Hey, remember when we did that national parks road trip across Canada?

“Well, Wasagaming campsite is the most popular,” said the ranger at Riding Mountain National Park's welcome center. He peered into our backseat cluttered with camping gear and duffel bags that reeked of campfire smoke. “But judging from the looks of you guys, you want Lake Audy. It's a bit more... rugged."

We thanked him and headed northwest to our temporary home for the next few nights. As we set up our tent lakeside and settled in to watch the sunset, we agreed that he couldn't have been more right.

Lake Audy

( just before the awesome thunderstorm that trumped the sunset)

Portland, Oregon may be just a few hours' drive from the Canadian border but other than a few long weekends in western British Columbia, we hadn't seen much else of our northern neighbor. An extended vacation was the perfect excuse to remedy this so last April we embarked upon a cross-continental road trip coupled with farmstay learning opportunities along the way. Over the next four months we would see 11 unique parks, sleep under stars (and sometimes rainclouds) at 12 amazing campsites, and hike over 120 miles... er, 200 kilometers of gorgeous trails.

we managed to have just a little bit of fun, too

When we left Portland I had never heard of Riding Mountain or Forillon National Parks, and no amount of money would've enabled me to find Kouchibouguac National Park on the map (or pronounce it or Pukaskwa, for that matter). Honestly, before our departure I had no idea where the entire province of Saskatchewan was on the map. We had naively expected to drive about 5500 miles... er, 8850 kilometers coast to coast. Final count after all our meandering? Just under 16,800 kilometers!

The scenery was unbelievable. Gorgeous bays and beaches welcomed us in Pacific Rim, Pukaskwa and Forillon. Stunning mountain vistas and cold temperatures challenged us in Yoho, Banff and Waterton Lakes. Impressive lakes, rivers and waterfalls greeted us in Kouchibouguac and Fundy.

pretty in pink(ish) -

the aptly named "coastal" hike in Cape Breton

cold, tired, happy - 

snow hiking to Little Beehive lookout in Banff

conquering Mt Galwey

in Waterton Lakes

And the wildlife! Bears crossed our path in Riding Mountain; eagles soared over our campsite in Cape Breton; free roaming bison caused a traffic jam in Grasslands. Throughout our journey we also encountered bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, coyotes, deer, porcupines, quail, caribou… and of course, mosquitoes and ticks (possibly our only beef with Canada).

bear-o-rama in Riding Mountain

(photo credit: very good zoom feature)

skritchin' break in Grasslands

Our Oregon license plates drew many stares and “long way from home, eh?” comments in the parks, especially as we got further and further east, and we got some wonderful recommendations as a result. In fact, Riding Mountain National Park hadn't even been on our radar until a backpacker with years of experience touted it as the most rugged land he'd seen. He couldn't have been more right either. And friendly park rangers often stopped to share their RV adventures to the southern U.S. during off-season, giving us plenty of food for thought for our return journey.

This cross-continental trek was the start of a longer-term journey to several continents and we wanted to keep our expenses down. The Parks Canada Discovery Pass turned out to be one of our best investments. Entrance fees to all National Parks, as well as admission to National Historic Sites and National Marine Conservation Areas, were all covered under the Discovery Pass. Although our primary agendas were camping and hiking, we also enjoyed visits to Saskatchewan's Fort Walsh and Nova Scotia's Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site.

our jar fund finally paid off!

Which park was our favorite? That's an impossible question! From the rainy west coast, through the snow-capped Rockies, across vast plains, and into the lush and green eastern highlands, we got a taste of everything – and it was all amazing.

Wapta Falls in Yoho,

just one of several dozen waterfalls along our trip

We do agree that Grasslands was one of the more unexpectedly beautiful parks. Some people might not call endless kilometers of prairie "beautiful", but we were absolutely mesmerized and the free roaming bison increased the park's magical factor by at least ten.

pondering in the Grasslands prairie

We started too early in the season to enjoy Glacier, Mount Revelstoke and Jasper, and we didn't have time to venture farther north or explore many other familiar and lesser-known parks across the country. But as we crossed the U.S. border into Maine at the end of our journey, I smiled knowing that I'd seen more of Canada than most Canadians will see in their lifetime.

