‘Found my way upstairs and had a smoke, And somebody spoke and I went into a dream’

When ‘Oyster’ Jim Martin moved to Vancouver Island in the 1980’s he fell in love with the rugged landscape and rocky headlands of the west coast that he saw from his fishing boat each day and had a dream to create a trail along the coastline that could be accessed and enjoyed by all. Forty years later that vision has grown into the…

European players were subjected to slurs and crude insults about their families. They were no surprise as public discourse in America has broken down

The alarm goes at 6am and by ten past we are on the road, half awake and unwashed with the bed still warm in the back of the van. All is quiet as we drive out of Lake Louise Campground through the sleepy town and out onto the Trans Canada One heading west. The sun is breaking through but clouds still cover the higher peaks and mist floats over the Bow river as we head up Kicking Horse Pass and back into British Columbia and…

It’s a six hour drive from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia on Vancouver Island to our campsite in Tofino and my nerves are tested on the narrow bendy bit of the Pacific Rim Highway beyond Port Alberni. I am after all, driving on the wrong side of the road and sitting on the wrong side of the vehicle. The journey passes without incident though and as we park up at…

In March 1988 Andy and I were enjoying a few days walking in a cold and frosty Lakeland. Having walked up Grains Gill from Seathwaite we were taking a break when we noticed two red clad walkers who we...

It’s always nice to start a walk straight from the campsite and Chapel House Farm has the added benefit that I can have breakfast looking up at my first hill of the day, Rosthwaite Fell. Wainwright dedicates his book on the Southern Fells, the book I’m currently walking through to “The Sheep of Lakeland, the hardiest of all fellwalkers”. In what has been a sustained spell of dry weather these hardy Herdwicks are suffering a little.