All Adventures

This will be a bit longer of a tale as we have been in the outback for a few days, so lots to catch up on – grab a cuppa. As we left Brisbane to go to the wedding venue, we took the chance to visit Mount Coot-tha lookout point for a great view over the city and surrounding area (what3words: bleat.chip.woes) As we left the lookout point we saw signs for Slaughter Falls (what3words:notes.putty.advice) so we thought we would check them out – we didn’t use the Sat nav, we just fo

Blimey, not sure what you will get in the blog tonight mainly based on the title, I am a little bit squiffy – but more of that later. Firstly, lets address the elephant in the room…. I know back home there is a big debate about should salt and vinegar crisps be in blue or green packets – well take a look at this Pink! Madness!!! We had a chilled morning, Em got up and went for a swim in the hotel pool, and I just chillaxed and worked out a route for our day. We really neede

We started the day early, so we could make it to the beach to watch the sun come up. The clouds had the same idea and effectively masked the majority of the actual sunrise, but it was still worth getting up at 5.30 to be on the Surfers Paradise beach and see the first surfers of the day going in – I managed to get my feet wet (on purpose, and barefoot) although the waves were a bit too energetic for me to be persuaded in for a full on swim. We called in at a lovely independe

This morning we picked up my friend Joanne from the outskirts of Brisbane and she acted as out tour guide all day. Having not seen her for 20 years, the day has gone in a blur of catching up and laughter. We headed down to the iconic Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, stopping on the way at a big shopping mall for some well-earned retail therapy (what3words: voting.storm.gear) and we picked up those essentials we had forgotten, such as sun screen and sunglasses! We carried

Wow, waking up in Brisbane – what a view. It feels like such a young city, and is really fresh. The forecast for today was not great, and we had planned on getting to know the South Bank a little better with a mooch to the Art Gallery and Museum, along with a trip on the Brisbane Wheel, but the thought of doing that in the rain was not appealing, so we changed tack and ticked off one of my major bucket list items, a trip to Australia Zoo (What3words: participated.stance.soon

This may turn out to be a longer than normal blog, but it does cover 2 days of travel and one day of mooching.... We started with a mishap - an email from the car rental company asking how the pick up went for the car....I was still in bed in the UK, I had only booked it for the wrong day :(. Quick call and rearranged things - disaster averted, but I did feel like it was an omen... Thanks to the rail strikes, we had to get to Manchester Airport mega early (we really apprecia

What3words: hopeless.bounty.hammer Our last day today - where have the last 3 weeks gone? It only seems like 5 minutes ago I was writing the blog for day 1. Thank goodness I wrote them though or we would have forgotten some of our adventures already. We have had many more than I have included in the blogs - if I put them all in I would not have had anything to talk about when we got home. I have only taken 6,000+ photos - the joy of having a sport mode setting on the came

What3words: sleep.clauses.mulls Our second last day and we channeled our inner tourist. We had to change hotels and return the car hire, but we managed a cheeky drive by at the new hotel and dropped our bags off for them to store until our room was ready, then dropped the car at the Avis office downtown. From there we headed to Canada Place to pick up tickets for the 'Hop on hop off' bus (what3words:glares.bowhead.restriction). I love a bus tour, but if there is one thing thi

After the hiccup of yesterday's humongous drive down to Vancouver, we were up feeling refreshed this morning - treated to breakfast in bed at the hotel too no less! We had booked whale watching for today, as the majority of reputable outfits offer a 'no whales, free rebook' option and we wanted to give ourselves the opportunity to rebook if needed - we shouldn't have worried. We got to Granville Island early, unsure of navigating around Vancouver, and not being certain of fin

We took a drive to Kelowna today - along the biggest lake we have seen since we got here. We expected to find a small town, bordered by wineries, but what we actually found was a modern metropolis which is obviously an affluent location. We parked at the bottom of what they call Knox Mountain, but we would call a small fell and walked into the town. We walked along the waterfront, past this lovely sculpture. but what was even more impressive were the speedboats parked outs

