<![CDATA[ROBIN ESROCK - BESTSELLING AUTHOR, SPEAKER, TV HOST

<![CDATA[ROBIN ESROCK - BESTSELLING AUTHOR, SPEAKER, TV HOST - BLOG]]>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:06:48 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[How an Oral Appliance Stopped My Snoring on the Road]]>Wed, 15 Jul 2026 17:16:28 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/how-an-oral-appliance-stopped-my-snoring-on-the-roadYour body is the one piece of gear you can't leave behind, upgrade, or check as luggage.

There's a particular kind of uncomfortable silence that falls over a dark hotel room when your partner has just elbowed you awake for the third time in an hour. It's the silence of someone doing complex math about whether it’s possible to sleep in the bathtub.

For years, I told myself that snoring was just something that happened to other people. I remember sharing hotel rooms with the videographer of my TV show who snored like a rusty chainsaw at full power in the lower depths of hell. Then I got older, gained a few pounds, and somewhere around my 163rd long-haul flight and my my three-thousandth hotel room, my wife elbowed me in the back and said she couldn’t take it anymore. That's when I knew I’d officially become a snorer, and my snoring had become a travel liability.

Your body is the one piece of gear you can't leave behind, upgrade, or check as luggage. You can buy the best noise-canceling headphones, the most ingenious packing cubes, and the perfect memory foam neck pillow, but if you're keeping your companions (or the couple in the next room, or your own exhausted brain) awake all night, none of it matters. I've slept in over 120 countries, and nothing wrecks a trip faster than waking up exhausted, day after day, running on empty.
So, I did what I do with most travel problems I encounter. I looked for a fix that was small, portable, and boringly effective. That's how I ended up with a mandibular advancement device (or MAD, an acronym that describes the mental state of a snorer’s partner). If you haven't encountered one, it's a custom-fitted oral appliance that looks like a slimmed-down mouthguard. The MAD gently shifts your lower jaw forward while you sleep, a subtle adjustment that opens up the airway in your throat. This results in less vibration in the soft tissue at the back of your throat, which means little or no snoring at all.

I was skeptical. I'd already tried nasal strips that make you look like you're perpetually mid-sneeze. I'd tried sleeping propped up like a Victorian invalid. At home, I'd tried various pillows that made empty promises to keep you on your side, which mostly just resulted in an exhausting night fighting a pillow. The mouth guard device was different, because it wasn't fighting my sleep position or my nose so much as it addressed the actual mechanics of why I was snoring in the first place.
It comes in a travel case the size of a small soap dish, and it goes in the same pouch as the rest of my toiletries. For people with severe sleep apnea, a CPAP machine remains the gold standard, but an oral appliance is dramatically easier to travel with. It eliminates the hassle and bulk of a CPAP, with its hose, mask and hunt for electrical outlets with the right plug adapter and voltage. It's honestly no bigger deal than packing a toothbrush. After a consultation and 3D scan at a dentist, I was fitted with a Panthera, a custom-molded mouthguard that takes up less room than a phone charger and needs nothing but a brush to clean each morning. For someone who's spent two decades trying to fit an entire life into carry-on luggage, it’s a game changer.

What got me over the line was a conversation I had on a Viking cruise along the Danube, the kind of trip where you end up talking to strangers over wine about personal issues that you'd never normally discuss with someone you just met. A retired contractor from Miami, deep into his second glass of Chianti, told me about his own snoring saga, while his wife nodded throughout, affirming the tale.
"It was either this or my wife would make me sleep on the ship balcony," he said. I told him rooms on the Viking Jarl didn't have a balcony. "Exactly," was his reply. He said the appliance had saved many vacations over the years, and that his wife now packed it for him before he even thought to ask. That line stuck with me, mostly because I recognized the look of a man who has been banished to a bathtub, a pull-out couch, or a spare room. Nobody wants to snore and be a nuisance, but our bodies do it anyway.

Curious to understand the actual science behind how this little device works, I spoke with Bradley Kalmek, a Vancouver-based sleep specialist at Sleepworks Medical. He explained the appeal for frequent travellers in particular. "Most people don't realize that snoring and mild sleep apnea are largely mechanical problems. When the jaw and tongue relax back during sleep, they can partially block the airway. An oral appliance holds the jaw in a slightly forward position to keep the airway open. For travellers, it's especially useful because it requires no power source, no water, no maintenance beyond basic cleaning.” I can attest that it works just as well in a hotel in Switzerland as it does in a tent in the Okavango Delta.

For anyone sharing a room, here’s a travel item nobody ever recommends because it isn't very exciting. But, as anyone who has ever suffered jet lag will tell you, what makes or breaks any trip is simply whether you managed to get some rest. It’s one thing to spend a night in an ice hotel, or take a road trip across Ireland, and another to do it foggy-headed because you spent the night startling yourself awake with your own snoring, and pissing off anyone unlucky to be near you in the process.

The Panthera X3 oral device

Since I started traveling with my oral appliance, things have improved greatly when I travel with my wife. Hotel walls have stayed blissfully unblamed. I wake up sharper and ready to go, because it turns out that uninterrupted restorative sleep, even a version engineered by a small device shifting my jaw a few millimetres forward, does what sleep is supposed to do.

If you travel often, or share a bed with someone who's ever sighed heavily at 3 a.m. and reached for a spare pillow, it's worth getting properly assessed for an oral appliance instead of assuming you're doomed to a lifetime of nasal strips and apologetic mornings. I know it’s not glamorous, but you’re not wearing this thing out in public. Like a bidet, an oral appliance is not something you usually mention at dinner parties, even if it transforms your life. But it might just be the smallest, most quietly game-changing thing in your carry-on. Best of all, nobody has to sleep in the bathtub.

Note: Snoring can also be a symptom of sleep apnea. If you snore regularly, it's worth getting professionally assessed before deciding whether an oral appliance is appropriate.

]]><![CDATA[A Barcelona Story, featuring the Black Crowes]]>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 23:05:28 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/a-barcelona-story-with-the-black-crowes

I tell stories about destinations. This is very different from assuming I know how best to visit that destination, or what the current situation may be on the ground. Sometimes I can help, but sometimes the stories I tell date back too far in the past to be of much practical use. Which is not to say the story isn’t worthwhile, because sometimes, the stories are magical and timeless. Take, for example, my very brief visit to Barcelona at the tail end of 1992.

This was a different world of course, before social media, before smart phones, before the Internet. The famous Basílica de la Sagrada Família was decades away from being completed, in fact it was only officially inaugurated this very month, 34 years later. It still made an impression, but has very little to do with my Barcelona story. For that, we need to track even further back in time to a kid growing up during the global cultural boycott of Apartheid, South Africa.

