Hills Health Ranch, 108 Mile Road BC

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I arrived in Vancouver Saturday evening at about 8pm. A bit delayed owing to volcano Ldsasdlkgoiadsjglkadjkjfgklasjffuk erupting again. We actually flew just north of Iceland and the cabin staff apologised for not being able to see the volcano because it is in the south -which was fine by me! I am generally a pretty chilled flier but it doesn't take much to make my pulse race when something even slightly out of the ordinary happens.

Great flight and worth every penny of the upgrade from economy, but as we were flying away from our night and it was very bright, all the blinds were put down. Suddenly as we were about to land the blinds were raised and all I could see were snow-capped mountains about 10 feet away from the wing tips and higher than the plane, well that is how it felt-nearly had a heart attack, seriously broke out in a panic sweat thinking OMG we are crashing into the mountains. They WERE higher than the plane though and looked exceedingly close.

The second thing that surprised me about Vancouver were that all the signs are in French and English. Whilst of course I know that there are French speaking parts of Canada (I'm not that stupid!) I hadn't realised that the language was so widely used here that it warranted its own signs across the country, but it did make me feel instantly at home.

On the way to an airport hotel I had the hotel courtesy bus. Well, this driver didn't just tell me something once but at least 3 times-I was sitting musing 'gee this chap is just like the driver of the Johnny Cab in Total Recall. and wishing he would just shut up, when it penetrated my trance-like state that he was telling me that my flight to Williams Lake the next day, left from a different terminal in a completely different place. I immediately felt very guilty for my uncharitable thoughts and in lieu of his saving me from missing my next flight, I thrust CAD10 at him on the way out of the bus.

My third surprise the next morning was the breakfast menu. Now maybe you more seasoned travellers will know what I am going to say and maybe I shouldn't have been surprised but how can you have a 2 page menu with only 2 savoury items on it? What's that all about?

My flight to William's Lake was leaving at midday from a terminal that was reminiscent of Guernsey (no offence to the Guernsey Marquis') with nothing bigger than a Joey (Aurigny) in sight. Now it was a beautiful clear day and for as far as the eye could see were huge snowtopped mountains. I asked the desk crew if we would be crossing these mountains and she said yes and that if i needed the toilet I was to go now as there wasn't one on the plane. I did.

The flight was amazing, we flew over Whistler's, and crossed the largest river in BC, the Fraser. There is a road alongside the river which goes all the way to Vancouver and enables ground travel through the mountains on a relatively flat level. There were only 3 of us on the flight and I got the back seats so I could see both sides of the plane.

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Photos

Cariboo Mountain Range
Range crossed from Vancouver to Williams Lake

Comments

[Heather]

Hey
Hi Sue, not sure if I am in the right spot this is new to me as well. Read your entry and viewed your fab photos of gthe mountains, scenery must be breath taking, hope I get to Canada. H x

[anonymous]

Hi Sue, love the photos and blog - hope yr enjoying the experience x we miss you in the office x keep us up date of how yr getting on xxxx

[Marquis of Jersey]

Thank you for your note-not sure who it is from but guessing Karen? x

[jamie]

doin well Sue
u should get these blogs in a book ,their fab ,and by the sound of it yer doin great (said ya would) ,the views are spectacular eh ,loved the name in the soup, class,,,,and at 7 lbs the first week ,well ,,the rest will be o piece of cake ,keep it up girl ,,proud of ya ,xxx