POSTCARD FROM CANADA Thursday 29 August–Thursday 19 September 2019

I arrived at check in at LHR to be told I had been upgraded to First, so I had a very comfortable 7-hour flight to Toronto.  However, Toronto Airport was dreadful and my driver to the hotel took a bit of finding but then I checked into the Fairmont Royal York to find that I had been upgraded to a suite with Club access so it was a pretty good to start to the holiday.

The first evening was spent relaxing in the Club lounge and then an early night.  On Thursday I took it easy – a recce of Union Station, a walk down to the CN Tower, and then back to the hotel for a swim.  On day two I took a train for an hour to Burlington where I met up with my cousin Pauline.  We had a nice picnic on the shores of Lake Ontario, then stopped for a hot chocolate en route back to the station where I picked up a train back to Toronto.

On Monday I took a flight from Toronto to Calgary where my cousin Dinny met me, and we then had a quiet evening together.  Tuesday was my birthday so we decided to go to the Cochrane Rodeo which was great fun, and a first for me!  In the evening we went for a very nice Indian dinner in Cochrane.  On Tuesday we spent the morning and lunch time in the beautiful Rockies town of Canmore, and then had dinner with a friend of Dinny’s in the evening.  On Wednesday Dinny and I went down to Ghost Lake to spend the late afternoon and evening with Dinny’s daughter and her family, including her in-laws.  It was a fun evening with all the children, at 6, 8 and 10.  On Thursday morning we went over to Market Mall in Calgary so that I could buy a new pair of Canadian moccasins, and then lunched with a friend of Dinny’s nearby. The afternoon was spent quietly, with me doing some packing.

After a wonderful week with cousin Dinny, I departed Calgary for Vancouver where I spent a night at the airport decanting some of my luggage into a squashy bag for the trip to Campbell River.  On Saturday I flew up to Campbell River on Vancouver Island in a small propeller plane and spent the night there, enjoying some fish and chips on the edge of the ocean! The next morning I took a seaplane up to Knight Inlet Lodge in Glendale Cove – a 25 minute flight.  There I set off on my first excursion fairly swiftly – having a nosy around the Inlet but saw nothing of interest.  After lunch I went on an estuary tour where I had a good view of a black bear and cub, and in the afternoon I sat on a river stand to look for bears.  A grizzly came quickly but sadly my camera screen gave up.  I now have to use it through the viewfinder – very annoying to miss a brilliant viewing of a grizzly bear.  Thankfully a kind guest gave me some of his photos.  The next morning we saw three lovely grizzlies but my camera gave up completely, and my iPhone didn’t do much of a job.  The manager then kindly lent me a camera from the lodge, so at least I have a camera again!

 

On Monday afternoon I went off with guide Jack and two other guests to an “In the Cloud’ tour driving/walking to see some stunning views way up in the mountains, and afterwards we did some “bear tracking’ to see how we could track bears.  A delightful afternoon. On Tuesday I went on a “Marine Tour”, spending all day on a small boat with ten others.  We saw many orca, humpback, dolphins, seals and sealions to mention but a few!  It was a really good day, but my borrowed camera did not produce good results. Wednesday morning I did an estuary cruise, and saw a black bear in the distance, and a’ river stand’ to watch for bears, but saw nothing except for an eagle.  All very disappointing.  The afternoon estuary tour wasn’t much better!  The last tour on Wednesday was much more fruitful.  We were taken out in a fast boat into the estuary and after about fifteen minutes or so found a grizzly walking around on the rocks.  We watched her [Amber] for quite some time as she walked along, had a swim or two, and then continued walking along the rocks. We then did a fast cruise down to another cove but found nothing there so went back to see Amber continuing to amble along!  On my last morning we were lucky to see the mother bear [Leonore] and her cubs again, and this time I managed to get some photos of them, so the last 24 hours was a little better.

 

On Thursday morning I took the seaplane back to Campbell River – quite a rough ride, and then the propeller plane to Vancouver – even more bumpy as we drove through a huge storm. On arrival at Vancouver it took some doing to get back to the Pacific Gateway Hotel but once there I was reunited with my luggage and thankfully found I had my old camera in it, so at least I have something to use in Whistler.  On Friday I made my way back to the airport to connect with a bus ride to Whistler, which took 3 hours, quite a long ride.

On arrival at the Westin in Whistler I found that my friend who works with Marriott had told them I was coming so I got upgraded to a beautiful suite with a balcony overlooking the mountains, albeit covered in cloud and rain on arrival.  As I had my own kitchenette I went straight out and bought some food and wine so that I could feed myself instead of having to dress up for breakfast and dinner.  On Sunday I went out for a wander around Whistler in the drizzling rain.  Once back in the hotel I went for a swim but the pool is an indoor/outdoor one.  Because the indoor one is so small you literally have to go outside, and by then it was pouring with rain so two lengths and I was out!  The rest of the day I lounged in my suite by the fire – it was far too wet to go out!

On Sunday I woke to yet more pouring rain but just before noon I set out to do my 4x4 drive to find black bears with four others and a guide.  In spite of the rain and fog we saw one female quite close up, and a few further afield, but just as we were about to leave we found three cubs playing close to us, so had some good views.  Even my old camera took reasonable photos.  We were allowed out of the car to take our photos but it was a very wet and cold few hours.  However thankfully around 6pm the rain stopped and I saw some blue sky for the first time in about a week, and I could see the beautiful view from my suite. The last couple of days were dreary and fairly wet but I managed a short walk each day and then spent the rest of the time relaxing in my suite, before the long journey home on Wednesday 18^th.