It aint half hot mum.......

In my opinion British Columbia must be the best all round of the 12 provinces and territories what make up Canada. That being said, I've only visited four of them, but I can only offer an opinion based on what I know, so maybe I should have said BC is my favourite of all the provinces Ive been to. 

We arrived in Toronto on April 24th taking two months to drive along Highway 1 also called the Trans Canada Highway, clocking up just over 5000 km. At the start I decided not to keep track of how much fuel we bought as the 6.7 litre truck pulling 3 tonnes of trailer adds up to about 15 mpg! Diesel costs between 50 & 60p per litre, so work it out......but please don't tell me!

Did I enjoy the trip? Absolutely.   Would I do it again?  No way!

We saw a lot of extraordinary things, met a lot of wonderful people but never found a Canadian who didn't want to know our story or help us in any way they could, especially when we had problems with the truck & trailer. We got many invites to their homes, their food & drink or whatever we needed including advice on every subject. 

The sales team at Canadream in Toronto, the fleet manager in Calgary were fantastic. We had huge problems with licensing, vehicle registration for a non resident and insurance issues which were all eventually sorted out by inventing a "unique to us" temporary buy/lease category until the end of July by which time we have to re-register both vehicles in BC. In order to get licence plates for the truck I first had to get a drivers licence, insurance package. Now, one has to be a resident of BC, so our old friend Cory agreed to be our "landlord". Next, armed with a landlord/tenant agreement I opened a bank account. With a copy of the agreement and the bank account details I then had to go and subscribe to the BC healthcare scheme.                                                            Once I had a social insurance number, I could apply to exchange my UK driving licence for a BC licence. So far so good. The truck now has to go through a 90 point safety check (mot) and I have to take the trailer to the insurance office in the middle of town to be "sighted".                                                                                                                Almost there....I then need to produce original bills of sale for both plus the original "proof of ownership" (log book, registration certificate) which are all with Canadream in Calgary. A promise to courier said documents was made today so maybe, just maybe we can have all this legal before we fly home in ten days or so. Almost forgot, the trailer has to be placed up the mountain on Corys farm while we are away to qualify as resident, the truck is being stored by Canadream in Vancouver so all in all, its looking good. Poor Lyn has just about had enough of phone calls and form filling plus every step has a fee.............

On a lighter note, we were so grateful to the guys in Toronto, at huge expense, we had a photo of them and us put onto 4 coffee mugs which is just one of many services offered by the global retail giant Staples. Ginelle at Staples Toronto branch took our digital photo assuring us that sending two mugs to the guys at Canadream and sending the other two to Vernon for ourselves to collect on arrival would be a piece of cake. The Toronto mugs arrived within a week of our departure. Top service!

About 2 weeks later Lyns phone rings at 1am by a distraught Helena from Staples Vernon branch saying she was sorry but didn't understand the order. After Lyn had pointed out the difference in time zones she might want to call Ginelle from Staples Toronto branch, preferably during daylight hours.  Some 6 weeks later we waltz into Staples Vernon branch, approach the only sales assistant not busy. Lyn managed about 3 words before the assistant pointed at Lyn and exploded "You're Lynda Thomas!" It was Helena the phone caller herself. Apparently the order had caused all manner of problems and dear Helena had spent hours phoning the manufacturer, the digital team and anyone she could think of to get the mugs instore before we arrived. Guess what? No mugs.......but they did arrive next day and the relief in Helenas face when we collected was immense. Customer service is second to none.

Tomorrow for us is another day of admin in temperatures of 30 plus. Forecast for the weekend is in the 40s!  I see  England is expecting a heatwave next week, it will be nice to get back to cool down................

Cedar Falls and old neighbours......

Well, my prediction proved correct, it was a long day. After 2 weeks without the credit card, funds dwindling, very little diesel in the truck and just a few beers propping up the fridge, FedEx having promised the new card 2 days ago failed us. The tracking record told us it had been sent to Memphis, Tennessee because the wrong driver picked it up ? Then it found its way to Kelowna, which is in Canada but some 50km away. After many phone calls we agreed on a time & place in Vernon for collection 3 days late. The FedEx lady waived the delivery charge of £38.50 and hoped we had a good weekend. We went straight to the filling station to fill up the truck, luckily it was one of those places that had suffered many driveouts (people filling up then driving off without paying) so Lyn had to pay first and fill after.......the card didn't work! We didn't read the bit about activating the card, so a call to London (38 digits!) and we were back on the road, the road to the liquor store to replenish my supply of Corona.

