Patagonia Pete

I approve of Vancouver. Well done. Carry on. I spent this morning cycling around Stanley Park surrounded by fellow cyclists, runners, bladers, dog-walkers, mums, dads, kids, in fact, all of Vancouver seemed to be out enjoying the not-rain weather and I rather like the manicured wilderness at the heart of Stanley Park.
Here’s a photo and bear in mind that this is as close to the centre of Vancouver as Hyde Park is to London.

It may be just because it’s Sunday, but there are loads of cyclists in this town. Lots of cycle lanes and cycle-only routes make it a pretty safe town to cycle around unlike Los Anchorage which was bordering on the deadly.

I was put up by a couple of other cyclists tonight who belong to Warmshowers. For those who don’t know, then Warmshowers is, despite the dodgy name, a web-based collective of fellow cyclists around the world who put up other touring cyclists for free. Well, maybe a bottle of wine to smooth the way, but no cash is exchanged. In theory I should be able to travel the length of America using Warmshowers, but with uncertain travel plans and times it’s a little hard to ask someone to put you up for free and then possibly turn up a couple of days late or maybe not at all.
Anyway, Damien and Jill were charming and considerate hosts, but the weird thing was that they’d only just come back to Vancouver after having lived in London. What a coincidence. But the coincidences got weirder when it turned out Jill had lived and worked in Poole for about six weeks a couple of years ago. What a small, beautiful world we share! Thanks guys.

Oh, and their next door neighbour was Bob from Leeds. I don’t think we had any coincidences, but it’s nice to know were doing a roaring trade in ex-pats.

Thanks for all the comments. It can get lonely out on the road so please keep them coming.

Love
Pete