Our first 10 days in BC

Summer bike jumps - Whistler

Granville Island

Sunset from our new home - looking over to Vancouver

Bike riding through Stanley Park


So what did our first 10 days in BC consist of? A little but of rain, a little bit of sun, a few different couches, a hire car, a new apartment, a new job and endless hours in front of the laptop looking for accommodation and jobs for the next 6 months.

Basically we spent the first night in a hostel in downtown Vancouver and then the next 4 nights on a great couchsurf with Greg followed by 3 nights on Ryan's couch and then 2 days with Claudia and Alan in Whistler before getting the keys to our 2 month mini lease on an apartment on North Vancouver from Stephen.

During the days we have been chasing our tails a little getting social insurance numbers, a Canadian mobile, our bank accounts and then there were a few job interviews, a weekend looking for accommodation and work in Whistler for the ski season and a few nice afternoons doing the sights in the city.

Lee starts work at STX Marine tomorrow so it's back to being the new boy again and Lisa has arranged a few days hiking with Greg making the most of the last few sunny days before the Vancouver rains start to fall and work begins. We had heard of the rain in Vancouver a little before we came over but now we are here it seems that it really is a "rainy season" for a month once it starts. Oh well, we have our nice new golf umbrella and decent waterproofs so it shouldn't stop us getting to work or getting out and about.

We finally made it

So here we are, chapter number 2. Vancouver. BC, Canada.

After a busy and stressful last few days in the UK Friday was suddenly upon us and an early start saw us getting to Gatwick in good time thanks to a lift from mum. Excess baggage was the first task of the day. We knew we had a few kilos that we should have shed but we were going to push our luck and see. We managed to sweet talk our way into 15kg of hand lugguge instead of 10 and bit the bullet and paid for the main bags. With that task complete it was onto the next, make sure we get on board our flight. That was straight forward and a pretty uneventful flight saw us landing at Vancouver half an hour ahead of schedule. Lining up in immigration saw us bumping into a couple of familiar faces from the flight over albeit behind a queue of 15 recently landed foreign students who spoke barely any English so it was a long wait. Once we got stamped in we headed off in search of our first nights accommodation due to a mix up of dates on our behalf. We had visions of a nightmare situation, Friday night in a new country, big packs on our backs and nowhere to sleep. An aussie named Ross who had been on the flight with us had been recommended a hostel in the centre of downtown so we decided to go and check it out. The Samesun hostel seemed like a decent choice and would allow us to get our bahs offloaded and enjoy the rest of the afternoon wandering around Vancouver.

Saturday morning we set off relatively early and again had a wander to get our bearings in the city, banks, shops, stations, interview locations, etc. We had arranged a couchsurf with a local called Greg who came to collect us from the hostel at lunchtime. We got our bags dropped off at his place and then went to watch a football game followed by some Polish food at a nearby festival. Jet lag still present meant an earlyish night.

Sunday was a miserable wet day so we headed off a little late into the morning, saw Chinatown and picked up a Canadian mobile phone. The poor weather held up most of the day so we ducked in and out of shops and eventually found a decent book shop to waste a few hours.

The list of summer thank yous

Lee’s Mum Marie for Tom Tom contribution, shower, personalised pillow bases, BBQ, washing line and general bits and bobs

Lisa’s Mum Margaret for solar charger and contribution to Tom Tom

Matt for the spork and loan of his climbing DVD’s which were great on those raining afternoons and our 2nd shower (but thanked him and told him one was sufficient)

Perky for our on the road treats, the cake didn’t even make it into the van

Andrew, Sarah and Ethan for allowing us to cook, our stove/grill and ideas on camping venues with the cool camping book, borrowing his lonely planet books, exciting us with the Europe’s highest point books

Luke for the non slip mat

Steve and Nicky for the portable speakers – for allowing us to disturb the peace

Tom for the heater which will be installed one day

Graham for the awesome bike rack

Matt for the Mule bars and gear, Mr apple strudel is appearing around the world

Les Francais pour les desins et un cote personelle dans le camions. Herbes, patches, salt, crystal, jam, recipes

Simon for the loan of the power tools without which the bulkhead would still be in place and the sunroof still in the attic

Veronica – for the crystals to maintain harmony in the van

Russ and Ad for remote assistance in breakdown number 1

Rich and Rach for the emergency whistle and compass which took us west instead of east

Nicole for spending part of her Europe holidays over with us, providing us with new topics for conversation, new music and loads of fun.

