Vancouver island

The internet connections have been a bit hit and miss. I left Van for the sake of my sanity. Common sense says living life at 125% is going to catch you in the end. I must admit I feel embarrassed about the some of the things we got up to, but we got way with it.I still dont know how.

I hooked up with a lovely hippy chick and went to Vancouver island, where she ran off with a mandolin player, I split and went to Tofino, a remote village on the Pacific west coast.

I think West Cornwall or Scotland is similar but imho nicer, except for the rainforest. Took a little boat to an even more remote island and trekked through the jungle by myself. I walked via a barely perceivable trail, round a tree six meters wide, through bogs, under tree roots, over fallen trees that were the size of houses. I now understand what an impenetrable forest is. Moving a meter off line you'd come to a complete halt. Touch anything and cascades of water would come down.

Have almost given up on going further north independent travel looks too complicated and the weather is too unpredictable.

Thinking of going to the Canadian Rockies instead.

Vancouver, Canada

Dear friend, sorry its been awhile, but when you have no fixed structure to you time things can get a bit out of hand.

I have hooked up with some great guys, we abuse all the house rules, which are pretty liberal to start with, dodgy bars, and iffy clubs, pool tournaments, playing music till dawn and the best, jamming with a couple of guitars sitting on the roof, 6 am finishes are not unusual. The place is a dump and we are not helping, think Withnal and I and you wont be far wrong.

Love Vancouver, mountains, the ocean, the general vibe. I walked along the sea shore for a couple of miles, the Pacific waters crystal clear and saw a seal catching fish, but there is no litter on the shore line what so ever, not even a coke can. The water is a chilly 9 degrees.

The food is fabulous and so cheap, I can buy half an 18 inch pizza for 1.25 UKP, but you dont even want to know the kind of stuff that is piled up and sold in China town.

There is a vast farmers market and deli stalls that makes Selfridge's look second rate. The tomatoes taste of tomatoes the peaches are the size of melons and make you want to take a bight out of everything.

Went for a walk by myself through a 1000 acre ancient rain forest, massive trees twisted into malevolent shapes, straight out of Farngorm wood, very primordial.

I'm now moving on to Vancouver island, I've heard of a hippy place to hang out with some good surf.

This is the start

Every journey starts somewhere, this one starts in in Manchester, England. It was probably a journey that I never intended to take, but circumstances meant that it seemed the best avenue to follow.

The motivation had been germinating for some time, but burst through on a train journey traveling from Manchester to Cardiff. Looking out on to a glorious day over the Welsh hills, while being trapped in filthy carriage and an eight hour meeting followed by a four hour return journey. It was time to get out.