Yesterday we collected Archie from the mountain and he took us to BX Falls. I do remember taking the children there after school but it was in the winter so the waterfall was frozen then, now its full stream and green. Problem was, its populated by grizzly bears, wolves and sometimes cougars.........but not this time.

After a spree at the supermarket we went to visit our old friend and next door neighbour Cory Fuhr and his mother Carol. Corys partner Stephanie had died 3 months ago and there was a lot of tension in the air. Cory suggested he come up to our campsite that evening to talk. Lyn made a wonderful dinner and we talked and talked by the fire pit with many beers. I think he will be OK. Cory is a sculptor in metal and is somewhat famous for his work, he has a studio in Vancouver and sells a lot of his stuff in the US for huge money. We have a few of his pieces of work he gave us years ago.

 

Silver Star and stop!

Journeys end, Vernon BC. Strange feelings when we arrived as we lived here for two years some 13 years ago. It all looked very familiar yet so different as the town has expanded just the same as everywhere else.                                                                   We established base camp at the bottom of Silver Star mountain in a camp site called Cedar Falls, we used to bring the children here after school back in the day. Driving up the Silver Star resort we passed the house we used to own, what a difference, the new owners had extended it just as I had planned but never did. 

Archie lives in a log cabin with his two mates, we arrived to his surprise as he had forgotten we were coming! Anyway, scooped him up and fed him steak and chips as he is so skinny, filled him with beer around the fire pit and put him to bed exhausted. Working on the mountain has taken its toll on my boy. 

Im sitting by the fire with a beer, its dark now and a fellow camper came to tell me there is a bear cub very close by, where theres a cub theres a mumma bear so maybe time for bed, also I can hear a lot of yelping, might be coyotes or wolves..........

Don't want to leave just yet, very dark, clear sky showing the most amazing stars and the crickets are in full song.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Cory and his mother who were our next door neighbours in Mac Donald road. He welds all manner of engine parts together into the most beautiful sculptures and has become very collectable in the US. We also learned his childhood sweetheart and lifelong partner Stephanie died of ovarian cancer only 3 months ago, might be a long day.

Canada Facts

Canadians are officially the second happiest people in the world.......I wonder who the first are?

Dam and blast it........or maybe the other way round?

Today we could mostly be found up the mountain trail from Revelstoke to where a feat of human engineering sits calmly and quietly producing enough electrical power to supply almost a million homes. The Revelstoke dam. At 400 feet high and 3800 feet wide, it puts Stithians dam to shame. They measure the water held back not in cubic anything but in acres, 1,240,000 of them. More statistics, it took 5 years in planning and 8 years to build using 4 million cubic metres of concrete and almost the same amount of glacial mud and rocks. There are 5 turbines each weighing over 400 tonnes and a sixth is planned. The turbines are built in Brazil being brought by barge and road with specially designed trailers as long as Cornwall! Puts me towing my trailer into perspective.

The river what the dam holds back is the Columbia river, 4th largest in north America and begins way up draining the Rockies for 4000 km to the Pacific ocean. From between its outlet in the US there are 9 other dams before this one and I think she said another 3 beyond. The first dam in the US was built in 1930 and was hailed as an engineering wonder. Soon to follow was a series of further dams to meet the needs of the ever expanding populations of the US and Canada, but not the natives who for countless generations had relied on the Columbia for their staple diet of salmon. The dam builders had neglected to build in any kind of "fish stair" to allow the salmon to swim upstream to spawn as they had for ever, effectively cutting off the trail. To this day the Canadian government are petitioning the US to retro install such devices and to allow the fish to return. Some hope, however, the lake is stocked with trout and sturgeon and maybe one day, salmon.

We went back downtown for lunch in a bar called The Village Idiot, Strangely I felt right at home there.

Canada Facts

The Royal mint of Canada produce a solid gold coin with a face value of $1,000,000. The gold is so pure its the only time the grading of 999.999% pure is allowed to be used.

