There has been something of a gap since our last post. Sadly Andy's mum died on 26 September after a short illness at the age of 91. Thankfully we made it back to Ireland to be with her and the rest of the family a few days prior to this. The blog below starts from where we last left off in Jasper and covers our time in the Vancouver area and the trip home.

Andy finally got his one and only bear sighting as we left Jasper by train (which arrived 5 hours late - but had come from Toronto a 3-day ride away), a cub scampering away from the tracks.

Eighteen hours later Alastair and Suzanne met us at Vancouver station - we first got to know them in the Rockies. They balanced our boxed bikes on top of their car to get them and us to their house in North Vancouver. Our 3-day stay with them was wonderful and very active. With its mountainous backdrop and the coast to its west, Vancouver is a very attractive city. We toured it by bike and climbed Mt Grouse (alias 'the grind' - a 1 km climb with a 3:1 slope which Alastair always does in less than an hour).

From Vancouver we set out by ferry for Vancouver Island and the Gulf islands which form an archipelago to its east through which the ferry travels. There were some good cycle paths in the SE of Vancouver Island which we enjoyed while camping outside of Victoria, the state capital of British Colombia right at the southern tip.

We had planned to cycle on the San Juan Islands which form the US part off the archipelago, but the lack of available camping and information on them changed our minds. Instead we spent time on Galiano, Mayne and Pender. Each were beautiful but Galiano was the remotest and most hilly. The forest campsite was right on the coast and there were far more raccoons than fellow campers.

It was at midnight after our arrival on Pender that we learnt that Andy's Mum had suddenly been taken seriously ill and would not have much longer to live. We got the only ferry off the island the following morning. Alastair met us on the mainland and drove us to Vancouver airport. He took charge of the bikes and the gear we didn't need to take to Ireland and we managed to get two of the last seats on the 6.30pm Air Canada flight to London and on to Dublin.

Twenty-six hours after leaving Pender we were at the hospital in Cavan. Together with Andy's six siblings and various of the grandchildren, we were with Kathleen for just over four days as she tried to fight against the inevitable. She finally passed away on her husband's birthday (Hugh had predeceased her by 21 years). The removal, funeral and burial took place within the 3 following days. It had been a week full of deep sadness but also great memories; and it ended in a way that Kathleen would have loved - all of us in a pub listening and dancing to a live performance from Tommy Kenny, one of her favourite local singers.

Two days after the funeral we headed back to Vancouver where Alastair and Suzanne again hosted us for a couple of days. We boxed the bikes - this time they had to fit into boxes of 80 linear inches - even smaller than those for West Jet when we first flew to Newfoundland. As ever it took about 6 hours to make the boxes the right size and take the bikes apart. A big difference this time is that Andy no longer has the trailer - a friend of Alastair's is taking it. We took the camping gear home to Ireland as we can manage with two panniers each. So now we head to SE Asia - first stop Taiwan.