The next morning we headed down to the Land Rover dealership to see if they could fix our Landy but they don’t sell any diesels over here so they identified the problem with their diagnostic computer as errors “22187″ and “56825″, but apart from that couldn’t help much. So we headed on east to Ottawa where we stayed with the Williams’, friends of Pete’s family. Whilst eating breakfast with them at the local diner they put a call in to the local paper so we did a quick interview over coffee.

We drove on to Montreal, stopping briefly to admire downtown Ottawa with its beautiful civic buildings. In Montreal we stayed with an old friend of mine, Emilie, and her boyfriend Colin. Emilie cooked us the most delicious food and the next day Colin showed us the city, which we all fell in love with. In the cool autumn light with the trees full of reds and oranges it looked stunning. It manages to combine the French and North American cultures terrifically. We enjoyed our time in Montreal. Many thanks to Emilie and Colin for showing us a great time.

But eastward we must continue and we hit the road - next stop the ferry terminal for Newfoundland, our final stop. We drove through Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia pretty much non-stop doing a 26 hour driving epic. We stopped for fuel, meals and regular brew ups at the side of the road - the Latitude Expedition cannot function without a continual supply of tea!

Eventually we got to Sydney (the one in Nova Scotia, not Oz - we’ve driven a long way but not that far), only to find that the overnight ferry was booked up completely. We’d been trying to make a reservation all day but when we did have signal we couldn’t get through. We were put in the standby line and crossed our fingers that we wouldn’t be stuck there for 17 hours. Somehow, once again our luck prevailed and they let six cars from our line on board. Ours was the sixth!

That night we slept well and arrived on ‘The Rock’ as Newfoundland as referred to by some Canadians, early in the morning and headed off in search of our last land before cornwall.

- Spike

After waking up in our free hotel room we had to leave early and find somewhere to eat breakfast. I think we must be the only people in history to stay in a $300 hotel room and then cook porridge in the car park. It was really cold though so thank you very much for your hospitality Stephanie.

In the morning we went for a quick visit to Lake Minnewanka, then headed off in search of some waterfalls and blue springs. We walked for a couple of hours through frozen canyons, beside a crystal clear lake before coming to a beautiful open valley.

Banff National Park is stunning, jagged snow capped peaks surround lush alpine valleys, it will soon be a skiers paradise.

Finaly dragging ourselves away from the mountains we headed to some family friends of Spike’s for the night. Thank you very much Simon and Feather, we had a fantastic night and even managed to tolerate the abuse you gave our favourite car. In the morning we decided we should really get insurance before heading across the prairies. Up until this point, despite our best efforts to part with our money, we had been driving in Canada with out the mandatory third party lability cover. You would not believe the problems with insuring an imported vehicle. However, after a whole day of phone calls we finally got hold of the Superintendant for Insurance for Alberta who sorted us out and we were on our way….

…Thirty one hours and 1600 miles later we were in Wisconsin, and that’s all there is to say about that. There is just enough habitation in the prairies to make them mindlessly dull.

We diverted a little off the 50th and headed south of the Great Lakes. Diesel is cheaper in the US and also it is not a cold so this seemed like a good idea. Besides, time and the weather have conspired to make the 50th pretty much impossible for us here, so we felt justified in our deviation.

We had a good lunch with Spike’s cousin in Madison, who also sponsored the expedition (thank you Nick) then we headed off to Chicago.

We spent two days in Chicago, staying with Spike’s friend Kim. It is another fantastic city, the lake front has been really nicely done and it is full of cool little bars and coffee shops, definitely another place to go back to.

We then started heading back to Canada and towards Quebec, through exciting sounding places like Kalamazoo and Paw Paw (so good they named it twice). Niagara Falls are just off the route so we pulled another 12 hour driving day and made it to a small town eight miles from the falls. Here we stayed with Harvey and Rusty, a couple we met at a service station. It was so generous of them to let us stay and they even gave us breakfast. This saved us another sub-zero night outside and Harvey was even kind enough to give us a tour of the niagara area, thank you very much.

Having just about seen the falls through the wind and the rain we headed to the Pillitteri Winery for a case study. They are world leaders in producing ice wine, a type of wine that, as the name suggests, can only be produced in seriously cold weather. This made of a very interesting case study and had the added bonus of trying some lovely wines.

I unfortunately had to drive to Toronto in the evening so was restricted to only a couple of sips. As such, we made it in one piece and are now enjoying a great spag bol and a warm night with another of Spike’s friends.

- Pete

Playing on the Ipod: ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ (theme from The Littlest Hobo)

(Some names have been changed to protect lovely receptionists from their evil bosses)

We headed up to Whistler for a few days with some friends from Andrew’s work and stayed at the Westlunds’ lovely condo not far from town. We had a good couple of days there, climbing up a mountain to admire the view and having a few beers at the top. It was frustrating to be in one of the best ski areas in the world just a few weeks before the resort opens!

We then headed on through the wilderness of British Columbia. We passed some stunning scenery, unfortunately most of it was hidden behind the rain and clouds. It was great to be back on the expedition again. We arrived in Kamloops in the evening after driving through the thickest fog any of us have ever seen.

