We have an apartment with a separate bedroom and a full kitchen for two nights in Vancouver, so we have plenty of space.
Today was our last tour organised by Fresh Tracks and once again it was a beauty. Landsea Tours used a small bus to take 14 people out of town. We were able to chat with the driver/guide and it did not take 5 minutes to get people on or off the bus as it does with 60 seat coaches.
The first stop was at a hatchery where there was a series of glass windows that allowed people to watch the salmon climbing a "fish ladder".
The tour continued on to Capilano Reserve (nothing to do with honey; it comes from a First Nation word for the area.)
There were some excellent totem poles here.
big tourist attraction was the 120 meter long suspension bridge over the river.
There were some excellent totem poles here.
At the middle of the bridge people stop to look down.
More interesting than the bridge was the beautiful unspoiled rainforest in the gorge which featured Douglas Fir trees up to 100 meters high.
In the Rockies these trees always had small trunks but here they were huge.
They had samples of "lumber" for Douglas Fir, which we call "oregon" and which we used for the rafters supporting our roof. Then there was Western Red Cedar, which we used for all of our skirting, architraves, etc.
All of the walkways were made out of thick timbers which would cost a fortune in Australia.
There was a Cliff Walk that hung precariously out over the gorge.
This manmade waterfall would be perfect for our front yard.
The final stop was at Grouse Mountain, which involved a 900 meter lift in a gondola to get up to the top of the 1200 meter mountain. It was less than 10C and very misty up there. The view of Vancouver was completely hidden but the grizzly bears were just visible in the mist.
The bird show was restricted because the birds were not allowed to fly in the thick mist. They showed us a grey horned owl, a bald eagle, a vulture and a peregrine falcon.
Three lumberjacks put on an hilarious show. They did some minor chainsaw carving with more boasting than outcomes. Someone must have done the permanent sculptures that lined the roads.
They demonstrated the art of running on a floating log to see who falls in the water first.
A third lumberjack showed he had no fear of heights by climbing up a 60 foot pole, then throwing down his equipment. He performed stupidly dangerous feats up there which was very hard to watch.
To our relief he came down by sliding on one of the cable stays which was set up as a "zipline".
Back in Vancouver it was warm and sunny at 6pm when the tour ended. Lyn had the flu and could not go on the tour.
No comments:
Post a Comment