Getting over the New World    Coming home after some of my recent trips I've "come down" felt a bit low, after all the excitement. But this summer on my return from North America I really hit the floor. It felt worse because of all my zycling philosophy, it shouldn't happen!...

North America 55 the end  finished with a selfy   The final curtain, on the trip that is.   So what can I say abuut Canada, and Canadians , that lovely way they pronounce about, in fact perhaps I should not say anymore. Well let me tell you a little story....

North America 54 picture Stampede    Am I a security risk?    John and Coleen have two teenage daughters and the youngest is sixteen today and we all went Ten Pin Bowling. I haven't done this for fifty years and as I've shrunk a bit and the bowls have got larger...

North America 53 picture Mounties    The Truth according to Greyhound ( leave the driving to us )   Found a bunk at the International hostel which is on the Canada Day Parade Route which happens tomorrow 1st July .  And so it came to pass, not quite the Pasadena Rose Parade, but nice...

North America 52  picture on the couch with Alice    Hanging out with Alice      It's interesting how much that remark the other day hurt. Talking to Katie on the hike she thought that women don't bond in the same way as men, who she considered more accepting. Whereas women...

North America 51 picture Ukrainian    Don't emigrate from a country that becomes the enemy      A quick definition is  maybe called for ; a Tourist is someone who sees what he goes to see, whereas a Traveller sees what he sees. I got that out of a Servas handbook,...

North America 50 picture Lake Louise    Let's join the Tourist   I chickened out on the pool, how could it measure up to the Korean lake! After playing some more on the IPad I returned to the bike to bring up the bags and who should turn up but Kirk...

North America 49  picture Alex and Kirk    Alone once again     Lying in the tent, feeling slightly annoyed about staying in a camp site ( as its quite noisy with a few vehicle movements around the camp and lots from the nearby road.) Should we have chanced the Bears...

North America 48 picture mysterious old road    A hostel to write home about     After the hotel letting me post that Grizzly story, I take back my nasty slurs about the integrity of the organisation, after all the mails must get through!  And the tourists deserve everything that they...

North America 47 picture Sky Walk to post    The thoughts of Chairman Golding      Well things didn't turn out too badly Pierre made friends with the bear, luckily he had enough porridge and I left them to it. So tonight I'm settling down at the Honeymoon Lake camp site...

North America 46 picture from dome    Sometimes life can be a long wait.     At breakfast the Abbot gave us another wide ranging chat which covered Existentialist Philosophers and writers , charlatans and saints. It almost measured up to a similar Breakfast chat at Chithurst when Ajahn Sumedo was...

North America 45 picture monastery Kuti    Simply sumptuous     While I was waiting for the pick up I got chatting to a high school girl who's parents were doctors. She explained the the local Uni had quite a low qualification entry, and she would like to go to Vancouver...

North America 44 Kamloops Valley and the Thompson River   Real or True, you decide.   I'm back at that motel and I know Kamloops the hard way as this town is built on hills. My mistake was I didn't check out where the monastery actually was because its quite a...

North America 43  picture the simple station    No room at the inn   Motels mean TV  and popular culture and this time it's the Big Band era on Public Broadcasting, now I can put faces to those delicious times listening to AFN ( American Forces Network )  under the bed...

North America 42  picture station   It's only a bus ride     A nice farewell to my hosts, John copied a detailed map via Prospect Park, but I chickened out as cycling through the city heavy loaded seems unnecessary, so it's the Seabus again, without Denny, but a couple of...

North America 41 picture of Denny    With real cyclists again.     Traveling around BC makes me wonder where all the money comes from? Everyone seems to be living in a kind of holiday environment, with these lovely waterfront homes on so many islands scattered all over. Perhaps all those...

North America 40 picture book writer to post   Change of plan.   Going out of Victoria is the Galloping Goose Trail that is the beginning of the recently completed 15,000k Trans Canadian  trail, so I better get going as its Noon and life is short ( I started out at...

North America 39 photo of the city from the cycle path. Another family plus hens.   Through the help of my host's son I now can properly post on Facebook, but for some reason my web site still rejects a complete story. Never mind eh.   My host Alan has just...

North America 38    Picture of totem pole   No ! Not another book to read.   As the ship pulls out I'm feel a bit choked up, I'm really glad that I've got a Servas host to stay with in Victoria, I only hope that 'the nice days' will continue,...

North America 37 to post add picture of the shore?   Thoughts on Leaving the USA    In the British Diplomatic Service there was a tradition of giving a confidential report about the country that you were stationed in. I think it was called a valedictory.   Once when I was...