It is a flight we wont be taking again very soon, I think. Tokyo – Vancouver, its an eight hour flight in wonderful comfort and when I wake up in the morning I enjoy views on Alaska and the first glimpses of the Rocky Mountains.
We have left Tokyo on Monday 13th of June at 10.00 pm (22.00 h) and arrive in Vancouver on Monday 13th of June at 2.00 pm (14.00 h). That is the greatest day on the whole trip, it exists twice! Anyone who needs an explanation, check: In 80 days around the world written by Jules Verne. ;-) (We read it, but we still needed the real experience of traveling eastward and actually crossing the International Date Line to understand completely.)
It is a wonderful sunny and cool day in Vancouver. We have rented a car for our stay. The plan is to travel for four weeks in the Rockies of British Columbia and Alberta and then fly over to Quebec for two more weeks of camping.
The car is a surprise and the kids are very happy. It is a black shiny Jeep Wrangler. Johann can hardly breath: Oh this is so cool! I am not very convinced after checking out the trunk. We will have great fun the next couple of weeks squeezing all our camping stuff into that little car.
Johann excited: „Our cool car will make everyone turn their heads to look at us!” But only later he realizes that Jeeps, Land Rovers, Pick ups in general are very common in Canada and that the size of our car is rather small compared to what is driving around on Canada’s roads. Big trucks, huge motor homes of the size of a bus, its amazing. And we understand even less, when we see the prizes at gas stations …
Ray and Marianne have invited us to stay at their house in Chilliwack and we are so thankful for their hospitality and the place to sleep late to get rid of our jet lag. We have met the family with three boys in Georgetown, Malaysia. They have fulfilled their dream of re-traveling the first overland tour that had ever been done with a Landrover in 1955 from London to Singapore, via Turkey, Iran, shipping from Dubai to India, and then driving to Thailand and Malaysia. And its not only the same tour they have been taken, but they also take a land rover made in 1954! It is unbelievable, we are deeply impressed! Our Emma seems like pure luxury compared to the struggles Ray and his family have gone through on the trip. We have all started at the same time, without knowing each other, we take the northbound route via Kirghistan and China and Ray and his family take the southern route via India.
And now, months later, we all meet again. Ray, Marianne and the kids have been back home since April already and we are interested to hear how they are doing. How does it feel to come back after such a long adventure? What has changed, if anything at all? What are the new plans? New projects? Really exciting. Our return and adaption to our old/new life is still lying ahead of us and we listen carefully to their experiences.
We are having more and more discussions about going home anyway. Canada is our last country and everyone tries to find his own way of getting used to the thought to return home. A big project is coming to its end. My heart aches and I feel that every moment on the trip is something special, something I will remember forever. I can recall almost every single day of the trip, it is like a virtual diary in my head. Maybe it is also because such a trip is so intensive. Leaving the comfort zone of a regular job-school-house-3weeksummervacation-life is payed back with an enormous increase of peaks of feelings, positive as well as negative. The trip has made me come back to live here and now. We have lost the feeling of finally-its-friday-night-again or only-two-months-left-than-it-is-again-vacation. It just doesn’t exist anymore. We live from one day to the next, enjoying every minute. All this we will loose again and we know it and that is not easy.
We have decided not to write a book or something about the trip. We are both not made for endless digging in past memories. We love to do things, but when they are over it is time for new projects. And that is the positive side of the discussion about our return: new projects, new ideas and a lot of energy to start them.
To make it easier we have decided to look at our return, as if Belgium was the next country we are traveling to, this time it will be work-and-travel. :-)
But we still have six weeks! Torsten and the kids buy two used tents, sleeping mattresses and other camping gear in Vancouver and off we go. It is June, but still cool. We will find snow in the mountains and camping up in Jasper National Park will bring cold nights at around 4 degrees.
To camp we need to make reservations ahead, that seems essential in Canada, especially when vacations start at the beginning of July. Camping is fantastic here. Every site comes with a fire place and a table and space for the car, it is very comfortable and still gives the outdoor feeling. For six weeks we will have fire every night. Don’t ask about the smell of our clothes after our trip through Canada. On our last camping day I will throw almost all my clothes used on our journey away, since they are totally worn out and Outdoor-Canada has done its last share on it.
