Canada is the second largest country in the world and is made up of three northern territories and ten provinces with two official languages: English and French.

Its a huge, spacious, rugged country spanning over 7000km from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Coast. To give you an idea of the immense size of this country, a flight from Vancouver to Toronto took me almost halfway home and I hadn't even got across Canada! Vancouver to Toronto is 2,091 miles; Toronto to the UK is 3,559 miles! The flight would probably be equivalent to flying from the UK to Turkey.

The majority of my trip I used a Moose tour. Moose is a Jump-On, Jump-Off (JOJO) adventure travel / hostel circuit / alternative / backpacker transportation service. It picks up from the door of the hostel and stops at towns & cities, historic sites, provincial parks and outdoor attractions, many of which you would not be able to reach on your own without a vehicle. Passengers pay for the transport only, adding selected activities and accommodation (hostels) on top. It provides a relatively low-cost, high-convenience, good-fun way of meeting like-minded travellers and getting around. Numbers were limited to a max of 24 so it was a small enough group to bond quickly and bond we did!

I was lucky to encounter some native wildlife on my visit including a black bear, grizzly bear and several elk. Unfortunately I would have liked to have seen a Moose but they managed to elude us.

My trip through (part of) Canada was concentrated on British Columbia & Alberta. Here is a short round-up then of that trip. Select the links below to read more about it!

Intro | Rocky Mountains | Southern Alberta | Toronto & Niagara | Vancouver to Banff | Vancouver | Vancouver Island | Whistler