The gorgeous sunny days and star-studded nights were truly awesome but the rainy days and nights tested our patience, flexibility, creativity, and endurance - all of which have come in handy as we continue our journey around the world. Thank you for everything, National Parks of Canada - we'll definitely see you again!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
This was posted on the one-year anniversary of our entry into Canada, the kickoff to our ongoing round-the-world adventure.  The fine folks at Parks Canada have graciously offered to share it with their Twitter and Facebook followers in hopes that it will encourage everyone to get out there and explore!  

What are your favorite nature spots in Canada?  Tell us YOUR story in the comments!

Every-day-is-Friday five: Portland(ish) cravings on Day 365.

We have been on the road for a year.

A YEAR!! Holy cow.

When we were researching round-the-world travel blogs people would always say "I was only going to be gone a year, but..." We couldn't understand how that could happen. Now we know.

Occasionally someone asks what we miss from home. Other than friends, family, and regular access to good peanut butter, there's not really much. But we can't say there's nothing we miss either, so we thought Day 365 would be a good time to share five of our Portland(ish) cravings in no particular order:

~* PATRICK'S LIST *~

Craft beer. Having tasted beers throughout Canada, Central Europe, Turkey, Morocco (yes, even Morocco), and now Vietnam, nothing compares to the fine craft beers of the Pacific Northwest.

Prague, Czech Republic

Snowboarding. Oh, how I would love to make some sweet, sweet turns.

The weekend bacon routine. It was the only thing getting me through the work week. (Bonus points if it was from Laurelhurst Market.)

Lone Fir Cemetery. Taking a peaceful walk or an uninterrupted run through the cemetery was great since most other people avoid it. A lot of the cemeteries throughout Central Europe brought back fond memories of Lone Fir.

Rakowicki Cemetery - Krakow, Poland

Laurelhurst Theater. Pizza, beer, $3 movie... what better way to spend a rainy day in Portland?

~* JEN'S LIST *~

Cooking. The novelty of hostel cooking has definitely worn off. I miss poring over online recipes, homemade soup, my spice rack, and three days of delicious leftovers.

Lisa, Romania

Live music at Portland venues. The Doug Fir, Mississippi Studios and the Aladdin were our regular date nights. We get a little homesick when we see tour announcements from our favorite bands. We hope you go to their shows while we can't.

Comfortable personal space. Dorms have no space whatsoever; hotels have a bed (or two) and maybe a chair, once in a while a balcony or terrace. Usually the bed becomes our office, kitchen, sofa, sleeping area, you name it. Add to that, the fact that we have pretty much spent the past 365 days together 24/7... Yeah, comfortable personal space would be nice.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Running. We were running up to 20 miles/week back in Portland. I didn't bring running shoes/clothes figuring it would be too much to deal with, and I'm glad I didn't. But some days a nice three mile run would be nice. And some days a ten mile run would be so very awesome.

The Multnomah County library. In addition to borrowing every single travel book/DVD in their collection, at least once a week we would pilfer the media racks for familiar and/or strange finds. We learned how to buy an RV, how big structures are made, and why Attack of the Crab Monsters is one of the best B&W cheesy horror flicks of all time. We discovered The Walkmen, Woods, and The Tallest Man on Earth just to name a few. And we watched and listened to a lot of crap too, but that was part of the fun!

~* *~

So we mostly don't miss things, we miss experiences. That's pretty fitting considering what we are doing right now, and it's also probably for the best since we don't have a whole lot of things to come home to anyway!

Not sure how much longer we will stay on the road but we just renewed our travel insurance for another six months and there are no refunds for early policy cancellation... So you do the math.

