Our first Canadian Camps

Well we have now started our tour of camps in Canada. First thing was the pick up - a big yellow school bus. The hardy (but still a little jet lagged) travellers are (from l-r) John Woods, Bill Oakley, Paul Colagiuri, me, Jenny Bowker, Liz Burman, Julie Chandler and Ian Chandler. Keep this photo handy because if one of us gets eaten by a bear this will become a very poignant photo!

Our intrepid driver, Grant Alexander, took the photo and is a bit shy about appearing in photos but I will endeavour to sneak a photo of him at some stage - he has done a great job getting us around so far.

Our first camp visit was to Camp Potlatch on Howe Sound. The only way into the camp is by water and so we took a water taxi for the 20 minute ride. Tracey and Andrew were our very friendly hosts for the visit and they showed us around their wonderful camp and were very patient answering all of our questions.

The photo on the right is of the view from their camp up to the distant snow capped mountain through the Douglas Fir trees - pretty spectacular.

The focus of Camp Potlatch is on activities that the campers wouldn't do in the city. So a strong wilderness and environmental focus.

They take 100 campers at a time aged from 7 to 16. A big part of the program is 'out tripping' (journey based) and even the youngest campers have an overnight trip close to the camp.

They get great philanthropic support from the corporate sector and this has enabled them to refurbish the camp and also allows them to offer 'camperships' to those campers who can't afford to pay the full fee.

Then it was off to Camp Summit in Squamish. Our hosts were Geoff Park and Shannon Wilson (and her dog Zoe). The amazing thing about Camp Summit is that it did not exist on this site 5 months before their first groups were due in this year! It was a bush block under 4 feet of snow when they took possession on November 7, 2007. They began construction in February 2008 and their first group came in July - that is a tremendous achievement.

The ropes course on the right belongs to them. They had it built with a focus on having as many campers involved as possible. So many of the elements involve some assistance from team mates below - for example one of the elements requires 4 teammates to hold beam as steady with ropes from below while the participant walks across. It was an impressive structure.

We then moved on to Vancouver Island and an overnight stay at Camp Thunderbird in Sooke. More about that tomorrow.

I spotted a couple more items that fall under the consumerism gone mad category - 'The advanced large-capacity feline drinking fountain' which filters the cat's water through charcoal. Granted, it is a bit more expensive than the old ice-cream container I use - but if you really love your cat!

Then there is 'The Pet's Observation Porthole'. To help alleviate boredom for your curious pooch you insert one of these portholes (well they actually recommend you put in 5 of them - of course they do) into your fence. From the dogs side it is concave and from the outside it is convex - so basically your dog can suddenly appear through this porthole teeth barred and snarling at innocent passersby. It should really come with a defibrillator.

More soon - bye for now