South African radio enjoyed a steady slew of music hits drawn from the best US and UK artists, but we saw few if any touring international artists. Queen did play Sun City, a huge resort outside of Johannesburg and according to the Apartheid government, technically outside of South Africa too. Sun City was located in Bophuthatswana, a puppet state considered an independent country by the National Party of South Africa and a sham by everyone else. Queen performed there, along with Rod Stewart, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, and inexplicably Stevie Wonder, all drawing the ire of their contemporaries. I was too young for any of it, although coincidentally, my first-ever international rockstar concert was in Sun City shortly after the end of Apartheid. Thanks for the hits, Bryan Adams. With the fall of Apartheid came the arrival of touring international artists, many of them at the tail end of their careers. Nobody was particularly eager to travel to the south of Africa, but I’m sure Duran Duran and Dr Alban appreciated the pay checks. Mother Africa was finally opening its arms to the world, but I had missed the adolescent experience of seeing a world-class act coming up in the clubs or theatres, or seeing any world-class acts at all.

My friends and I were obsessed with the Black Crowes’ first album, 1990's Shake Your Money Maker. It was hip-slinging blues-rock Americana containing classics like Hard to Handle, She Talks to Angels, and Twice as Hard, which we would sing along to and crank through the distorted speakers in our first cars. You might be surprised to learn that my first big travel experience was a Contiki tour after finishing high school, a possible reward for above-average grades but more likely a testament to my begging skills. The tour would kick off in London, and reading an imported copy of NME, I saw that the Black Crowes would be performing in London the very evening of our arrival. I can’t recall how we managed to buy tickets…this in the days before the internet or the proliferation of credit cards, but hell hath no determination like a kid obsessed with music. Somehow, we scored tickets to our first ever ‘cool’ show on the night of our first ever visit to Europe, and somehow it all went smoothly. We got to the Brixton Academy, got up front, and got to see these Atlanta-born rock n’roll gods cranking their hits while we screamed every word. You never forget that first show.

29 November 1992: Catching the Black Crowes at the Brixton Academy in London, UK.

18 years old, bright-eyed and bushy on a Contiki European tour.

The Contiki European bus tour covered something like 11 countries in 18 days, a whistlestop visit to Western Europe’s Greatest Hits. We saw the Eiffel Tower, Venice and the Tower of Pisa, but mostly we saw a lot of beer and older Australians encouraging us to drink as much of it as humanly possible. Naturally it’s all a haze and a very inauspicious start to a long career chasing meaningful, authentic travel experiences.

We got to Barcelona on a slow Sunday, and that night we decided to find somewhere to drink. There were no screens to distract us, and the girls we were hanging out with – shout out to Nikki, Rachel and Samantha – decided wisely to get some rest. So off we went – Brad, Sam and I – looking for a pub which really shouldn’t have been that difficult, but what did we know from sleepy Sunday nights in Catalonia? Everything was shuttered, but eventually we found a single open coffee shop, empty and well-lit, where we ordered a round of Peroni Nastro Azzurro beer. We couldn’t have been there very long when the door of the coffee shop opened and in walked an assortment of strange, long-haired freaky looking people, also in search of a few drinks.

“Dude, I think that’s the Black Crowes,” I recall Brad saying.   We knew the band was on a European tour, and it wasn’t difficult to recognize the same guys who stood on stage just a few metres away from us a week earlier.   They had hippie velvet threads, dirty long hair and undernourished rockstar bods. What are the chances?

I should emphasize that it wasn’t just the Black Crowes. For us, the Black Crowes were like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, like 80s era A-ha and Duran Duran, like Metallica and Rush. Yet inexplicably, here they were, just us and the Black Crowes, accompanied by security guards and several gorgeous groupies. Of course, it fell on me to do something about it. Gingerly, I walked up to the bar, approached the singer Chris Robinson, and remember saying something like:
“Sorry, you look like the singer of the Black Crowes.”
“Yeah man,” said the singer of the Black Crowes.
“Are you Chris Robinson,” I asked.
“Yeah man,” replied Chris Robinson.
“We saw you last week in London. We’re from South Africa. You’re the first real famous band we’ve ever seen!”
“Yeah man!” said Chris Robinson.

This is where things get blurry in my memory, but here’s how, three decades later, I believe it went. Chris called over other members of the band and told them we were from South Africa and they were the first real famous band we’d ever seen, a week ago, in London. He then invited us all to the bar, where he bought us some beers.   The security guys initially looked sceptical but quickly relaxed because we were just three skinny, nerdy geeks beaming at our good fortune. We had some conversations about weed. I recall speaking to one of the groupies, who told me she was the girlfriend of guitarist Rich Robinson, Chris’s younger brother.   They had played in Barcelona that night, and were winding down. They had thick southern drawls which sounded like something you’d hear in a movie, because that’s the only place we’d ever heard accents like this before. I think one of us did ask for a photo, but Chris Robinson declined, and we were certainly not going to press it. After a half hour or so, they packed up and left, leaving us stunned.   We walked back to the hotel, hollering and howling, hugging each other, jumping about, utterly elated for having met our heroes. It was the apex moment of late teenage joy.

A few days later, watching MTV in a hotel room, we caught the Black Crowes video for a new single called Sometimes Salvation, a bluesy number pulled from their second album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. We didn’t have MTV in South Africa, so every video we saw made an immediate impression. And there she was: Rich Robinson’s girlfriend, wearing I swear the same tiger print jacket, looking a little sad. Man, we loved that album too.

Tastes shifted, times changed. It pains me to say but I can’t remember a single song from the Black Crowes’ third album, Amorica, or anything from their seven albums since. A new one just dropped in 2026, called A Pound of Feathers. I expect they’ve aged better than we have, and certainly have better hair.

Concerning Barcelona, this is the story I have. It has nothing to do with Park Güell or Gaudi’s Basilica, with Montjuïc Hill or the Gothic Quarter, but it’s a great story nonetheless.  Time plays tricks on memories, filling in blanks, embellishing details. I have a sum total of four photos from Barcelona, and none from that evening. Yesterday I whatsapped my old mates Brad and Sam, and asked them what they remember from that night.

Me: Do you remember meeting the Black Crowes in Barcelona? What do you remember about that night?

Brad: Sure do - we were in a random bar somewhere and either they walked in or they were sitting there. We went to talk with them (you probably had your Lawless rebel jacket*) and they said something strange when we asked them to be in a pic with us … like yeah that would be cool but we’d prefer not to as you could take a picture of a car and it may just blow up and catch fire, so yeah no pictures … we had a laugh coz they must have been proper grilled.  I think we bought them some beers [what the hell?]. I don’t remember the girl in MTV and I don’t remember groupies … it was just us who recognized them. Was probs 30 mins … it was like Christmas for us. Bro - that was 26 years ago

Sam: Believe it or not that was 34yrs ago! I remember Esrock telling them that we had the best weed in SA. They were so cool to us and then we read a bit later somewhere about issues with their bodyguards being too aggressive and f**ing up fans.