We tried unsuccessfully to find some accommodation – no-one we met wanted us to sleep on their floor and the people in the hostel scared the hell out of us. So we did as we were used to doing and headed out of town to find a spot to camp. As we’re about to head to bed we heard a wild animal in the bushes. Our torches picked up two eyes staring out at us from the forest. We crept closer, debating whether it was a bear or moose. Roxy’s spotlights eventually identified it as just a regular cow!

It was a chilly night and this morning we had to break the ice off our tents before we could put them away. And it’s only going to get colder as we cross the country. The ride today up high into the Rocky mountains was terrific, following the 50^th fairly closely along Highway 1. Roxy has developed turbo problems once again and she crawls up hills reluctantly – all the more time to enjoy the scenery!

We climbed up over snowy passes and white peaks lined the route for most of the day. The forests and lakes below were beautiful in the autumn light. We arrived in Banff in the early evening and set about finding a place to stay. Even the cheapest hotel in this resort was outside our budget so we started at the most expensive, asking for free room for the night. They couldn’t oblige but offered us a very tempting discount.

We scoured the rest of the hotels for that elusive free room and just when we were about to give up we managed to find it in a very expensive place, thanks to a very kind receptionist. We’re glad not to be camping tonight – it’s supposed to be -6°C outside.

- Spike

Playing on the iPod:  “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver

We’re back on the road at last, after nearly two months of shipping Roxy and getting her fixed.

We went up to the Westlund’s cabin in the mountains last weekend to chop wood for the winter with the family. We had a great weekend staying in a lovely cabin right by the lake. We tried dirt biking, throwing axes, riding quads and ‘log burling’ – the traditional Canadian pastime of running on a log floating on a lake trying to persuade someone else to fall off first.

Our last week in Langley was great. Andrew Westlund owns Sky Helicopters, a new flying school and we were very lucky to get a ride in his helicopter up over the mountains above Vancouver. The view was out of this world as we soared over forests mountainsides and skimmed low over beautiful lakes. We were also able to see the effects of the pine beetle which has devastated areas of the forest and formed an interesting case study… the beetles have been so destructive because of the milder winters recently. If anyone wants to learn to fly in British Columbia these people are the guys for the job.

We did a few days helping out at Andrew’s other company, Apex Communications, clearing out all the random stuff they had hoarded in the basement, effectively giving them two extra rooms! We left our signature chair, desk and cuppa tea set up in each room for when they next go in there, probably in four years time.

We finally picked up Roxy from Richmond Land Rover after some time being repaired. Many thanks to Brian from the dealership for all his help, and John in England for footing the bill.

We had a great time in Vancouver, mostly down to Andrew and his lovely family who were incredibly kind and hospitable. It was hard to leave but we can all imagine ourselves coming back to live in Vancouver one day.

But leave we had to and we headed out on the open road, on the Sea-to-Sky Highway up to Whistler…

- Spike

Playing on the iPod:  Anything by Bryan Adams (who apparently owns a Land Rover!)

Since winning this bursary we have often been accused of being lucky (sometimes not so politely!), and we have generally stuck to our guns and replied that you make your own luck.  I’m beginning to think we’re lucky.

We made it to Vancouver without being decapitated (these things happen on the Greyhound apparently) and met up with Andrew Westlund. This then cued our second TV appearance (remember our first one?  That’s right, Kazakhstan, glad you’re keeping up), however this one Spike did alone.  Pete and I were so tired and looked so bad it was decided we should not appear. Spike managed an amazing job, even fielding questions of a spiritual nature.

Us with Laura-Lynn of channel 10’s ‘The Daily’

Since then we have been living at the Westlunds house and having an amazing time - thank you so much guys, you have made us feel really at home.  We’ve even had a go at stripping…bark off a tree, which is incredibly satisfying!

Pete + power tools = trouble

Vancouver is a fantastic city, full of great people and in an amazing setting.  It has a beautiful waterfront setting with rocky, snowy peaks floating on the horizon.  We negotiated Roxy’s customs clearance and had a lovely chat with the friendly officials, who were a little bit jealous of us!  We then picked her up from a warehouse and dropped her at the local Land Rover dealership for some much-needed TLC.

Welease Woxy!

Roxy in rehab

We’ve fitted in a couple of case studies here; the first was east of the city in a beautiful valley below the mountains.

The second was out on Vancouver Island which we visited for a couple of days.  Once again we enjoyed fantastic hospitality, staying with family friends of Spike in Victoria, which is another lovely (and slightly British!) city.  This was where we spent Pete’s birthday, and had a great night down on the waterfront.  The next day we hired a car and took a drive along the stunning coast line - the Pacific seems to have a lot of that - and did our case study at a lovely honey farm which also happened to have mead tasting…

Beautiful British Columbia

Pete, meet the bees

A few days later we celebrated my birthday with a fantastic day in Vancouver, even managing to gatecrash a party at the rowing club - they seemed to think we were ‘the rugby players’, so we didn’t ruin the illusion and enjoyed the waterfront view from their deck.

Our time here is still a little open-ended as we wait for the service on Roxy to be completed, but when we do come to leave it’ll hard to drag ourselves away!

- David

Playing on the iPod: ‘Don’t stop believing’ by Journey