Real Life Stories Buying Case Study: Canada

Date Published:

18/06/2008

Norm Dove grew up in Essex, moved to Canada and now owns an East meets West retreat in British Columbia

Interview Dan Savery

My name is Norm Dove, and I own the Echo Valley Ranch & Spa in British Columbia with my wife, Nan. I'm 65 and Nan is 47. When I first visited Canada in 1965, I had no intention of leaving England permanently. I was just a typical Brit with itchy feet, wanting to experience another culture. My original intention was to return to the UK, visit a few more countries and eventually settle down, probably close to where I was born, in Essex. Back in those days, England was a good place to live.

The reason I stayed is that Canada is quite simply an easy place to live. We are now in the guest ranch business - it ties in with that time of life when we all evaluate what it is we are doing for a living, and conclude that maybe it's not that important. Some call this stage a mid-life crisis, I call it a window of opportunity. I seem to have evolved into my present lifestyle - and I have never looked back!

I was born in Hornchurch, Essex, and raised near Grays Thurrock. I started out as an apprentice fitter and turner, then I studied and qualified to the level of graduate mechanical engineer. When I left the UK I joined Dominion Engineering Works in the city of Montreal as a design engineer. Before buying the ranch here I was the president of a company I founded back in 1972, but after 20 years - and with a total of 238 employees by that point - I sold it on to a public company.

My life has completely changed. I went from being a confirmed workaholic to appreciating nature - and that's a huge improvement. When you realise that being a workaholic is being selfish and that what you think is important is actually not important at all, you are getting close to taking a different direction in your life. This happened to me over a period of several years. My advice to others who experience similar feelings is that when your window of opportunity presents itself, you should make the most of it. I suppose another way of putting that is: follow your heart.

The things I love most are being close to nature, breathing clean air, drinking pure spring water, the sound of silence, being able to see the stars, bonding with animals and feeling at peace. Last but not least, I love meeting new and interesting people. We have a landing strip for planes and helicopters. I fly a bush plane called a Beaver - it gives me a real sense of freedom.

My wife is originally from Thailand and we built our ranch and spa to symbolise a coming together of East and West. We offer European and Thai spas with good-quality treatments to relax and invigorate our guests. The ranch is multicultural, as is Canada - in fact, one could say that we are representative of Canadian culture.

We have operated our home as a guest ranch since 1995. Echo Valley Ranch & Spa is located in beautiful Cariboo Country in British Columbia. It's the perfect place for family holidays, family reunions, honeymoons or corporate retreats. Our deluxe guest ranch offers luxury accommodations and healthy gourmet meals made by our own chef, who only uses the freshest ingredients and organic produce. We have all manner of interesting and exciting activities on offer - for instance, horseback riding (at all levels of expertise), hiking, flyfishing, birdwatching - and a whole lot more. It's a great place to be.

For more information, call 01509 618 811 or visit www.ranchrider.com.

Why not see how far your money might go if you buy abroad? Search for your dream overseas property on aplaceinthesun.com

Back to top