In January I went back to the UK for the first time since immigrating to Canada and it was a very strange experience. Before we left we were feeling pretty damned miserable as it felt like it was the end of our holiday in Canada rather than the beginning of our holiday in England. We just did not want to leave Canada because we love it so much.

Once we got to England, there were a few things that immediately jumped out at me - firstly there are so many gates and hedges and fences marking people’s property and indicating ownership of land. Secondly, it seemed to be so bone-chillingly cold even though the temperature was similar to Vancouver’s. Thirdly, everything is crowded and cramped - streets are narrow which makes them very busy with traffic. Fourthly, everywhere is so flat! Lastly, yob culture is very much alive in the UK, and I found it shocked me a lot more than I ever thought possible. A lot of young men, especially, seem to put a lot of effort into looking and sounding insolent and threatening.

I think the hardest thing for us to deal with was that although it was wonderful to see our families and friends, it seemed that most people would politely ask us how our lives were in Canada but not really be interested in the answer. When we talked about “In Canada…this” and “In Canada…that”, we got the overwhelming sense that we were boring them and should change the subject. This was incredibly difficult because “In Canada…” is now our life and we obviously want to talk about how our lives are going. Instead we just talked about other people’s lives and relationships and the economy and the snow etc.

It is interesting that every other ex-pat that I have spoken to about that particular issue has felt the same. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a big issue for one or several of the following reasons:

1) They can’t fully comprehend living anywhere else and so they don’t find it particularly interesting and switch off.

2) They don’t want to hear about how much we are enjoying our lives because they aren’t enjoying their lives as much but are stuck there either because they can’t move or they won’t move because they can’t stand such a big upheaval.

3) It hurts them to hear of us happily and successfully enjoying our life away from them when they used to be such a big part of it.

4) They are (maybe unknowingly) patriotic toward England so don’t want to hear why we like Canada better.

I suspect it is more the third reason than any other. And I also think that we project our own feelings of guilt onto them - our guilt for leaving them behind and enjoying ourselves so much without them. We feel as if we are gloating every time we talk about our “new lives” and so assume they don’t want to hear it!

The good things about going back: it was a really social time and I realised that all the good friends I had that are as useless at contacting me as I am at contacting them are still my very good friends; meeting my friends’ new babies and seeing their new houses; the old English tradition of going down the pub(s); having the chance to have a proper catch up with our grandparents who cannot travel; spending quality time with the rest of our family; taking Graham for a long, nostalgic walk through my childhood neighbourhood; British lasagne, British Indian food and British Chinese food!

This year for Christmas we endured an extremely hairy drive through the snow and ice in a very ill-equipped hire car (no 4-wheel drive, no snow tires, no snow chains) up Highway 99 to Brackendale, just north of Squamish. We had booked into our favourite B&B in the area - Meadowbrook Bed and Breakfast - for 4 nights and were determined to celebrate in style.

We first visited Brackendale last January for Monkey’s birthday and really fell in love with it. It is a small residential community but with all the conveniences of a big town because it is just next to Squamish with all its shops and services, and it is only an hour to Vancouver if you need to go to the city or an hour to Whistler if you need to go world-class skiing. Four of its best qualities are:

1) Spectacular mountain scenery;

2) Proximity to great areas for hiking, snowshoeing, mountain-biking, climbing and a host of other outdoor activities;

3) Two fantastic restaurants - Eagles Nest and Brackendale Bistro - and two great little pubs - The Watershed and The Shady Tree. More than enough quality establishments for the small population.

4) In winter Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park plays host to North America’s biggest gathering of bald eagles. Back in 1994, a world-record of 3769 eagles were counted on a single day.

In January we went on a Sunwolf Outdoor Centre float trip down the river to look for eagles . It was such a gorgeous, peaceful thing to do on a sunny, cold day. We saw quite a few eagles that day, but were told that we’d practically missed eagle season, so we were determined to go back when there were more eagles about. This time there were plenty.

We spent Christmas Day trampling through fairly deep snow down by the Mamquam river to the Mamquam Spawning Channels. The further we went, the more eagles we saw and the more people we met who had come to watch them.

We hiked in the same area 2 days later and needed snowshoes because the snow had been accumulating at a rate of 30 cm a day. That day we hardly saw a sole on the trails and, probably because of that, down by the spawning channels the trees were just full of eagles. There must have been over a hundred of them in one little area.

