Before we Begin

​Hello, all! So, here I am, about to embark on my greatest adventure yet, the land of moose, maple syrup and ice hockey. Yes, I’m off to Canada. My regular readers may have noticed that this Edition of Tails is coming to you from my (Charlie’s) perspective. It was a difficult decision, but I have had to leave Chesh, my erstwhile travelling companion behind, mostly due to the space restraints of fitting an admittedly quite large fluffy cat into my bag as I plan to cross a country the size of Europe. I will try to keep to the original tone of the blog and of course will keep with it in the spirit with which it was originally created. And I’m keeping the name, Tails of a Travelling Cat, as I’m sure you’re well aware of my love of and affinity towards felines.
This trip is very ambitious, in two weeks and a half weeks, I plan to travel west across the entire country of Canada, covering eight provinces, one US state, two oceans (sort of), Atlantic Canada, the prairies, the Badlands and the Rocky Mountains. And then, when I’ve run out of west, I’m heading north up into the Chilcotin Mountains. Well, I’ve always liked a challenge.
My trip will begin in Halifax, Nova Scotia (with a slight detour via Toronto due to the severe shortage of direct flights to Halifax – one a month), right on the Atlantic Ocean. I am travelling by train (my preferred mode of transport), using Via Rail. From Halifax, I’m visiting Miramichi, New Brunswick, where I will explore the beautiful Miramichi River. Then I will be exploring the cities of Montréal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario, with a day trip to Niagara Falls, hopefully crossing the border into New York State and the US. After a brief visit to Winnipeg, Manitoba, it’s on to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, prairie country, where I’ll meet my long-time travel buddy, Jack. Based in Saskatoon for a few days, we’re hiring a pickup truck (!) and taking a couple of road trips, across the Badlands and to the Prince Albert National Park. After Saskatoon, we travel on to a short stop in Jasper, Alberta, before spending the night in Prince George, British Columbia, before taking the train back to Jasper. From here, we’ll cram in as much hiking around the National Park as we can. Jasper and Prince George are both firmly in the Rockies, and from here we’ll travel on to Vancouver, British Columbia. With only a day here, it’ll be a quick explore of the city and hopefully a visit to a gigantic suspension bridge high over a canyon. Unfortunately, Vancouver Island slightly got in the way of us reaching the Pacific, and, with only one day in the city and the Island being rather larger than I realised at first, it looks like we’ll have to make do with English Bay instead. Maybe another time I’ll officially make it to the Pacific Ocean.
After Vancouver, Jack flies home and I continue up into the Chilcotin Mountains, a place so remote, you can’t even see what it looks like on Google Maps. From here, I will attempt to continue publishing the blog, but out in the Canadian wilderness (true moose, bear and wolf territory), I can’t guarantee internet reliability. 

​I’ve got some long train journeys (the longest being 35 hours) so some of my blog might get posted while I’m travelling. Keep tuned to Facebook as I’ll be posting the links there as normal.
Until then, folks
Charlie