Good day Rollie followers. After some hype surrounding Ollie’s video masterpiece a couple of weeks back, he wanted to create another one! But then he delegated… and Rosie made this.

We have spent the week settling into our new routine of staying inside most of the day in front of a computer. We’ve started to apply for some work, but given the global situation it might take a while to get some. We’ve been trying our best to keep morale up… by getting in the festive spirit! Well, this has been kind of enforced thanks to the decorations in our AirBnB and the snow. We’ve also done some pre winter shopping at the Turkey Sales (it was Canadian thanksgiving weekend – who knew?!).

The weather has been snow match for Ollie, who has been trying to get some mountain biking in with Thom before it becomes far too snowy.

We’ve been trying to do some exercise everyday. This particular workout was inspired by a film we watched this week. Can you guess what it was?

We went out for dinner last night with Hannah and Thom (as we are lazy writers, any suggestions for what we could shorten their name to?) and found that our new drinking limit is 2 North American pints. Feeling a little worse for wear today, we needed to relax. Luckily we have a hot tub…

We are happy to report that last week’s secret covert mission was a resounding success, with all parties satisfied. Find out about what we got up to in the following Youtube video:

If you didn’t get enough of the scenery, here are some additional photos we took during our mission:

After Floe Lake, we headed to Radium Hot Springs to have a well deserved (and hopefully not radioactive) bath. The following day we headed to Golden, in search of camping gas. Ours had run out at Floe Lake and we couldn’t find more anywhere. Luckily Shannon Hannah had given us hers, but we still had to ration this to make it through the week. It seems that COVID has caused all Canadians to bulk buy camping gas and there was none to be found anywhere. We had to make do with a fire, which was good for the essential BBQ’d bananas.

We hadn’t quite had enough of the backcountry camping, so this week we organised a three day camping trip in Yoho National Park. It rained more than expected, which means we are even more happy with our AirBnB for the next month or so in Sun Peaks. We are expecting snow this weekend! Have a good one.

We are writing this blog on Wednesday, as we have a secret covert mission towards the end of this week that we will enlighten you with in due course. Since Saturday, we have been on a road trip starting in the central Okanagan and including nearly risking a run in with Trump along the US border, a mountain retreat in Fernie and some laundry in Radium Hot Springs.

We started the trip from our housesit in Kelowna. We left our new kitty friend behind and headed slightly south on Saturday and Sunday, through the towns of Penticton, Oliver (clearly the best place ever) and Osoyoos. We had visited Osoyoos before during our holiday in 2018, so we said hello to the “Watermark Resort” where we had stayed previously (not the most attractive name…). The area is famous for vineyards, but we didn’t taste much wine this time as we reckon we drank more than our fair share in 2018. We had a relaxed time, visited a few beaches and wandered around the towns. We did find a rather divisive pub, which we obviously avoided, and Rosie found her favourite cumin gouda cheese in a deli for lunch instead.

After leaving Osoyoos, there wasn’t a lot to do until we started to get closer to the Rockies. On Monday we had a long day of driving across to Fernie on the far east side of British Columbia. We had carefully planned the 6 hour drive to arrive before the tourist information office closed, but forgot that we crossed into a different time zone. We missed the office, but managed to plan a hike for ourselves anyway. (Before anyone asks, Rosie did approximately 2/5 of the driving… and 5/5 of the stressing.)

The next morning, we attempted to get up early, but it was a bit cold for getting out of sleeping bags. We had decided to hike a portion of “Heiko’s Trail”, a beautiful traverse through the mountains near Fernie. After a bit of a drive up a bumpy road, something Ollie is getting pretty good at now, we parked near the trail. We were all alone apart from a creepy ghost car… The trail had waterfalls, a cave, a canyon, mountain views, forests, meadows and our favourite… rock falls with pikas! It took us about 4 hours to get up to Three Sisters Pass.

We almost made it down without any mishaps, but then clumsy Rosie slipped on a damp rock and bashed her shin. The bruise was disappointingly small.

