Excerpt from our hiking journal (no really, we have one!)

What: Hike
Location: Garibaldi National Park, 1 hour north of Vancouver (next to Whistler-Blackcomb)
Route: Trail to Black Tusk (you'll see why it's called that later)
Elevation: 1740m (sore legs just thinking about it now!)
Distance: 29km return
Grade: 13.4%
When: Mid September
Hikers: Dave, Dan and Bill (or "Bill eh" if you're paying him out) our old flatmate
Weather: Bizarre! Started out pouring with rain in Vancouver, drizzling as we got geared up, then hot and sunny... by the time we hit subalpine the snow was visible and the air was getting cooler... at alpine it was snowing and freezing! In early Autumn!!! Crazy bloody Canadian weather.
Gear: Due to "Crazy Bloody Canadian Weather", it was t-shirts, shorts for some, rain jacket, but then beanies, jackets, jumpers and gloves as we got to the top!

Here are some photos anyway...
Beware of bears!

Ever heard of a Whiskey Jack? They are cute little birds who eat your trail mix from your hand. We know we know, we shouldn't have fed them, but ... Bill started it.


da-da-da-daaaaaaa... The first sighting of snow of the season (and again we stress - it was only the first week of Autumn!!!)
Apart from sightings that Winter was coming, remains of Summer were still left behind - wild blueberries and black huckleberries and a few wildflowers.


If you look properly you will see a "Hoary Marmot" sitting on the rock. Dan has been looking for one of these all Winter. Marmots are normally rodent-type animals but the "Hoary" (hor-ree) types are much bigger. He was just sitting there enjoying the view.


Looking up to Black Tusk (the black... tusk? looking thing on the right)



A view down at Garibaldi Lake. This is looking Southish towards Vancouver (that black cloud will stay until next April we think!)

Subalpine - beautiful

There we go - Black Tusk. Still a way to go though!


Dan is nearly there! That bit was a leg killer.


Dave wearing his beanie for the first time this season. That's the "helm" glacier in the background (camera didn't pick up how beautiful it was though)



Dan looking surprisingly happy considering her first beanie wearing of the season too (anyone get the feeling someone wants Summer to stay?!)


View of the glaciers surrounding Whistler-Blackcomb and Black Tusk (the highest points around this area)


Scary looking isn't it? We're at the top!

A Sunday in America

What do you get when you have a Canadian, Australian, Brit and American - credit cards in toe, boyfriends left behind, shopping hot on the brain, travelling down to the US for the day?......

A shopping day in Seattle!!!

The "Speechie Gang" (aka: Olga, Dan, Dulcie and Megan - in order of above nationalities) made their way down to the popular outlet "mall" near Seattle yesterday, to pick up some bargains.

The famous "Peace Arch" on the border of Canada and the US marked the start of the day. The "Bathurst girl" in Dan was pretty excited at the possibility of travelling to another country for the day. Canada one minute, America the next!! Pretty cool eh Aussies?!



Dulcie and Megan looking pretty pleased with themselves at the end of the day.



We'd heard stories of difficulties getting through the border crossing on the way back. Technically, you're not supposed to bring anything back unless you've stayed in the US for 24 hours. So after getting rid of the evidence (receipts, tags, bags) in the parking lot (looking very suss) and getting rid of some very suss looking water bottles (don't worry - that one's for Dulcie), we were safe to head back.

After a lovely dinner in Bellingham (to ease the nerves of Dulcie who felt she couldn't possibly lie to the scary looking border crossing guards), we headed straight up to the crossing and got straight through (after a few comments about us being an international convention and some random comment about only letting me through because I wasn't from Wollongong!)

A great day with great friends, great shopping, credit cards a little worse for wear and the US a little more explored.

New Digs

We decided it was time to give the share house the flick and finally get our own place! Nothing against our old flatmates but it really makes a difference having our own space.
We were lucky enough to be on the receiving end of some real Canadian generosity and got given a couple of couches, a bed, a table and various other bits and pieces from a few different people. But of course we still had to do the true vancouver thing and go to ikea to get all the other stuff needed to fill a new place.

The new place has a nice bright lounge room, which is guaranteed to beat the basement we spent last year in...


And the pink bathroom will definitely keep us happy!



Of course, we couldn't have moved into a new place without having a few friends around to share some food and beverages.

A mountain of sushi was prepared for the occasion (it took us a few days to get through it all!)


Some were happy to take in the lime light on the night while others couldn't hack the pressure of the paparazzi...


Speechies being speechies just sat around, talked and looked pretty!


We wont show any pictures towards the end of the night. Our new neighbours said it all when we apologised for making a bit much noise: "Can I just say you guys really can't sing". Enough said.

Gabriola Island (2 years of DnD!)

The end of August marked 2 years of Dan n Dave!

To celebrate we headed to Gabriola Island. It's one of the southern gulf islands, which would be about 2 hours from Vancouver if there was a direct ferry, but of course there isn't, so it took us about 5 hours to get to and from.

We got a bit lucky and happened to stumble across Gabriola Day when we arrived. The biggest day of the year on the island consisted of a market and a parade which included bag pipes, mounties and mounties playing bag-pipes!



Our accommodation on the island was amazing. At a place called the 'Dragons Keep' we relaxed away a couple of days taking in the fresh sea air and the rugged coastline.




We enjoyed a swim with some local starfish...

And even managed to get up to take in a beautiful sunrise...

Restaurants on the island were a little scarce. Well, technically there were 3 pubs and no resaurants, but that's just being pedantic. Anyway, we managed to find a nice outdoor patio to enjoy a beer or two on and also some live music. (I think Dan was ready to head home with the husky voiced singer but I somehow managed to persuade her that I was still a pretty good option!)

On the way out we managed to pick some blackberries on the side of the road. One for the bag... one for me... one for the bag... two for me....


Oh, and did I mention we got hitched?!

No, not THAT type of hitched. To get around the island it was either call the only taxi on the island and pay about $3o a time, or hitch a ride with the locals. The locals were great and obviously used to it, one guy even completely rearranged his boot so he could put the back seat up and we could both fit in! Another lady showed us the best place to get fresh local chicken eggs. What more could you want?!

It was a little different, but a great place to spend a couple of relaxing days.