Ian Rambles
A pleasant alchohol and barbecue fuelled week playing on the lake and mountain.

Fiona's Journal
Sunday 20th to Thursday 24th July
We had a barbecue on the Sunday evening with twenty or more of Sarah and Keith's friends. Then Robbie arrived back from Vancouver airport with his friends from England, Tom and Greg, and also some of his local friends and it turned into a real party.

We ended the night sitting round the fire pit listening to Dennis play the guitar and sing. We all joined in when we knew the words – and when we didn't actually. Dennis was shocked that, despite the considerable number of Brits amongst those assembled, none of us knew the words to the Beatles songs he played! Arthur played a couple of numbers and so did Greg and the beer and whiskey flowed.

The next three days drifted by with reading (I am completely engrossed in Barrack Obama's “Dreams of my Father” which Keith bought for Ian while we were travelling) and swimming and mucking about on the lake.

George, Arthur and Ian have all been out in the kayaks and then George met up with Dillon from next door and they seemed to hit it off and went kayaking and then cycling together and then played computer games until Dillon's Mum called him home.

We have learned a bit about the Canadian recycling system because Sarah promised George that, if he cleared all the bottles and cans from the garden ..... I mean yard ..... after the party, he could keep all the money recovered by taking them to the recycling centre. Keith kindly added in two sacs of recyclable bottles and cans from their shed to the deal and so he ended up taking 4 large bin bags to the centre and sorting them into their various categories (beer cans, soft drink cans, beer, wine and spirit bottles, plastic juice and pop bottles) for the attendant to count and record and price up on his computer system. George made over twenty dollars from this deal and was very, very happy!

I have doubts about the true “greenness” of all this myself. It seems highly labour intensive and people drive a very considerable collective distance just to bring these bottles and cans to the centre BUT it does seem to provide a critical source of income for the homeless of Kamloops and also employment for quite a few people in the recycling centre itself and it is, at least, paid for by the buyer of the product as a small surcharge on the purchase price that goes directly to fund the recycling process. The drawback of paying people to recycle these particular items seems to me that they don't bother to recycle anything else, even ideologically green people like Sarah don;'t. In England, where you dont get money for anything you recycle, those people who are convinced recycling is worthwhile do recycle everything they possibly can and those who think its all a waste of time or don't think about such issues at all wouldn't bother to recycle even if you paid them too!

One evening Rick Carlson took the five of us, with our bikes, and Keith up the logging road behind Keith and Sarah's house and then Keith drove the truck back down while Rick lead us “downhill mountain biking” which is just my sort of activity – all the best bits with none of the slog! It was quite a steep, rutted and stony trail back down the hillside and George and Harry really struggled with the surface and were not stoical about their difficulties. I think they hated every minute of it and being plagued by mosquitoes, because I forgot to spray everyone before we left, did not help. However, they made it safely to the bottom and should at least be left with a sense of achievement.

I really enjoyed it despite the mass of intensely itchy and annoying bites I am now going to have to live with for several days and Arthur was in his element, as he tends to be on two wheels. Ian would have enjoyed it better were it not for mosquitoes and small boys but still managed to get some fun out of it.

Our last day at Paul Lake was spent preparing for the next leg of our journey, largely by getting rid off stuff. Having washed every item of clothing we have with us, I then proceeded to discard a few that I think will not be necessary after all (and in George's case a few things he has grown out of while in transit!) and I managed to shed a large carrier bagful from our load. Then various items like our little 4 cup coffee maker, our flat screen computer monitor, a stack of childrens' and adults books and the basket ball and flashing frisbee have been distributed amongst friends and neighbours and quite a few things have gone out with the rubbish so we should be rather less laden than we were in Amsterdam.

We went out for an Indian meal in Kamloops in the evening with Sarah, Keith and Robbie and various friends which was lovely.

Thursday July 24th
Set off about 10am and stopped off in Kamloops for George to cash in his leaving presents – six bags of recycling. Four from Licie and Rick then another two from Sarah and Keith. We have got the hang of the system now and quickly sorted it into seperate crates of beer cans (lots), soft drink cans, glass bottles and plastic bottles. George earned $21.80 and gave Harry $6.80 for helping.

We dropped in to “Doggy Day Care” to say goodbye to Sarah then headed off to Vancouver along the scenic route through Hells Gate.

Arthur's Log:
They had a large get together today, with two of Robbies mates from England, Tom and Greg. They seemed nice but Ii was shattered from only having 3 hours sleep and was no fun the whole night.

George's Musings
I enjoyed kayaking but thought the downhill biking was a bit bumpy.