On the road again... In British Columbia

After getting up at 4.30am yesterday we drove across the moors, still in pitch darkness with the hills glimmering under a silver dew. It was quite a beautiful sight and one I've never been up early enough to see before. The flight from Manchester to Vancouver was LONG! Fourteen hours. We finally arrived in Canada after what seemed like days with just about enough life left in us to go and get some food before collapsing into bed at 7pm.

With our body clocks completely screwed, we woke up at 5am, got up and went pretty much straight out.

We headed straight for Stanley Park, a 45 minute walk from the hotel, and picked up a couple of bikes for the morning. There is a lot of area to cover in Stanley Park so cycling is a really easy way to do it.



We spent some time watching the sea planes coming into land over the harbour with the city skyline as a backdrop against a moody grey and yellow sky.



The totem poles were our next stop. The intricately carved and brightly painted poles stand proudly against a forest setting, attracting tourists from all over the world.



We then followed the path all the way around, stopping often to take photos. We went up to the lighthouse where we read that whales and seals were a really common sighting before they were scared off by local fishing traffic and now sightings are extremely rare. However, just as we climbed back down the steps and got back on our bikes, a seal popped her head out of the water, looked at us for a minute and then went under again. We were so surprised that we didn't even have chance to get the camera out.



We came across this strange little island, broken away from the mainland with a single isolated tree on top of it. It made for quite an unusual photo.



After lunch, we went to the aquarium. It was quite expensive to get in, but it was well worth the money. It was amazing! We saw everything you could imagine living under the sea and a lot of things you couldn't! There were all kinds of anemones, coral, rays, sharks, dolphins, beluga whales, seals, sea otters as well as amphibians, reptiles and butterflies.





My favourite was the jelly fish which glowed orange or white in the bright blue water, puffing open and closed with their tentacles gracefully floating behind them like streamers on a kite. They were absolutely mesmerising.





I also liked this little guy who was really enjoying an obviously excellent head massage and belly scratch which soon sent him into a deep, meditative sleep.





By the time we got back to the hotel I could barely walk another step! Oh but that wasn't it for the day! Then we went out to the pub to watch the first Canucks ice hockey qualifier of the season.

Now I will sleep until home time.

Location:Vancouver