So it’s approaching Christmas in Canada…what to do….I know,  go rent out a log cabin and a Mongolian Yurt in The Yukon with your friends and spend your evenings hunting for the Northern Lights! The first place we stayed in was a brand new log cabin at Wheaton River Cabins south of Whitehorse http://www.wheatonriver.net/tour/log-cabin/ The cabin was really nice and came with a wood burning stove and its own dog!:P Pan the dog was actually the cabin owners but he loved attention and came around all the time and was sooo cute.  The wood burning stove kept the cabin really toasty even when it was -30 degrees celsius outside.  While we were in the cabin we spent most of our days (which was only about 5 hours of daylight at that time of year) wandering around the woods and playing on frozen lakes. Our evenings generally consisted of making a fire and staying out all night to hopefully catch a glimmer of some northern lights.  We were so determined to see northern lights that we stayed out in temperatures that were cold enough to freeze my beer!

Although on Christmas Eve (and I don’t think there is a better way to spend Christmas Eve) we did go for a dog sledge ride which was amazing! The huskies are so awesome and really eager to for a ride!  Dog sledging on a frozen river that you have all to yourself is a pretty good way to spend any day let alone Christmas Eve!

We spent 7 nights in the cabin and after 6 nights of seeing no lights we had lost all hope.  So on the 7^th night we decided to not think about that and just build as big a fire as possible with all the remaining wood.  And low and behold, in the early hours, the lights came out to play!  They were so beautiful, different parts of the sky would light up green and fade away only for another part to light up! My friends captured an awesome timelapse which you can view on their blog http://www.nomadiclove.com/winter-in-the-yukon-eplic-northern-lights-and-long-nights-timelapse/

Our last 3 nights in the Yukon were spent in a Mongolian Yurt still just a little south of Whitehorse https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/1151325 It was beautifully perched on the edge of a cliff with a view of the lake.  Again we had some more fun exploring the surroundings and playing on the frozen lake during daylight hours.  On Hogmanay we lit a fire around the fire pit and had some drinks around it.  A couple of girls that were staying in the cabin came out to join us and we also lit some Chinese lanterns with our hopes for the year at midnight.  Then we carried on drinking into the early hours:P Naturally me and Ryan were the last ones standing! The next day we woke up ‘slightly’ hung-over with a fresh layer of snow on the ground and somehow managed to drag our asses to the airport for our flight back.

This has to be one of the best trips I have taken in Canada to date! The mountains around Vancouver are beautiful but the Canadian Rockies are a whole other level!! First stop on the trip was in Jasper, a lovely little village in a beautiful mountain setting.  Also Jasper Brewing is worth peeking into.

Then the next part of the trip was a 43km hike to Tonquin Valley. The hike was amazing with the second half involving mountains in every direction.  We even came uncomfortably close to a grizzly bear but thankfully it didn’t see us.  Our hike took us to the cabins we would be staying in by Amethyst Lakes http://www.tonquinvalley.com/index.html which were in an incredible setting at the base of the Ramparts! We spent a few days here just exploring and taking boats and canoes on the lake.

 

After leaving Tonquin we drove south on Highway 93 through the Rockies towards Lake Louise and Field where we would stay for a few nights.  This was the most beautiful drive I had been on with huge mountains around every corner for hours.  We also went on the Columbia Icefield Glacier tour which was pretty fricking awesome.

From Field we went on a few hikes around Lake Louise to Moraine Lake, the Plain of 6 Glaciers and Lake o’Hara.  All of which were stunning and remain to be some of the best hikes I have ever done!

We also paid a visit to Banff and Canmore.  Banff is a pretty tourist town in a picturesque setting but was Very touristy.  Canmore is also worth visiting as it is just outside the national park so a lot less touristy but still a scenic area.  On the way back to Vancouver we stopped into Kelowna in the Okanagan for a couple of days.  There was a heat wave at this time and it got to 40 degrees Celsius, I honestly felt like I was walking around an oven.  We spent our time wandering around breweries and distilleries (mostly for air con! :P) and hanging out by the lake.  Some wineries were also visited (had to be done its wine country!) but had to limit the intake as driving was involved.

So I had used my first one year working holiday visa and to activate my second one the border had to be paid a visit….may as well take a trip to the states then! So Portland, Oregon was chosen and on the drive down de-toured through Astoria (where The Goonies was filmed) and Cannon beach and was treated to a beautiful sunset.

Wandering around Portland was nice.  It had nice views along the river and it had a small city hippy/edgy vibe to it with lots of vegan restaurants and micro-breweries.  Some of my favourite breweries were Bridgeport and Deschutes but there were so many more I didn’t even get too!  Taking a trip up to Pittock Mansion was good to get a bonny view of the city.

On the road back up to Vancouver a de-tour via Multnomah Falls was taken. They were very impressive but the bridge had been closed because apparently a boulder had crashed into it!!

On arriving to Shuswap in the interior of BC we headed up the river from Shuswap Lake.  At this time of year the red Sockeye Salmon return up the river to lay their eggs and then they actually die.  I had never seen so many fish in a river at once and them being red was even more surreal.  Unfortunately my camera wasn’t good enough to get a clear photo but I honestly believe I could have walked across the river on the salmon there was that many of them.

