Well it is hard to believe that 5 days have passed since we last posted anything.
We are now in Quesnel which is the small logging town that I lived in when I did my student exchange in 1998.
Since we last spoke to you our lives have gone something like this.
Tuesday 22 Nov: Late afternoon on Tuesday my friend Becky came and picked us up from Grama's Inn in PG . She came in her mum's vehicle which freakily is the same make and colour as my mum's. We took a drive up to UNBC (University of North British Columbia) to have a look at the campus and architecture. It is a really lovely campus and the buildings seem very nice, interestingly they are starting a School of Medicine there in the next couple of years. While finding our way out of PG we also passed the PG man, the worlds largest wooden man. Well that was until two drunken somebodies took out their chainsaw and cut him down at the knees. Now he is the worlds largest man that was made of wood but is now made of metal :). We drove from Quensel to PG in the dark, but I still recognised a lot of it and could feel my excitement growing as we rounded the corner on the hill and could see the lights. There is a bit of a logging boom going on at the moment. This is due to the fact that the last few winters have been very mild. Although nice for the residents not to have a series of -20deg days in a row, it is also nice for a little beetle that likes to attack the pine trees. A lack of cold weather that usually keeps them at bay has led to a dramatic increase in their population and this has meant curtains for the pine trees. So now it is a bit of a race to get the wood before it rots etc etc.
So as a result of this there is a little bit of a boom, that potentially will have a bust, but for now Walmart has moved in a long with a series of food chain groups. And Quesenl even has a sushi bar!! Craziness. In true Quesnel style though it is in the old pizza hut building..... We had dinner there the first night taht we were in town - not bad.
We went to Becky's sister Charity's house who was kind enough to lend us her couch and floor for a few nights until i cuaght up with alice and organised to stay with her.
Other highlights
Wednesday 23: Took Duncan to stroll around the town and mainstreet.
Thursday 24: Did the Quesnel River Walk with Holly (Beckys mum). Had lunch in a new little Italian takeway/cafe that makes its own pasta from scratch.. i know i can hear what you are thinking Quesnel is going upmarket. They also had espresso coffee, so Duncan was breathing a sigh of relief.
Friday 25: Checked out the Tourist information centre for a few things to do in the area. Did some shopping for bathers and pyjamas.
Saturday 26:This day was full of highlights. We decided to hike out to Deserter Falls, (aka Deep Creek falls), which according to the guidebook was about 2km from the road. Well it might of been, but not on the trail that we took.
Well that is kind of unfair i guess as for some of it we didn't acutally take a trail :). There was a bit of snow around and so as Becky had not done this particular trail in a while she was following the footprints of a man/woman and his dog. That was until we got down the bottom of a particularly steep and slippery bit and the trail was under snow. The foot prints went one way but Becky didn't think she wanted to go that way so for the next 3/4hr we were off roading, bush bashing, bush whacking or whatever you wanted to call it... sooo much fun... :)
After a little bit of climbing up, then down then up again we stumbled on the trail that took us the rest of the way. The falls were quite unique. We couldn't see them unless we wanted to swim in, and quite frankly, although Duncan thought it was summer, walking around with no jacket on, it was just too cold to swim :)
So now that we had found the trail we thought that getting back would be a piece of cake. Ha! What did we know. Further up on the trail it had eroded away, so once again it bush bashing time. We made it back to the car just as it was getting dark, feeling tired but very satisfied. It was a great afternoon. And never a dull moment with Becky around.
We went to the Quesnel Millionaires ice hockey game. They lost 3-2. Met one of the towns physiotherapists and got offered a job. If only i had my working visa :). Went back with Becky and sat out under the stars in the hot tub at the house where she is house sitting....... ahhhh
Sunday 27: In the morning we went to the local Farmers markets. They were great! There was a stall there with flavoured honey! Orange chocolate flavoured honey delish!!
Monday 28: Moved from Charity's house to Alice's (my host mum). Took Duncan for a stroll around the property found a beaver dam, and moose tracks, but no beavers or meese :)
Tues 29: I got up and helped alice with the chores this morning, thankfully that didn't need to be done til about 8:30am, because it was freakin' cold out ~ -12deg. Duncan and I went for a walk/run afterwards which was shall we say.... invigorating.
For a look at our weather check out the weather network check out
www.weathernetwork.com and type in 'Quesnel' into the city box. This will give the weather currently and also the long range forecast. The warm weather in London will be a shock when we get there in January :)
I know I know this was really long, will try to do smaller briefer ones this week :)
ciao