Canada Facts

A town in British Columbia has the postcode V4G 1N4.

Mosquitoes.....

In my mind the word mosquito conjures pictures of the beautiful twin engined fighter/bomber of world war two. However, more recently my encounter with the smaller insect type flying machine has only caused painful memories. Google informs me that men with O type blood group are so attractive to the female of the species that once exposed I must be a homing beacon for a free meal. Also, I have reacted badly to my involuntary supplying the local mozzie gals with dinner for all in so much that every bite over the last three days has swollen hugely, and itch..........its the itching! Both feet and calves, both arms plus two on my neck. Im not having it! 

A visit to a natural health shop in Golden supplied me with lots of advice, not much sympathy and a 90 capsule bottle of vitamin B1 & 2, and a citronella candle. (The advice was to move camp sites but already paid in advance so that aint gonna happen). But Im a trooper and will survive this, Lyn says Im a pussy...........

This morning I was greeted not only by bleddy insects but a beautifully warm day. I wrestled the awning down and breakfasted in the sunshine (covered head to toe I might add). After an hour or so it became overcast and the wind suddenly picked up and also picked up the awning which twisted the support poles ripping off one of the brackets jamming it in the up position but flapping wildly. As I stood wondering what to do, the heaviest hail storm Ive ever seen began followed by torrential rain for half an hour. I spent most of the rest of the day dismantling the whole damned awning set up so I could then straighten out the support rails by bending them back to shape between the tyres of the trailer, worked a treat. I really am "one of those guys".                                                                                                On the down side, I broke the gas regulator valve on the barbecue last week and still cant find a replacement part. We're staying an extra night here in Golden only because its so quiet in the forest with a golf course to one side. Do I play golf? Nah......

This is grizzly bear country and they are very big beasts. My children learned the bear rules at school here some time ago, it goes something like this. "If the bear is black, you attack. (Make lots of noise etc), if the bear is brown, just lay down, but if its a grizzly.........youre dead!" 

And into British Columbia!

Well, that was the most testing and hairiest drive of my life. While still in Alberta we met Tony & Theresa  who hail from Glasgow but have been in Canada some forty years. I was telling them about my tyre change the day before and he asked about what pressure I had the trailer tyres at. Never thought to test them? Anyway, he suggested it might be a good idea as the road to BC would be something of a challenge without a tyre blowout. He came over with a compressor only to discover all the trailer tyres were seriously under inflated by as much as half. We pumped them all to the stated 80 psi (!). Whilst pumping air I became aware of a female voice screaming something alarming, there was a brown bear sauntering through the campsite so we all had to hide away indoors for a minute or two. By the time I got a camera he had disappeared into the river and was heading for the hills. I was surprised how fast the bugger could move, luckily in a different direction to me, although at one point I was 20 feet from his jaws and paws.

We left Alberta through the mountain pass stopping for lunch at Banff sulphur springs, too bleddy hot for more than 10 minutes, about 40c. On arrival I blindly followed Michelles words of direction through the medium of satnav, she sent me up to the springs but failed to mention it might be a dead end with no turning space for a fifth wheel measuring almost 50 feet! When I was a copper I was top student in reversing at Hendon driving school, but I might have made my instructor mighty proud backing this roadtrain back down the hill for half a kilometer and two bends into oncoming traffic having made the same mistake. I will trust twatnav in future.

From where we were at the hot springs is a chair lift affair to the mountain top, for the life of me I couldn't see the end of it, bleddy miles up, stuff that I thought. I relish flying a small plane to the limits til it spins and falls from the sky but that thing was ridiculous. I've never been on a rollercoaster either, must be a control thing?

Oh yes, back to the drive. Just outside the town of Golden, the approach is made via 10 mile hill which I doubt Clarkson & co would attempt unflustered. All the way down the side of a mountain, one lane in either direction with a sheer drop to the right. 30kph limit and still the 100 foot trucks attempt to overtake on blind corners. After 30 years Mrs Thomas's language left me open mouthed, but we survived to find a very quiet and beautiful campsite at the golf club of Golden, we even booked the driving range for tomorrow evening. So Im sitting outside, eaten a sandwich, downed a few beers, listening to the singing birds and the always present freight trains. 8.30pm and still very hot and sticky. Almost at destinations end and my boy Archie in Vernon BC. I hope hes ready for some serious dad hugging!

