Travelling Tales

Today I finished my reports at work (utter relief!), cleared my desk (it is pretty impressive how I've managed to hoard so much paper and junk over the year), drank some wine at a farewell staff party (turned an instant shade of hyper-red after the first sip), and shed quite a few tears (it suddenly hit me that I will dearly miss the chaos and action-packed days at BLT, and especially the gossip and chatter that only an all-female staff can bring about!).

A two month summer break is not a long time, but it will feel like part of me is missing. I have sincerely enjoyed working at Building Learning Together and like one of my colleagues said today, I was very lucky to have found the job.

I will certainly miss my little guys, the ones I've worked with and nurtured during this developmental year. One of the little cuties asked someone if I was his mother the other day! The kid has bright red hair and about three hundred freckles on his darling face, but still... Well, I suppose I'll just have to find small children to give me bear hugs daily this summer...

Summer is officially here. And boy are we excited for the upcoming two months!

We will be travelling across the coutnry (well, to Ottawa at least) on our motorbikes. Me on my Honda Shadow 750 and Matt on his BMW R1150GS.

After spending time in Ottawa and Toronto, we will be flying out to England where Claire (Matt's sister) will be getting married in Jersey. Following the festivities, we'll spend a week in northern France with both sets of parents, and then back to Jersey and Devon. Upon touchdown in Toronto in late August, we plan to take our motorbikes back to Nanaimo through the States, just in time for work/school to start.

So during this summer holiday, I've decided to continue to blog on this site for the two reasons: it is extremely user-friendly, where photos can be uploaded in an instant, and the exact location can be pinpointed on the accompanying map, which i know our families like to see.

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Matt and I have decided to not be too hasty and leave on Saturday early morning instead of the intended departure of tomorrow. We'll have one more day to pack, attend to last minute home errands, call our families, and sleep in a comfortable bed.

We learned that you shouldn't push anything (especially a start time) if it is not necessary.

Hmmm... which makes me ponder the other lessons we learned from our African-overland roadtrip last year. Let's see...

1. I will not be buying a crate of baked beans to take on our journey as 'emergency rations'. No room in my saddlebags anyway.

2. I will be taking an eye patch for those times when I just need to shut the world away and sleep.

3. I will not be taking 500+ Q-tips. I don't even have an excuse for that one; maybe i thought I would have to scoop out pounds of dirt, sand and grime everyday. Definitely not this time. Luggage space is at a premium anyway.

4. I will try to record our journey this summer to the best of my ability. It is a different adventure in many ways (re: paved roads, motorcycle mode of transport, English speaking locals, Tim Horton coffee shops in probably every major town), and yet the feeling of anticipation and giddiness remains the same.

Our aim is to catch the 6:30am ferry to Vancouver on Saturday. From there, we'll take the high road to Whistler, through Kamloops, Banff, Calgary.... and then we'll see.

The only things that are certain is that we have 4500+ km to cover, we'll be camping every night in some campsite/field/farm and my bike can only go about 220km before needing a refuel (Matt's can go about twice the distance, as he'll proudly tell you).

Our date of arrival is pending, estimated for July 8 or 9, but we certainly won't risk our safety to make that time... however, I did buy Ben Harper tickets for his performance at the Ottawa Bluesfest concert on July 9th. No need to rush, but it would be a shame to waste those tickets!

For now, I'm simply excited to be seeing my country by bike, a journey I've wanted to do for a long time.