Living out of a backpack: October 2012

Tours are normally the best way to lean about a city or new area (with the exception of our tour guide in Cambodia) and this was no different. The tour, organised through our hostel, was lead by Erik, a most inspirational man from Denmark. Erik has been living in the city of Vancouver for the last 50 years and has an amazing local knowledge and lots and lots of stories which he was more than happy to share with us! He had some ridiculous statistics over the last 18 years of completing the tour with almost 20,000 people having attended.

Danish tour guide - Erik

Erik has an amazing travelling history having been to 100 countries worldwide which is quite an amazing feat seeing his annual salary is in the vicinity of $20,000. It just goes to show how important being very careful with your money can be! He has a very regimented approach and has done a lot of research in the city to find the best deals around for all forms of transport, food, entertainment, etc. A perfect traveller really!

He is a very healthy man for a 70 year old and sticks to a very strict diet which makes sense. He does allow himself one a week with Friday nights being chocolate night – one small 100g Toblerone bar.

The day was very cold and rainy which correlated to some significant snowfall up in whistler, so at least we knew there would be some snow up there when we arrived the following week!

We began the tour in the heart of the city at the hostel and walked around the surrounding neighbourhood where we learnt the significance of the train we had seen earlier. Apparently the Roundhouse is the last remaining piece of memorabilia from the original Vancouver city and was where the engines would drive onto the turntable to be sent in to the appropriate garage.

Just a short train and ferry ride from the city, we found ourselves looking across a magnificent dam and mountainside (including some freshly laid snow!); this was Grouse Mountain. There is a track up the side of the mountain called the ‘Grouse Grind’ which is a solid 2.9km track which includes about 900m elevation – naturally formed stairs all the way up. A race is held every year with the current record sitting at 27 minutes 1 second to the top! Unfortunately with the recent snowfall the track is actually closed for the winter, so it will be something we do following the ski season; but I think we will need all the training time we can get to make any attempted run up there!

Grouse Mountain in the Background

The weather wasn't the greatest but it made for some low lying clouds and some pretty cool photography

Erik took us on a series of trails through the forest which ended up down by the river at the base of the dam wall which was also the location of a Salmon hatchery station. Each year thousands of Salmon are collected as they work their way through the river system to find the right place to lay their eggs. The hatchery is setup to simulate the real experience so there are a number of chambers which the Salmon have to jump through to reach the final destination, which is similar to the rapids they normally navigate through. Unfortunately for the Salmon, laying their eggs is their parting gesture and ensuring the longevity of the species they begin to die.

Salmon working its way through the river

Not far from the salmon hatchery was a recreational fishing area which was reaping the rewards from the tired schools of salmon making their way up the river. These were some seriously large fish being caught (not sure on the weight, but they were getting up to the 1m length!)

Check out the size of the salmon hanging up being the fisherman in the centre of the picture!

The last stop on the trip lead us to the Capilano Suspension Bridge originally designed to provide access across the river for the local population. The bridge is now privately owned and has now been turned into a large tourist attraction surrounded by other impressive structures including the “Cliff Walk” and the suspended wooden “Treetops Adventure”. The bridge itself has been strength tested and is capable of holding the weight of two jumbo jets; while the Cliff Walk was constructed using some impressive rock anchors which are embedded 6m into the rock cliff face. We aren’t quite sure how they got access to build the thing, but it was rather impressive.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge

The Cliff Walk

Tree top adventure walk

As is most of Canada at this time of year, they were in full swing Halloween mode and they had decorated the place and surrounded with pumpkins!

We even got certificates for making it across the bridge!! You were supposed to collect stamps around the park to be eligible for the certificate but Erik managed to pull a few strings for us ;)

Finishing with some Random Trip Trivia – while venturing back on the bus back to town we learnt (from a local bus stop) a Koala fact – Did you know Koalas have almost identical fingerprints to humans?

Fisherman braving the cold to catch a fish!

We walked part of the Trans Canada Hiking Trail which runs East-West Coast (something like 6000km)!!

Can you spot the salmon??

Our next stop on Vancouver Island was Nanaimo. We weren’t sure what we were going to find there but the HI hostel looked pretty cool and we weren’t pressed for time so we decided to head over that way.

We took a Greyhound bus from Victoria (just like they do in the movies!!) which was way more comfortable than the bus trips we’d taken in Asia and it was comforting to know that we were able to speak with the driver should anything go wrong!

Travelling with the locals

We were welcomed into Nanaimo with lots of rain but we were starting to get used to it! After trekking to the hostel we were greeted with, so far the best room of the trip and then it was time to explore the tiny town.

The Nanaimo Museum was significantly smaller than the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, but we learned about their love of sport, the ‘famous’ bath tub races and the town’s history in the mining industry (along with the tragedies that go along with it! )

Back to school!

Bathtube raceboat

The harbour was also beautiful, but looked a lot more impressive when it wasn’t raining!

On our last day we went salmon hunting, but the girl at the hostel reception had told us ‘incorrect’ information as we later found out it was actually the end of the salmon season, not the start as she had told us! We didn’t see any salmon but still got some good photos along the way, especially of the beautiful fall trees and all the maple leaves.