From Vancouver we drive the Sea to sky-Highway north, camp at Howe Sound in Porteau Cove. Squamish and Whistler are on our way. We stay sometime in the area of Joffre Lake Provincial Park to enjoy the fantastic blue glacier lakes and waterfalls. The hiking is really nice and we enjoy wonderful Canadian food and beer. It feels more and more like a vacation. Everyone is happy enjoying all the western food again, cheese is back, bread is back, we can eat all kinds of milk products again and there is time for wonderful sausages on a barbecue.
Near Kamloops we camp at Paul Lake Provincial Park, before we head on to Revelstoke, where we stay a while, also to wait out some bad weather, it is rainy and cool these days.
The landscapes are breathtaking. We love to be in the mountains, the clear skies and the stars at night. Impressive, the deep green woods. We love to be in Canada in general. Johann and Antonia will later, when asked about their favorite country on the trip always answer: Canada!
In Revelstoke we will hike the National Park by walking through snow fields. Summer hasn’t taken over that long yet, we realize. It is only possible to hike here two months per year, before winter comes back. Even though this is a tourist region it can get lonely up here. I love signs like: “Watch your fuel. Next service 150 km.”
In Revelstoke reality hits us really hard and awakes us from our canadian-outdoor-dreams. One morning we read the news and Brexit has become new reality. We have had already several discussions with people during our trip in Japan about the referendum and maybe it is because we are so far away that we read news also between the lines and very carefully: I had started to live with the thought that UK will drop out, that Brexit will happen. Overall the reports from normal peoples life’s outside London had made me suspicious.
But still, all this reasonable thinking and preparing doesn’t help anything. The day I read the news I feel numb and empty, before anger sets in. I can not believe this is really happening. I have grown up with the idea, that it is commonly agreed that Europe works together, no matter what. The success story of the Union has always been the guarantee for a prosperous future. Maybe we have taken it too much for granted. Maybe we have to learn again how to fight. The next days Brexit is the main thought, even in Revelstoke we discuss with people. When we meet other hikers or tourists it takes two sentences and we are in the middle of a Brexit debate.
We discuss what should be done in Europe now. “Make it as difficult as possible for UK to leave, its their own fault.” - we hear a lot. Its surreal. We are talking about our friends, colleagues, allies. I can not wish them to fail. Who needs a collapsing UK economy? Don’t we have plenty of other problems in Europe? But still, how on earth could that happen? Why is it so difficult to sell the idea of a united Europe to people? My feelings shift back and forth between anger, to disbelieve and back to anger these days. It feels a bit like a breaking up, like trying to cope a divorce. And some song of James Blunt one day in our car finds some words: “No matter what we say or do, the message isn’t getting through. And now your listening to the sound of my breaking heart.”
From Revelstoke we follow the trail towards Glacier and Yoho Nationa Park. After crossing Rogers pass we camp nearby the little village of Field for about a week and enjoy the great mountains. Every day we watch the long trains crawl up and down the mountains through the spiral tunnels at the Kicking Horse pass. The Canadian Pacific Railway is actually the birthplace of Canada. Between 1881 and 1885 this railway was built across Canada to unify the different landscapes, push industries and lead to a growing population in the scarcely populated western areas. BC became part of Canada because of the promise to build the railway.
The Kicking Horse pass is around 1600 m high and formed in the 1880ties an almost invincible obstacle. The steep and long stretch of tracks built in the beginning led to repeated derailment of the trains, with rail road workers dying of accidents. The steep mountains also bring avalanches in the winter of a force that is deadly most of the times too. It took until 1909 that a new track system was developed: the spiral tunnels. Trains ride in spirals up and down the mountains, to avoid steep stretches. It is a veritable spectacle to see the long trains cross themselves on different heights.
