Canada calling

In a couple of months it will be 20 years since I first visited Canada.

I was reminded of this when watching series three of Race Across The World on iPlayer.

For those who don’t know, Race Across The World is a reality travel programme that pits five pairs of adults against one another in a race across various regions of the world.

Couples may be friends, or related to one another.

The schtick is that they have no phones (so they can’t make calls or access the internet), or credit cards.

They have to survive on a budget of approximately £50 a day (cash), which they can top up doing odd jobs en route, and the assistance of strangers.

They may be travelling for up to 50 days, so it’s quite a slog, but the programme is strangely addictive and has proved a ratings hit.

The first series (London to Singapore) was filmed in 2019 and broadcast during Covid in 2020.

The fifth series is currently on BBC1 but my wife and I only discovered the programme quite recently so we’re still catching up.

Series three, which we finished watching last night, was broadcast two years ago. Teams started in Vancouver in British Columbia and had to make their way across Canada to St John’s in Newfoundland, a distance of over 3,000 miles.

I knew Canada was big but it’s actually the second largest country in the world (after Russia), which I didn’t know.

Huge swathes of the country are sparsely populated, which means public transport - buses, trains and ferries - are infrequent to say the least.

It’s also very expensive. A loaf of bread, for example, can cost twice as much as it does in the UK.

Nevertheless, the scenery in the more rural areas was spectacular and it has prompted my wife and I to consider a longer holiday in the country.

In the meantime it was fun to be reminded of some of the places I’ve already visited - notably Vancouver and Vancouver Island (2019), and Toronto and Niagara Falls (2005).

My visit to Toronto 20 years ago was actually a business trip, the highlights of which were (a) being upgraded to business class by British Airways (!), and (b) meeting Matt Finlayson, composer of ‘The Smoke Police’, and his friend, poet Eric Layman (1943-2008).

Matt not only invited me to dinner with his family, he even drove me to Niagara Falls, a round trip of 150 miles.

I also met the director of a short-lived smokers’ rights group but that, as they say, is another story.

Below: Victoria, Vancouver Island, 2019