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Published: March 29th 2008
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Right,
Now I must thank all of you that have taken time out of your daily schedule to read our last travel blog from Canada. I intend not to bore you, however, these things do happen from time to time.
We have kept fairly busy for the last week or so, going over to Quadra Island for lunch etc, checking out the Salmon Hatchery near Campbelltown and a fair amount of relaxing. The latter being a big favourite of mine. On Wednesday we went down to Miracle Beach hunting for Oysters to throw on the Braai/ BBQ for later that evening and the findings were good. Basically, once the fire pit was heated up, the oysters/ mussels get thrown on the grill and you wait for them to start spitting salt water, crack em open, throw on a bit of tabasco and away you go. Now, a word on shellfish safety. You can just pick the little blighters off the beach and eat them, however, every once and awhile, you will get one with the crappy badstomachis bacteria (quasi scientific name of course) that will play havoc with your intestines. Just make sure you cook em well enough and
avoid picking them out of red tides. On this occasion, they were delicious and i didn't see what I ate again. In fact, one of them was as big as a golfball. This boded well, as early the next morning, we went up to Mt Washington to have our first go at snowboarding. Emma, Tony and I got to the snow school lesson for 10am and we were taken down the nursery slopes. Kilian, our instructor, a native Canadian who would probably have fitted in as easily in Long Beach as in Whistler, got us going though our paces with the heal side, toe side malarchy and promtly sent us down a 30 degree green slope. Now, for those of you that have not tried snowboarding, please dont let anything I write on this blog put you off. Its great fun. And im sure the more you practice, it will get better. Nonetheless, your first day will probably be something like ours...painfull. Even then, its not really painfull until you get home and your muscles start throwing obscenities at you. But after we had just got onto our lesson, a unlucky snowboarder was on his way down the mountain lying
in a stretcher which did not exactly instill a confidence in our group. The event actually casued Tony to ask if injuries were common, to which our instructor replied " fairly common, we actually had a death on Saturday". Alarm bells are ringing. Back to the lesson, which, once you have arrived down the slope at the ski lift (and that is no mean feat) you get taken up to the top of a green run. Again, if you have not managed to "carve some powder", the green slopes are for beginners, the blue for intermediates and the black runs for experts who fly down the mountain, throwing snow in you face just to show you who is boss. Scrap that last, actually, everybody was friendly and helpful, as is Canadian nature. And all credit out instructor, apart from a few minor collisions and 1 lost party member, the lesson went well and we all learnt the basics of snowboarding. Anyway, I can go through the thrills and spills of the day, but to summise, we got though our lesson in one piece, and drenched in sweat and headed for the lodge for some fuel. Now more than any other
event on our stay in Canada, the following actually annoyed me the most. Once seated in the cafe, we ordered a few beers, to which the waitress asked for ID. Emma and Tony had theirs, but I had none. And after checking that she was serious, the lady was not for giving me my half time brew! Can you believe it, you wait 19 years +( 7 in practice) for the right to walk into a bar and not have any trouble ordering some liquor and somebody 5 years your junior decides you cant have any! After speechless moments, my waitress could see my pain, took pity and obliged.
After lunch, and much discussion of our hardships, Emma decided against going out again (at least her body did) and so it was agreed that Tony and I would try one of the other green slopes after doing the same one we did in our lesson, while Emma took the obligatory photos/ videos. See attached.
Unfortunately, it came to pass that on our first run down, Tony suffered a minor whiplash from a fall and I suffered what feels like bruised ribcage. So we decided on a last run
on the green slopes and home for storytelling and beer. But not before, both of us, full grown men, were floundering about in the white stuff, while a little girl, no more than 10 years of age, skied through both of us on her half metre long, pink Bardie Doll skis, with the grace of a seasoned pro and merely chucked at our dilema. It does put things in perspective I guess.
Today, despite our neck and rib injuries, and after a mamoth breakfast of bacon, eggs and waffles, Tony and I took on the best par 3 golf course that the town of Courtenay can offer. I shot a 63 (on a par 30) and Tony a 48. Not bad considering our handicaps were ourselves.
Tomorrow, we are checking out the the Gold River area and I hope to see a black bear before I leave Canada (but I would settle for a little beaver) and Emma hopes to see an 18 wheeler truck (a little known and strange obession of hers - check out www.18wheelertruckobessions.com for more details).
Again, thank you for your patience and look for our update from Costa Rica - although personally,
if I were you I would probably think of nothing worse than looking at somebody else having fun while I was stuck doing a college assignment or a hard days work - but im sure you have a trip planned for soon enough. And if not, start planning one you lazy git, there is a whole world out there to see!
Graeme and Emma.
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Stuey
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boooyah
hahahahahaha send me an email when you get to banff i know a girl there,!