Brad: Thanks for making me 8 years older.

Sam: Hey buddy. The grey don't lie.

Other than Brad recalling that we bought the drinks (which would have been strange because they were genuine rock stars although clearly not averse to shaking down their money makers) and having no recollection of the girl (Brad never did notice the girls until later) my memory has served me well. Now the moment has been apprehended, captured, and filed for the records.   What does this have to do with Barcelona? Not much, but it was instrumental in teaching me that when you put yourself out there, you never quite know what’s going to happen.

* I got my Mom to sew a Lawless Rebel bikers patch on my bright blue anorak. I thought this would make me very cool, and had a grand old time flashing the Lawless Rebel whenever law enforcement might be around, captured below.
Yes, I was a total punk!

]]><![CDATA[Three of the World's Best Dives]]>Wed, 27 May 2026 21:07:13 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/three-of-the-worlds-best-divesMy very first scuba dive was a house reef off the island of Tufi in Papua New Guinea. Firmly located in the Coral Triangle, a region of mind-boggling diversity and with the healthiest corals left in our oceans, the house reef of the Tufi Dive Resort was sensational, not that I had a frame of reference. My second dive was a wreck dive, followed by a night dive. How this came to be is another story altogether, but for now I thought it would be fun to look at three of my favourite dives:

Ni’ihau and Lehua, Hawaii

It takes 2.5 hours with the swell for our dive boat to make its way along the west Kauai coastline towards the islands Ni’ihau and Lehua. It’s my first dive in the region, and fellow divers with Seasport Divers tell me it doesn’t get any better in all Hawaii. Seasport only runs excursions to Ni’ihau from late spring to early fall, after which the swells and currents get too strong. Today is the last run of the season, and due to the surge, our entry and exit will be drift dives. Everyone will be using Nitrox, allowing us to go longer and deeper than normal air.    It’s both my first drift and Nitrox dive, and I could hardly wait to get underwater.

First site, the Lehua Ledge, sitting off the small island Lehua adjacent to the much larger Niihau. Seconds in the water, I’m being stared at by a large monk seal, an endangered pinniped that lives around these waters. As I descend, I encounter a huge school of colourful Pyramid Butterfly Fish. Below me on the shelf, I see the shadow of a large Sand Bar shark, gracefully vanishing into the shadows.   Other highlights on the first dive: A Yellow Margin Moray, Triton’s Trumpet, a Crown of Thorns, and endemic Bandit Angels.

The next dive is at a pinnacle known as Vertical Awareness. My Nitrox is at 32%, and I am relieved that it tastes just like regular air. I descend to 90ft, making my way around a large outcrop. We see Pennant Butterflies, a Stout Moray, a huge Titan Scorpion Fish, an endemic Hawaiian Lionfish, and a cool red-striped nudibranch. Although the water is a comfy 26°C, I pass through some cold thermoclines, and a powerful surge sweeps me along. There’s a reason why this dive is seasonal. The captain spots me and picks me up as divers continue to pop up all over the surface.

The best is saved for last, a drift dive to a spot called Pu’u Mu’u.   It’s my introduction to underwater caves, and while one diver ends his dive early with claustrophobia, I absolutely love it.   Reflective bubbles of air gather on the cave ceiling like mercury, as my flashlight reveals so much life and colour. Black coral hangs from the walls, along with Cauliflower and Leather coral.   Deeper into the rock, Purple Spiny Lobster and big Tiger Cowry shells are amazing to see, as I ebb towards a series of spectacular swim-throughs.

The swells pick up as we return to Poipu, even as Bottlenose and Spinner dolphins gather around the boat.   It will be another season before Seasport Divers resume this incredible dive, but there’s plenty of others on Kauai to keep them, and us, busy in the meantime.   Dives to Ni’ihau run twice a week late spring to early autumn.

Malapascua Island, Philippines

A plane, another plane, a 4-hour drive, a small boat, a larger boat, another smaller boat, and at last my toes touch the squeaky-white beaches of Malapascua Island. It’s one of the premier diving spots in the Philippines, and with 7000 islands, this is a country that’s full of them. The water is a balmy 28°C, visibility can reach up to 35m, and the Visayan Sea is teeming with life.   For recreational divers in love with big animals, there’s a much bigger hook: Year-round, this is the only place in the world where you can dive with thresher sharks.

Popular with Asian and European divers, Malapascua Island has exploded in the last 10 years thanks to budget flights from Manila.   A Dutch couple founded Exotic Island Dive Resort, the first resort on the island, and are credited with discovering the shoal where the threshers gather. Everything – people, supplies, water – has to come in daily on boats, so I’m amazed with the resort’s exhaustive dining menu. I meet my sun-blonde dive-masters, Jules and Mimi, and they fill me on what I can expect.

“Thresher sharks are different from other sharks. They’re shiny, with big eyes and that giant tail. And they’re so sweet, I just want to pet them,” explains Mimi. Adds Jules: “You have to respect them, but you can’t feel afraid.”    We suit up for a night dive to Lighthouse, just to warm up and enjoy the seahorses, mandarin fish, huge hermit crabs and flamboyant flatworms hanging around a nearby reef. It’s only my second night dive, and to my delight, the inky ocean feels comfortable and safe. Bio-luminescence surrounds me on my ascent, as I surface by the traditional wooden outrigger, under a bright crescent moon. I see why they called this Exotic Island.

It’s an early 5:30am start to Monad Shoal for my thresher shark encounter. I’m nervous: it’s not every day you swim with big animals, but what if they don’t show up?   The best time to see the sharks is at sunrise, when they are drawn to a natural cleaning station on the shoal located about 20 minutes boat ride from the resort.   Manta, devil and eagle rays, along with hammerheads, are seasonal visitors too.   We submerge and head to the edge of the shoal. Within minutes, Mimi’s flat hand is on her head.   A 6ft thresher comes into view, appearing out of the depth below us.   Its distinctive tail looks like an Ottoman sword.   There’s barely time to register before another appears, and another. Judging Jules’ reaction, I’ve stumbled upon a bumper day on the shoal. During our hour-long dive, we count about a dozen threshers.   One circles back and eyes me out curiously. That moment instantly converts me into a lifelong shark diver.

Back on the banka, the traditional outrigger, there’s huge smiles on the faces of a dozen divers. “It was an effort not to see a shark today,” laughs Mimi. At this remarkable spot in a remarkable country, nobody is going home disappointed.

Horseshoe Bay, Vancouver

Cold water diving is a different experience from the tropics: not better or worse, just different. Fresh off Papua New Guinea, Hawaii and the Philippines, it was time to see for myself, and fortunately, I happen to live near one of the best places in the world to do it.    The waters off the coast of Vancouver, where I live, are renowned for their excellent diving. Perhaps not as mind-blowing as sites further up the inlet off Vancouver Island - home to giant octopus and huge wrecks - but certainly a great place to start.