Everyone else for contributions not mentioned in the above, this was complied while drinking a bottle of wine so please excuse potential errors/ forgotten items

2 days and counting - Canada

Very proud Auntie Lisa with baby Ethan


One month in the UK has passed by so quickly. Catching up with all those we could, friends, family, new born babies and a few days away climbing and riding. On top of all this we have been cancelling direct debits, setting up new ones, changing addresses and seeking places to live and work.

Basically as of yesterday evening we have somewhere to stay for the first 4 nights and then a few homeless nights and then we have been fortunate enough to find a flat in North Vancouver that we can rent for a few months from the 20th September. It's in a great part of the city, a little out of the way but not too tough to commute the 10km into downtown. We also both have interviews during the first week as well as the opening bank accounts saga, social insurance numbers to get, cheapo city bikes to buy so plenty to keep us busy until we get offers of work. In the meantime I am sure that Vancouver has plenty to offer us in the form of entertainment and places to explore.


To all those that we have not managed to see or get hold of, apologies but we will be back, one day.


Anyway, time for us to head West now and hopefully plenty more to report back soon.


Lee n Lis

Germany - Zugspitze and the Romantische Strasse

Sarah and I in Wurzburg











We made it to a town called Garmisch-Partikan on the Austrian-German border later that evening and headed to the only campsite in the area to price it up and see what it had to offer facilities wise. The owner was an arrogant arse who asked us to move on when we parked in the car park looking at the prices and working out when we were going to stay there. That made our mind up for us that we were not going to stay there at all. We’d rather drive back over the border to Austria! The following few nights we stayed in a couple or decent lay-by’s right a larger river that ran through the valley so it was not all that bad.

On the Saturday we went for a half day hike to stretch the legs out after a few days out from any strenuous activity. We headed up from the base of Alpspitze meandering up through old ski runs and up to the lower cable car. We were going to head down from here but the weather was great and we got up in good time so we carried on up to the second cable car station. A quick lunchstop and some photos and it was time to head down. We both would have loved to carry on to the summit which only looked like a few hours from where we were but then we would have still had a 5 hour trek down and we had a nice weather window to Zugspitze the following day.

We set off nice and early for the start of the climb hoping to get ahead of most of the large weekend groups that we had been reading about and headed off op the river gorge. As the sun started to poke over the edge of the gorge we were snaking in and out of tunnels and over bridges that had been carved out of the gorge to give access to the huts and glacier below the summit. Within a few hours we had cleared the gorge and only bumped into one other group who had set off just behind us from the lower car park.

When we made it to the hut about 2 ½ hours in we got some funny looks from people as it was only 07:30 and they realised how early we must have left to make it there by that time. There seems to be a much more relaxed attitude in Germany and Austria to the whole glacier crossing scenario. It gets drummed into you that they should be crossed as early as possible to avoid having to cross them later in the afternoon when the sun has been baking them for a few hours.

Admittedly this was a one way crossing as we were going to descend via the cable car but still, we wanted to get over the glacier and onto the rock well before lunchtime, mainly to avoid having to climb in the heat. The long slog from the hut to the base of the glacier felt like it took forever. Some straightforward scrambling and a little via ferrata over the Brett section was fun but the never ending scree that followed was tough. Once on the glacier we could see the route across onto the main climb. It was far simpler than out research had shown, very lightly crevassed and a new ladder had been installed to avoid a large leap over from the ice onto the rock. From this point it was all via ferrata up 700m to within 10m of the summit.

It took us about 2 ½ hours to complete this section and we seemed to be going at a decent pace with very few people passing us on the way up. The few that did were either soloing without any equipment or only using their equipment for the tougher sections. The entire climb was great fun, some tougher sections but what was really nice was that not too much of it was hauling yourself up a cable, there was lots of scrambling to be done.

When we finally broke up onto the final ridge we had a little snow to contend with but nothing more than we had seen over the past few weeks. A few metres from the end of the route we could make out the crowds that were on the summit and a fully dressed up monk was waiting at the top of out path taking photos of the emerging climbers. I guess he was fascinated by the way in which we had climbed the mountain but for us, having just climbed it, having a monk at the top of the route was equally as fascinating, so I took a photo of him as he took one of us.

