Every End has a Start..

Esther  & Jim focus in on the crab

Well our trip this far has been great. We are both enjoying the Canadian hospitality and customs. If you live as far north as Jim you will be akin to  fishing and hunting as I mentioned before. Maybe not to every ones liking, but these are not greedy, gun toting people, and although they enjoy what they do it is the lesser of two evils. Either buy the meat or fish from a store, or hunt and kill what is roaming around in nature, thriving in it's natural habitat, eating what nature intended. There is a difference, seriously. Although I haven't eaten the meat, the fresh river salmon is nice. Enough said I reckon!

Cruising the Galloping Goose Trail

So far Victoria hasn't blown me away, and I don't mean literally. Vancouver made a huge first impression on both Esther and I the day we arrived. With it's massive tree line streets and inner city community gardens it seemed that the people there really took pride in where they lived and made the most of it.
Here though the streets are dirty and the bike trail today took us through some less than appealing city back areas, with junk yards and ship yards, building sites and industrial areas. Judging a book by it's cover may come back and bite me so I'll end this here.

Long Eared Goats

OK, so the Galloping Goose Trail may not have been the most exciting, but we did manage a steady 65k's all up. Not bad and it was good to just get out on the bikes. So what did we see on our journey to the outskirts of this metropolis. Apart from other cyclists, some walkers, a guy with a 15 pack of beer in this mobility scooter, a couple mopeds, nothing much really.. That was until we were heading back! Yes indeed, the return trip had a chance encounter with a baby rabbit, so cute and some long eared goats, also cute..

Cool Red Bark tree at Hartland..

Old Man Beard Moss

If in doubt, ask a local.. So this is what we did at one of the bike stores, and to be sure we were pointed in the direction of Hartland Regional Park.. Here the SIMBS, South Island Mountain Bike Society have created some awesome rides to suit all levels. This was more like the flowing speedy trails we are use to, but also had lots of huge rocks to climb and jump off.

A small rock drop

Just in from the car park there is a skills area that leads into well marked and easy to find suggested routes. 
Despite being the middle of summer you get a very Autumn feel here. Lots of silver and white leaves covered the ground, but the heat was relentless.

We met lots of bikers who were keen to point us in the right direction. given that there was lots of rocks and roots it wasn't as slippery as some of the trails we had ridden in previous parks. 

Esther after a hard days biking

This was refreshing and totally unexpected. Personally I really liked it here. Esther on the other hand had a difference of opinion with some rocks, suffice to say the rock won, again.. Ouch!

A Wee Lizard, not camera shy

At the car park there is a bike wash and stand, sweet, plus toilets if needed. At first we noticed a small lizard scampering into the toilet block but quickly noticed more than a dozen.. The trails were also a good place to see them scampering from under passing tires, and at one stage I nearly squashed a small snake that was sun bathing, sorry wee buddy.......

Listen to the sign!

Totally worth the fifteen minute drive from the city, and not that hard to find, providing you can read a map that is. Start with the intermediate loop and then jump on the advanced loop. Awesome stuff kids!!

Totem pole in Solstice Cafe

Second to riding is coffee, and we found a nice wee cafe just down the street called 'Solstice'. They do all organic produce and coffee, but the biggest thrill was that the coffee actually comes in regular coffee size cups, not that crappy Starbucks shit! So tired of of over sized coffee cups, what with that people!!!!! More moo than coffee is not good, too easy.. Also noticed that Apple I-Mac laptops are pretty trendy here. Just thought I would add that in, for no reason. Maybe you want to hear about more than mountain biking and coffee. Who knows eh!!