The following day, after treating ourselves to bagels for breakfast from a cafe in Fernie, we set off on the slightly shorter drive to Radium Hot Springs. This time we did make it in time to go to the tourist information office so we could buy our park passes. A pass is required to enter the national parks and are valid for a year. This year, we will probably just visit Kootenay National Park and perhaps Mount Revelstoke or Glacier National Parks. Next year we can use it to see some more.

We had some unfortunate news on Sunday, that our last WorkAway host would not be able to host us for two weeks in October. We made the decision to extend our AirBnB in Sun Peaks rather than try and find another. This should give us a bit more time to work on making some cash. Anyway, best getting on with our secret mission…

We started the week visiting our friends Thom and Hannah in their new apartment. We always enjoy visiting and very much appreciate their hospitality, including regular freshly baked sourdough and consistently good cooking from Hannah. As they have been working from home anyway, they’ve temporarily moved from Vancouver to the retirement village ski resort of Sun Peaks. This way they can take advantage of the mountain biking and skiing on their doorstep. Plus, they deserve a rest after working so hard throughout their careers.

On Saturday, with the sun hiding, we took the scenic route down some logging roads to the town of Chase. We had some lunch, purchased some famous corn on the cob for our dinner and had a look at a waterfall. Then we drove back to Niskonlith Lake and inflated the paddle boards. The rain predictably got worse just as we got out on the water, despite Ollie reassuring everyone that Google said it would stop. It did stop, just as we got back in the car. As a consolation (for the rest of us) Thom got a leech on his leg! Luckily he flicked it off before it tucked in. Nevertheless it was a great paddle and day out exploring the local area.

Sunday was actually rain free and the smoke had pretty much gone. Ollie and Thom spent the day riding the chair-lift up the mountain, to then hurtle back down it on mountain bikes over and over again (seems pretty pointless to me…). The only crash happened within the first 5 seconds of cycling. Ollie careered off to the left on his first pedal, before bouncing off walls on both sides of the entrance to Thom and Hannah’s apartment. This obviously left Thom full of confidence that Ollie could safely navigate some of the actual mountain bike trails to come. Rosie and Hannah had a much more mature and tranquil day hiking up to Mount Tod and taking in the (cloudy) views. They did cheat and take the chair-lift up the first part though.

After distracting Thom and Hannah from their retirement for a little longer on Monday morning, including a very one sided tennis match between the boys, we drove down to the Okanagan Valley – a dry sunny region in British Columbia which is known for its vineyards and fruit orchards. On the way, we stopped off so we could wash the car (again) and so Ollie could buy some second hand ski boots in preparation for the winter. Although the boots fit in the car, we’re not sure where we will put skis if he manages to buy some… We set up camp by Okanagan lake for the night, and drove to the city of Kelowna in the morning.

We are house-sitting for a lovely kitty called Islay. She is an old lady, so isn’t very active, but she is extremely friendly and jumps on your lap whenever you sit down. We really like Kelowna itself. There is a great waterfront area with lots of really well maintained parks. The cultural district looks cool too, but unfortunately there are no events on because of you-know-what. Also, Ollie finally got rid of the beard and Rosie gave him his second haircut in nearly 8 months.

We now have a week and a half of travelling and camping before our last Workaway of the season at the start of October. We haven’t finalised plans yet, but we might re-visit Banff national park and try and do some more backcountry camping. We’ll of course update you next week. Bye for now!

Firstly, we’d like to apologise to our readers who had their blog update email lost in their spam folders last week. Our only explanation is that Rosie was in charge of posting, whereas it’s normally Ollie’s task. If you want something done right… Hopefully it won’t happen again. We also post reminders on instagram most Saturday to ensure our efforts result in at least some people reading the blog! You can find us at @roaming_rollie

It’s been smoky the last week in BC (and a lot of North America!). This is a result of the horrendous forest fires along the west coast of the States. One day had Ollie’s eyes watering, and a short walk led to a severe headache and dry throat. Rosie was fine.