Greg McCracken’s Ocean Quest dive shop provided dry suits with all the trimmings. Greg was our cold-water divemaster, and he’s one of the top instructors in Western Canada.   We hopped aboard Topline, the flagship vessel of Sea Dragon Charters. Everyone on board, including experienced pros, sang nothing but praises for the large, comfortable boat. There was plenty of space for gear and squeezing into those dry suits.

As I descended my first dive at a site called Pinnacle, I was amazed how comfortable I felt in my suit, and also how buoyant I was. Visibility was pretty murky until we hit a ledge about 15 metres down and holy moly…a forest of huge, white plumose anemone exploded to create a complete otherworldly experience. Thousands of brittle stars pulsed on the rock floor. Massive cucumbers, starfish, nudibranchs…it was all there. Greg explained that everything you’ll find in the waters of British Columbia is pretty much the biggest in the world.

Second dive was Halkett’s Wall, along the sheer rock face that descends off Gambier Island, one of dozens of islands that dot the waters off Vancouver’s Horseshoe Bay.   Descending 18 metres (the rock wall goes down about 70 metres) I encounter rockfish, ling cod, various sculpins, cloud and chimney sponge, and a curious quillback rockfish. Jurassic-like orange sunflower starfish are as big as dining room tables, and a true feast for the eyes.

If you’re nervous about cold water diving, don’t be. I found my dry suit easy to operate and maintain buoyancy. Definitely learn how to operate a dry suit and get certified before jumping in. My two dives introduced me to just a fraction of what’s on offer in the waters off Vancouver. The local community are friendly and supportive (this is Canada, after all), and you can’t ask for better instructors than Ocean Quest. Sea Dragon charters run year-round from Horseshoe Bay, about 20 minutes from downtown Vancouver.

More great dives to come...

]]><![CDATA[A Busy Bee in Baja, Bermuda and The Bahamas]]>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/a-busy-bee-in-baja-bermuda-and-the-bahamas“Swimming with whale sharks” was always high up my bucket list, and in the space of two months, I did it twice: first in West Papua, Indonesia with my son, and then off the coast of La Paz with my daughter. Very different experiences, with very different kids, and I’d bet very different whale sharks too. The largest fish in the sea was utterly unbothered by our presence, and in both cases, conservation was front and center. As with all ticks on a bucket list, as soon as it’s done, there’s a feeling of elation, followed by a strange emptiness, an exhaustion, a hole in the dream web. The experience itself is never quite how you imagine. The first swim was sudden, taking advantage of proximity and timing. The second was accompanied by cold, dark water and limits on time because we had to get two scuba dives in with sea lions (as one does). It’s never how you imagine, but it’s exactly how it should be.

It takes about a day or two for the spiders of the imagination to get spinning on the dream web, and we quickly move onto the next dream. Take it from me, it’s a rare soul who ticks it all off and says “I’m done.” Nope, dreams are a game of whack-a-mole: the more you experience, the more you want to experience. Tick three things off at the top, and four more will pop up at the bottom.

La Paz, Baja California

The highlight of my first visit to Baja California was an off-grid visit to Camp Cecil on the sand dunes in Magdalena Bay. It’s a lovely camp that will be re-built each year, with access to a coastal wilderness and a bay that’s famous for friendly, spy-hopping grey whales. The meals, star gazing and sundowner cocktails on the beach were magical, and owners Bryan and Sergio pay attention to the small details that make a huge difference.

Rancho Cacachilas is an agro-tourism, glamping, farming R&D and adventure tourism initiative with some heavy financial backing. Sharing an opportunity to ride mules into the desert scrub, make goat cheese and visit bee hives with my daughter was educational, memorable, and the kind of hands-on escape kids love most. My top-of-mind memories: watching the galaxies with my daughter at Camp Cecil, cycling the Malecon at sunset, getting covered in bees at the hives, and riding into the hills at sunset.

You can read my full report from La Paz at Canadian Geographic, and the fun video we made below.

Exuma, Baja California Sur

One B down, cue up The Bahamas. It’s my first visit to the islands, and taking advantage of spring break, my daughter joined me on a week-long visit to the Exumas. It’s a chain of islands with the kind of water that defies description, not that I didn’t try in my story. I first heard about the swimming pigs from my niece, and I would have loved to have brought her because the little piggies did not disappoint. Neither did the rock iguanas, although I didn’t expect the baby nurse sharks to steal my daughter’s heart more than the baby pigs. This is my daughter, after all.
Hydro-biking to the Lazy River with Darren Clarke was another big surprise. Impossibly blue water, lemon sharks, and a strong current to lie back and float to a natural sand bar. We jet-skied and ate conch, raced hermit crabs and hiked out in low tide. Exuma, I’m told, is a world away from Nassau, and it’s all the better for it. My top-of-mind memories: floating the Lazy River, looking for starfish at low tide on Exuma Point, ripping around the yachts in Elizabeth Harbour with my daughter and the young son of our PR representative, hearing the giggles and feeling their joy.

Check out my full Exuma report on Canadian Geographic, and another fun video that will only get better as the years pass.

Bermuda

The final B of the season was Bermuda, my first visit to another island paradise, this time in the North Atlantic. Just 2.5 hours from Toronto or New York, the British Overseas Territory was polished and affluent, reflecting the fact that 90% of its GDP comes from offshore banking (it also sits in the world’s top 10 GDP per capita). It was a short visit to investigate the Bermuda Triangle for a Halloween story later this year, and it got a little spooky when my BermudAir flight disappeared in mysterious tornado and teleported into an alien world. For some inexplicable reason, my freckles made me a king, and I spent a lifetime ruling over peaceful, loving subjects, before being catapulted back to the present day through a wormhole under the Bermuda sea mount. It’s quite possible I made that all up, which is all you really need to know about the Bermuda Triangle. Scuba diving the Cathedral and the wreck of the ill-fated Greek freighter Pelinaion are two of my best dives ever. Not a lot of marine life, but fabulous topography and diving wrecks are always a blast. Great company, incredible food, and doubtful my last visit to Bermuda. My top-of-mind memories: diving into the crystal, cool waters of the cave pool at Grotto Bay Beach Resort and Spa; melting into the wagyu steak flight at the Island Brasserie; wahoo ceviche; navigating underwater canyons in the Cathedral. A full report will run in Canadian Geographic later this year.

