Hello readers!  I have finally completed doing what I had planned to do for some years now. I shifted my blog to a new website where all my blogs are combined. Please head over to razzaqmohammed.com to continue reading!   ..read more

Greenwood is a city of around 600 people located in south British Columbia. Back in 1890s it used to be a hub of mining with population touching 3000 people but over time when the mining industries shutdown it's population dwindled to its present levels. Back then they even had 2 newspapers being published from the city. It was incorporated as a city in 1897 and even though the population later declined it has kept the city label hence its claim to fame as the smallest incorporated city in Canada. A few months back Divu, his wife Vani and I made a day trip to Greenwood. It was both, a casual ..read more

  ''Do you ski or snowboard?'' I was asked this question as I struck up a conversation with a random stranger in front of a restaurant in the ski resort of Big White. I replied with ''neither''. And the guy gave me a look which said why are you here then?  As has been the feature of most of my trips in the last year, this too was a work trip. Me and my colleague from office, Melanie were sent to the ski resort of Big White, which is around 60kms from Kelowna, to do some energy assessments for the businesses there. We had 2 days in hand. One day was for the assessments. Our boss gave ..read more

Last summer, with the wildfires and Covid19 still raging in BC, I couldn't plan any trips. A little trip that me and my friends did manage to wriggle in a short interval of calm was a drive to the nearby towns of Peachland, Summerland and city of Penticton. It was not an epic trip nor was it a flop show. It was exactly what we needed at that time. A stress buster. A rejuvenating ride to some relaxing places.  It was Divu, his wife Vani and I on that trip. Divu had booked a rental car and had set aside one day for a ride to someplace nearby. We had already been to the local favorite Myra ..read more

Only the third hike I did all summer this year! This time I went with an acquaintance I made on one of the WhatsApp groups. Mt Boucherie is an easy hike in West Kelowna. Pretty straightforward. It is 5.6 km long and has a 300m elevation gain.  Kanwal and I ..read more

Knox Mountain, often called Kelowna's Grouse Mountain lies right at the heart of the city. Situated in downtown it is minutes away from the core of the city. One weekend I headed over the mountain to do a hike. I was still feeling disappointed by my effort on the Sea to Summit Trail a couple of months ago so I wanted to get back in the hiking rhythm. It was not much of an effort. I enjoyed the early morning calmness and peace that comes before the crowds come in. A refreshing Sunday morning hike. As good as it gets!  ..read more

Very rarely do I go on a hike randomly but this was one such instance. I was in Vancouver for the weekend and having promised my friend Kimi that I would join him for a hike, I had to keep my word. So Kimi, Divu, Suyog and myself headed out in the direction of Whistler intending to do the Parkhurst hike mainly to see the abandoned town. But midway we changed plans and decided to do the Sea to Summit hike in Squamish instead. I did not realize what I was getting into at that time. It was months since my last hike and I was a bit out of rhythm. Nevertheless we did it in 4 hours which was not bad ..read more

On my third trip to the Kootenays, the previous ones being in Nelson and Trail, I found myself in the city of Castlegar.  Castlegar is the second largest city in the Kootenays with a population of around 8000 people. An interesting feature of this city is that there is a large population of Doukhobors here. Doukhobors are a Christian religious group originally from Russia. Since they rejected the Russian Orthodox Church and faced persecution they emigrated from Russia in large numbers during the 20th century. Many of them settled down in British Columbia and in other places in Canada.&nb ..read more

Continuing from my previous trip to Nelson, BC, within a few days I found myself once again in the Kootenays, this time in the city of Trail, BC.  Trail is a curious name for a city and lot of people who hear it for the first time get confused. It is actually named after the Dewdney Trail which passed through the town. Apart from the curious name, Trail has a very interesting history. It is the site of the World's largest Zinc and Lead smelter in the world! The existing plant has its origins in 1896 when the a person names Fritz Augustus Heinze opened the British Columbia Smelting and Re ..read more

Ever since I moved to Kelowna, I have been hearing about Myra Canyon a lot. Its a very popular weekend spot for the people of Kelowna. One fine weekend just in time before the onset of the heat wave in British Columbia, me and my friends decided to check it out.  Myra Canyon is a part of the Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park in the Okanagan east of Kelowna. The main attraction of this place is the railway trestles that transverse this canyon. Back in the 1915 to 1960s there used to be a railway line running through this canyon. Called the Kettle Valley Railway, a subsidiary of the Canadian ..read more