When we walked across the bridge over the spawning channels, we saw what they were all there for.

Loads of smelly dead salmon!

Aside from walking along lovely snowy trails every day and eagle watching, we had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas. Although it was only our second visit to Meadowside B&B, it has started to feel much like a home from home. We love the room, we enjoy our morning conversations with the owners - Carol and Wilf, and we spend far too much time in the hot tub in the garden dreaming that it is OUR beautiful house!

We spent our last day in Bella Coola on various hikes around the Bella Coola area on the hunt for Grizzly Bears. We had arranged for a local guide - Doug Baker - to come and pick us up and take us to the areas where there would likely be bear activity.

We searched over a very wide area, we saw loads of signs of grizzly bears and cubs - from fresh poop full of berries, to bear rubbings on trees with fur attched, to recent scratch marks on trees, to paw prints.

At one point we circled back on ourselves and discovered signs of bear activity that weren’t there the first time we had walked past that spot, so it was pretty obvious that particular bear was tracking us rather than the other way around! We were very close to bears all day, but we never actually saw one - in a way I’m glad they were so elusive as if a bear had smelled and heard us coming and not run off or hidden, then it would have been a bear that is not scared of silly humans and their 2 canisters of bear spray, so it might not have been a very nice encounter anyway. There had been a bear attack early in the Spring just a few Kilometres from Suntree Cottages which had shaken the community a bit.

Next time  (because there will be a next time!) I would make full use of Doug’s 4×4 and explore some of the lovely lakes, waterfalls and volcanoes in the area and forget about bear spotting. But we had a nice day anyway, especially in the morning when we spent a good deal of time walking around the huge old-growth cedar trees in Snootli Creek Regional Park.

We also enjoyed walking alongside the various rivers en-route to the edge of Tweedsmuir National Park.

Doug was a very knowledgable, interesting and friendly guy and it was good to hear about all of his experiences of living in the valley. If you ever fly into Bella Coola in the winter and the plane can’t land at Hagensborg airport  due to the weather, then you will land at Anahim Lake at the top of The Hill and in all likelihood it will be Doug who comes to pick you up in a big school bus and drives you down to Hagensborg and Bella Coola. If you’re lucky (or unlucky, depending on your view of things) he’ll share some of his poetry with you.

Petroglyphs are ancient rock carvings - someone, somewhere in the past, dedicated years of their lives to slowly rubbing away at the rock’s surface in order to create patterns and symbols which would tell a story to those who could interpret it. You can go and see the petroglyphs in Bella Coola on your own but the location isn’t widely broadcast and you are supposed to be taken there by a guide from the Nuxalk Nation - mainly because it is private First Nations land and because the experience is much richer when you have someone with you who can show you the best petroglyphs and give you their own interpretation of them based on what they have learned about their creation stories and so forth.

Although we had met Frank on the ferry and he had offered to guide us through the petroglyphs, we were recommended by Cheryl at Suntree Cottages to go with twin brothers Lance and Chris Nelson, because it has kind of been “their thing” in recent years. They don’t ask for any money because they are mainly offering their services to share their knowledge of their culture and they take great pride in doing so. Even so, it seems standard practice that you offer them as much monetary compensation as you see fit, depending on what you personally get out of the experience.

We had booked to go on the tour with Lance, but he didn’t show up so we phoned Chris instead, who kindly agreed to turn up on very short notice with a huge hangover - probably as a result of the same party that led to Lance not answering his phone.

He took us to the area where the petroglyphs were, a beautiful spot on a steep bank alongside a river. I know which general direction it is in, but I wouldn’t be able to take you there now if you asked. Then he proceeded to spend two hours with us, talking about his interpretation of the petroglyphs, telling many of the Nuxalk stories which may relate to them, specualting on the possible connections between these and similar rock carvings in Polynesian countries and the fact that no one knows who made these carvings and so no one claims ownership of them.

He also told us many things of an extremely personal nature, telling of the struggles he had been through to become the man who stood before us that day and telling of his excitement as to what the future had in store for him as he prepared to move to Prince George as a cultural ambassador, to teach kids and help them reconnect with their own culture.