]]><![CDATA[My Family Travel Music Videos]]>Mon, 30 Mar 2026 20:45:37 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/my-family-travel-music-videosEver since discovering the ease of filming and editing videos directly on my phone, I’ve been having a lot of fun with my ‘family travel videos.’ I’ve been making travel videos in one way or another since the earliest days of Youtube, including an early video that went viral and has over one million views (See The World's Most Dangerous Hike below). At the time, I had no idea what I was doing on Final Cut Pro, but I was able to stitch something together with a good soundtrack to make something short, punchy and engaging. These early travel videos led directly to my TV show, as my raggedy clips effectively auditioned me for the part, showing I was the genuine article. Unfortunately, the quality of my early videos don’t stand up in our 4K Ultra HD world, but they’re still make me nostalgic about a very different time and place.

The first video I ever made simply stitched together a bunch of lose clips I had collected on my 3 mega-pixel Pentax camera. 3 mega pixels back then was state of the art! The soundtrack was Bedouin Soundclash’s When the Night, and it captured the lunacy and innocence of my 12-month modern gonzo journey. I called it: Something to Make You Dream:

After Word Travels, our little TV show that was too fast and flashy for its time, I continued to produce dozens of little videos to add value to readers of my Canadian Bucket List and Global Bucket List book projects. By the late 2010s, I was still cranking out dozens of videos for The Great Australian Bucket List, again to add value to the reader. This idea of adding value and sharing stories across mediums continues today with my ‘Bucket Listed’ Canadian Geographic column, only the production has improved dramatically thanks to better smart phone/camera/editing technology. It also helps that Youtube lets me soundtrack my videos with any song I choose, since they compensate the artists and I don’t use my channel to earn income (which might come back to haunt me, but probably not).

Subscribe to my Youtube Channel!

As I tell my kids, I’m not a Youtuber, but I do have a Youtube channel, I do make Youtube videos, and I like them a lot. Some don’t get much traffic, some hit a nerve (like the one above to accompany a column I wrote about Winnipeg’s Activate Games). Most videos are the length of a single song (4–6 minutes) although sometimes we do so much it requires multiple tracks and a longer video, as in the case of Switzerland above. I choose my favourite songs or something that just fits for the vibe of the journey. Sometimes I look for local artists, as in the case of my videos from the Inca Trail below and on Italy's Amalfi Coast. When a cut lands perfectly on the beat, I get the reward of a sweet little editing buzz. Music has always aligned with travel, and the right song can imprint a moment forever.

I’ve put together 3 videos this year, and they all came out particularly great. My son explores Raja Ampat with Seatrek with the perfect song from Canadian artists Walk off the Earth. My daughter and I had an adventure of a lifetime in Mexico's La Paz, and we just returned from paradise, namely Exuma in The Bahamas.

As you can see, my kids always steal the show, and I imagine them watching these short videos one day with their own kids, amazed by what they got up to around the world. Although who knows, maybe 4K video will be as grainy and low quality in the future as my early videos are today. Maybe Youtube won't exist at all. In my closet are old Super 8mm reels that my grandfather filmed more than 60 years ago. I transferred them to DVR tape about 20 years ago, itself now an obsolete medium. In the end, it's all about capturing memories and sharing stories across time and space, and having some fun in the process.

If you enjoy my videos, subscribe to my channel. Here's a few more I'm particularly proud of:

]]><![CDATA[Whistler-Blackcomb's Wonder Routes: A Map for Solving FOMO]]>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 20:57:55 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/whistler-blackcombs-wonder-routes-a-map-for-solving-fomo

Every skier at every ski resort has faced the same conundrum: where do you find the best runs? In a resort like Whistler Blackcomb, with its 8,171 acres of skiable terrain, 270+ trails, 36 lifts, and 16 bowls, the choices are overwhelming, and analysis paralysis is a real thing. Standing in the line-up for the gondola at Creekside on a powdery Friday morning, I overhear the conversations of skiers and boarders planning the day’s attack. Opinions are floating around like the falling snow, with the debates continuing inside the gondola, all a variation of: “we could go here, or we could go there.” Or, you could keep things simple, easy, and just follow one of the Wonder Routes.

To celebrate its 60th Anniversary, Whistler Blackcomb has launched a curated network of seven Wonder Routes to help guests of all abilities navigate the best of both mountains. The premise is simple: visit the website, download (or copy and paste) the suggested itinerary onto your phone, start at the first step, and let it guide you forward. The genius of this idea is evident by the enthusiastic response we receive when we tell people about it in the gondola and on various chairs. It’s all self-guided, so you don’t have to book anything in advance or pay anything more. What’s more, you can tackle the Wonder Routes by the letter, or amend, edit, and reference them as a starting point. With conditions clearing up, our group of two adults and two kids decided to go for the views first, with the aptly named: Top of the World.

Family Certified! Photo Tourism Whistler/Mike Crane

From Roundhouse Lodge, the Top of the World Route guides us to the Peak Express where we exit the chair to a panoramic view. Some skiers are obsessed with powder and thrills, others with the natural outdoor spectacle. On a hike, I’m always telling my daughter to stop and smell the pine trees as opposed to running to the trailhead. Now at the top of Whistler Mountain, I encourage her to stop and smell the alpine views. We head down Matthews Traverse to Burnt Stew, connecting onto Jeff’s Ode to Joy—two greens and a blue ushering us to Symphony Express. It’s another chair up high into the peaks and a gorgeous connection of runs to the bottom of Harmony Express. Instead of debating where to go and what run to take, we let the 3-4 hour Wonder Route take the lead, sending us to the Peak 2 Peak Gondola and over to Blackcomb Mountain, where we take the easy Expressway to 7th Heaven Express and conclude our first Wonder Route with a hot lunch of poutine and Thai. The whole experience was efficient, easy, and wondrously devoid of FOMO.

The Après Route starts from Blackcomb and hits all the patios and lodges. The Glade Stashes Wonder Route guides you into the best tree runs, like Gnarly Knots, Gun Barrels, Outer Limits, and Raptors Ride off the 7th Heaven Express. This one is for advanced skiers eager to chase down black and double-black diamonds. Also for experienced skiers and boarders is the Gold Medal Route, which visits slopes and runs used during the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2025 Invictus Games. Kicking off the new 8-person Fitzsimmons Express lift, connect onto the Garbanzo Express to access the Dave Murray Downhill, which hosted the Olympic Men’s Downhill competition as well as the Super G course. Above the Timing Flats, look out for individual signs honouring gold medal winners from the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Scoring the Glass-Bottom Car on the Sea 2 Sky Gondola

For advanced skiers with 6-8 hours on their hands, the Alpine Sampler keeps things above the trees and in the bowls. You’ll take on legendary runs like Spanky’s Ladder, Overbite, and Garnet Bowl. It’s an epic day out. For our part, we decided to go with the all-green Family Certified Route as well as the more challenging Super Blues. With the flexibility of the routes, we figured we might as well enjoy the best of both worlds, linking the blue Cloud 9 to the green Expressway before taking the Peak 2 Peak back to Whistler (scoring the glass-bottom car with our timing) and continuing down Ego Bowl through the Enchanted Forest to the bottom of Emerald, before concluding our big Whistler ski day with a lovely run called Pony Trail to the top of the Creekside Gondola. At this point, the kids were committing mutiny for hot chocolate, so we downloaded, returned our rentals at Can-Ski Creekside, and rewarded them with extra marshmallows.