The Rockies

What a contrast in scenery. We left Bassano on the prairie ( just as well cos thats where its always been). 100 km or so westward and the Rockies became apparent, a very welcome change after miles and miles of straight road and open dusty land. Eventually arriving at Canmore, still in Alberta, just. The town is like somewhere in typical Switzerland, log cabins and lodges with mountains for a backdrop, in fact a beautiful town. Flowers, green grass everywhere, a river and the obligatory railroad right through the centre. In fact, this town has everything from Safeways to an opera house.

Our next door campers, Tim, Mrs Tim and their three young daughters had come from Calgary for an ice hockey game on Sunday. He pointed out that one of my trailer tyres looked a bit dodgy in so much as it had a flat spot about 9 inches long, (due to the brakes locking previously, remember?) "You don't want to be driving through the mountains with a tyre like that, gonna be scary enough!" We carry a spare which is underneath suspended on a cable and bracket that was completely rusted tight. My tool kit is one small cheap adjustable spanner and three screwdrivers of varying sizes. I had more chance winning Eurovision than getting the spare off. Enter "one of those guys", you know the type, able to build a shopping mall from a biro, cornflake packet & a clothes peg! I really shouldn't mock him, he wiggled underneath the trailer, rubbed his chin, muttered something in Canadian and wandered off. He came back in overalls with a powersaw, a socket set Maclaren F1 pit team would drop a jaw at and a 3 tonne trolley jack.....oh and of course, a tin of WD40. 

In 30 seconds he had sliced through the tyre supporting cable, jacked up the trailer and changed the wheel, he then wanted to check the pressure as he had a machine what pumps up tyres, I think he might have had a lathe as well, mind you, he did have a very big camper type bus with a car towed behind. Never did ask his name but did give him a bottle of beer for his trouble.

Its now 32c so a drive with full aircon up into Rundle mountain to Spray Lake sounds cool. Didnt know it was 22km of gravel & dust road......however, worth every minute just for the isolation and vastness of the terrain. Saw mountain goats, deer and gofers, but no bears or cougars as warned.

Think we might stay for another night of cold beer, chicken salad around the firepit before tackling the mountain pass and into British Columbia and the sulphur springs.....shall we? Yeah.........

Cowboys & horses.

So we decided to stay another night in Bassano. Its a campsite on a beef farm, proper cowboys an all, lassoes and horses. The bonkers lady Mandy told us to visit the dam, we drove miles along a dirt track and came upon a dam that put Stithians to shame. Apparently the river flows to the dam where sturgeon breed, some as long as 6 feet! Yeah right. On the way back crossing the railroad we had to stop for a train, went on forever. Spent the rest of the day in town at the wonderful outdoor swimming pool as it was in the 30s....phew. Lunchtime we found PDs eatery. Well, what a find. Big black guy with the biggest smile, turns out he's a Pastor called Don, hence PD. Anyway, we ate pure heaven. A home made rye bread, turkey sandwich and oven cooked poutine. Booked in for a big boys breakfast in the morning. Back to the campsite got a fire going, cracked some beers and noticed a beautiful horse watching the proceedings. Fed him some apple, had a bit of a chat, you know.......back to the fire & beer. Dusk falling, I notice through the trees Mr Ed has found his way into the campsite, I guess the grass really is greener this side of the fence. So Lyn got on the phone to the owners while I went to find said horse. I found the horse was actually still on his side of the fence so no problem but I did find a huge pile of firewood. Just hope the worried owners don't turn up looking for Mr Ed and notice Im burning their wood. Still, the sky is clear, the crickets are singing, Mrs Thomas dancing around the fire, the beer is in my brain and all is well for the moment. Oh, forgot to mention I broke the gas valve on the barbie and the fuel injector module is not covered by our warranty...bugger! In a moment of drunken madness I decided to shave my lightly adorned head, so much cooler now......

Midnight, fire still spitting, Mrs Thomas gone to bed. Just me and the crickets and the eerie sound of the freight trains....I like Canada. 🇨🇦