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Our last workaway didn’t start too well. We are old hands at workaway experiences now and can’t be fooled into working over our agreed hours. This led to a small argument, but once we had made our points it went smoothly after that. The hosts certainly were characters, a couple of hippies in their 70s. We’ve had lots of lectures on how non-organic food isn’t food, how governments are ruining the world and how we can heal all of our ailments with beets. They have 160 acres of land, but most of it is wild, which led to some challenging and random hikes! One exciting thing that happened was we saw some of the kale and chard we packaged waiting to be shelved in Save on Foods grocery store.

After leaving the workaway on Wednesday we spent a few days in Kamloops. This included some admin tasks, like a pay per minute car wash (Ollie took this challenge very seriously), and some fun things like a back alley mural tour.

This weekend we are visiting our friends in Sun Peaks. This will be a good test run, as we have decided to book an AirBnB from mid October to mid November here. We’re hoping to use this time, and most of the winter, to get some online work and earn some money. Then Rollie can continue to roam in style next Spring.

At the start of this week, we set off with our new tent for our first overnight hike in Canada. These are some of the recent reviews of the hike/destination that we read before setting off.

Being scared Brits, we made sure to tell our friends where we were heading and when they could expect a text from us to confirm our safety. Before we made any new furry friends, we got to put Elsie through her paces on a 1 hour 4×4 drive up a forestry service road to the trail head. Although slow, she passed with flying colours, safely delivering us to the eager bears.

Standard advice is to make a lot of noise when hiking in bear country, as they are most likely to attack when surprised. We can tell you it is tiring hauling a pack with camping gear uphill and trying to talk/whistle/sing all the time! After a few hours we arrived at tranquil Tenquille lake. 

We had only met one group of people coming down on our way up, and there was just one pair camping at the top. We tried to camp as close as possible to them for safety, but without being too creepy. We managed to select a spot right next to the water with a beautiful view. Being at altitude meant temperatures got quite cold overnight, about -2 degrees, but luckily our sleeping bags were quite snuggly. Rosie did wish she had another set of leggings on and Ollie was glad she made him put on more than just a t-shirt and shorts as pyjamas! 

Having survived the night, we realised we were probably over anxious about an imminent bear attack/death and were slightly more relaxed. After a standard breakfast of mildly burnt porridge, thanks to our lightweight pans, we set off back down. We decided to listen to an audio book on loud speaker, not only to educate ourselves, but also so we didn’t have to incessantly talk to each other anymore. This lulled us into a false sense of security and, just when we least expected it, Ollie was attacked… by either a wasp or bee, we can’t be sure. Rosie can only hope that he recovers from the slight swelling below his eye. We saw no bears on the walk, only poop and paw-prints.

After hiking down, we planned to go to a free campsite run by BC hydro, similar to the one we mentioned in a previous blog post, but it was closed due to COVID. Luckily we are using a fairly good app called iOverlander to find places to sleep, so managed to find a campsite that was a reasonable drive away. The drive was spectacular, which we hadn’t quite expected. 

After spending the night at the campsite we spent a lazy day at Kamloops Lake, where we saw multiple ridiculously long Canadian cargo trains, before driving to our next workaday. It is situated in one of the driest places in Canada, it’s actually a desert! Surprise, surprise, it is another organic farm and we should be here for a week before going on to visit Thom and Hannah, who have moved to a place called Sun Peaks. Contrary to Ollie’s initial thoughts, this is not a retirement home (they are still in their 20s, just…) but a much cooler ski resort. We are sure we will be jealous of their new home right at the bottom of mountain biking and skiing runs…well Ollie will be anyway. 

After our big hiking effort last Friday, we had a very relaxed Saturday. At the start of the Garibaldi lake trail, we had met a french couple eating English muffins in the car park. We had chatted to them and told them about our favourite place to eat breakfast. On Saturday morning, we found them in our spot! Clement and Floriane have been in Montreal for nearly two years on working holiday visas and are now doing a final road trip in their Dodge grand caravan before heading back to Europe. We enjoyed a good few hours chatting and were very jealous of the size of their car/camper. Next, they are planning to move to Sweden – so we were also jealous of their EU citizenship. 