Candada Day is coming up. Its a long weekend and camp grounds fill up. We head towards Lake Louis a little village in gorgeous mountain surrounding to celebrate with our Canadian hosts. There is a local parade and we love it: its not more than three Mounties (Police in red uniform), a police car, a fire car, an ambulance and the local garbage truck. We stand at the side of the road and wave Canadian flags and catch sweets. Pauli is impressed by a man wearing a bear costume giving sweets to children.
At our campground we meet a wonderful Canadian family with children at the same age as ours and we enjoy campfires together. The whole family are second generation immigrants to Canada, having come to Canada from Iran, Marokko and South Africa. It is so great to see, that now twenty years later they are proud Canadians, having succeeded in their jobs, smart kids enjyoing good education. We have to think about the pessimistic debate at home, about refugees and their integration. The Canadian model of integrating refugees and emigrants under one flag and one set of rules, seems to work pretty well.
The Icefields Parkway is still waiting for us. They call these 230 km the most spectacular highway in the world. Unfortunately we haven’t seen the Karakorum Highway from close yet, so we have to believe for now that the most spectacular highway actually can be found in Canada…
We visit the Columbia Icefields and its Athabasca Glacier by taking a tour on a glacier snow coach. The Columbia Icefield itself we can see best from the skywalk, where the thick layers of ice can be seen best. The layers look like an icing on top of a cake and can be as thick as 350 m. It is an amazing experience of wild nature. Even with the many tourists around us.
Speaking of wild outdoors. We get to see bears, even very close. A mother bear and her baby walk alongside the road and people stop to take pictures. Apparently the bear is already used to humans, because she is reacting absolutely relaxed even with her baby nearby. We later learn from a ranger, that a non-natural behavior like that leads most of them times to the shooting of the animal. Getting used to humans usually means getting used to human food and developing aggression towards humans if they cant find any food for some reason. Anywhere we go we read to leave bears alone and not to make any contacts with them. But still it is totally fascinating to watch the two bears from within our car.
Later we will also see marmots fighting, elks running along the woods, racoons come to visit our campground at night and squirrels are our daily companions at the campgrounds. We love to watch them running up and down the trees. Most of the year these animals are all alone out here, the highway is only open a couple of weeks during the year.
Honeymoonlake campground at the Icefields Parkway, about some 50 km away from Jasper was definitely my favorite place to stay. It is in the middle of the woods, right at a lake, with view towards an impressive mountain range. Once Pauli and me we play at the lake’s shores, I see a bear coming to drink some water in the other side of the lake. It is very impressive and we really feel that we are only visitors here. We are high up in the mountains and nights become very chilly. We decide to abandon one tent and sleep all together in the other, to warm up all together. By now Torsten and Johann manage to light a camp fire within seconds, it has become part of our daily routines. :-)
We spend a lot of time at Jasper and Banff National Parks. There are a lot of tourists here in the summer, but it is always possible to hike away from the crowds. A little bit off the beaten tracks and we are on our own in the middle of wild nature. It can be scary sometimes, no one of us wants to surprise a bear while on a walk and we discuss buying a bear spray to be able to defend ourselves. But never gets further than discussing, we just would not know if would really use that hard stuff. Instead our kids do what they are best in: they make a lot of noise when we are hiking, that should help too. :-)
One day our four week trip through the mountains is over. Actually it feels as if it was over pretty quickly. We have gotten used to traveling around in long time distances. Staying a week here, two weeks there has become the normal way of life.
We have to drop off our car in Calgary and we come to town during the week of the Calgary Stampede. This is a big ten-day-festival, once a year and they call it the “Biggest outdoor show on Earth”. It is all about Cowboys and we dive into the Wild West-feeling. Highlight is the evening Chuck Wagon Race, where at each race four wagons with four horses race in a huge stadium. It is an amazing show! It is Antonia’s birthday and I get tickets for three of us for the evening show. We are very impressed by the race, the dance and music show and the firework.
The day after our visit to the Stampede festival we fly over to Toronto. Torsten has taken care of booking the tickets and I learn only now, that the flight will take almost four hours! We have driven already some 1000 km from Vancouver to Calgary, there is another 4000 km to fly and from Toronto it is still more than 2000 km to the east coast. I am starting to get an idea of the size of Canada.
