Now that we’ve stopped moving and are living a more settled few weeks in Guatemala, we would like to fill in a couple of blanks in our blog. We pick up where we left off on the North West coast of the US heading to Canada.

In Canada, we meandered throughout parts of British Colombia and Alberta for six weeks clocking up 4,267km of riding. We went from high and low over many mountain passes, from Tofino on the Pacific Coast (the western most point of our entire trip) and up to Jasper in the Rockies (our northern most point). We camped in six national parks and visited a few others, made great new friends at a motorcycle travellers meeting in Nakusp, reunited with our friends in Calgary, whom we’d met earlier in Nicaragua, and vowed to come back again to explore more of this great country.

It was always our plan to be in Canada around August to enjoy their summer and then retreat south again before it got too cold. As it turns out, our timing was pretty good and temperatures were just beginning to fall as we returned to the USA.

Here’s a selection of our photos from Canada. The stories told in the captions. More photos are available online here.

Totem poles are monuments created by First Nations of the Pacific Northwest to represent and commemorate ancestry, histories, people or events. Stanley Park in Vancouver has a collection of ten totem poles, mostly replicas of originals that are now housed in museums for preservation.

No one could fail to be inspired by the magnificent Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island.

Just another day – Duffey Lake, British Columbia

Enjoying an awesome hike to Girabaldi Lake, near Whistler.

More stunning hiking around Whistler: looking out over Cheakamus Lake.

We watched this little guy having a great time frolicking in the meadows on Whistler Mountain.

Lake Louise

Morraine Lake, gorgeous.

Upon hearing a new rattle, Matt requested a stop for some roadside diagnostics. He realised that one of his two side stand bolts had vanished and we soon found out it was not so easy to replace. It took a day of ringing around in Calgary to find a correctly-sized replacement bolt, and the guy only had it available because a special order had never been collected.

Well, we WERE cooking vegetarian but ok….. at Jasper National Park Campground.

An impressive collection of glacier-clad peaks encircle the Columbia Icefield. In the centre is Athabasca Glacier, approximately six km long and covers an area of six sq km. It has receded more than 1.5 km over the past 125 years and has lost over half its volume.

Sensational Balu Pass, Glacier National Park – the bears know how to pick a good home.

We didn’t see any bears this time, but saw plenty of marmots!

The Indian Paintbrush was out in force in the alpine meadows of Mount Revelstoke National Park.

Our Odyssey Overland at the West Canada Horizons Unlimited Meeting! A meeting for intreipt motorcycle travellers.

At the meeting we met Matt, whose sister lives a few doors down from us in Tempe, …..

…Susan and Grant Johnson, the creators of Horizons Unlimited who convinced us that our crazy dream was achievable….

……and Queenslanders Mike and Jo, who have published two books about their overseas motorcycle travels.

We had replaced Fi’s headlight five times since Ecuador and in Calgary, with Colin’s invaluable help and local knowledge, we found the right spare part once and for all.

We met Colin and Cathie on a ferry in Nicaragua in January and spent a wonderful week in Calgary with them and their daughter Alison.

Snow was dusting the tops of the Rockies as we rode south from Calgary.