Unfortunately, in the rush to get to us on short notice he had forgotten his drum, but it didn’t seem to make much difference to the overall experience as he went on to sing his heart out totally unacommpanied. In doing so he sent chills down our spines and blew out the cobwebs in his head. By the end of the afternoon he was buzzing and so glad that we had called him as getting in touch with his spiritual and cultural side turned out to be the best cure for his hangover! On our part we were very glad that he had come out because it was an amazing experience that we would have been extremely disappointed to miss out on.

Chris singing - set-72157606566605139

The day we went out on a boat trip of the harbour the weather was lousy. Lucky for us the trip wasn’t cancelled (the float trip down the river that I had initially wanted to go on was cancelled though, so it all worked out in our favour in the end) but it was a farily wet experience.

Fraser from Brockton House Inn took us out and about on his little zodiac, going in and out of all the inlets trying to spot some wildlife - we were specifically looking for grizzlies. Unfortunately, aside from an otter and a couple of eagles, all the wildlife in the area seemed to be staying out of the bad weather, but it was still a nice experience boating about on that lovely milky green water.

The highlight of the trip turned out to be the visit to the old Tallheo Cannery. Two miles across the inlet from Bella Coola Harbour, it was deserted over 50 years ago but a local man, Jim, bought up the land and hasn’t changed much at all so it is like walking in to a 68-acre museum. A rather dangerous museum as half the buildings are in such a state of disrepair and others have crumbled completely, but a fascinating and unique museum nonetheless.

You can actually stay at the Tallheo Cannery Inn as Jim operates a low-key Bed and Breakfast/hostel/Inn there - we met a couple and their child who were staying in the old bunkhouse.

My favourite part of the place was the General Store - left untouched for 50 years, it was fascinating wandering around all the old items - ancient cans of soda, bars of soap, bottles, screws, nails, the old cash register, sealed shut and the old ledger books full of purchases made by the men who worked there, many of whose names we recognised as being the family members of local people we had already met or were about to meet.

Attached was the sick bay, still with disgusting old bed linen and the old communications room with defunct typewriter and radio equipment and many logs and books pertaining to the fishing industry.

Monkey’s favourite part was the Net Loft - filled with fishing nets that men had been mending by hand for months before just being told to abandon their work. Each net had a tag attached to it saying who was working on it and how far they had gotten throught the repair - again, we recognised a lot of the names.

From the net loft, there was a wonderful view of another building - maybe also a net loft - which had completely collapsed a few months before.

Even still, I was in no hurry to leave this beautifully haunting place.

Our first day in Bella Coola we spent orienting ourselves, and driving up and down the main highway with its incredible views.

We popped into the Brockton House Inn in Hagensborg to book a trip for the next day. I wanted to go on a wildlife-spotting float trip down the river but that trip was full so we ended up booking a wildlife-spotting boat tour of the inlets around Bella Coola Harbour with a sidetrip to the old, deserted cannery.

We then headed to Clayton Creek Park  just on the edge of town to have a look at Clayton Falls - a nice little waterfall.

Back in town, we navigated around all the locals with their dogs standing in the middle of the Highway chatting and parked up at Kopas Store, the kind of small town general store that has all sorts of treasures within. Inside we spotted some native art that we liked - we had been on the look out for a paddle, and Monkey found one that he really liked only it was in blue rather than his desired red.  Monkey ignored my scoffing at him and asked the store clerk whether they might possibly have a similar one in red somewhere in the store, and she said “The artist is just over there, let’s ask him”. Thus we met Noel.

It turned out that Noel was very eager to help us out and he would create us the piece of art that we wanted so long as we were willing to wait a few weeks. Then he suggested that we go back to his house to look at his other works of art, to which we readily agreed.  On the way he decided to take us to a very special place - the House of Smayusta.

The House of Smayusta is basically the headquarters of the Nuxalk Nation, where current chiefs meet to discuss matters of import to the band. Unfortunately, because of divided opinion in town over the enviromental impact of logging in the area, the House of Smayusta had been closed up for many months in order to protect the status quo. It was an amazing experience to be invited inside this abandoned place so full of history. The walls were filled with newspaper cuttings of all the environmental protests that the band had been a part of, and Noel told us as much of the history as he could remember.

The big point of our visit there, though, was to see the mask carvings. There were many amazing masks made by members of the Nuxalk Nation over the years, some were really, really old and they are very lucky that they still exist because when the white man came and tried to stomp out their culture they burned most of the masks, and many of the ones left were confiscated and shipped off to museums and galleries around the world. The masks really should be protected in a controlled environment somewhere but the Nuxalk can’t afford it and they are understandably reitcent to part with them. We were in awe, too much awe to take any photographs - it seemed disrespectful.