Toronto awaits us with a heat wave. We are a bit shocked. Our first night after arriving in Ontario is terrible. We cant sleep from the heat and decide to get as soon as possible back to our tents, somewhere outside a hot city. We have again rented a car and managed to fly all our camping stuff over to Toronto. We are at a baggage load of about 150 kg by now…
Toronto is an interesting multicultural city and Johann counts in one street restaurants from almost all countries we have been to in South East Asia. “Actually there was no need to travel to all these countries, just coming to Toronto would have been enough.” :-)
And of course we have a look at Ontarios highlight: the Niagara Falls. We are not allowed to enter the US without a visa anymore, since we have Iranian Visa in our passports and are not allowed in the visa waiver program anymore. I am a bit worried that this will mean, that we cant really see the Niagara Falls. Only when we arrive, I realize what a huge area this is and that there are actually two falls and that the Canadian side is definitely the best side to be on if you want to have a look at the falls. They are huge and impressive and we enjoy the clear blue water from close and from far.
We will see the same water, much calmer though, again, later when we park at Ontario Lake and enjoy quiet time learning some fishing and having more camp fires.
On our way further east we come along Ottawa. From Ottawa on I feel like being back in Europe. The houses, buildings, size of the streets, everything seems European, or better British. (Shouldn’t be calling it European anymore?) Parliament Hill is a Gothic revival and Antonia feels reminded on her favorite castle building: “This looks like Hogwarts, Mama!” :-)
We take a wonderful tour around the buildings and learn a lot about Canadian History, especially about the latest struggle to integrate and reconcile First Nation people, as native Canadians are called officially. We learn about the “Highway of tears” for example, Highway #16 in BC, where within a couple of years more than forty young girls of aboriginal background went missing or were murdered. The highway crosses the home of about 23 first nations. The area is one of the poorest and least accessible in BC and hitchhiking can easily become a death sentence for young women needing to hitchhike from one place to the next. Apparently racism has led to almost no investigations on the grounds, but numbers of victims have been rising over the years.
This whole chapter is a very dark one, but enthusiasm about the new government with prime minister Justin Trudeau is big. People expect him to take the right steps into a reconciling direction. Everywhere we go in Canada people are proud of their current government, apparently Trudeau has managed to put together a government with people of almost all backgrounds there are in Canada. And not to forget and most important: 15 of his 30 ministers are women. Asked about this fact and why he had done so, he just answered: Because it is 2015. Cant believe that between all the Trumps, Le Pens and Putins of this world something like this is still possible. We all love Justin. :-)
Traveling in Canada feels a bit like traveling in the US: big roads in the west, big cars, big plates with lots of food in restaurants, everything is a bit bigger than usual. But when taking a closer look on Canadian legislation I realize that there are huge differences in mentality that I was never aware of before: for example unlike the US Canada has strict gun controls, they are far away from the everyone-his-own-gun-at home-feeling. And there is an elaborated system of public health care and a welfare system.
And of course there is French. :-) When we enter Quebec we realize that they are very serious about this. From signs in two languages (even in the Rockies signs would be in two languages) we go over to signs in only one language. In stores, restaurants and shops: no English anymore, its French. We are glad we speak it, that makes things easier. Now I really feel like being back home again. Cities look European and conflicts look even Belgian. ;-)
When we traveled in Malaysia one day we picked up Claudia and Kevin from Montreal who were hitch hiking South East Asia. We have a great time together and we are really happy to be able to visit them now, that we have reached their home country on our journey. Claudia’s parents Gisele and Francois have agreed to welcome us in their house in Quebec. We are very excited and ride to the address Claudia has given us. It is a bit strange, we will ring at a door, not knowing if it is the right one, asking people we don’t know to let us stay at their house overnight. But when we meet Gisele and Francois all worries are over. They are so friendly and open and welcoming, it is a great pleasure to be with them. It is a wonderful day. I am amazed by the way the dinner table is set, the food, the dishes, everything looks so European, as if we were somewhere in southern France. And I ask Gisele and Francois if they still have family in France, but they lough and tell me that it must have been at least 300 years that their families live in Canada. Amazing how strong cultural backgrounds can be. After months of speaking no French at all, we polish up our skills and find our way back into the sound of this wonderful language. Though the Canadian accent is quite special, sometimes it feels a bit like being in la Provence.