Slowing down to volunteer at Sapa Hope Center.

For the past week we've been volunteering at Sapa Hope Center, a non-profit project aiming to provide shelter for homeless mountain children from surrounding villages and free English lessons to anyone in the local community. About 20 homeless children currently rely on support from their extended families and their local community; there is no government assistance for this demographic. Sapa Hope Center will help to ease the community burden and offer these children a brighter future.

the vision

Sapa Hope Center was founded by a philosophical entrepreneur named Peter Thuong. While living in Hanoi about ten years ago, Peter visited Sapa and was moved by the stories of the mountain children who walked many miles each day to sell trinkets and handicrafts to Sapa tourists in order to support their families. He learned that some children had lost parents due to illness or injury in the field. Peter was inspired to help, so in 2011 he opened Sapa Backpackers, a hostel/coffee shop whose profits would fund construction and maintenance of Sapa Hope Center.

the present state

In 2014 land for Sapa Hope Center was purchased and building began. In true grassroots form, locals from the ethnic villages have been helping with construction; volunteers do the rest. Tasks over the past week have included painting colorful and educational murals...

dinosaur dorm - the beginning

dinosaur dorm - the middle

dinosaur dorm - complete!

... sealing walls with cement in prep for painting...

Patrick and Harry supervise Tim

... and cleaning and preparing the Center and grounds for their first use.

cleaning and sorting dishes

project kitchen organization: complete!

garden cleanup

Peter hopes to have the Center open for business by June 2014 - pretty ambitious. To help reach this goal, Sapa Backpackers offers guests inexpensive lodging or food in exchange for volunteering their time at the Center. Guests are also encouraged to teach English lessons at the new Center or in the evenings at the hostel.

free English lessons for local children

snack break

Peter's vision for Sapa Hope Center is inspiring. A stable home means healthier and safer children. Free English lessons open up educational opportunities in the booming local tourism business - or whatever industry these children wish to enter. And his international spin on the lessons means that the children will have a well-rounded education. Peter wants to see a zoo painted on the outside wall with animals from all over the world; another wall will feature a world map with flags of each country; and international volunteers are welcomed at the Center. During our stay we worked alongside travelers from England, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, and Australia.

map-sterpiece in progress by Hagen and Josh

And Peter's commitment to his mission is impressive. Day in, day out he runs the hostel (including transport and tour organization, which is probably a full time job in itself), manages volunteers at the Center, and keeps his vision moving forward. His methods are meticulous and methodical whether he is moving a pile of cinderblocks, scraping paint from a sink, or teaching the children vocabulary. Yet he always has time for a thoughtful conversation.

The walk to Sapa Hope Center from Sapa Backpackers is 5km each way. It takes about an hour going and a little longer coming back, mostly because the return trip is uphill but also because the group tends to stop for a beer or three after their hard days' work.

not kidding - it really is 5km each way

and it really is uphill on the way back

but the views are lovely

The exercise and scenery were nice, but I like to think that there is also some symbolism in having the volunteers walk 10km each day. The kids from the mountain probably have a much longer daily walk just to bring home a few dollars for their families...

We have to move on soon but we are glad we could help out in a small way this past week. We wish the best for Peter, the kids, the new volunteers, and Sapa Hope Center!

The gorgeous caves of Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park.

Some friends visited Vietnam a few years ago and insisted that we try to go to Sơn Đoòng cave because they hadn't been able to make it. We like caves. "OK!", we said.

And then somewhere around Quy Nhon we finally looked into Sơn Đoòng cave. Turns out it's newly discovered, its tourism is limited to 84 people a year (with a wait list for next year already), and it's $3000. Riiiiiiight.

Luckily, there are many other cool caves in the area, and we managed to visit two during our quick stay near Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park. Both are allegedly the second biggest after Sơn Đoòng cave; if you Google either you'll see all kinds of conflicting bragging rights about "the biggest cave in the world" and "the longest cave in Asia" and so on and so forth... So we'll just say that both were AWESOME and leave it at that.