The next day we went on a drive to Revelstoke and then hiked up Revelstoke Mountain.  We had the whole mountain to ourselves and got some fantastic views.  In the evening the hostel we were staying at put on a Thanksgiving dinner, since it was Canadian Thanksgiving, which was really tasty!

On the way back to Vancouver we drove back via the Duffy Lake Road.  It was a stunning day and we were treated to some stunning mountain views!

In May 2013 my brothers came to Vancouver for a visit.  As part of that visit we took a wee trip down to Seattle.  Just wandering around downtown Seattle was nice which had a mixture of older and newer buildings.  This is quite a contrast compared to Vancouver where the vast majority of buildings in downtown are new glass towers. I had only being in Vancouver for 5 months but was already craving some older architecture!:P On the newer building front, the Space Needle lit up at night was pretty beautiful.

We also took a little wander over to Freemont which had a few random things like a trolls statue under a bridges!

Other star attractions in Seattle included the Pike Place Market (famous for fish throwing), the first ever Starbucks store, The Pike brew pub, the Cheescake Factory and the EMP museum (which I didn’t get to myself but my brothers went and had a great time).

In January 2013 I moved to Vancouver, Canada and I lived there for two years.  In that time various trips to Vancouver Island were had.

One of the towns that BC Ferries sail to is Nanaimo which is a pretty small  but bonny town.  From there I took a short boat trip to Newcastle Island which had no shortage of wildlife including raccoons, bald eagles, deer and wood peckers!

Over on the west coast Ucluelet and Tofino have to be visited.  The drive over there is beautiful with lots of mountain views and lakes to visit.  Also the massive trees at Cathedral Grove are just magnificent. The beaches between Ucluelet and Tofino aver very well known for surfing and I had my very first lesson here which I absolutely loved and I actually managed to stand up very briefly which I was pretty chuffed about.  Surfing is definitely on my re-to do list!  Tofino itself is a lovely little tourist town in a picturesque setting.

Victoria, the capital of BC, is a fun little city to explore and the BC legislature building is pretty stunning although the way it is lit up at night is not to my taste.  The beaches north of Victoria on the east coast are worth checking out too.  They don’t compare to their western island counterparts but worth a visit all the same.

 

As far as short city breaks go, Portsmouth and Southampton, in the south of England, are both pretty good options and easy to get to from one another.  Portsmouth has a really nice walking route down at the waterfront and the main road is set back a decent distance from the walk making it all the better.  There are no shortage of old historic buildings from the Victorian and Edwardian era’s so if you are a bit of an architecture geek like me then you won’t be disappointed.  On the other end of the scale the much newer Spinnaker tower is beautiful (particularly lit up at night) and offers nice city and sea views from the top on a nice day.

Also, in Southampton you can take a walk around and on top of the old medieval city walls which are pretty well preserved and impressive.

This was just a short 4 day trip to the “far north” where 2 out of 4 days were a right off as a result of poor weather but this is just the chance you have to take in Scotland! Besides, then you appreciate the nice days even more and appreciated they were!  On the first nice day I was camping a Durness campsite and explored the coastline a little!

On the next nice day I made the most of the long daylight hours and climbed two hills.  First was Ben Hope, the most northerly Munro, which offered fantastic views of Ben Loyal, the Queen of the Corbetts.  After Ben Hope was “bagged” I drove over to Ben Loyal and climbed that too.  From the ridge there were far reaching and beautiful views over the sea!

The Isle of Skye on the west of Scotland is just frigging beautiful and a must see on a visit to the country.  It’s easy to get to from the mainland thanks to the Skye Bridge!  One of the highlights of the trip would have to be taking the boat ride from Elgol up to the Cuillin Mountain Range.  The view of the Cuillins from the sea is stunning and as part of the boat ride you will be allowed to get off at the foot of the mountains to explore the area.

If camping is your cup of tea then spending a few nights at Sligachan camp site is highly recommended.  Here you will be treated to more stunning views of the Cuillins and the Sligachan hotel has a huge selection of whisky to make your way thorough if the weather isn’t so good outside (or even if it is!)

Further north, a walk to the Quiraing on the Trotternish Ridge is well worth doing to get your fill as far as dramatic scenery goes!

Then once you are finished here, head over to the west and visit the coral beach at Dunvegan or the Talisker Whisky Distillery (yes more whisky:P) Skye is actually bigger than it looks on the map and there is heaps to do.  I was here for 6 days and still felt like I could have done with a few more so take plenty of time to explore this beautiful island if you can!

So Toronto, this was my fist ever trip to Canada and although we did not venture far out of the city I absolutely loved it. Visiting and staying with a friend who had moved out there from the UK made me think to myself “I could do something like this…why don’t I do something like this??”

There was no shortage of things to do in Toronto.  Wandering around the city some of the highlights included visiting the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), St Lawrence Market, watching the Toronto Blue Jays, wandering around Little Italy, the distillery district, The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and of course the obligatory visit and meal up the CN Tower! From the CN tower you could appreciate the scale of Lake Ontario which was incredible, just a little larger than the wee lochs back in Scotland.

Even in the vastness of Toronto it was still possible to escape to some nature.  High Park is a big and beautiful and worth a visit as is taking a boat trip on the lake to the islands which are also a fantastic place to admire the Toronto Skyline from.

And of course last but not least, Niagra Falls has to be visited! It is a shame that there is so much “cheesy” development around them but the falls are still magnificent! En-route to Niagra is also wine country…just saying!