Canada random pics - 'follow me I'm going somewhere amazing'

Red and yellow and pink and green purple and orange and blue I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too

Trainspotting

Brett - a man on a mission

There is a bear in this pic, honestly

I robot

Henry from Hamilton and Christine, winner of the Lumby Air Race king post comp

Big Kisses

Mmmmmmmmm

BBC

Angel Falls or Fallen Angel?

Suja - are you taking a pic of me?

Campfire's burning, campfire's burning
Draw nearer, draw nearer

Stop!


Kathy

Mark aiming for the Spot
Leif who happens to look a little like Gordon Rigg?

Leaving Dover

I want to live in Peachland

This truck's got balls

Rich on Take Off

Mary and Bob - fellow Brit tourists

Briefing!

This is how to clean a fish tank - Vancouver Airport

Wednesday - Let’s go Mental in a Rental

Oh Dear! We’ve made the local radio traffic report for sure. “News flash….. a Brit couple in a PT Cruiser hire car have an ‘intimate connection’ with the number 16 bus at the intersection of Georgia and How Street…” What more can we say?

Think the glider is ok – won’t know until it’s rebuilt.

The car limped the final 12k to the airport - thank God we were fully covered - at most it will cost us $300.




Following the ‘nightmare’ theme check-in was stressful to say the least as our check-in assistant was new to the job and didn’t know what to do with the glider (not to mention the fact that she showed no discretion with excess baggage), which was too big to fit through the ‘unusual/oversized’ baggage scanner. In the end the ramp supervisor was called to assist and after much discussion agreed that it would have to go to the plane via ‘arrivals’ – this was a long walk with the gilder on shoulder (heads ducking). The ramp supervisor promised to see it ‘personally’ on to the plane and he did! When we arrived at the gate a message was waiting for us to say as such – excellent service, thank you LTU.

We don't travel light! Where's the Glider?


Vancouver Airport


Our ride home - It's only six months old

Tuesday - Shopped 'till we dropped!

We shopped ‘til we dropped in Whistler – what a beautiful place. It seems it turns into a mountain bike Mecca in the Summer – we must go back there when there is snow and take a board.



Our plan was to catch the ferry from Horseshoe Bay over to Vancouver Island and see the big trees but we arrive at the terminal to discover that we would have to wait until the next ferry at 7pm and that the first ferry off the island in the morning is 6.30am – we decided that the timing was not an option for us so head off looking for a bed for the night which was easier said than done!

We did manage to see a few ‘big trees’ but it was at midnight whilst cruising Stanley Park where we spotted a few raccoons.

Monday - camp fires and fossiling

The sing song around the campfire last night was great – headed up by Redsky on the harmonica we all took it in turns to tell our story “we camped in the sun, we camped
in the rain, we met a lot of great people that kept us sane”…..

Redsky, Randy and Henry from Hamilton



Terry (in Green), your 'poems' are legendary - good job Caroline had earplugs!



We left Lumby heading for Whistler after packing up a very wet tent! Stopped off enroute to do a bit of fossiling. Nearly every rock we cracked had a fossil in but we were really in the hunt for a fish – in the end we had to be content with finding parts of a fish and lots of sequoia, fern, fern seeds and bugs. The lady who ran the site, Dot, lived there on her own in her mobile home with just 2 cats and 2 dogs. She introduced her ‘family’ to us - they all had a life story to tell. We were amazed to find out that the valley is mainly used to grow ginseng and is producing a higher quality plant that China. The person who first thought that it would be a good place to grow it is now understandably a millionaire. The local farmers thought they were crazy but now they eat their words – rock on!

We also saw the flowering of the (? can't remember the name) cactus which only flowers for one week a year.



Our route to Whistler followed the Fraser River travelling through Indian reserves the scenery was spectacular!






We went fossiling here!


If you look at this picture long enough you might be able to pick out a Duck's head



Our fossiling adventure delayed our arrival at Whistler to 9pm by which time it was freezing cold. We camped at a ‘bear aware’ campsite which meant all food and scented products had to be locked in the car. It was very cold so the thermals eventually came out of the case and the campfire kept us warm.



Burning legs

Day 3 - Lumby Air Race

Thanks to Sazacha Redsky and Mexican Sun Goddess Maia Hollingsworth for making the rain stop for the last day – at least long enough for a task.

The party at Randy’s place was great and went on until dawn. He even performed one of his own flying songs. There were 3 bands in total plus Randy’s girlfriend Sazacja Redsky who was amazing when she started sliding on her acoustic guitar. We all kept warm and dry around the campfire.



Although the Nationals wasn’t validated as a Cat 2 comp there was still a winner – Well done Brett, 7 times in a row man!



The task today was 3 laps around the Lumby Valley which is a close circuit over and around the town of Lumby making it good for spectators as the course was in view. The conditions started off absolutely poor with a few showers on take off but then cleared to blue sky and cumulus.



Rich won the day and came second overall. See Mark Dowsett's website for the scores http://events.dowsett.ca/

Day 7 Finals - Canadian Nationals / Day 2 - Lumby Air Race

How much coffee can we drink? It’s a coffee drinking day!

We did fly today – just – between the rain showers.


Poor Kiwi Jon (last years Lumby Air Race winner) ended up upside down and then went sliding down the mountain still upside down laying on his bottom surface. He was fine, but that Moyes carbon base bar? Just to make matters worse, he then locked himself out of the truck!

Most of us did a spot landing for a change and then washed our gliders in the showers down at Randy’s place.

Should be good at Randy’s tonight - 3 bands, beer on tap, Greek food and a big fire to keep us warm and dry (maybe).

Optical illusion – is the truck really big? Or the car really small?