It has been an expensive week. Amongst other things I have finally bought the van that I am planning on driving across Canada!
It's a 1996 Plymouth Grand Voyager with just under 300,000km on the clock and is in surprisingly good condition for it's age/milage. This is the first car I have ever owned and to be honest buying a used car in another country was a bit daunting. Thankfully the first few vans I test drove I was helped out by my friends Richard and JR who gave me a few pointers. This time the van was 111km away in Port Alberni and I went alone.
I liked the look of the van and it Continue reading →
In my last post Six Months In I mentioned that I had some big running plans for 2013. For a little while now I have been toying with the idea of running the Juan de Fuca coastal trail that I hiked with Karina and Richard for four days last summer.
Stunning views whilst hiking the JDF last summer
I ocassionaly run with a guy named Pat who I met through a mutal friend out here. Unfortunately we have had to keep it ocassional as we have both been recovering from injuries. For me it was first my calves and then almost immediately followed by a fall which hurt my back, for Pat it was shin and Continue reading →
Yesterday marked six months in Canada, half of my yearlong work visa. I can't believe how fast this has gone by, how many fantastic people I have met and how many exciting things I have crammed into this time. Before coming out here I was a little worried that I would get lonely or homesick and kept in the back of my mind that I could always return to the UK early. I am happy to report that none of these things have happened yet and while there has been the normal ups and downs, overall I am having a blast!
Toy bears being thrown into the ice during a hockey game. Donations for underprivileged Continue reading →
This last week I have been working on a smallholding on Denman Island, which is a small island just off Vancouver Island. The work was unpaid but in exchange I received food and accommodation. I found out about the work through a website called HelpX (Help Exchange) which links together people looking for help with travellers, who like me are moving around on a budget looking for new opportunities.
HelpX is very similar to another scheme called WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) which I first heard about when travelling in Australia in 2009. It sounded like a great way to experience Continue reading →
After receiving advice to run more in order to prevent my leg injuries from recurring things have been going well. I build up the number of days a week slowly and started running 5k every day, with no pain whatsoever. What's more I looked forward to every one of those runs! Fitting my daily runs into life has been a bit of a learning process. For starters I wasn't able to be so choosy about when I ran, so whatever the weather I was out there. This soon made me purchase some running tights because my jogging bottoms were soaking up too much water and just weren't practical.
At a distance of 5.6km Continue reading →
A while back I wrote about The practicalities of leaving the UK for Canada which detailed some of the things I had to sort out in order to come over to Canada. This post will go over some of the things I had to sort out since arriving and also some of the things I have learned and experienced since coming here 5 months ago. I hope that anyone in a similar position or considering such a move finds this information helpful, as I know sometimes it can take alot of searching to find answers to practical questions.
Disclaimer! Anyone reading this should understand that this is a mixture of things Continue reading →
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