Hummingbirds in the Back Yard
No blog post for a couple of days as basically we have done very little other than chill but I thought I should just bring us up-to-date.

The title is very apt as we have taken quite a few pics of these tiny dynamo's. They are devilishly difficult to photograph as they zoom from here to there but our hosts have some feeders which allowed us to capture the little beauties. Here are a some of my personal favourite shots:

We have also seen a 'sapsucker' (or woodpecker) in the woods and I managed to get this lucky pic:

Apart from taking pictures of the local wildlife, Jan suggested helpfully yesterday that we should go and 'check-out' a place close by called 'Twin Falls'. Beautiful sunny morning albeit the weather looked somewhat ominous around the mountains. Nevertheless, we drove the few kilometers to the small car parking area and headed out on the trail. As we approached the main viewing platform, it started to rain. And when we got there, it came down in buckets! Fortunately, there was a tiny amount of shelter and I managed to capture this shot:

So 'Twin Falls' really does mean twin falls!

On the way back down the trail we got absolutely drenched. Jan just kept laughing (seeing the funny side as we could see it was still sunny just a couple of kilometers away from the mountain side). It was also because she was having some trouble with her trousers which, as everyone knows, is one of the drawbacks of losing a bit of weight on holiday. Still, they just about stayed up so that we could get back to the car avoiding any acute embarrassment!

Changing the subject swftly, interesting accommodation we thought for the local radio station:

So this morning after breakfast we will head off to Quesnel and an overnight stay at the Billy Barker Casino Hotel. What an interesting life we lead!

A Night on the Town
Oh yes! We decided to go out yesterday evening having bought tickets to attend the local 'Voice of the Valley - Finals!' competition that was being held in a local Smithers establishment called the 'Alpenhorn Bistro - Bar'. It all happens in Smithers you know!

There were nine contestants who each had to sing two songs of their choice and there were four judges, including the local mayor. We arrived a bit before the performances started so as to have something to eat.

The openning song was a Neil Young number and although the singer was nervous and somewhat 'flat' in many places, we thought 'well, it's a start and it can only get better'. It didn't! In fact, when the second performer just really started howling (to our delicate ears) and was awarded an extra point for showing enthusiasm by jumping off the stage at one point, it started to feel like we had entered a parallel universe. The 3rd bloke brought his own microphone along and we thought he must be a more accomplished singer. Nope! 

They seemed to 'pull the plug' on the next performer as his mic stopped working. But he ploughed on anyway and I think he got extra points for showing professionalism in the face of adversity. 

So that was the first four contestants and the crowd were loving it which made it seem all that more weird. And although we were already thinking we might just walk out, Jan wanted to hear a woman sing and fortunately, the next contender was a woman. She sang 'I'll be your shoulder to cry on'. I'm not certain who sang this but I have Stevie Nicks in my head as the singing was sort of that dry low 'tone'. Except this rendition was ALL one tone and flat and I'm sure that was not quite how it should be sung? 

Anyway, at this stage we simply could not subject ourselves to any more so called for the bill. When the waitress asked 'please can I come home with you?', we knew we had made the right decision. She then said in rather an envious tone 'have a quiet night!'. We felt quite sorry for her actually as she would have to stay and listen to another 13 songs being completely destroyed.

Still, what can you say? The winner was fighting for a prize of 2 nights in Vancouver (to include accommodation!). Let's just hope nobody asks them to sing! 

The experience is one we will never quite forget - some Birthday eh!

Birthday Boy!
Had an absolutely smashing breakfast this morning prepared by our most excellent hostess (Mickela). Also had an e-card from Jan and an e-mail from Jenny whom I managed to catch-up with later on the mobile. My brother as well sent me a lovely message that I didn't pick up until later in the day. 

Anyway, here is where we are currently staying:

Just a quiet day we were thinking with nothing in particulat planned. However, Smithers has a small farmers market on a Saturday so we decided to take a look:

It's a pleasant enough town but there is definitely something here about 'blowing you're own trumpet'!

Drove on to check-out a small town nearby called Telkwa which is at the confluence of two rivers (Bulkley and Telkwa):

Where we saw a few bears that seem to be particularly busy:

Then back to our comfortable abode as the sun came out more fully in the afternoon. The scene just outside our accommodation is inspiring:

And seems to have encouraged the hummingbirds to come to the feeders:

So a relaxing time was had by us both and our hostess has even provided us with some cream-topped cakes - yumee!!

As for this evening, we have bought tickets to a local karioke final (there have apparently been 5 heats so far) which takes place at the Alpenhorn Bistro & Pub in the centre of Smithers. Should be great fun and a good way to round off an excellent Birthday.

Close Encounters!
There are just a couple of highlights from our trip to Smithers today.