But before we get to the caves, a few thoughts on Phong Nha. Western tourism is a fairly new concept in Vietnam overall; this is especially true near Phong Nha. In our observations over the past year there seems to be a tourism cycle that goes from locals being curious about foreigners and appreciating the economic boom, to being annoyed about the foreign invasion, to being opportunistic with foreigners' money. (And then the locals all flee - or get pushed out for economic reasons - and the tourism business runs the town.)

From what we saw during our short stay, this town is somewhere between the first and second stage - most people were friendly and welcoming but others didn't return our waves or hellos. And some have advanced to the third stage. We got ripped off buying petrol for the motorbike and one in ten of the kids who said a friendly "hello!" would then hold their hand out for money.

There are a handful of Aussies who've opened all-inclusive hotels near Phong Nha. We stayed at one because we thought a lakeside resort at off-season prices sounded peaceful and relaxing, and because there's not much listed on Booking.com and we're still not comfortable rolling into town without a place to stay.

peaceful and relaxing - not really

but airy dorms and mossie nets, at least

Unfortunately, we did not enjoy the resort at all. There were many reasons but the main one was our fellow guests. It seemed that western foreigners went there to drink, do organized tours, eat their $5 hamburgers, and generally stay in their western bubble.

We couldn't wait to leave the resort! We preferred walking the village roads, checking out the local gardens and houses, chatting briefly with the kids who all screamed "HELLO!" to us as we passed, and stopping at local markets or a cafe for more authentic (and inexpensive) food.

along the village road

We've been advised in various forums not to judge fellow travelers for how they choose to travel (it's all about the individual journey, blah blah blah) and generally we're pretty cool with that. But we think this sort of approach to traveling just makes it harder for those of us who do want to interact with locals, who aren't just visiting for cheap beer and all-inclusive tours, who want a more trusting and fulfilling experience out of travel...

Anyway. You don't care about all that. Back to the caves!

To visit Paradise Cave you can take a tour for a minimum of $45pp and have 30 minutes in the cave, or you can DIY and take as much time as you like. For about $15pp, we rented a motorbike and headed about 30km to the park, paid the entry fee and walked along a flat jungle forest path to an uphill jungle forest path and then into the cave. We stayed for about two hours.

hellooooo, Ho Chi Minh road!

views along HCM road

To visit Phong Nha cave you can take the same tour that goes to Paradise Cave (about $45pp) or you can DIY. This time we skipped the motorbike and walked about 10km to the park entrance and 10km back. We were able to go in with some other tourists on the $17 mandatory boat ride (which, split among 9 people, worked out pretty well) and enjoy the cave for pretty cheap - $6pp cheap, in fact.

why would you want to motorbike?

you'd miss all these tiny little frogs!

views along the boat ride -

making use of every possible garden space

boating to the cave mouth

(they cut the engine when you enter

and just use paddles)

Cave photos won't do them justice but here are a few anyway. First, Paradise Cave...

giant teeth

towering above

they say "you can only go 1km in"

like that's not a very long distance

enormous caverns

And then Phong Nha...

ceiling formations

from the ground up

curtains of limestone

the end

Pretty sure Phong Nha is one of those places we'll say we were so glad we went in 2014, because in 2020 it's going to be a nightmare for people like us.

But yes, we are so glad we went.

Food notes: other than some really good spicy pork vermicelli at a cafe near the park, we ate at the hotel (noodles, veggies and tofu - not the $5 hamburgers) as a matter of convenience . It was pricey but alright.

spicy pork vermicelli is definitely the way to go

Lodging notes: Phong Nha Lake House Resort was perfect if you're a westerner who wants to surround themselves with all things western when visiting a small village in a foreign country. (It wasn't for us.)

To the north, Hanoi, and Sapa at last!