At the St. Lawrence River further east we stay for a while at the little town of Tadoussac. And we have a reason to be here: whales! The bay of the river is home to hundreds of whales and we hope to get to see some of them.
Because riding zodiacs is a bit dangerous, we split up in groups, so one of us can always stay with Pauli. Johann and me we get to see whales and seals from far. We are amazed by the huge fountains of water they can produce and enjoy being on the sea next to these big animals. But our views are nothing compared to the pictures Torsten and Antonia bring home! Whales swim right next to their boat, they even have time to film them! One dives underneath the boat, it is really amazing!
In Tadoussac ends our camping time in Canada. We get rid of everything we do not want to keep. Almost all my worn out clothes from the long journey make it into the trash. I have been living for the last months actually with two sets of one shirt and one pant. It is very comfortable, but I am also looking forward to get back my dresses and sandals back home in Brussels.
Our last stop is Montreal. And it is a special stay. Rene and Noella, friends of Gisele and Francois in Quebec have left us the keys of their house, while they are still on vacation. And we move into a wonderful old villa in a quiet street in Montreal. It is a lovely house, one hundred years old, with wooden floors, a porch at the entrance and a lot of charming antique details. After two days Rene and Noella come home and we have a great time being with them, chitchatting, having great food and enjoying quiet time, before we are on our own again, because the two leave again on a trip.
We are so grateful for the wonderful people we have been able to meet in Canada and of course we hope to see everyone back in Belgium one day!
We meet up with Claudia and Kevin to explore Montreal and try the Poutine, a local specialty of french fries and sauce. There is time to go to the local swimming pool and have chats with the people living in ‘our’ quartier. Johann even mows the lawn at our house and the one of the neighbor. It is a quiet, but very intensive time. Moments to reflect, remember and dream again.
These last days of our trip are very special. It is this strange mix of feelings: sadness that the journey is over and the excitement to come back home, both feelings are very strong. We know that something very special is coming to its end, but we hope that we will be able to take lots of the good things from our year off into our new-old-lifes. We realize that this journey has changed us, but we don’t know yet what exactly that will mean. We have to go home to find out.
On 25th of June 2016 we land at Zaventem Airport Brussels at 11.30 am. We have made it. Once around the world. Time for a new adventure.
In Revelstoke reality hits us really hard and awakes us from our canadian-outdoor-dreams. One morning we read the news and Brexit has become new reality. We have had already several discussions with people during our trip in Japan about the referendum and maybe it is because we are so far away that we read news also between the lines and very carefully: I had started to live with the thought that UK will drop out, that Brexit will happen. Overall the reports from normal peoples life’s outside London had made me suspicious.
But still, all this reasonable thinking and preparing doesn’t help anything. The day I read the news I feel numb and empty, before anger sets in. I can not believe this is really happening. I have grown up with the idea, that it is commonly agreed that Europe works together, no matter what. The success story of the Union has always been the guarantee for a prosperous future. Maybe we have taken it too much for granted. Maybe we have to learn again how to fight. The next days Brexit is the main thought, even in Revelstoke we discuss with people. When we meet other hikers or tourists it takes two sentences and we are in the middle of a Brexit debate.
We discuss what should be done in Europe now. “Make it as difficult as possible for UK to leave, its their own fault.” - we hear a lot. Its surreal. We are talking about our friends, colleagues, allies. I can not wish them to fail. Who needs a collapsing UK economy? Don’t we have plenty of other problems in Europe? But still, how on earth could that happen? Why is it so difficult to sell the idea of a united Europe to people? My feelings shift back and forth between anger, to disbelieve and back to anger these days. It feels a bit like a breaking up, like trying to cope a divorce. And some song of James Blunt one day in our car finds some words: “No matter what we say or do, the message isn’t getting through. And now your listening to the sound of my breaking heart.”
