesome ! Hot tube, big room and even a small kitchen to cook ourselves good meals ! Nice ! And cheaper than restaurant 🙂
We walked around in the town and have a look to all these amazing shops with sport gear and hardware….Pffff…so hard to look at and not being allowed to buy anything…! Mary is so sad…. 🙂
We were over there at the same time that the famous Turkey sale…..all the new material of the new season with really hot deals and so many people waiting in the street….it was like in a music festival ! 🙂
We came back on Vancouver also in one day…..140km and so much total elevation…..A crazy ride ! We spent our first evening with Tonia sharing a Chinese meal and going in town to have a walk. This city is so huge and small at the same time…..It’s really a nice place !
The day after, we went to the Aquarium to have a look to all these species living in the Ocean and specially on the west coast…So nice ! And also very interesting for us who are more used to marmottes, bouquetins and mountain goat of Switzerland….This “under the see” world was really new and exciting ! The rest of the day is made of big walk all around the city. Maybe this day we walked more than 20km…..The weather was very nice and sweet for the season…so we should be crazy not to enjoy it ! We ended the day with a fantastic dinner in a sushis bar with a “all you can eat” deal….Mmmmmh so good ! We shared the evening with Tonia’s dad who is an italien so nice. He even offered us the dinner ! Thanks a lot !

The next day is Thanksgiving’s day….great tradition here in north american continent…(dates are different between US and Canada) and we start the day by the best cinnamon rolls in town….After un round trip in bus, we shared an amazing hot chocolate and this crazy rolly….Tonia was right…they are awesome ! In this small bakery, we met a guy, Mark, who lives in town and is very interesting in our trip and in the race we ran in Switzerland to raise funds for Madagascar and the Johann’s sister. Finally, he invited us to spend the Thanksgiving’s dinner at his place with a lot of other young people….! Can you believe this !? We are in Canada and somebody is inviting us for this traditional dinner ! We’re so happy to discover that ! Tonia leaves us for the day (also the Thanksgiving day with her family) and so we decided to go to the farmer market on Grandville Island….we founded there fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and…..wait for it……real Swiss cheese ! It’s called Gruyere and it’s cost more than twice the Swiss price but anyway it’s Swiss cheese !!! Real one ! So we tried a little piece of it….Mmmmh so good !
We spent the rest of the day to walk around in the city and enjoying all the streets ! At five we are at Mark’s place and the most incredible dinner night is about to start…..Lot of plates and meals are arriving from anywhere….Turkey, 10 different potatoes, amazing vegetables, 9 pies…..We shares all the food and we sat down on the floor, sofa or anywhere else where we are fine ! It’s a great dinner and people are very nice ! Thanks Mark for this evening !

The day after, we are back at Mark’s place to plan the afternoon….we’ll go sailing ! Great ! The weather is bad….awful to be more accurate but anyway….Mark told us that if we were able to bike under the rain, we probably should be able to sail with this crap weather ! 🙂 So we had a beautiful sailing time in the main bay of the Vancouver harbour; between huge boats, big cranes and so many buildings….so nice ! We’ll never forget ! We even had a coffee in North Vancouver after we put the sailing boat in a small dock where we were not supposed to be….But a very nice guy, the captain of a really huge fancy yacht allowed us to stay for a while…Thanks !
Coming back in the harbour we left 1 hour ago, we even put on the sails ! Nice ! Thanks for this great day trip Mark !
Now comes the time where we have to go further…..so we left Vancouver, Tonia, Mark and many other people to ride to Horshoe bay where the ferry to Nanaimo leaves. After 40km, we are ready to board. We cross very quickly and after 90min, we’re on Vancouver Island where we meet again Barbara and Stefano, our friends of Gnatt Lake (on the south passed Dease Lake) who are spending the winter in their caravan in a nice campground !

They shared their site so we have been able to put our tent for two nights. Once again, they gave us nice dinner (wild moose, trouts) and we had a nice walk around on the seaside ! Thanks a lot friends ! We made a short trip to Port Alberni where we spent one night in Stamp river BC park before coming down in Nanaimo. We crossed Cathedral Grove (huge and old douglas pin tree) and we even slept over there….it was wet !
After Nanaimo, we went more to the south to Crofton. We took there a ferry to Saltspring Island (small island) and rode down to the south again. On our way, we picked a lot of wild apples and blackberries……So gooooooood ! We had so many that on evening, for dinner’s desert, we made a homemade compote…..Really tasty ! For the night on this island, we were in Ruckle provincial park which is a really beautiful place to stay. This is usually a huge campground with plenty of campers in summer but at that time of the year, we are alone ! Nice ! Sunset is magic and sunrise the day after is even better….! Kind of a dream !
Then we took a boat to reach Swartz bay, back on the main island ! We met Rom and his wife (we met them in hot tube in Whistler) and he found us somebody to bring us to sail ! Incredible ! That’s awesome ! Thanks Rom !!! The person who will be our sailor guide is named Chris, he’s retired and with his wife, they have a beautiful sailing yacht ! For scheduling reasons, we have to wait until Thursday to go in the sea. Anyway….we already look forward to go sailing !
So we biked the Lochside trail until Victoria which is a route without any traffic…..really cool ! And it’s more and less flat ! Here we are ! We arrived in Victoria at the end of the afternoon and we looked for a Wifi……Starbucks is a great place to have it at the same time than a cookie 😉 We have to call our friend Graham with Skype. After a few tries, we caught him and we went to his place ! It’s good to see him again. For those who don’t know, we met him when we entered the Yukon and we biked 2 or 3 days together. We shared some good campsites and dinners and also a bear terror one night ! He was biking from Anchorage down to Victoria in 26 day to raise funds. Actually, he did it ! Nice done buddy !
We are now staying at his place and it’s good to be like at home ! Thanks a lot our friend ! We walked a lot in the city which is really beautiful, buildings are pretty english and it seems to be a very nice place to live. On Thursday morning, we called Chris to go sailing and we were a little bit scared because the forecast were not very good…..but he told us it was ok….so he picked us at Graham’s place and after a short round trip in the city, we went back up to the Marina to prepare the boat. Weather is very nice even if wind decided to not blow…..which is not very funny when you want to go sailing…..Hopefully, there is a motor on the boat 🙂 So we went up to the north with a headwind so when we came back we’ve been able to put the sails ! It’s amazing this great feeling you have that you’re alone in the middle of nowhere….no sound anymore, just the waves against the body boat….so calm !

This journey was a real dream for us…Thanks a lot Chris ! For our last evening in Canada, we decided to go in a pub, drink a lot of beers, eat a huge burger and spend a good time with our friend ! It’s done ! A really nice place called the Canoe bar…..Awesome !

So tomorrow, we’ll leave Canada to US taking a ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. After that, we’ll ride to Seattle where we are supposed to meet some friends ! We are both looking forward to be back on the saddle and meet new people.

We added two new galleries named Vancouver city and Vancouver Island. Click on the links behind the words and you’ll find them easily !

We hope that you are all in good health and that everything is going fine for each of you ! Please take care and enjoy the life !

The LEGOs