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...

Squamish/Brackendale Brackendale calls itself the  Bald Eagles capital of the world, but the eagles mustn't have got the message. A storm came through at the end of December and washed all the dead salmon away, so there's no food for the eagles. We saw a few, mainly sitting in trees, which are not the sort of photos we want. A local told us he had seen quite a few a the local tip, a picture against the snow would have been good, but no, they were in the trees also. On the positive side, we did have some lovely days driving around. Stupidly, I didn't take my wide angle lens so my photos are from my phone and iPad. After Squamish, we went up to Whistler. Our friends Lane and Debbie had just sold their beautiful house that they built. We were their last guests, the owners had wanted all the furnishings, so pretty much everything was left there, we helped them take some things home to Vancouver where we stayed for a few days while they went down to Palm S...

Osborne Bay RV Resort Charlotte Street, Crofton, BC V0R 1R0 (250) 246-4787 Why we chose here? We were recommended this place by a friend, we were going to house sit on Vancouver Island for the winter Location: Osborne Bay, about 30 minutes north of Duncan Sites: There were some nice sites high on the hill overlooking the bay, they are very close to each other. We had one on the lower side, right on the bay. The Ferry is a bit noisy but they stop before you go to sleep. We couldn't back into our site as the hook ups where on the other side, so after speaking to the owners, we just went in frontwards and jutted out! But this was a bonus as our main windows were looking out to sea. Facilities:  laundromat, washrooms, rec room - but didn't use any of them. Groceries: There is a small grocery store in town but probably best to shop before you come. Reservations: Yes Cell Coverage / WiFi: We had to go up to the office to download our email onto the iPad, there was no coverage a...

The Capilano River RV Park 295 Tomahawk Avenue, West Vancouver, BC V7P 1C5 (604) 987-4722 Why we chose here? It was closer to the city than any other RV park. We had stayed in Surrey on a previous occasion but it was too far out for a two week stay. Location: North West Vancouver, close to the Lions Gate Bridge and Park Royal Shopping Centre Sites: 205 - 15, 30 & 50 amp. The sites are very close to each other. It was fine when we had no-one next to us, but when there was we had to move our awning in a little. It is an older style park that was laid out before RV's had multiple slideouts. Nice, clean and well laid out. Facilities: pool which was empty when we were there and a good laundry. Groceries:  Asian supermarket across the road, Whole Foods is in another section of the shopping centre which takes a little longer to walk to. Walmart and Save-On foods are a 10 minute drive away. Nearest Costco is across the bridge in the City.  Reservations: Yes and...

We took the ferry across from Tswwassen to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island and then the bus down to Victoria. We got to the ferry 25 minutes early and the tickets for our boat ran out 5 minutes later! The ferry takes 90 minutes, then 30 minutes waiting for the bus and over an hour to get to Victoria. We didn’t realise it would take that long and nearly missed the whale watching trip we had booked for 12:15. We just had enough time to grab an ice-cream on the wharf for lunch before joining the queue to board the jet boat. I don’t know what we quite expected from this trip but it wasn’t very exciting and we wouldn’t do it again. None of the whales breached, so it’s a bit like watching grass grow, although the boat ride was very enjoyable. The weather was just perfect for eating outdoors, so we found a nice restaurant with seating outside and had a lovely meal and a few drinks before embarking on the long-winded trip back home. whoever sits at the top of the rocks is the "boss...

Blind Bay, BC, Canada Running around, getting up early and photographing animals gets a bit tiring. Guy was going to his cabin with Ann (Karl's wife) and the kids, at Blind Bay in BC and invited us along; it turns out that some R&R with friends was just what we needed. They have a little fisherman’s cottage right on the lake, one of a small group so you really need to get on well with your neighbours, which fortunately they do! Everyone turns up for a chat and a drink or you catch up with them. There was a lot of relaxing to be had and only a little bit of sightseeing. We of course brought our own house along, so we didn't need to squeeze in. Rick, the only one who lives there full time has a float plane in the front of his house (as you do!). He took Lindsay up on a 3-hour trip around the area. What a fantastic opportunity! Rick got my email before they left so that I could track where they were on my iPad, it makes you wonder how they manage to lose a large air...

Stewart, BC & Hyder, AK We had decided to take the Cassiar Highway instead of continuing on the Alaskan Highway just before Watson Lake. My original copy of the Mile Post had said it had 15% gravel roads, but my new copy said it was 100% paved, yay. We knew there were some long sections on the Alaskan Highway that had road works, with one being about 15 miles long, so we really wanted to avoid that if we could. We had also heard that there were bears down at Fish Creek in Stewart/Hyder, which was a big draw card for us. The Cassier is a lovely drive. The first 30km has permafrost and the forest hasn’t got over a wildfire that happened a few years ago, but it is still more interesting than the Alaskan Highway. On the second day we saw seven bears on the side of the road. We decided that we had come to the right place. As soon as you turn off the Cassier to go to Stewart, you get to see one of the few blue glaciers in Canada right next to the road. Stewart (Canada) and Hyder (...