We had lunch and a beer at one of the summit cafes before wandering round the huge venue that was perched up there. A cable car ride down and then a little train ride saw us make the car park for about 3pm. It had been another great day and another great route in the mountains. Confidence was pretty high after this but it was now the end of our trip. We had planned to do one final via ferrata back on the Austrian side of the border and a mountain called Wankspitze but the weather blew us out once again so we headed to Fussen in Germany to start the 3 day drive up the Romantic Road. We had less than a week to make it back to Dunkerque so we packed up the kit bags for the final time and waved goodbye to the Alps.

We started the Romantic Road with a trip to Neuschwanstein Castle which is the fairy tale castle on which the Disney logo is based on. After this we started North up B17 which is known as the Romantische Strasse. It is a 400km drive, ride or hike that takes you through Southern Germany’s prettiest towns and villages. There were loads of great walled medieval villages to explore and little castle and market towns along the way. Halfway up we took a detour into Munich to meet my Dad as he was on holiday there so we met up for an afternoon in the Englicher Gartens for a picnic and some ale. From here we headed back onto the main route and took the next 2 days to get up to Wurzburg where we met up with Sarah and Roland on Friday who were friends of Lisa’s from back home.

That evening we decided to head towards the ferry and get ourselves to Brugges for a day of sightseeing before jumping on the ferry early Tuesday morning. This is where the breakdown saga begins...

Austria to Germany

After such an amazing experience on Austria’s highest mountain we had asked Matthius for some other easier routes in the area. He had given us advice on some via ferrata. We got all excited and then the weather as expected turned awful again for the next 4 days so we were all but rained out from rock related activities boooo. We managed to get a day out on the bikes and did a half day valley ride and also spotted a cool via ferrata that we returned to the next day.

It was up a steep side little gorge and took you up a few hundred metres over a few wire bridges and then under a viewing platform and pops you out by the falls. From there, there was another 4 hour climb that could have been done but the grading was a little tougher than we had done before and we had no water or kit for a full day on the rock. This aside, I gave the first section a try knowing that there was an escape route off about 60m up. It wasn’t climbing that’s for sure, it was hauling yourself up a cable over slick polished slab rock. Not much fun but good to know I could haul myself up a grade D ferrata. I took the escape route down and met Lisa back on the platform.

Our next big stop was going to be Zugspitze in Germany so we gave ourselves a few days to get over the border and get some maps and info before the good weather slot 3 days later. We made an overnight stop near Europe’s highest waterfall and spent a morning walking around there and up to various levels of the falls although it was a damp and misty morning so the views weren’t spectacular. From here we headed to Innsbruck for the afternoon. After eventually finding a non underground parking that we could squeeze the van into we had a wander, found a few good shops and the map we needed for Zugspitze and did a mini tour of the old city centre. Definitely somewhere to spend more than an afternoon exploring and a great base to be near the mountains.

Austria - Mt Grossglockner 3798m

Sponsor us?

From Balaton we headed West towards the Austrian Alps. We had Mt Grossglockner as our target for the week. On the first day we had a pretty full day of driving and a TomTom input error by me (Lee) we ended up missing our junction by about 100km so with the rain lashing down we called it a night and made up the miles the next day. We had to cross over the mountain range from the north to the south and the options were a paid tunnel, a vehicle train or a super high and expensive toll road. Not knowing if they would accept the van on the train and not wanting to pay 25 euros for the road we opted for the tunnel that ended up being only 10 euros and taking us close to the destination. We found a great little waterfall and car park to set up for the night and decided to explore and enquire at the mountain guide office about the route.

The following evening we chatted through with the guides and decided to pay out and organise for a guide to join us once the weather had settled. This was Sunday and the weather window was not opening until Tuesday so we reserved the English speaking guide and hoped for the weather to improve. That day we found ourselves a great little campsite up in the valley which was almost brand new with great facilities and yet another chance for us to sneak onto a free electricity hookup to charge the laptop and the phones. That morning saw us riding up to the start point of the route up Grossglockner. A pretty gruelling 1 ½ hour slog continually uphill on a good road saw us at the trail head car park and some pretty amazing views of the mountain. Daunting to see it in all its surroundings and pleased that we had opted to go for a guide. Although not cheap, we wanted to use it as an exercise to see what level of routes we could manage and safely attempt ourselves in the future. The blast downhill was down an old gravel access route and rated as a black run so Lisa managed to convince me to give it a go, or was it the other way round?!?! Good fun and we both made it down in about 15 minutes. We played about revising crevasse rescue and a few rope techniques that afternoon using the van as an anchor and a grass drop off as the crevasse. We attracted a few funny looks in the campsite but no one had the guts to ask us exactly what we were doing

Monday we headed into the nearest town of Lienz for a wander and to pick up a few extra bits of climbing hardware and then a valley ride in the afternoon to get the legs warmed up for the following few days. We spotted a via feratta on the route which looked fun so we added it to the list of to do’s after Grossglockner.

