Letter from the beautiful British Columbia...

Suddenly I realised we need to talk less in Kenya. We can build sky trains since Nairobi is swampy. The cable car potential is hardly exploited. Think of cable cars going up the Aberdares or even Longonot. From the cable car, you can see the water reservoir, the ships at the port, the bridges that cross rivers and inlets - spectacular beauty despite the clouds and temperatures below 10 degrees.

The sight of coniferous forest below that we only learned about in textbooks is breath taking. The cable car takes you to a zoo at the top of the mountain where a pair of bears are kept. You watch them play on both land and water. We discover that a bear’s diet is 80 per cent vegetation. Near the zoo, two young men re-enact the good old days when lumbering was the key industry in British Columbia.

Nature’s Beauty

At a nearby ski resort one can take the cable car to the peak just to explore – for a fee. A restaurant nearby serves sumptuous meals. The beauty does not end there. Visit Stanley Park, walk in the forest and admire downtown Vancouver across the harbour with seaplanes taking off and landing. This park makes Uhuru Park appear like a joke in size and cleanliness.

The park is next to the sea; you admire ships as you walk, ride a bicycle or just drive around and admire the mountains and bridges in the distance. When the sky is clear, you see beyond the Canadian border. Mount Baker in the US with its snow-covered peaks is a beauty to behold.

There is more than one park by the Pacific Ocean. I visited one to take my host’s dog for a walk. The beaches are not sandy like ours, some are marshy. The walk stunned me. The dog’s owner carried a polythene paper bag to collect the dog’s waste. I have never witnessed such civic responsibility. There is even a dustbin for dog poop. No wonder BC is beautiful.

It was now time to take a ferry further west to Vancouver Island. The journey takes about one and half hours. I have never seen such beauty as the sun rises over the islands in the Pacific Ocean. Immediately, you realise why this ocean is pacific. The ferry stops at Swartz Bay, from where a double-decker bus takes you on a 30-minute ride along the coast of Vancouver Island to the historic port city of Victoria at the southern tip of the island.

You drive through farmlands ending up in downtown Vancouver where there are uniquely named streets like Pandora and a restaurant called Cleopatra’s Bedroom. Along the wharf, statues of great men like Captain Cook interrupt your walk as ships dock while seaplanes take off.

The buildings in Victoria, the capital of BC resemble those in Nairobi along Kenyatta Avenue. Just like Vancouver City, there are no sandy beaches. A walk along the oceanfront takes you to another park, Beacon Hill, which like Stanley overlooks the Pacific Ocean. I was lucky to find a seal hunting fish. There are no houses by the sea or beach, it is left for all to enjoy.

Indigenous people

The visit is not over until you visit the British Columbia Royal Museum next to the BC Parliament. The moving history of indigenous people (called First Nations) is told through video and artefacts like totem poles. It mirrors our colonial history.

There is another bus trip to Swartz Bay and another ferry back to Vancouver by nightfall. I spent a day learning about First Nation people at the University of British Columbia and even enjoyed their traditional dances. First Nation folk have names such as Musgamagw, Musqueam, Nanaimo, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nlaka’pamux etc. Many places in Canada and the US bear First Nation names, akin to Maasai names in Kenya. Any lessons for our young nation from BC?