From Revelstoke we follow the trail towards Glacier and Yoho Nationa Park. After crossing Rogers pass we camp nearby the little village of Field for about a week and enjoy the great mountains. Every day we watch the long trains crawl up and down the mountains through the spiral tunnels at the Kicking Horse pass. The Canadian Pacific Railway is actually the birthplace of Canada. Between 1881 and 1885 this railway was built across Canada to unify the different landscapes, push industries and lead to a growing population in the scarcely populated western areas. BC became part of Canada because of the promise to build the railway.
The Kicking Horse pass is around 1600 m high and formed in the 1880ties an almost invincible obstacle. The steep and long stretch of tracks built in the beginning led to repeated derailment of the trains, with rail road workers dying of accidents. The steep mountains also bring avalanches in the winter of a force that is deadly most of the times too. It took until 1909 that a new track system was developed: the spiral tunnels. Trains ride in spirals up and down the mountains, to avoid steep stretches. It is a veritable spectacle to see the long trains cross themselves on different heights.
Candada Day is coming up. Its a long weekend and camp grounds fill up. We head towards Lake Louis a little village in gorgeous mountain surrounding to celebrate with our Canadian hosts. There is a local parade and we love it: its not more than three Mounties (Police in red uniform), a police car, a fire car, an ambulance and the local garbage truck. We stand at the side of the road and wave Canadian flags and catch sweets. Pauli is impressed by a man wearing a bear costume giving sweets to children.
At our campground we meet a wonderful Canadian family with children at the same age as ours and we enjoy campfires together. The whole family are second generation immigrants to Canada, having come to Canada from Iran, Marokko and South Africa. It is so great to see, that now twenty years later they are proud Canadians, having succeeded in their jobs, smart kids enjyoing good education. We have to think about the pessimistic debate at home, about refugees and their integration. The Canadian model of integrating refugees and emigrants under one flag and one set of rules, seems to work pretty well.
The Icefields Parkway is still waiting for us. They call these 230 km the most spectacular highway in the world. Unfortunately we haven’t seen the Karakorum Highway from close yet, so we have to believe for now that the most spectacular highway actually can be found in Canada…
We visit the Columbia Icefields and its Athabasca Glacier by taking a tour on a glacier snow coach. The Columbia Icefield itself we can see best from the skywalk, where the thick layers of ice can be seen best. The layers look like an icing on top of a cake and can be as thick as 350 m. It is an amazing experience of wild nature. Even with the many tourists around us.
Speaking of wild outdoors. We get to see bears, even very close. A mother bear and her baby walk alongside the road and people stop to take pictures. Apparently the bear is already used to humans, because she is reacting absolutely relaxed even with her baby nearby. We later learn from a ranger, that a non-natural behavior like that leads most of them times to the shooting of the animal. Getting used to humans usually means getting used to human food and developing aggression towards humans if they cant find any food for some reason. Anywhere we go we read to leave bears alone and not to make any contacts with them. But still it is totally fascinating to watch the two bears from within our car.
Later we will also see marmots fighting, elks running along the woods, racoons come to visit our campground at night and squirrels are our daily companions at the campgrounds. We love to watch them running up and down the trees. Most of the year these animals are all alone out here, the highway is only open a couple of weeks during the year.