We headed up to the trailhead nice and early on the Tuesday to avoid paying the toll on the road up that car’s have to pay. The bike recon mission had proved successful and saved us a few more euros. We had to get to the Studdlhutte by 12noon to meet out guide and although this was only indicated as a 4 hour hike up from the trailhead (1918m) we left in good time to allow us to rest up before meeting our guide and have lunch. 2 ¼ hours later we reached the hut. A little (read lot) ahead of schedule and with snow falling at 2801m we headed into the hut and had lunch. We met up with our guide Matthias just after 12 and headed off at about 1pm to cross the glacier. He stripped us of almost all of our climbing gear bar 1 screwgate, rope, bivvy bags, flip flops for the hut, my ice axe, Lisa fought for hers and won and wash bags. We know light and fast is the best way and we are often too heavy but to be stripped of this seemed a little odd. Leaving so late to cross a glacier was also against everything we knew but we had to trust the guide. As we headed up the trail to the glacier we started to pick Matthias’s brains on various things to get to know him a little and also to get our money’s worth. He was a great source of info and was going to be a good guide. Once at the glacier about 45 minutes after leaving the hut we “roped up”. For those not familiar with mountaineering this normally involves a long rope, carry some excess coils over your shoulder and tied in several times with extra rescue lines set up in case of a fall/crevasse incident. This rope up consisted of us clipping into pre-tied loops on Matthias’s rope, basic but effective considering that the glacier was barely crevassed and short. We crossed over it in about half an hour before heading up onto the ridge and some simple via feratta up to the Erzhog Johann-Hutte (3454m) for about 3pm.

Until now we had had no views of what lay ahead, between the snow falling and the low cloud it wasn’t a great day to be out in the mountains We dropped our bags off and then had a hot chocolate and a few moments outside and took a few photos of the route ahead, as visibility suddenly improved, both excited of what lay ahead. A nice mountain dinner and a quick beer saw us getting an early night before the 5am wake up call.

The weather was pretty clear as we set up the route after a quick and efficient breakfast. Roped up and crampons on we headed up a snow slope which rapidly turned into a 50 degree zig zagged route before we stashed the axes and poles and headed up onto the ridge for some mixed climbing. The route was immensely exposed but with lots of natural and man placed protection we made good progress over the ridge passing one guided group and down to the Alps worst bottle neck in peak season. A 50cm wide snow bridge which you have to down climb to and then climb up out of for about 10m up to the summit. We crossed with relative ease and made the final ascent up to the ridge.

A stunning cloud inversion was waiting for us and almost clear skies above made for some extremely dramatic photographic moments. We worked out that we were the 3 group up to the summit that day and after the obligatory poses and group shots we headed back down to the bottleneck before it got too busy. By this time the queues were building and with ascending groups having right of way we sat to one side and let the guides haul up a few of their groups and lightly assisting the more able others in their groups. We eventually found a slot and made a dash for the bridge and got ourselves across and then made our way steadily back down to the axes which although exposed and icy was easier than it had been on the way up.

After recovering our kit and heading back down the snow slopes which had melted fast and were now more slush over loose scree in places, we had time to reflect on the route and although not down safely yet we felt happy we could repeat the route in good conditions without the assistance of a guide. We enjoyed a few more poses and photos and shared a few laughs on the way down to the hut to collect the rest of our equipment.

We made it back by 9am and headed down the via ferrata towards the glacier. This path was well in the shade and icy so we took our time and made it down to the glacier, crossed back and headed to the studdlhutte to recover our banished equipment.
We had planned on going round to another glacier field to practice a few rescues and some rope work on our own but we were tired and with things to do the next few days and a long drive we decided to leave on a high and head down the 2 hours back to the van. A straightforward descent, some lunch and a quick snooze in the van saw us heading back to our waterfall sleeping spot and reflecting on a fantastic couple of days.