my travels in pixels

Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada This place is special and this trip has been planned on the time we wanted to spend in Bella Coola. We don’t actually stay in Bella Coola, but in the valley which is at the end of Highway 20 aka the Freedom Road after descending the Heckman Pass otherwise known as “the hill”. A steep, winding, narrow in parts gravel road that descends from 5000ft to the valley floor in just over 21 kms which takes about an hour to travel. There are places which are only one vehicle wide and while downhill traffic is supposed to give way to uphill traffic, they don’t! The drops are breathtaking and I was much happier when our lane was closest to the mountain side. We only had to pass one truck which happened to be in a wide section, all the other vehicles were cars. As we passed the Provincial campground at Fisheries Pool, we stopped outside and I walked in to see if there were any vacancies. As I was walking down the pot-holed dirt road overhung...

Once in the album click on the ellipsis (top right) and select slideshow, for more information, click the i button North America North America Photo Album Greece Greece Photo Album Spain Spain Photo Album

Niagara Falls, NY & ON Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian side We chose a state campground on the Ontario Lake on the American side, just north of the falls as the weather was a few degrees cooler than anywhere south, but it was still hot. Late in the afternoon the heavens opened and I’ve never welcomed rain so much. The past couple of days have been hot and humid. 34°C/98°F and 55% humidity. Just a short walk down to the edges of the Ontario Lake was an effort. We couldn’t get an electric site for our first night as it was the weekend, but we were able to move the next morning. Rainbow Falls from the Canadian Side The first day we drove over the border to see the falls. There is a $3.50 per vehicle toll and we had an easy border crossing with just a few questions: what is your registration number and when are you leaving? Lindsay said a date that had already passed – oops. Border crossings are always nerve racking. As it was a Sunday it was really busy but I wan...

Montréal, Québec 4-7 August 2016 The first thing you notice about Montréal is the skyscraper buildings. We drove into the city but couldn’t fit into any of the underground carparks, so we had to go down to a carpark by the docks. The streets in the old part of the city are still cobblestone and very uneven, with some missing, so it’s very easy to trip. Notre Dame Cathedral The Organ Pipes Spiral Stairs Sir George-Etienne Cartier National Historic Site George is responsible for uniting Canada on a federal level. He was a lawyer and then became a politician. After the Parc’s Canada guide gave us a private history lesson, we were able to walk through George’s house which has been restored and set up in the period of 1820. To begin with Canada was broken into upper and lower Canada – basically Ottawa and Québec. He convinced Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland to join Canada. British Columbia later joined when the east ag...

Québec While we were in New Brunswick, all the road signs had been in English and French. Now that we were in Québec. Oo, la la. It’s all in French. It’s like you’ve jumped countries but didn’t have to present your passport. Lindsay was saying that they should have bilingual signs, it’s not like everyone can speak French. Yes, but it’s their country, if you don’t like it, don’t come. Yes but it’s Canada. I must admit there were a few times that we had no idea what the signs were saying. After a long drive it was exciting to be somewhere “new”, so different. Our first stop in Québec is a transit stop, it’s another two hours to the city and we had been driving for five, which was enough, so we decided to stop at Walmart. It’s not like we are on a time schedule that we have to kill ourselves to get somewhere in a specific time frame. It’s only 23°C which is a lovely temperature, but Québec is 30°C so we need to be hooked up so we can run our air conditioning, so we book a campgro...