Naturlig Jobb: Canada - from Vancouver to Calgary

Being back in Norway it feels like time has been standing still. Maybe Canada was just a dream? I think I have to go way back to the summer I bought my sailboat to recognize this feeling of just being and living each and every moment.

For three weeks we have been a family of 19 persons. Living on top of each other, sharing each others ups and downs, getting to know each other better than we did during the entire school year. With three cars as our “home” we have travelled from Vancouver to Calgary, experiencing a taste of Canada and getting an idea of the huge variation of nature this enormous country possess.

Upon arrival in Vancouver one of our bags were missing (maybe it was for the best that we didn’t know at that time for how long it actually would be on its own travel) and we waited way too many hours to get the rental cars. But after that, things went smoother. Driving through Vancouver city between all the skyscrapers, trying my very best to keep up with the two cars in front of me through all the traffic lights, I still couldn’t believe that we were actually in Canada, finally!

Kayaking around Meares Island

We spent the first night in Vancouver before we left the city for Vancouver Island. After some days filled with travelling and organizing it was amazing when we could put our kayaks on the water and paddle away from Tofino. We felt like we were finally doing what we came to Canada for and it got even better as some seals, a whale and some eagles followed us on our way. Since it was quite late before we arrived at the camp site on our first day of kayaking, we decided to keep the next day short and rather spend some time relaxing and swimming. We enjoyed it until dusk, after that Mosquito Harbour fully lived up to its name. Evacuating the next morning we had our longest day of paddling ahead of us. And turning west we had both the current, the waves and the wind against us. The difference of the tide around the island is several metres, which meant it created a great current in the narrower parts. In the afternoon we made it to our last camp site, Roberts Point, only to discover that there were no streams which would provide us with freshwater there. After considering our options, Vemund and I decided we would paddle the two nautical miles south to the nearest stream and fill up all the bottles and our water proof bags. I didn´t realise how grateful the students would be for this until we were back and they all came running towards us with big hugs.

We spent four days kayaking around Meares Island, and our great Canada adventure was officially kicked off. Our next activity was surfing the waves of the Pacific in Cox Bay, close to Tofino. A lot more exhausting than it might look, but soo much fun when we finally made some progress!

Hiking The Sunshine Coast Trail

After one day off where some of the students tried out the bungee jumping in Nanaimo Wild Play Park while we were driving around trying to fix everything that needed to be fixed, we headed towards Powell River and the Sunshine Coast Trail. The Sunshine Coast Trail is actually 180 km long and stretches from Saras point to Saltery Bay. Since we only had two and a half day, we decided to head up to Rainy Day Lake on the southern part of the trail. Arriving at the lake and finding it warm and welcoming, we immediately jumped in. I still remember it as one of the best moments on the entire trip to Canada. We stayed two nights by Rainy Day Lake, making an optional hike for the eager ones up to Mount Troubridge on the second day, and heading out along the coast, back to Saltery Bay on day three.

Climbing at Skaha Bluffs

I expected a lot more complains from the students when we told them that we had to get up at 4 am to catch a ferry the day after finishing our hiking. But when one of the students tricked another one into setting off the alarm on one of the cars at 4 in the morning, waking up the entire camp, they simply packed up the tents and got into the cars. Of course none of us expected that it would be noon before we got breakfast, thanks to the GPS sending us on sightseeing in the neighbourhoods of Vancouver. Eventually we reached Okanagan Valley and the famous Skaha Bluffs. We spent two amazingly hot days on the crag. In the afternoon we went swimming in the lake, the closest the students got to a shower during these weeks between Nanaimo and Banff.

Canoeing the Columbia River

The longest drive we had on the entire trip was the one between Okanagan Falls and Invermere. As we drove up to Lake Enid the sky opened up and we got some serious thunder. Maybe it woke up the students after a long day in the cars, and during the cooking of supper they had their own dance off session. After a short introduction to canoeing we started our paddling down the Columbia River. Columbia River lies between the Columbia Mountains on one side and the Canadian Rockies on the other side. At this time of the year the river flows with a speed of 5 knots, and we found ourselves floating down with the current. We had some incredibly beautiful camp sites, but the highlight was definitely to see how the students mastered their canoes better and better.

After Columbia River we drove via Lake Louise to Banff, and a couple of days later we flew home from Calgary. No one said a word in the car from the camping to the airport. It was hard to believe that our trip actually had come to an end. We had to say god bye to Kara, our amazing practicum student from Mount Royal University who had been with us the whole trip. A lot of the students kept saying they wished we could have stayed longer. I hope this trip has encouraged them to go out and travel on their own, to make their own adventures.

Many of the students started off from Norway with little or no travel experience, many of them had slept in a tent only a few nights. During these three weeks they adjusted and adapted, they got used to taking bear precautions regarding food and to sleep with a bear spray in the tent, they got used to purify their water, they managed without a shower for 10 days and no clean clothes, they dealt with oatmeal for breakfast and ham, cheese and nutella for lunch and being vegetarian for dinner most of the time for three weeks, they were patient and they learned how to work together as a group. We have celebrated two birthdays. We have played “Lapper” and we have been slack lining. We have been singing in the cars and we have been sitting around the bonfire at night.

This kind of adventure, this way of travelling, the feeling of being together all the time, the feeling of being one group, more or less dependent on each other, it is hard to describe for those who haven’t tried it. There has been a lot of work and organizing between and during the different activities, there have been some seriously long days, but I felt I came home with a lot more energy than I have had for a long time.