On Sunday, we visited Cheakamus Lake for our coldest swim so far. This may have been because we chose to swim right next to where an ice cold stream fed the lake… On the way up we bumped into some fluffy favourites from our previous holiday to Canada, the pikas! Whenever we walk past a rock-fall we shout “squeak!” and listen for them shouting back.

On Monday we arrived at our latest workaway, just north of Mount Currie. It’s a beautiful location and the work has been interesting. Our routine is great, with two hours work before lunch and then two hours in the evening after dinner. In our morning shift, we’ve tended to some conventional (but new to us) crops such as blueberries and raspberries. The evening shift is spent processing a less conventional crop (don’t worry, it’s legal man). We’ve quite enjoyed this experience, it is unique to Canada and certainly different to our day to day lives back home! Just don’t tell our parents…

The food here has been a huge step up from our camping dinners of Mr Noodles and baked beans, with plenty of homegrown vegetables again. Our hosts are very friendly and fun too. On Thursday they took us out on their boat on Anderson Lake and we spent some time perfecting our diving skills. With so much downtime, we’ve managed to fit in some beautiful and relatively untrodden hikes and lake swims around the area. Ollie has also started to enjoy beer, so we made a trip to the Beer Farmers where they grow their own ingredients as well as brewing the beer.

We were glad to have Elsie to sleep in for the first few nights at this Workaway, as we quickly realised we were sharing our cabin with a large pack rat. On the first night we saw its head poke out of the sidewall. Rosie instinctively hissed at it, channelling her inner Milky/Vinnie and causing both the rat and Ollie to scarper. Our host set some traps the following night, but the clever rat managed to eat all the food without being squished. However, Rosie awoke Wednesday morning to find a fluffy little present.

Next week we have a few days off to explore some of the area between Pemberton and Kamloops, before starting a new workaway at another organic vegetable farm on Wednesday. We are pretty sure it’s actually vegetables this time.

On Saturday, Thom and Hannah took us out for our first time on Stand Up Paddleboards and we both loved it. Unfortunately Milky couldn’t come. We had a bbq in the evening before a more relaxed day on Sunday, with a short ride around Vancouver for some well needed donuts/doughnuts.

On Monday, we left Vancouver and headed 1 hour north to a town called Squamish, famed for outdoor pursuits. Another reason we wanted to visit Squamish was to catch up with one of our new friends from Heart and Soil, Minouka. She gave us a great tour of Squamish, including Quest University, one of the best located universities in the world and organised a pot luck for Thursday evening.

Most of the remainder of the week has been filled with a lot of hiking, so prepare yourself for lots of blue skies, blue lakes and big mountains. Thanks to COVID-19, the hikes have been much quieter than normal. BC parks have established a limited day pass system, which goes live at 6am every day. Our routine has been to wake up at 5:55am and quickly get on the internet to get the required pass for the day. Today the passes were all gone at 6:01am!!

On Tuesday we hiked the Stawamus Chief, which has great views of the Howe Sound. The only issue is that it is very steep and some sections require ropes (thankfully not snakes) and ladders.

On Wednesday we hiked up to Elfin Lakes, situated in Garibaldi Provincial Park. The first 5km was through forest, but after that the ridge-line we followed was extremely pretty, with impressive mountain views and opportunities to spot bears (none for us though). There is a pretty awesome campsite at the lakes. We were so jealous of the people setting up their tents that, the following day, we ordered a tent ourselves!

Today we planned a 18km hike to Garibaldi Lake and back. The hike itself was average and Rosie was bitterly disappointed that she had forgotten to bring garibaldi biscuits, but the lake was amazing. The endorphin rush from our cold swim made us decide to add an additional 14km to our walk, to get to the top of Panorama ridge. We were glad that we did, the views were spectacular. This further fuelled the endorphin rush and Rosie was actually seen overtaking people going downhill! Hopefully our legs won’t feel the 1800m of elevation gain tomorrow.

