VANCOUVER - Wonderful logs and seals

Some people talk about escaping Britain but very few actually do it. I'm an exception but, then, I'm put to shame by my friend and former boss at the University of Bristol Chaplaincy, Angus who, having had an epiphany during a visit to Vancouver that he should really be living and working there, ended up in just a few years living and working in the parish of St. Francis-in-the-Wood, West Vancouver. I love it when a plan comes together.


The coast near downtown Vancouver. You can tell it's a Candian beach because of all the logs.

Vancouver is, by many accounts, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And, darn whoever those accounts were by, but they were pretty much all right. The key to it is that it's a city which is so well built up it can be anything it wants to be. On the west coast of North America it has coastline and beaches aplenty, and the plethora of inlets make it a popular boat type of a place (well, there are an awful lot of boats around here at any rate) It has a big downtown area for all those big downtown kind of needs, but just a few miles down the road the mountains rise up into the clouds and suddenly you're in a paradise of tiny coves surrounded by steep slopes and massive pine trees.


The parish church of St. Francis-in-the-Wood. They really weren't kidding about the 'in the wood' part, either.

My faith in Canada was initially tested after a ridiculously long wait in customns to be interrogated by a completley humourless officer who didn't seem to understand the concept of taking a vacation. One promise to leave the country at the earliest oppotunity later, though, and Angus whisked me away to the west side of the city where my sense of aesthetic quickly readjusted itself from brown and scrubby (see: "California") back to green and very, very tall. St Francis-in-the-Wood is a testament to every pine tree and log joke ever made about Canada: it's set into the foot of a mountain covered in massive pines. Like California, this vast landscape is gradually being taken advanatage of by hardy developers who are perching ever bigger houses onto ledges and between trees. Can't say that I blame them, though.


The cove just seconds away from St. Francis. Whoever planted the church obviously knew what they were doing.


And in case you ever get bored of that one cove, someone thoughtfully stuck an ocean and a few mountains just around the corner.

Wandering around the immediate area produces a sort of pioneer mentality: the more diffiucult and interesting rock formations you're prepared to clamber over and the more interesting and exciting the views of the city across the bay will be when you get there. The highlight of my scramble came at the edge of the water where, after sitting and taking pictures of Grouse Mountain immersed in clouds for some minutes, a baby seal flopped out of the water beside me and sat just a couple of armlengths away. It sat there, flopped around some more whilst I took the necessary photos, and then it flopped back into the water again. You know you're somewhere quite special when that sort of thing happens.


Baby seal on the rocks. All together now: awww.