We were hoping we might see a Komode Bear (or Spirit Bear) as these are known to be resident in the area but we were not lucky this time. We did though see a Coyote at the side of the road and Jan took some great shots of it:

A short diversion from the appointed route took us to a First Nations museum village. Sorry, but we just didn't get it! It just looked like a small village to us that was in need of some funding to up-grade it. Sure, there were a few totem poles but not enough I fear to interest the casual adventurer.

But we did cross an interesting ravine on the way, over a scary bridge which was undergoing some repair:

Believe it or not, that's a pedestrian walkway along the side of the single lane road track and the side barrier is about two feet high. So falling off is a destinct possibility; particularly if there is an unexpected gust of wind! But your's truly made the perilous journey just to get a shot of the canyon. Completely bonkers!!

Talking of which, we have now arrived at our accommodation for the next four nights just outside Smithers. Well, when I say 'just outside Smithers', what I actually mean is that it's in the middle of nowhere. A nice enough place I guess if you like seclusion but not quite what we expected - thanks Booking.Com! So chances are we will either be forced to 'do nothing' for the next three days or we will just have to move on and take the hit financially - we shall see. Nice views of the mountains though!

Incidentally, the Yellowhead Highway along which we travelled to get here is known as the 'Highway of Tears'. I think it's because people just go missing - we have seen several 'reward' posters! It's a real wilderness out here and it would not be a good idea I think to be travelling alone.

Faces in the Wood
There is not a great deal to record for today (26th May) as we have not really done very much.

We had a quiet morning and Jan decided to sleep for a while longer as her insect bites on her ankle were playing up. So I just read and relaxed for a while.

We did though decide to do the very short trip across to Ferry Island where there is an easy trail through the forest. Someone at some stage has carved faces into the bark of lots of the older trees there so it's interesting to walk around and see how many you can find. They can be difficult to spot and I think we located about 30 of them. Here are a few examples:

We got caught in the rain I'm afraid but it was not too long before the sun peeped through the clouds once more. By the time we had finnished our walk, we just needed a snack and wandered over to a 'chain eatery' called Tim Horton's before heading back to our B&B for the afternoon (more reading and relaxing!). Off to Smithers tomorrow!

Just Pottering About!
After a hearty breakfast this morning (25th May), we headed into the jungle. There are a couple of tracks down to the river and the terrain is still mainly temparate rain forest round here. We heard some very weird sounds but determined that it was the resident Raven population as apparently they have a repertoire of about 30 different sounds. The most spooky, were the one's that sounded like howler monkey's! Oh - here's one that I managed to capture on camera:

Suffice to say that despite putting on loades of insect repellent, we were both bitten. Me not too bad but Jan has three very nasty bites on her ankle that have caused a swelling. Hopefully, it will go down after a while?

Terrace itself is a pretty busy little place (for a small town) and is disected by the Skeena river which is quite wide, fast flowing at this time of  the year and over which there are several bridges. At one point, a railway bridge and road bridge run side by side:

And it was great to be there when a train came through - choo choooo!!:

Pottered about in the afternoon in and out of the local shops. In one of them, we met a lady who moved out here 40 years ago from England and another who has been out here for about 11 years but who is originally from Wales (Port Talbot). The welsh lady was very interested to know that my future son-in-law's family is from Neath in South Wales!

Ended the day at Mumfords Bar & Grill. My burger was accompanied by Cod Chowder - strange here but, to accompany your burger, they give you the choice of fries (chips), salad or soup so I just had to do the soup thing. Must say though that it was delicious!

On to Terrace

Well, so it's time for us to move on (again). Decided to head for Terrace where we are booked into a family run B&B for a couple of nights. It's good to get back into the mountains again. Weather too improves as we head East.

Arriving fairly early and too early to check in, we were very interested to see what a small traditional 'First Nations' town was like which entailed about an hour's drive to the north to a place called 'New Aiyansh'. Well, it WAS called that but the local council have decided to change the name to something more traditional. Impossible for westerners to pronounce - obviously!

We like the totem poles and the design of the local place of worship though:

On the road to Gitlaxt'aamiks, we encountered a massive lava lake and lava bed:

But it's the mushrooms that seem to take centre stage around here!

Having played the tourist for a couple of hours, we ended up at our B&B to meet our swiss hosts (and Fluffy the dog!).

The place is being re-roofed so there is a bit of noise during the day but that doesn't bother us much as typically we will be out and about. The current owners moved here some four years ago and have made quite a few changes - it has three guest rooms and two separate bathrooms. It's apparently a great base for fishing and pretty soon (in about four weeks time) it will probably be fully booked for the Salmon fly fishing season. At the moment, we are the only guests. So that's nice!