We thought a fitting way to end this blog would be to discuss something we are still coming to terms with. We started watching Pom Poko, a Studio Ghibli anime about raccoons, with rather mystical powers…

A week ago we left our farming lives behind us temporarily and set off to see some mountains!

The first day was a bit busy, after we’d packed up and said goodbye to our hosts, we caught the ferry from Gabriola back to Vancouver Island with most of our camping gear and our winter tyres in the car. Our first job was to pick up some sleeping bags before driving down the road to drop our winter tyres off for temporary storage in Parksville. We dropped in to see the beach here, but it was very crowded, which was alarming after spending so much time on a quiet island. We drove a bit further north to the town of Courtenay in the Comox Valley where we picked up a few more camping essentials and groceries, before taking the last spot at Kitty Coleman Park campsite. The only shop still open had sold out of camping gas… but we had been sent off with salad mix, tomatoes and cucumber from the farm, so we had a very nice dinner anyway. It had been getting a bit late when we arrived, so we put the bed up and shoved stuff in where we could. We spent some time the next morning organising things more optimally, but this is still an ongoing task.

The next couple of days were still a bit admin-focused. We found some camping gas, had a failed hunt for a second hand tent (for potential multi-day hiking) and did a grocery shop for camping friendly food. We visited Nymph Falls park and finished sewing magnets into our curtains here. We visited a campsite on Comox Lake for the second night and had Mr Noodles with organic veg and a sunset view over the lake! On Monday morning we had to hang around for a Skype interview for a potential house-sit over the winter, unfortunately we didn’t have enough farm machinery experience. But after that we were off!

We drove to Strathcona Provincial Park and did our first bit of driving off the paved roads to get to Strathcona Dam Recreational Site. It is owned by BC Hydro (the electricity provider here) and is free to use for the public. We got a lovely spot with a bench and private access to a lake where we had a swim to cool down after the warm drive and filled up our water supply using our new filter. We had beetroot risotto for dinner and a good night’s sleep.

Our first day exploring the park was pretty lazy, we were in no rush to get up early so didn’t have enough time to tackle one of the day hikes. We just had a look at a few waterfalls and forest trails and went back early to claim our same camp spot for the second night.

The following morning we got up earlier and drove to the bottom of Crest Mountain for a 9 o’clock start. 20 minutes later we were back again as Ollie had lost the button on his trousers and they had fallen down. Armed with some safety pins, we started our second attempt on the mountain. It was very steep! 1300 m up in about 5 km. Mostly through old forest, the vegetation changed to alpine meadows as we got closer to the top. The weather wasn’t perfect, but the views were still pretty impressive! No bears, but we did see several ptarmigans, which had been re-introduced to the area (Rosie was too exhausted to take a picture of them). There was a lake at the top, where people often camp over night before heading back down, and a weird antenna thing (any ideas?) at the “false summit”. Most people call it a day here, but on our navigation app, it told us the true summit was just a bit further. It wasn’t. It was another 40 minutes walk on a non-existent trail and the views weren’t any better. Ollie insisted on getting to the actual top before we could eat our hakuri and peanut butter sandwiches though. The way down was tricky and several slips occurred… Also, we got drenched. Pretty exhausted and sleepy, we drove back to civilisation and ate cold baked beans for dinner because it was too rainy to cook outside.

The next day (Thursday) was equally rainy, so we decided to collect our winter tyres and get the ferry to Vancouver a day earlier than planned. It was very busy, as all the Canadians are going on local holidays this summer! We’ve dropped our winter tyres off in their more permanent home, met up with our friends and are currently pet-sitting for a very fluffy Himalayan cat called Milky.

Writing this all out makes us realise how much we’ve crammed into our first week away from Workaway. Hopefully Milky won’t meow too much tonight, so we can get some sleep to recover…