Honeymoonlake campground at the Icefields Parkway, about some 50 km away from Jasper was definitely my favorite place to stay. It is in the middle of the woods, right at a lake, with view towards an impressive mountain range. Once Pauli and me we play at the lake’s shores, I see a bear coming to drink some water in the other side of the lake. It is very impressive and we really feel that we are only visitors here. We are high up in the mountains and nights become very chilly. We decide to abandon one tent and sleep all together in the other, to warm up all together. By now Torsten and Johann manage to light a camp fire within seconds, it has become part of our daily routines. :-)
We spend a lot of time at Jasper and Banff National Parks. There are a lot of tourists here in the summer, but it is always possible to hike away from the crowds. A little bit off the beaten tracks and we are on our own in the middle of wild nature. It can be scary sometimes, no one of us wants to surprise a bear while on a walk and we discuss buying a bear spray to be able to defend ourselves. But never gets further than discussing, we just would not know if would really use that hard stuff. Instead our kids do what they are best in: they make a lot of noise when we are hiking, that should help too. :-)
One day our four week trip through the mountains is over. Actually it feels as if it was over pretty quickly. We have gotten used to traveling around in long time distances. Staying a week here, two weeks there has become the normal way of life.
We have to drop off our car in Calgary and we come to town during the week of the Calgary Stampede. This is a big ten-day-festival, once a year and they call it the “Biggest outdoor show on Earth”. It is all about Cowboys and we dive into the Wild West-feeling. Highlight is the evening Chuck Wagon Race, where at each race four wagons with four horses race in a huge stadium. It is an amazing show! It is Antonia’s birthday and I get tickets for three of us for the evening show. We are very impressed by the race, the dance and music show and the firework.
The day after our visit to the Stampede festival we fly over to Toronto. Torsten has taken care of booking the tickets and I learn only now, that the flight will take almost four hours! We have driven already some 1000 km from Vancouver to Calgary, there is another 4000 km to fly and from Toronto it is still more than 2000 km to the east coast. I am starting to get an idea of the size of Canada.
Toronto awaits us with a heat wave. We are a bit shocked. Our first night after arriving in Ontario is terrible. We cant sleep from the heat and decide to get as soon as possible back to our tents, somewhere outside a hot city. We have again rented a car and managed to fly all our camping stuff over to Toronto. We are at a baggage load of about 150 kg by now…
Toronto is an interesting multicultural city and Johann counts in one street restaurants from almost all countries we have been to in South East Asia. “Actually there was no need to travel to all these countries, just coming to Toronto would have been enough.” :-)
And of course we have a look at Ontarios highlight: the Niagara Falls. We are not allowed to enter the US without a visa anymore, since we have Iranian Visa in our passports and are not allowed in the visa waiver program anymore. I am a bit worried that this will mean, that we cant really see the Niagara Falls. Only when we arrive, I realize what a huge area this is and that there are actually two falls and that the Canadian side is definitely the best side to be on if you want to have a look at the falls. They are huge and impressive and we enjoy the clear blue water from close and from far.
We will see the same water, much calmer though, again, later when we park at Ontario Lake and enjoy quiet time learning some fishing and having more camp fires.
On our way further east we come along Ottawa. From Ottawa on I feel like being back in Europe. The houses, buildings, size of the streets, everything seems European, or better British. (Shouldn’t be calling it European anymore?) Parliament Hill is a Gothic revival and Antonia feels reminded on her favorite castle building: “This looks like Hogwarts, Mama!” :-)
We take a wonderful tour around the buildings and learn a lot about Canadian History, especially about the latest struggle to integrate and reconcile First Nation people, as native Canadians are called officially. We learn about the “Highway of tears” for example, Highway #16 in BC, where within a couple of years more than forty young girls of aboriginal background went missing or were murdered. The highway crosses the home of about 23 first nations. The area is one of the poorest and least accessible in BC and hitchhiking can easily become a death sentence for young women needing to hitchhike from one place to the next. Apparently racism has led to almost no investigations on the grounds, but numbers of victims have been rising over the years.
This whole chapter is a very dark one, but enthusiasm about the new government with prime minister Justin Trudeau is big. People expect him to take the right steps into a reconciling direction. Everywhere we go in Canada people are proud of their current government, apparently Trudeau has managed to put together a government with people of almost all backgrounds there are in Canada. And not to forget and most important: 15 of his 30 ministers are women. Asked about this fact and why he had done so, he just answered: Because it is 2015. Cant believe that between all the Trumps, Le Pens and Putins of this world something like this is still possible. We all love Justin. :-)
Traveling in Canada feels a bit like traveling in the US: big roads in the west, big cars, big plates with lots of food in restaurants, everything is a bit bigger than usual. But when taking a closer look on Canadian legislation I realize that there are huge differences in mentality that I was never aware of before: for example unlike the US Canada has strict gun controls, they are far away from the everyone-his-own-gun-at home-feeling. And there is an elaborated system of public health care and a welfare system.
