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I am cutting short my trip by a week so that I can attend my Aunt's funeral. I will write up the missing sections of the trip when I have settled back into UK life.

I have moved on round the Gaspé peninsular and down the coast to Prince Edward Island spending the night at a campsite by the water in Summerville. It was an interesting night as the winds got up and changed direction by 180 degrees due to the nearby hurricane which is now touching down in Newfoundland to the north of here. I am leaving PEI by ferry tonight and will look for somewhere to stay when I get to Pictou in Nova Scotia. I have a lot of driving to do if I am to see Halifax, then get the ferry from Digby to across the Bay of Fundy to St John tomorrow! I aim to drive the 980km from Saint John to Montreal late on Sunday so that I can catch a bus down to New York on Monday morning..... The map on the top IS up to date!

22nd. Drive to Yoho Nat Park, camping at Takakaaw Falls The next morning we jumped back in our overwhelmingly underpowered Dodge Caliber with a very strange automatic gearbox and headed for the group of National Parks that make up the Canadian Rockies. Our aim was to get to Yoho National park and get a place in the Takkakaw camp ground from where we could undertake a 'four boot' walk as described in the book called 'Dont waste your time in the Canadian Rockies'. Highway 1 didn't disappoint us with the scenery. We stopped in Golden for some coffee and perfect cinnamon buns and were entertained by the very un pc owner with tales of the two season, winter and construction, and the pros and cons of immigration! I spotted a Drascombe lugger on a trailer and chatted to it's owner. He was a very British expat, with an incredibly bulbous nose, and had found it for sale in California and brought it up to BC. We continued on to Revelstoke and then glacier National Parks...

  After leaving the BC Hydro campsite  we continued on the amazingly scenic Highway 99 for a short distance before heading south towards Lytton on Highway 12 as we crossed the river in Lillooet. Once again we were driving down a vast valley fringed with high mountains but this time the valley was covered in golden rolling fields of grazing punctuated with the occasional bright green irrigated oblong or circle. The soils looked very light and erodible and the river had cut a deep gouge through the loess leaving pale cliffs with relatively flat areas either side. This road gets closed in winter because of landslides and avalanches and there was a team clearing a small rock fall from one particularly unstable portion.  At Lytton the Fraser river is joined by the Thomson river and there are a proliferation of white water rafting companies offering the thrill of a lifetime...  We turned north on Highway 1 and after about 15 mins drive stopped at a small resort, at White Canyon, which also...

Dear all, I realise that I am not keeping up with my travels very well... But now I have added a map which shows where I have been and where I am at the moment... Almost anyway! I have just spent four days with my cousins Isabel and Anil in Toronto which was a great place to relax a bit and plan the final push to the Atlantic coast. I shall be in Québec on Saturday after spending two nights in Montreal. I hire a car in Québec and will do a weeks sightseeing covering as much ground as possible but aiming to include the biggest tides in the worl around the Bay of Fundy, Halifax and Prince Edward Island as well as a drive around the Gaspé Peninsular.. Keep watching this space!

19th Aug. Vancouver - Whistler We packed up our stuff and stored it at the hostel before going in search of the car. The email from Canadian Affair gave an address which only had two empty car hire units, neither of which were Avis. We had to stop for refreshments at a Starbucks (much to my horror and boys delight!) to browse the Internet and find the correct address before managing to walk past the place! Eventually we got hold of the car and drove up the 7 levels of the basement garage to the street and back to the hostel to collect our bags. Once loaded we set off tentatively through the afternoon traffic and headed out of Vancouver through Stanley Park and across the Bridge towards Horseshoe Bay and on up Highway 93 towards Whistler. As promised by Jane, the views were astounding, ever-changing views as we travelled along Highway 99, the Sea to Sky Highway, clinging to the side of the rocky margins of what is really a fjord which ends at Squamish but continues to keep you entran...

18th Aug Grouse Mt We ventured across the water to North Van and Grouse Mt to undertake the infamous Grouse Mt Grind....a 1000ft direct ascent of the Vancouver playground (skiing during winter, hiking, biking and zip lining during summer). As we went up to the base of the climb on a bus, we were overtaken by and ambulance and fire truck which we then found at the base of the trail after a visitor had had a heart attack about half way up the path. This turned out to be a blessing,for us at least, as we had to find an alternative route, the BCMC, which was not the straight line up the mountain but a much nicer route through the forest away from the teasing view of the gondola zooming up and down overhead. We arrived at the top in good shape and headed straight for the cafeteria! Large cold drinks and chips went down vey well :-) We then joined the large number of slightly less fit people in a wander around the 'attractions' at the top of the mountain. There is an enclosure wh...

16th Aug Vancouver. Matt and Nick arrived at YVR at 11:30 and once they were through customs and immigration I had to feed them at Burger King... Not what I was expecting but I refused to take them to McD's (throughout their two weeks here!). We bought some normal price transit tickets at the domestic terminal saving $15 for the trip into town (there is a $5 'Airport departure tax if you buy the tickets at the station!) and made our way to the Cambie Hostel where I had stayed the previous night to offload luggage and shower before I took them to Canada Place for a nice lunch then round the corner to the park where Nick fell asleep on the grass. An early bed at about 21:00. 17th Aug Vancouver. We did a mega shop at MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) buying a replacement spork for me, freeze dried food, tons of energy bars, a 3 man tent, sleeping mats, some Keen walking shoes for Nick, a couple of dry bags, a buff for Matt and some gas for my stove taking it all back to the hostel be...

15th August and I arrived back in Vancouver regretting the rash decision to eat a Wendy's burger at Seattle airport... I had 40 minsto get some food and there were queues everywhere so I plumped for the quickest option.... not a good one. A Tim Horton's iced capuchino and blueberry muffin at YVR restored me to my normal self! I made my way to Gastown and the Cambie Hostel that I had booked before leaving for Alaska. It is a busy hostel with it's own bar and bakery where you get you breakfast of coffee and muffin or for an extra $2.75 you get a cooked breakfast! It was at least 10 deg C warmer in Vancouver than Anchorage and the four person dorm was sweltering. One dorm member stayed up very late booking flights on his laptop and then left very early so not much sleep... NOTE: I know that I am two weeks behind in my blog but will endeavor to catch up soon! I am having a busy time driving, camping and hiking the Canadian Rockies with Matthew and Nicholas. Sent from my iPa...

Bettles to Vancouver in 24hrs (14th-15th Aug) We left Bettles for the 15 min flight back to Prospect Creek in an Arctic Airways twin engined plane, crammed with almost all our luggage and with Hannah in the copilots seat. The remaining luggage would be flown on the same plane to Fairbanks for us to pick up lat in the day. Once back at the cars we crammed ourselves in and headed home, I joined Tim in his car and we set off for Fairbanks and Anchorage 500 miles away. We stopped for a late lunch and refuel at the Yukon crossing on the Dalton Highway (hamburgers and all things bad!). Mike and I craftily hijacked Tim's car and his cd collection leaving Tim and Michelle to play movies in their car to keep the 4 younger members of the expedition happy and occupied. Mike drove the road to Fairbanks where we collected the luggage from an almost closed Airways hanger at the edge of the airport. A quick refuel and we continued on to Anchorage. Tim and Michelle left us far behind and we had i...