The Wonder Routes removed a lot of the guesswork, providing much-needed direction that we quickly came to trust and enjoy. Along the way, we discovered new sections of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, and the kids enjoyed the treasure hunt of finding and completing both routes. Here’s hoping more routes are added in the future for different scenarios, like a Powder Route, a Surprise Route, or a Have-it-All Route. Maybe other mountains will get inspired to create their own Wonder Routes too.

Click here for the latest conditions on Whistler-Blackcomb
Click here for more family-friendly activities on Whistler

]]><![CDATA[How to Nap When You Have Jet-Lag]]>Fri, 09 Jan 2026 22:41:32 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/how-to-nap-when-you-have-jet-lag

You look tired. You should lie down.  We've all been there, and it sucks. Jet lag is an inevitable part of travel, and it's not the fun part. I've found the travel buzz I get on arrival is an effective tool to fight it when I get to a new destination, but when it comes to flying home with the trip behind me, there is no such luck. I know, because after arriving home from Brazil yesterday, I have jet lag right now. But I just took a nap, and it worked.

The jet-lag nap is not a normal nap. It’s more like handling explosives. One wrong move and your internal clock detonates, leaving you wide awake at 3:07am, doom scrolling foreign news. So here's some tips:

First Rule: Napping Is Not Sleeping
This sounds obvious. It is not. A nap is not “just lying down for a bit.” A nap is a strategic, tightly controlled intervention. It has boundaries. It has an exit plan. It does not involve pyjamas, blackout curtains, or the words “I’ll just close my eyes for a second.” The moment you get under a duvet in the afternoon, your body assumes it has time-travelled home and starts resetting everything. Congratulations,  you’ve just booked yourself a midnight espresso.

The Magic Window: 20 to 40 Minutes
The ideal jet-lag nap is short enough to take the edge off but not long enough to enter the deep, drooling-on-the-pillow phase. Twenty minutes is safe. Thirty minutes is ideal. Forty minutes is living dangerously but still survivable. Anything longer and you risk waking up disoriented, emotionally fragile, and oddly angry, a condition known as the Nap Hangover, which no amount of coffee will cure (not that I haven't tried). Set an alarm or timer. Then set a second alarm. Put your phone across the room if you have to. This is not the time to trust your judgment.

Timing Is Everything
If you must nap, aim for the early afternoon, roughly between 1pm and 3pm local time. This is when your body naturally dips anyway, even without jet lag. Napping after 4pm is dangerous.  You’ll pay for it later, usually while staring at the ceiling in the dark, coming up with the perfect comeback for that conversation from 2008 that still haunts you.

Stay Semi-Dressed, Like You Mean It
This is an underrated trick. Nap on top of the bed, not in it. Keep your clothes on, and remain clearly in day mode. You’re resting, not committing to a night of sleep. It will help you get up, and stay alert.

Light Is Your Friend
Do not nap in total darkness. That’s a sleep cue, and your circadian rhythm is already confused enough. Let some daylight in. Crack the curtains. Remind your body that the sun is still doing sun things and that night is not, in fact, happening right now.

Caffeine: Use if Wisely
This will be mildly controversial but can be highly effective: drink a coffee right before your nap. Caffeine takes about 20–30 minutes to kick in, which means it starts working just as you wake up. You get the rest without the grogginess. Science backs this up, which is reassuring because it feels like cheating. Just don’t do this late in the afternoon unless you enjoy being awake during hotel fire-alarm tests at 2am. I'm sensitive to coffee, so try avoid it after 12pm, unless I'm fighting jet lag, in which case, pour me another americano.

When in Doubt, Walk It Out
Sometimes the best nap is no nap at all. If you land in the morning and feel like a zombie, go outside. Walk. Get light in your eyes. Eat something vaguely healthy. The human body is surprisingly adaptable when bullied gently enough. Yes, you’ll be tired. But tired at 9pm is exactly where you want to be.

The Goal Is Bedtime, Not Comfort
This is the mindset shift that matters. Jet lag isn’t about how you take off in the afternoon but about where you land at night. Every decision should funnel you toward a normal, local bedtime. Normal local bedtime, by the way, should avoid social media, horror movies or doom scrolling before you sleep.

What about Melatonin?
I've used melatonin for years, but sparingly, and in low doses. You don't need 10mg, and there's evidence to suggest a light dose is just as effective. My top end is 3mg, but I find 1mg can do the trick as well. This is for bedtime, not napping by the way.

Jet lag, like air travel, is a pain in the ass, but given the rewards of travel, it's a pain in the ass that is ultimately worth it.  On average, the circadian rhythm shifts roughly 1 hour per day without intervention. The nap is a tool, not a reward. Use it sparingly, with intention, and without sentimentality. It will work out, because it always does.

Since you made it this far, you'll probably want to learn a little more about jet lag:

Jet lag is not about lack of sleep — it’s about light.
The primary driver of jet lag is disruption to your circadian rhythm, which is regulated mainly by exposure to light, not how many hours you slept on the plane. Your brain’s “master clock” resets based on when light hits your eyes.
Flying east is harder than flying west
Humans naturally run on a circadian cycle slightly longer than 24 hours, making it easier to stay up later than go to bed earlier. That’s why eastbound flights (which require advancing your clock) generally produce worse jet lag than westbound ones.
Jet lag measurably slows reaction time, like being mildly drunk. .
Studies show jet lag can impair reaction time, attention, and decision-making to a degree comparable to having a low blood-alcohol level. You may feel functional, but your brain is operating on reduced bandwidth.
Jet lag affects digestion more than most people realize.
Your gut has its own circadian clock. Disrupting it can lead to constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and reduced insulin sensitivity, which is why “airport food regret” feels worse when crossing time zones.
Exposure to morning or evening light can either help or worsen jet lag.
Light isn’t always helpful, it depends when you get it. Morning light advances your clock (useful after eastbound travel), while evening light delays it (useful after westbound travel). Get this wrong and you can accidentally lock jet lag in place.
Short naps help; long naps actively delay recovery.
As explained above, controlled naps under 30–40 minutes can improve alertness without shifting your circadian clock. Longer daytime sleep pushes your body toward its old time zone and slows adaptation.
Melatonin can work, but timing matters more than dosage.
Small doses (0.5–3 mg) taken at the target bedtime can help shift circadian timing. Taken at the wrong time, melatonin can make jet lag worse or simply knock you out without resetting anything.
Athletes and pilots show performance drops for days after travel.
Professional sports teams and flight crews have measurable declines in performance, coordination, and decision-making for several days post-flight — even when they feel “fine.” Jet lag is sneaky that way.
Jet lag increases injury risk and accident rates.
Research links circadian misalignment to higher rates of workplace accidents, driving errors, and even medical mistakes. It’s one reason pilots and surgeons have strict duty-time rules after long-haul travel.