Afterwards, Noel drove us to his house and showed us his workshop and the many works of art that he had stored in the basement of his home. He really is a talented artist and he is still fairly new to it, having only discovered in the last couple of years that he had a natural talent for it. He is still learning, both the art of carving and all the long-forgotten stories in his culture that inspire the carvings. At the time he was busy working away on a series of masks, rattles and other items that he was making for a Potlach that was to be held at the end of August. During the Potlach the life of his mother was also going to be celebrated and he was also hard at work on the carving that was to adorn her grave in the cemetary.

I can’t ever thank Noel enough for his warmth, openness, generosity of spirit and for letting us in to his life and his culture. Although he is still learning about it himself (since generations of First Nations were subjected to Residential Schools which wiped out their memory of their language and culture), he couldn’t tell us enough about his life and his culture and we couldn’t hear enough about it. The whole experience was endlessly fascinating and by the end of the afternoon we had learned that he was himself a herditary chief and that he was quite sincere in inviting us to the Potlach at the end of the month. We had also found a piece of art that spoke to both of us so much that we snapped it up the next day - not a paddle, but a large panel with 2 orcas, which turned out to be the first panel he ever carved. You would never know. It now proudly adorns our wall at home and everyone admires it.

If you’re ever in Bella Coola and you are interested in the art and history of the Nuxalk Nation then please look this guy up. His name is Noel Pootlass (like the local mountain with the eagle in it) and everyone in town knows him and will be happy to give you his number so you can contact him to see his art. He’s  hasn’t yet had the chance to get a website up and running or any proper gallery space for himself, but he’ll welcome your interest with open arms.

Our accommodation in the Bella Coola Valley was awesome. We stayed in one of the Suntree Cottages, located about a 30-40 minute drive from the Bella Coola townsite and a short walk from the Bella Coola River.

Bear Cottage was wonderfully appointed and had an outside deck which we spent many an hour on overlooking one of the local mountains. It was very hard to tear ourselves away from that view most days.

As well, our hosts - Steve and Cheryl - were great people, very friendly, very helpful and interesting too - and their dogs were equally great. Because they live in such a remote area, they have nature trails behind their house which are used by animals such as bears and cougars. If you go for a walk around there you are supposed to call the dogs to join you, as they are trained to guard you against wild animals. We never actually got round to walking around the property, but we did spend an evening lending our company to the dogs when Cheryl and Steve went out one very rainy night.

It was so calm and peaceful there. Time seemed to run at a different rate and I was so unbelievably happy that I entertained notions of moving there one day. I know the winters are supposed to be harsh there, particularly because of the strong, cold winds that whip through the valley, but it is very easy to imagine yourself holing up for the winter in front of the wood-burning stove with a small mountain of books and a month’s worth of supplies in your kitchen cupboard. The only thing missing was a hot tub!

It might actually be something we attempt later on in life. It would be a wonderful place to spend the first year of our retirement in as it is surrounded by such beautiful wildereness with plenty of trails and backcountry hiking/camping/snowshoeing on offer and all the people who we met there were so friendly.

Getting back to old news, I hadn’t finished writing about our honeymoon travels. I left you last in the Port McNeill area. Very early the next morning we were in a queue at the ferry terminal in Port Hardy waiting for the 9 a.m. ferry to Bella Coola to allow us to board and set sail.

Many visitors to Western Canada take the Inside Passage ferry route from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert, an all-day journey of 15 hours. The Discovery Coast ferry route takes in the southern portion of that trip then veers eastwards to the mid-coast inland port of Bella Coola, a trip of 13 hours unless the ferry also makes stops in the tiny communities of Bella Bella, McLoughlin Bay, Klemtu, Namu, Shearwater and Ocean Falls. I haven’t been on the Port Hardy to Prince Rupert trip to compare, but I imagine that the scenery cannot be much more stunning on that trip than on the trip to Bella Coola.

For the first hour or so on board the ferry I couldn’t take my eyes of the amazing scenery - the ocean full of perfectly  green, mountainous little islands. After a little while I came to realise that the scenery wasn’t going to get any worse and, in fact, was  likely going to get better as it went along, becoming more remote and the channel becoming narrower, so I managed to tear my eyes away for a while and explore the ferry, trying to find a spot to settle for the journey.

