Blogs from Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Canada, North America

I spent quite a bit of time early this morning just staring … staring out at the lake, calm as calm, the opposite shoreline and mountains hazily visible through the smoke, and coming to the realisation that this ‘life-style’ journey that Jane and I have been on, is drawing to a close … at least here in BC. We have been more than fortunate to have had so many friends from yesteryear support us in our joyous journey: Mary and Rob, Wayne and Lori, Al and Barb, ...Ken and Joanne, Al and Robert, Gary and Linda, Deirdre and Peter, Georgina and John, Michele and David, and the many, dare I say it, facebook friends, who have followed and made comments about our posted experiences as well as the communications from back home plus the numerous friends ... read more

“B.C. Wildfires 2018: Feds offer air power, troops to help battle nearly 600 blazes” That is one of the headlines here in BC. 90 of those fires have been started deliberately by humans! The others by lightning strikes. The images on the net show that virtually all of BC is ablaze. Firefighters from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and other Canadian provinces have arrived to fight the fires. Where we are, smoke has enveloped us all. For people coming to visit ...“Beautiful British Columbia” as it is known, it would be impossible to see; impossible to appreciate, due to the smoke. Our day today has been completely different from yesterday. Apart from a drive into the smoke covered and enclosed small town of Chase for supplies, activity for us didn’t begin until we hit the smoke surrounded ... read more

It was up early to the great news that the West Coast Eagles had ‘stolen’ the valuable 4 points, breakfast and drive courtesy of our wonderful hosts and new friends, Gary and Linda, to Dukes Point, south of Nanaimo, for the “Coastal Inspiration’s” 2 hour ferry to Tsawwassen. Bus to the airport, very quick baggage-drop and a good relaxing break before the 1 hour flight to Kelowna where we were picked up by Lori and Wayne in their ‘new’ vehicle which guaranteed us a very smooth ride onto their place on Shuswap Lake where we had begun our BC visit. It was good to be back in beautiful, familiar territory with close friends. A healthy dinner prepared by L+W was enjoyed by all. Followed by 12 sets of vigorous table tennis between Wayne and myself definitely ... read more

Want relaxing or activities or both? Well, we’re at the perfect setup. It has it all for activities from extreme to recreational to doing nothing to doing as you please to mixing everything together. So, today for us it was watch the unfinished Men’s semi-final from Wimbledon, followed by the Women’s Final, before setting up on the jetty to soak in the sunshine, lazily swim, try paddle boarding, sail the Hobie cat, eat goodies and float around on the boa...rd. For a little excitement we travelled to the Chase Canyon for the thrill of zip-lining. We ziplined 30-100m above a roaring river and waterfalls through the canyon on 3 different lines varing in length from 100 to 200 metres. Unreal but too, too quick. We finished the day with dessert and then fast tubing behind a ... read more

I rose very early which has been quite normal throughout our time away. It was a beautiful, still and slightly cloudy and the sun had not yet risen. I made a cuppa, went down to the floatable jetty and in-between stretching and sitting on one of the chairs available, waited for the sun to rise. With no one about I had the silence to myself. I stayed well after the sun rose to face the mountains behind our accommodation so as to watch the mist and cloud that had enveloped them and their cedar tree covering, rise and evaporate. This was a special part of the morning for me. With Wayne at the helm of his bow rider, Lori, Jane and I hit the water for a few hours on the lake, firstly making our way ... read more