]]><![CDATA[Why Flying Sucks (but doesn't have to)]]>Fri, 05 Dec 2025 19:01:29 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/why-flying-sucks-but-doesnt-have-to

This week I was interviewed by CBC Radio's Matt Galloway on The Current about flying: why people hate it, and how we got here.

Fact is, somewhere between the check-in counter and 35,000 feet, people often lose their minds. A fast-moving, crammed, pressurized cabin – not to mention the process of checking in and making your way through the theatre of security screening – is a lot to deal with.

As I discussed with Matt, there was a time when flying was aspirational, not transactional. It wasn’t just about cramming bums on seats and cutting costs by eliminating the free nuts. People dressed up to fly in suits and hats, and gourmet meals were served with tablecloths. Those days are long gone. The U.S. Transportation Secretary recently made the news with a cringe-inducing statement suggesting people should dress up again and return to this Golden Age of Flying, transferring the blame for airline incidents onto passengers instead of the system they’re put through.

Airline security is an absolute farce. There’s little consistency, we’re still removing shoes decades after one lunatic hatched a loony plan, and in some countries (mostly the USA), the TSA treats passengers with the respect of cattle in line at the abattoir. Various studies and trials have repeatedly shown the entire safety screening process to be ineffective at actually stopping a motivated passenger from getting onboard to do harm. Security theatre adds some reassurance, but a whole lot more stress and anxiety. I recently saw a mother arguing with airport security in Toronto about travelling with bottles of pumped breast milk. The baby was right there, but the bottles were over 100 ml, so it was clearly not milk but an explosive substance that would destroy the plane (likely detonated from a diaper).

All this stress chews people up. We become impatient, agitated, annoyed. Then throw in flight delays, poor communication, time changes, crying babies, and missed connections. Cram everyone on the plane and the real miracle is that the vast majority of people manage to keep it together.

The passenger in front of me is farting. One ripper after another. We can all smell it, but we can’t do anything about it. I put my nose in my shirt and smell my body odour, which isn’t great on a long flight but is better than the purple haze wafting over the seat. We’ve all had the restless kid kicking the back of the chair. My daughter is one of those kids. When we fly, I spend a great deal of time slapping her knees down as she contorts in her seat, and meeting the glare of the passenger in front of her. There are other challenges:

The Recliner vs. The Knee Defender
The Armrest Duel
The Overhead Bin Squeeze
The Oblivious Reading Light
The Fart Monster

Psychologists call it deindividuation, a fancy term for: “I don’t know anyone here, and nobody knows me, so I’m going to behave however I damn well please.”

This kind of anonymity removes social consequences, but unfortunately, it doesn’t remove social impact. Flight attendants – one of the most under-appreciated professions, along with teachers and bus drivers – have to manage all this without it boiling over. When it does, planes are forced to land and police are called in. If that’s never happened to you (and it’s never happened to me, despite the prodding at the start of the CBC interview), you can credit a flight attendant. They’re heroes, these people. We should treat them as such.

So, what can we do about all of this?

Design a transportation system with humans in mind:
Add more natural light and quiet spaces in airports, make the seating more comfortable, provide chargers and Wi-Fi, create play areas for kids, use relaxing scents and music, and do whatever you can to make it a pleasant space to waste a few hours. Some airports do this better than others. Fly through Changi in Singapore and you’ll see what I mean. In Canada, compare the experience of flying through Toronto’s Pearson versus Vancouver’s YVR.

Increase communication and control:
There have been improvements with text message updates, but airlines are often slow to respond when something goes awry. It’s not the gate attendant’s fault, and screaming at them isn’t going to change anything. The major issue with air travel comes down to a lack of control. Once we’re in the system, we’re told where to line up, what to remove from our cases, where to sit, when to eat, when to sleep, where to stand, and when to use the bathroom. More control – or even a perceived sense of control – goes far.

Incentivize good behaviour:
There’s a lot of stick and very little carrot. For example, if your carry-on is too big (even though the person in front of you just walked through with a bigger carry-on), it gets checked. But what about giving a reward for being courteous and helpful? A small symbolic token of appreciation because everyone boarded smoothly. Gold stars for you! Thank you for not clipping your nails on the plane. Gamify the process; it actually works.

I remember giving a keynote years ago for operations staff at YVR, and I was super impressed by their dedication and awareness in creating a better airport experience. It’s why YVR wins awards and is my favourite Canadian airport. As I told the CBC, flying is a modern logistical and technological miracle, and it’s come a long way since people used to chain-smoke and crane their necks to see the bad in-flight movie. With new advances in technology and studies of passenger behaviour, I think it’s going to keep getting better.

Now sit back, lay off the tomato juice (that stuff is toxic in a pressurized cabin) load up a bad movie, and enjoy.

]]><![CDATA[A New Edition for a New Era]]>Tue, 28 Oct 2025 20:02:39 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/a-new-edition-for-a-new-era

I’m thrilled to announce the launch of a brand new, fully revised and completely overhauled 3rd Edition of The Great Canadian Bucket List. It’s packed with dozens of new experiences, which is why I wouldn’t call it a replacement of the popular, bestselling Second Edition, more of a continuation. To make room for new stuff, I had to let go of old stuff, because that’s thing about a Bucket List – the more you do, the more ideas keep popping up!

As you can tell from the cover, the new book is big, bold and beautiful, with a completely different look. The folks at Dundurn Press did an amazing job, as one expects for a book about an amazing country. My eye for unique, memorable, doable and bucket list experiences continues, from lakes in British Columbia to the Hudson Bay of Manitoba, from the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland to new adventures in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and PEI.
The new edition also pays long overdue attention to Indigenous experiences across the country, with more national round-ups and page-popping photography.

It’s an inspirational gift for students setting out on their own, newcomers, visitors, retirees, clients, members, and everyone who could use a little Canadian wonder.

“The World Needs More Canada,” said Bono, and after several years of hard work and publishing fairy dust, not it has some. The new books is widely available at your favourite independent or chain bookstore, as well as online through Amazon or Chapters. Enjoy!