What3words: portables.slicing.developments We have driven down to Vernon today - an easy enough drive of only a couple of hours, but what a contrast from where we came from. This side of the Rockies is completely different than the Banff/Jasper side. For one thing, the water is.....water coloured, not the magical green colour that we have gotten used to. The landscape is flatter - more undulating rather than mountainous. At points in the drive you could have mistakenly thou

What3words:prevent.opportunity.posies We started with breakfast in bed this morning - we would need the energy as we had a busy day ahead, chasing waterfalls. The first one we went to was recommended by the Tourist Information people, but they also said there had been bear activity..... we strapped our trusted bear bell to our pack and off we went to a place called Rock Garden - it is the first time the sat nav has let us down - we were doing 110k along the highway (that is t

W hat3words:cherry.spaces.pantry We slept late this morning. We were both knackered, and as this was the time we should have been kicking back with a good book and a couple of cocktails, we took our foot of the gas for a bit. We mosied on down to the tourist information centre to ask what the 'must see' things are in the area, and it turns out, there are loads! We started off at the Revelstoke Dam. (W hat3words:ranches.hazily,demographic). When we got there a tour was about

What3words: horoscope.liquidity.illness OK - this is going to be a longer read, so either grab a brew and read it, or if you just want to know about the effing disaster, skip two thirds through. Day 12 was the first day that we had not pre planned what we wanted to do. We had booked accommodation, so at least we knew where we were going to sleep, and our final destination - or did we? Read on to find out…. We left the quirky Sunwapta Falls Lodge after a leisurely breakfast

What3words: refuted.averaging.wings We were up and out early this morning, we had a lot to cram in to our day. Athabasca Falls were our first stop. The falls are only about 75 feet tall, but they are really powerful and you can get so close to them. (What3words: computer.life.marvel) From there we went on to Maligne Lake, with a stop on the way to photograph a couple of grizzly bears who were happily grazing by the side of the road. Because we stopped, so did lots of other

What3words: happier.accidents.opening New adventures today! Emily saw a grizzly bear just sitting by Highway 1 (thank goodness for the fences!). You can tell the difference as a grizzly has a hump on its back, and a black/brown bear doesn’t. To be fair, if you are close enough that you are checking if it has a hump, you are too close! We drove along the Glacier Parkway for hours and hours today. It would not have taken so long but we kept stopping! We had a stop off at W

This is our last day in Canmore, and to be fair, we are ready to move on, we have seen almost everything we wanted to see in the area. We only missed one lake, Lake O'Hara, and that was because when we got there, the road was closed and it would have meant a 6m hike, which would have been ok first thing, (who am I kidding!) but it was towards the end of the day and we were done in. We spent today properly exploring Canmore. It is such a charming town - well a large village

What3 words: measure.pecan.empowering (I must be in a different chair!) The weather forecast for today was pretty pants (forecast thunderstorms all day), so we decided on an easy day, with one activity, thinking it was a one road in and one road out situation, and we reaffirmed that the journey is part of the destination. We also have big-ass macs in the car so we knew we could stay dry. We actually ticked off 4 things from our list so we classing it on a bonus day! We had

What3words: Joins.salvaging.banish We went back to Lake Minnewanka today and what a difference from yesterday. Space in the car parks, no hoards of people - much nicer. Lake Minnewanka is the largest lake in the area at 21km long and 142m deep, We took the hour long lake cruise which went down to the mid way point (what3words: wrists.shutdowns.market) and back. The guide gave some really interesting facts about the area and the people who lived there in the past. I was act

What3words: Joins.salvaging.banish (yep, still here) Our day started with a happy mistake with the result that we got to Lake Louise! We meant to go there, but once again the parking lots were showing as full so we opted for the park and ride. There we saw a lineup for the bus and thought, the barman from the other night was right and we should come back on Monday as even if we got to the lake, it would probably be rammed. We left the park and ride station but because I was