The ferry was old and small and definitely in need of an upgrade. After a brief stop in the gift shop and a breakfast in the cafeteria there was literally nothing to do so you have a choice. You can either totally relax, or get bored. We chose the first option. The day was gorgeously sunny and we found a place to lie on our backs - on top of one of the huge boxes of lifejackets and we dozed.

Then we woke up and chatted, taking in the scenery and deciding which of the little valleys in the unpopulated islands we were going to build our cabin in.

Then we dozed some more. Then we took photos of the gorgeous scenery. Then we watched a pod of dolphins play around the ferry. Then we dozed some more - you get the idea? I can honestly say that by the end of that voyage I had never felt so relaxed in my entire life.

It was a fabulous experience and made all the better in the last couple of hours of the journey when we met Frank. Frank is a lifelong resident of Bella Coola who was returning from visiting his family in Port Hardy. He was our first experience of Bella Coola friendliness and hospitality. By the end of our conversation we had learned about his life, seen pictures of most of his family and been invited to call him when we were staying in Bella Coola so that he could open up the local school for us and show us the totem pole and the entire building which he had helped to build. He also offered to take us on a personal tour of the petroglyphs that we wanted to see. On our part we offered him a lift home from the ferry terminal which he politely declined.

When the ferry docked there were about 20 locals on the dock, with 5 or 6 children running around yelling “Uncle Frankie! UN-CLE FRAAANKIE!”. Yep, the man didn’t need a lift as it turned out that all of those people were Frank’s family come to greet him and take him home!

It took us a long time to get off the ferry and we had a very dark drive to our accommodation which was a 30-minute drive away. We were scared that we may hit a bear or a coyote but the nearest we came to seeing wildlife was a local dog running along the side of the road. By the time we got to our accommodation we were whacked out from our tiring day of doing nothing, and I had the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had!

We took a few days vacation the week before last and we rented a nice cabin just outside of Ucluelet, right in the middle of the Long Beach Unit of Pacific Rim National Park on the mid-west coast of Vancouver Island. There were no winter storms, but we really enjoyed donning our wet-weather gear and walking along the windswept beaches in the rain. There were so many surfers out on Chesterman Beach - we sat and watched them do their thing for a good two hours.

Afterwards we played like kids, running in and out of the surf, me daring Monkey to follow in my foot prints with the aim of timing it just right to keep my feet dry while getting his as wet as possible. Knowing that we were just 20 minutes from our cottage with its own private hot tub meant that we didn’t care how wet and cold we got!

We capitalised on our one day of sun by hiking down the Willowbrae trail to Halfmoon Bay in the morning (a pretty and secluded beach reached by lots of boardwalks and stairs and, in the wet weather, some areas rather boggy underfoot), and along the Wild Pacific Trail by the lighthouse in Ucluelet in the afternoon. That afternoon I spent an hour sitting on a bench overlooking a particularly scenic view while Monkey took photographs - the sun’s rays had formed a solar flare and it was just gorgeous to spend time looking out at it.

 It was a really nice, relaxing few days in a very special part of the world and I felt incredibly happy and refreshed by the time we left. By the way, if you ever want to eat in Tofino, the brunch at the Schooner Restaurant on Campbell @ Second is fantastic - probably the best French toast I’ve ever eaten and a really good budget-friendly dish called The Beach Bum which consisted of lots of spicy rice, beans and veggies for just 5 bucks.

Our day sea-kayaking Johnstone Strait was similar to our day spent kayaking on Okeover Inlet, but a lot more enjoyable because the company was better (all about our age rather than a family with young kids), the weather was beautiful and we got to see a load of Dall’s porpoises right up close, which was a fantastic experience.

We set out from Telegraph Cove, where we saw Starbuck from Battlestar Gallatica, and mosied along the coast and back. It was on the way to our lunch beach that we saw the porpoises: we noticed that the little fish that had been jumping out of the water were getting a little manic and jumping out more and more, then we heard the distinctive blow-hole sounds of marine mammals, and suddenly we were surrounded by these porpoises, swimming alongside us! It was a really special moment, and we definitely would like to go back and do this trip again. Maybe we will do a longer trip as we will then have more of a chance of seeing the killer whales that also populate this area.