CANADA: 15th June - 10th July 2012

This year, after discussing it for many years, we finally got to go to Canada.
Something has always got in the way, not least the Stroke which I have been unlucky enough to get. 

((For those of you who may be interested in my personal journey to recovery after my Stroke, please follow the link to the Blog that I am writing about it: http://fivesmallminutes.blogspot.co.uk/))

I spent the winter and spring planning the trip, laying out maps, highlighting prospective routes and then deciding where our overnight stopovers should be. I read guide books and made lists of the necessary items to take eg: three and a half weeks of medication.


We flew from Manchester to Vancouver on June 15th and spent two nights there before transferring to Victoria, Vancouver Island for two nights, returning to Vancouver for one further night and then collected a hire car. We had the car for twelve nights and travelled 1650 miles through Whistler, Penticton, the Okanagen Valley to Kamloops and then from Jasper to Banff before returning the car at Calgary.
Our last stop was a week with a cousin in Winnipeg. 

So we have travelled through British Columbia to Alberta, flown over Saskatchewan to Manitoba and flown over Ontario! A West to East Fest if you pardon my enthusiasm.  
Indeed, not quite a relaxing holiday, but all the preparation meant that the holiday went without any problems. 

My health stood up to the rigours of the travelling, which meant getting up around 7.45/8.00 daily and being on the road by 10.00am I have to admit that since our return on July 10th I have been extremely tired and have not quite got back to what constitutes normal these days.

The day that we flew home from Toronto was by coincidence the third anniversary of my Stroke. Who would ever have thought at that time that I would be able to undertake such a holiday. Certainly not me! 

Here is my personal account of what was my "holiday of a lifetime"