And of course there is French. :-) When we enter Quebec we realize that they are very serious about this. From signs in two languages (even in the Rockies signs would be in two languages) we go over to signs in only one language. In stores, restaurants and shops: no English anymore, its French. We are glad we speak it, that makes things easier. Now I really feel like being back home again. Cities look European and conflicts look even Belgian. ;-)
When we traveled in Malaysia one day we picked up Claudia and Kevin from Montreal who were hitch hiking South East Asia. We have a great time together and we are really happy to be able to visit them now, that we have reached their home country on our journey. Claudia’s parents Gisele and Francois have agreed to welcome us in their house in Quebec. We are very excited and ride to the address Claudia has given us. It is a bit strange, we will ring at a door, not knowing if it is the right one, asking people we don’t know to let us stay at their house overnight. But when we meet Gisele and Francois all worries are over. They are so friendly and open and welcoming, it is a great pleasure to be with them. It is a wonderful day. I am amazed by the way the dinner table is set, the food, the dishes, everything looks so European, as if we were somewhere in southern France. And I ask Gisele and Francois if they still have family in France, but they lough and tell me that it must have been at least 300 years that their families live in Canada. Amazing how strong cultural backgrounds can be. After months of speaking no French at all, we polish up our skills and find our way back into the sound of this wonderful language. Though the Canadian accent is quite special, sometimes it feels a bit like being in la Provence.
At the St. Lawrence River further east we stay for a while at the little town of Tadoussac. And we have a reason to be here: whales! The bay of the river is home to hundreds of whales and we hope to get to see some of them.
Because riding zodiacs is a bit dangerous, we split up in groups, so one of us can always stay with Pauli. Johann and me we get to see whales and seals from far. We are amazed by the huge fountains of water they can produce and enjoy being on the sea next to these big animals. But our views are nothing compared to the pictures Torsten and Antonia bring home! Whales swim right next to their boat, they even have time to film them! One dives underneath the boat, it is really amazing!
In Tadoussac ends our camping time in Canada. We get rid of everything we do not want to keep. Almost all my worn out clothes from the long journey make it into the trash. I have been living for the last months actually with two sets of one shirt and one pant. It is very comfortable, but I am also looking forward to get back my dresses and sandals back home in Brussels.
Our last stop is Montreal. And it is a special stay. Rene and Noella, friends of Gisele and Francois in Quebec have left us the keys of their house, while they are still on vacation. And we move into a wonderful old villa in a quiet street in Montreal. It is a lovely house, one hundred years old, with wooden floors, a porch at the entrance and a lot of charming antique details. After two days Rene and Noella come home and we have a great time being with them, chitchatting, having great food and enjoying quiet time, before we are on our own again, because the two leave again on a trip.
We are so grateful for the wonderful people we have been able to meet in Canada and of course we hope to see everyone back in Belgium one day!
We meet up with Claudia and Kevin to explore Montreal and try the Poutine, a local specialty of french fries and sauce. There is time to go to the local swimming pool and have chats with the people living in ‘our’ quartier. Johann even mows the lawn at our house and the one of the neighbor. It is a quiet, but very intensive time. Moments to reflect, remember and dream again.
These last days of our trip are very special. It is this strange mix of feelings: sadness that the journey is over and the excitement to come back home, both feelings are very strong. We know that something very special is coming to its end, but we hope that we will be able to take lots of the good things from our year off into our new-old-lifes. We realize that this journey has changed us, but we don’t know yet what exactly that will mean. We have to go home to find out.
On 25th of June 2016 we land at Zaventem Airport Brussels at 11.30 am. We have made it. Once around the world. Time for a new adventure.
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