I decided that after a busy week I'm going to hike up mount Seymour to watch the sunrise. I picked up Klara at 6.30am and we took off for the 'hard drive'. In about half an hour we reached the Seymour parking lot and just hurtled up to the very top to catch the sun coming up. There's nothing like enjoying your morning cuppa gazing at the sun coming up above the clouds that are choking the whole Lower Mainland. As soon as we started eating our breakfast, the Gray Jays noticed us and came to pester us while taking our cheesy cliché photos so we had a little fun with them. Good morning, it was indeed!
Our #driveourwayround adventure started off by getting to the coast of Oregon, where we
had the last sentimental encounter with the Pacific ocean for a while. Arriving to Seaside, OR, the first thing we
stumbled upon was a surf shop and that made us to come up with an idea of
renting surfboards and just enjoy the time there. The waters of North-West Pacific are chillier
than Alpine rivers; therefore, there is no chance you could surf without a
wetsuit.
All geared up we set off for Short Sand beach in Oswald West State Park, OR. Beautiful beach with a
short hike to get to there. Although
carrying the boards was a challenge. As we both are beginners we had to carry
the heavy soft tops and it wasn’t that long of a walk but a good 10 minute
hike. I passed on the theoretical
knowledge I gained on Hawaii on to Kachna, to explain the very basics. Him being such a hulk he luckily grasped it
quite quickly and was even able to catch some of the waves. It was a good fun being there on a little
hidden beach that was recommended by locals.
The beach might be 500m long and is surrounded by tall rocks and forests.
After a long day of surfing we got to a creepy campground run entirely by an old lady that welcomed us limping out of her shed not even saying a word. She might have been in
her late 50s and probably lived through the great American hippie era. She wore a long green cape, had long grey hair and without a word, she showed us a spot and only
responded to a question “So how much is it?”.
After that she pulled out a little notepad and headed back to our car to
get the details. So being all set, just having the tent
already waiting and upright we cooked a dinner of 6 massive burger on our little
backyard grill and surrounded by the great Pacific fog fell asleep on the grass
just somewhere between our car and the tent. Good times!
I felt really sick for the past two weeks. Therefore, I decided to finally do something about it. I really like being cured the natural way, without any help of useless pills and other prescriptions so I took the risk of asking the nature to help me out a bit.
The Keyhole Hot-Springs are located about two hours drive north-west from Pemberton, BC, out of which about 40km is on a very rough, gravely forest service road. I remember when we went there last year it was about 49km and a half an hour hike. Over the summer the plant construction did, however, change the conditions a bit and now everyone seeking the pleasure of bathing in a purely natural hot water has to hike for about another 2km down to the valley. Normally the hike would take about an hour but considering the icy conditions and snow, due to which the provincial park is actually "closed" to public since november, and the fact that we arrived around 5pm and had descent to the valley in the dark, it took us about 2 hours. But it was worth it!
We camped on the bank surrounded by hot pools, which made the freezing cold that we faced in the morning a bit less serious. It's very easy to get up and get out of your warmed up sleeping bag when you know that it doesn't take much to escape the shivers you get on an icy morning. There were about four pools, where 2 of them had an ideal temperature. Not too cold, not too hot. The soothing feeling of defeating the cold, cough and getting an experience that anywhere else in the world would be hard to get. I remembered Yellowstone National Park, where none of the hot-springs are actually open to public to bathe in so would probably ended up with a fat ticket for attempting to dip yourself in a pool there. Good thing that not many people know about this hidden gem and that it actually takes an effort to get here so that only the determined and nature loving people can enjoy this.
On our way back, after the strenuous climb back to the service forest road, we got an unpleasant surprise of a flat tire on my wandering machine. Luckily, it was still half inflated and I decided to take the risk of driving it to Pemberton, where I'll get a chance to inflate my spare wheel to actually be able to use it. We made it safe and sound and this only added a little more adventurous finish.
It is almost a year now since Klara and me had that idea of leaving the poor winter behind and chase the migrating birds somewhere warmer. I've heard awesome stories from people going to Cancún and how this is the place you wanna be at while going for your winter vacation. So all revved up we couldn't wait for celebrating the New Years Eve on the beautiful beaches that we knew from pictures online that lure you to visit the party capital of Mexico - Cancún.
We didn't spend a single day in Cancún. It kinda threw the same party atmosphere on us that you see anywhere else in the 'western' world. Drunk Brits, party American teenagers and occasional confused German tourists. Nothing new to us. So we rented a sweet ride and set off for the adventure down south. Playa del Carmen, same stuff but smaller - there's not even any public beach there. So we carried on in our southbound expedition.
Yucatan is the centre of Maya civilisation and that's why there's so much more to being there than drinking the same tequila as you get anywhere else, and siting beside the pool and playing it cool. Places like Tulum, although it's also on the verge of being devoured by tourism, Mahahual and the magical Mosquitero peninsula, and west from there Chetumal, Calakmul and plenty of other places that we didn't manage to visit in the ten days we spent there.
By meeting very generous locals that seemingly didn't have much to offer, yet were extremely rich in having the freedom of not being "consumed" , finding white-sand beaches, where we didn't meet a single person for days, we again realised it doesn't take much effort to discover a paradise. Swimming with turtles in cenotes, the mysterious bottomless holes that Mayas worshiped and that kept them alive by supplying fresh water, enjoying local cuisine in family restaurants so good it gives you diarrhoea, camping far away from the civilisation, somewhere in the middle of a vast green ocean of jungle, seeing a flock of real wild parrots - that's the real Mexican experience, alas, not discovered and it even seems like avoided by many.
Cypress mountain already launched the season and I gotta say it looks promising. For the time of the year and considering how bad last winter was it got me pretty excited, and I rushed to catch the first snow of the season. So far only one run is open on the Black Mountain side, which offers a great run for downhill as well as snow park-like area with couple of kickers and rails. All that you need to revive your skills after the long and amazing summer.
It's chilly enough and another cloudy-like weather is coming so I hope it will bring a decent amount of powder to cover the rest of the area and other runs!!