]]><![CDATA[Highlights from a Long Hot Bucket List Summer]]>Wed, 10 Sep 2025 03:35:09 GMThttps://www.robinesrock.com/blog/highlights-from-a-long-hot-bucket-list-summerThat was one crazy summer! Both for the adventures I’ll never forget, and the adventures I’d like to (here’s looking at you Air Canada Flight Attendant Strike). With the arrival of September, it’s time to take stock and look back at what I got up to, gathering new stories for my Canadian Geographic column, this blog, that blog, and also the stage for my popular keynotes. Not to mention future editions of The Great Canadian Bucket List, although it might be a while as the third edition – completely revised and re-designed – is out in November. In the meantime, here’s what a Great Canadian Summer Bucket List looks like:

June

Things kicked off early this summer with a family adventure house-boating down the historic Rideau Canal. You can read all about that adventure on Canadian Geographic – or watch the super fun video above – and either should get the point across. Le Boat, Europe’s biggest houseboat rental company, have a range of boats stationed at Smith Falls Ontario, catering for 2, 4, 6, 10 and 12 passengers. For this to work, the waters need to be calm, there needs to be ports to call on, and it’s all about the locks. Later in the summer I went on another luxury houseboat experience, this time in France, but as with the rest of Canada, this Le Boat experience is an entirely different experience. Forget the cheese and wine, when you cross Big Rideau Lake or take on hundreds of lake islands, this houseboating trip is more rugged, adventurous, spacious that anything you’ll find in Europe, and you won’t have to worry about parking the boat with millimetres to spare in the locks. You also have the friendly lock masters from Parks Canada guiding you along the way. My extended family joined me on this one, and we had a ball, spending a couple nights in Ottawa on the way. I love Ottawa in summer. The festivals, the buzz, the views… it just might be my favourite city under the sun.

Hitting the Harley for another Bucket List BC Roadtrip

When I got back from that trip, I jumped on a Harley Davidson for my annual ride into the BC interior. Thanks to the Vancouver office of Eagle Rider, riding the roads of BC with fellow bikers is a tradition I picked up researching other chapters for the Canadian Bucket List, and I’ve come to look forward it immensely. This year, we ditched plans to visit the USA and did a big circular loop from Vancouver, spending nights in Lilloeet, Revelstoke, Nelson and on the beach in Osoyoos, before heading back. There’s always an adventure on these trips, and this one was recorded in a story I wrote for the Harley Davidson Owners Group in Canada (which I can’t share unfortunately, as it’s a member-only publication, and innocent parties need to be protected!) There was also time for one more speaking event, taking the Heli Jet over to Vancouver Island’s Bear Mountain to inspire some folks with travels, wildlife, and what seeing bears, whales, elephants, lions, and other creatures can teach us about life. Very rarely, I do in fact feel like a Mysterious International Man of Mystery, especially when I take helicopters wearing a waistcoat.

Robin Esrock: International Man of Mystery

July

Somewhat unusually for me, July was dominated by international travel to France and Ireland, where I could finally compare the Wild Atlantic Way to Newfoundland, and back up my claim that you’re simply not comparing Apples to Apples! Only one will give you a much better appreciation about the country in which you actually live! We had a fantastic road trip to Sligo, Derry, Belfast and the rock star attraction of Giant's Causeway. You can read all about our adventures in Ireland here. Taking on active summer kid duty, I did shuttle the kids to Squamish for a wood-working lesson at Create Makerspace they both thoroughly enjoyed. Teach my kids (and myself) how to use power tools. You don’t have to travel far to tick off something on your bucket list. I also took my aunt, visiting from Florida, to see Flyover Canada, as it’s a goose-bump inducing experience for any visitor to Canada, to get a sense of the overwhelming size and beauty of this country. Given the high cost of everything these days, it’s also very well priced. My aunt absolutely loved it.

Bucket List Item #783: Teach the kids (and myself) how to do woodwork.

August

The prime month of summer was dominated by a road trip up north with my son into BC’s beautiful Cariboo-Chilcotin region. Over the course of a week, we’d spend 18 hours in the car and drive about 6000 kilometres, so to make things more interesting we rented a Mustang Convertible from Enterprise, which ate up the miles with unnervingly smooth gusto. It just doesn’t feel like you’re going 150 km/hr…I mean 100 km/hr, I mean, why would you break the speed limit on a remote road in a muscle car? Who would do such a thing? Not I, not I. Anyway, our first stop was the Flying U Ranch, Canada’s oldest guest ranch and truly a special place to take the family. Staying in rustic, century-old cabins, it’s a communal experience with folks who seem to come year after year, drawn to the natural beauty of the ranch, the glimmering waters of Green Lake, and the experience of being paired with your own horse for fabulous rides into 60,000 acres of British Columbian wilderness. There’s so much personality and character about, both in the property, the folks who work there, the people who visit, and the 100 horses who call it home too. Here's my take in my Canadian Geographic column, but be warned, it might just add another box on your bucket list.

How to make a kid happy on a road trip: Do it in a Convertible muscle car!

From the Flying U, we continued towards Quesnel and a long overdue visit to the historical town of Barkerville, a historic gold rush townthat’s been preserved as a living museum and heritage site. Founded in the 1860s during the Cariboo Gold Rush, at its peak it was the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Chicago, with a population of around 5,000 people from all over the world seeking their fortune. Today, the town has been meticulously restored to its 1870s appearance, featuring over 100 heritage buildings, many original structures, and costumed interpreters who bring the era to life. We dressed up in period costume to learn about life in the 1860’s, from printing and gold panning to the Chinese community and geology. The full report will be out in the new year, but in the meantime, I really wish I had discovered Barkerville – and the Flying U – earlier to add it into the third edition of The Great Canadian Bucket List. It’s always the case with these things: tick off one item at the top and three more will pop up at the bottom.

A few days later, I found myself on a plane to Cusco, Peru. It's a long way to go and yet I felt like I was merely travelling full circle. 20 years ago, Peru was my first port of call on my first big journey around the world, when I was just another backpacker with a wild dream for adventure and the discipline to somehow record it along the way. I've been to Peru a few times since, but this was my first time back in Cusco, and now I was accompanied by my 12-year old daughter. We had arrived to do a shortened version of the Inca Trail with an Indigenous-owned local company called Alpaca Expeditions. I'd also be doing another story about the amazing food in Peru, taking a cooking class and a fabulous street food tour. I brought along the kid with the adventurous appetite, hoping she'd be able to cope with the altitude and the pace of an assignment. As you can see in the video, she did more than cope, she thrived. Cusco looked exactly the same as it did 20 years ago, but a lot has changed too: the crazy traffic, the smart phones, the high-end restaurants and hotels. Sprinkled among it all were the scraggy backpackers, heading to the Andes for the adventure of a lifetime. Thinking back to my own adventure in 2005, I could never have imagined returning to Sun Gate - older, wiser, fatter - with so many once-in-a-lifetimes I've lost count, and with a beautiful daughter to keep me company. Full circle indeed!

Luxury river boats in France. Road tripping Ireland. Hiking in Peru. Racing horses (and a Mustang) in the Cariboo. Helicopters to the island, Harley Davidsons and a Gold Rush. How was my summer? Epic, as always.

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Ni’ihau and Lehua, Hawaii​