Inside Passage
Quite an unspectacular drive the length of Vancouver Island found us at Port Hardy to embark on the next leg of our journey. Check-in for the ferry was OK and then we were into waiting time which fortunately was not long and departure was pretty much on time.

So what can I say about the Inside Passage? Well it's quite a long journey between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert and takes about 22 hours. We had booked a cabin which was quite spacious and suited us perfectly. I can also add that there are lots of islands along the way which the ship threads itself through (well, I guess the skipper does that!). As can be seen, it was sunny when we left port but the weather changed quite quickly and it was both cold and windy pretty much the whole way. Sadly, no whale sightings either, albeit I overheard one of the crew say that they had seen a humpback whale first thing in the morning. Could have told the rest of us!! It's all very much the luck of the draw. Either you see something or you don't. We didn't!

Nice Hotel in Prince Rupert with large window overlooking the bay but being in this town in the cloud and rain is not an uplifting experience! There is however a local Bald Eagle that fly's past our window regularly. And we know where we are in relation to some other places around the world:

And we did over-order on the Pizza in the evening. A 12 inch AND a 14 inch are just too much - so it's cold Pizza tomorrow!

We took a short stroll into Cow Bay his morning (23rd) but it's all pretty dreary. It's a Canada holiday today so everything's a bit quiet. They did though turn-out the yellow fire engine!

With plenty of time on our hands we also decided to make some significant changes to our itinerary. We have cancelled our trip to Ketchican (Alaska) as we don't think it will deliver for us what we are looking for. Instead, we will take ourselves off to a place called Terrace (well, just outside actually) for at least a couple of nights.

Last Day in Paradise

It's 4.30am and the full moon shines brightly on our last night at the He-Tin-Kis (translates to 'By The Sea' in the Nuu-Chah-Nulth language) Lodge we have been staying in. The light streams through the large picture windows that front onto our balcony and it seems entirely appropriate that this should be our parting memory of what I can only describe as a small part of paradise. It's rather afected us both and we will be sad to leave later this morning.

Yesterday developed into another sunny and relatively (for this latitude) warm day which we spent just pottering about really. We did manage to find Jan a keyring to add to her collection and loitered down at the harbourside in the late afternoon watching (and photographing) the sea lions and gulls that have made this their home. One of the sea lions even waved goodbye!

So just a few hours now and we will be packing our bags once more to embark on the next part of our adventure. Not looking forward to the 6 hour drive. It will probably be longer as I expect we will have plenty of picture-stops on the way to Port Hardy at the very north of the island. So a final memory - the happy couple in Ucluelet:

Letting The Day Go By

Slept in till 9am this morning. It's a tough deal out here! And awoke to another bright sunny day. So a quiet 'balcony' day seems to be in order. 

Took a few pictures yesterday afternoon and managed to capture one or two of where we are staying including Mrs F on the balcony. Our place is the brown one in amongst the cedars just left of centre across the inlet in the first picture below.

View from across the inlet

Jan on the balcony

And this is one of our resident Bald Eagles:

Now, talking of eagles, Jan has developed a bit of an eagle eye for taking pictures and this is her in what has become a fairly typical pose:

We did take a trip into Tofino yesterday as well as we were told it's a lovely place. In our opinion 'it's not!'. Very tourist'y and but for the emphasis on surfing and whale watching, it could be any small seaside town. I think we spent about a half hour there before heading back to Ucluelet having failed to find anything remotely inspiring.

So here we are and it's already mid-day. Oh how time fly's! Geting a little hazy now so time to sign-out and rest up. Might head out to the lighthouse later as there is a wider view of the ocean from there and so a better chance of seeing whales but realistically, we don't expect to see much in that respect until we head for Prince Rupert later in the week on the 'Inside Passage' Ferry.

Another Day of Rest

Awoke today to heavy sea mist and low cloud that creates an eerie atmosphere whilst at the same time being somewhat calming. Not certain what to do today - probably just rest and recharge the batteries.

But it's worthwhile making some further comments about the town we are staying in. If Jasper was 'laid back' then Ucluelet is positively 'horizontal'! However, it does have a school and a Co-Op and an Aquarium. The latter has an interesting policy - it is apparently 'not for profit' and replaces it's displays each year. So at the end of the season, they release all their exhibits back into the ocean and next season go out and see what they can find. If you're a fish then I guess that's a 'double-edged sword' - just when you think you're safe and can't get eaten by the bigger fish, you get hoisted out of your comfort zone and have to fend for yourself once more - a bit like being promoted at work I suppose!

Anyhow, some pics of the town to be going on with:

Local Aquarium by the Dock

Not sure about the 'Tattooed Beaver'?

Really shouldn't have leant against that!

And some local history: 

They call it the 'Whiskey Dock' - just my kind of place!