The journey to Canada …

So the last 3 months have flown by since coming back to Guernsey from our 10 week snowboarding trip in Whistler. We have used our time to the full - mostly just being with our close friends and family. We also managed a few trips away including a weekend in Sark with friends, a few days in Portugal for a 50th birthday celebration and a week in the UK with the van and pups to get some work done to Han and also to test drive some BIG trucks up in Doncaster (possibly our next project to create an overlander!!?). We also squeezed in a couple of music festivals - Tubbs to Download at Donington Park and me to the Isle of Wight - AMAZING after not being able to go the last couple of years because of, you guessed it, Covid.

In between all of this we also needed to fathom out the logistics of getting the van, all our gear (bikes, snowboards etc), 2 pups and ourselves over to Canada 🤔. This was quite a puzzle but Tubbs being an awesome project manager rose to the challenge and created his spreadsheet and time lines. Unfortunately, we soon realised we were going to have to travel over separately; he was going to have to fly to Halifax to get the van while I went to Toronto with the pups as this was the only route taking dogs at the moment. So many moving parts but not overly impossible to get our heads around. We also realised Canada is a big place eh! and it won’t be just a short drive down the road to pick us up - it would be a good 2-3 days!! But that’s ok as Tubbs loves to drive and what a great road trip that is going to be to start off the adventure 🤟🚐

So the big day finally arrived and after a false start of Tubbs delivering the van up to Liverpool (long story but basically the freight ferry was delayed by a week), Han set off on 11th July on its 8 day journey to Halifax.

In the meantime we all flew over to Southampton and got the train up to Shoreham to stay with Martin and Corinne - our home from home when in the UK. Tubbs then set off the next day to Heathrow for his flight to Halifax, a bit premature as the van wouldn’t arrive until the following week because of the ferry’s delay but unfortunately he couldn’t change his flights. Upside is he got a great few days just chilling and exploring Halifax, but I will leave him to tell you all about that in another post 😊

I was lucky enough to change mine and the pups flights, so I hung out in the UK for an extra week, which made sense otherwise I would need a hotel with the dogs in Toronto for 7 or 8 nights waiting for the van to arrive and then Tubbs to drive to us. We had a wonderful relaxing week with Martin and Corinne just when the heatwave hit so plenty of beach days and sea swimming, I also managed a day trip to see my sister and meet my gorgeous new nephew 🤱🥰

So the day before our flight the pups were collected at 7am by Pet Air UK to go to their kennels for the night in Windsor and be checked out by the vet to get all their Canadian import paperwork in order. Knowing I wouldn’t see them until very late the next day and in another country, I must admit I had very mixed emotions.

Anyway all was fine and the next morning Pet Air let me know they were all checked in and ready for boarding. The 7 hour flight went smoothly although I couldn’t fully relax knowing the pups were in the hold somewhere underneath me and not knowing how they were coping. Unfortunately they don’t get a G&T or cabin service - they are just left to get on with it!

So once I was through customs the process to collect the pups started. This took in total about 3 hours from landing to physically getting them and involved a 10 min cab ride to Swissport to pick up the import paperwork, then 15 mins up the road to Customs to get them approved, followed by a return trip to Swissport with the stamped papers to pay import duty and finally get Peaches & Wicket 🐶

My cab driver was amazing and waited every step of the way. He did not charge waiting time and then got us all to the hotel which was another 15 mins away - no mean feat I can tell you with two hot stinky dogs panting like mad from the heat and stress of the last 12 hours, as well as a hot stressed human!! 🥵. Once checked in and we got to our lovely air conditioned hotel room, Peaches curled up and fell straight asleep in the middle of the floor while Wicket grabbed his toy cow and wanted to play 🐾🐮

Next day I’m pleased to say with the pups all happy and well rested we moved hotels just up the road for the next night and couldn’t believe it when Tubbs arrived 6pm that evening 🤩 He had just driven for 2 days (with 5am starts) 1800 kms!! It was an emotional reuniting and the dogs recognised the van as soon as Tubbs pulled into the hotel car park getting very excited 🤗

Feeling thankful to be together and in Canada at last to start this amazing adventure! 🇨🇦🍁

Tubbs & TA ❤️