Homeward Bound

Well, it's our last day in British Columbia (6th June) and another sunny one. 

Before our journey back, we just wanted to take a last look at where we have been staying for the last few days and take a few more pictures lest we forget how much we have enjoyed ourselves here. 

First off, I think I must always have wanted to be in 'the big chair' and the Pemberton Valley Lodge finally gave me the opportunity:

As I think I might already have mentioned, this town is a small and sleepy afair but like a lot of such towns in the area, there is a customary railroad running through it. Sadly not in use though as a rail stop-off point, as the station has been converted into a bakery and the lines have become a little overgrown:

And here is (pretty much) the view we had yesterday evening (5th) as we looked out from 'The Pony' Bar & Restaurant:

So, having taken our last look at Pemberton, we headed along the 'Sea to Sky Highway'. And we just had to stop at this point to get shots of the rushing river. What particularly captivated us about this spot was the proximity of the railway line to the river. The tracks can clearly be seen right up against the edge. You would have to be some brave train driver to tackle this line in bad weather!

This road to Vancouver is beautifully scenic. You get great views of the Rockies and over the sea inlet:

I would mention also that we stopped for a coffee and a cake in Squamish, which is a small town on-route to Vancouver. Not much to report but I guess it might make a good base for anyone looking to explore the area. And they do a nice coffee (and excellent cakes)!

So that's pretty much all there is to report other than that we got ourselves and the car back to Vancouver Airport in one piece. The flight was delayed slightly and with the time difference and in-flight time we arived back in blighty on the afternoon of the 7th June having had the trip of a lifetime.

Now some might scoff at this last piece of commentary. I had thought many times during our trip that we were being looked after in a spiritual way and that how else could we be so lucky with everything we have seen and experienced. Jan and I believe that loved ones who are now departed but who we remember often continue to watch over us. Whether that's true or not, I guess we may never know. Perhaps the answer is in a picture that Jan just 'grabbed' as we were driving along. When we looked at it more closely we discovered something particularly interesting. I have enlarged an appropriate section of the sky:

So whether someone was looking down on us or not, the last seven and a half weeks have been just fantastic!

The Heat Is On!

Well it certainly is today. Not only has Jan been suffering with some nasty mossy bites which have made her arm and hand heat up with the swelling (despite being treated with various creams and her taking the anti hystamine pills) but according to the car, the temperature today hit 33 degrees C. Not bad for our last full day in the mountains!

Following some early preparations for heading home tomorrow, we took a drive east along highway 99. It's the road we came through to Pemberton on but at least part of it (we only drove along it for about a half hour) deserved a second look. Views of the Lillooet lake are particularly stunning. As can be seen, we had to drive up a dusty unmade road to get these:

And it's only taken me seven and a half weeks but at last I managed to get a decent shot of a Swallowtail Butterfly. They are devilishly difficult to photograph as they just don't stay in one place for more than a few seconds. Well here it is:

And 'another' beautiful waterfall. It's truly a great place to visit!

We ended the afternoon with a dip in our Lodge pool to cool down and which we can see perfectly from our balcony.

And so we end the day just relaxing in our air-conditioned room and drafting, what I expect will be, the last blog posting until we get back to the UK. But we can never forget the wonderful view we have from our balcony of this spectacular rocky mountain ridge:

So without more ado, we will sign out for now and prepare for the last leg of our journey tomorrow along the Sea to Sky highway to Vancouver Airport for the long flight home.

Trailblazers (4th June)!
With a sunny and warm day forecast, the time was right to get our legs working again and therefore a walk along a trail seemed the appropriate way forward. Just behind our lodge is a trail that leads to the Nairn Falls so, doning our walking boots, we set out early (well about 8am which is early for us!) and before breakfast. The walk is a lovely one around a lilly filled lake and into the hills:

 












It was pretty strenuous going for us, particularly as we are not used to hill climbs and truth is we didn't make it on this occasion. But some of the views were well worth the effort:

We did reach a campsite that was on-route but could not see any signs to point us in the right direction. So, we headed back. Probably just as well we did as we were both pretty tired after the 5 kilometers or so we had walked and much in need of water (and breakfast - 11.30am by the time we drank/ate anything!).

And so on to Whistler!

With us both being now pretty tired but refreshed after a late breakfast, it was time to drive the 30 kilometers or so to Whistler as we had heard so much about it. In fact, we were originally booked into a resort lodge there for a night but decided on a longer stay in Pemberton. Great decision!

Whistler is a resort through and through albeit it was apparently originally constructed on the site of an old waste dump that black bears used to frequent (according to the owner of the Pemberton General Stores). It seems some bears still frequent the place!

Just to be seen in Whistler, dressed in the latest expensive fashion gear and properly kitted out for competition cycling (we arived on a cycle event day) seemed to be important to many of the people we saw there. 

And it's all so 'commercial'. In fact it's the only place we have visited during our trip around the USA and Canada where we have had to pay to park the car! This chap seems to have found the correct way to deal with the stresses of Whistler:

Anyway, let's just say we are extremely pleased to be staying in Pemberton. And with the temperature hitting 30 degrees in the afternoon, swimming in the Pemberton Lodge pool and a cold beer poolside was the only way to end the day.

Just Chilling! (3rd June)

I decided to go for a short walk first thing in the morning to check-out the immediate locality:

A couple of snaps of our last accommodation on this epic trip:

But not very much to say about our first full day at Pemberton. We walked into town (quite small and quaint) just to look around and chilled in the afternoon on our balcony. Our's is the one third from the right in the first picture (above). And that's it really.

Oh - we did see this lovely Cedar Waxwing just across from our balcony:

 

Rocky Mountain High! Had a good breakfast at a small cafe in Clinton. I ordered the 'hotcake' as I had no idea what it was. It was priced at just over 3 dollars for a half and just over 4 dollars for a full one. So I decided to 'go for it' (with bacon). Mistake! It was actually a large scotch pancake. Well, to be precise, it was two scotch pancakes. Each one the size of a dinner plate (actually slightly larger) so I'm afraid, although I did my very best and added copious amounts of maple syrup to ease the passage of the pancake, I had to leave about half on the plate. 

The Motel owner waved goodbye and bowed to us was we drove out of the motel carpark (which we thought was a nice touch) and we pushed on towards Pemberton not quite knowing what to expect.

It was'nt long before the landscape started to change as Pemberton is in the middle of the Rockies. And what a change! Switch-back roads, canyons, mountain passes, roadworks - we had the lot. This is a very lovely part of the world. I can only hint at the beauty of the Marble Canyon where you see in the lakes the kind of colours we have only previously experienced in Sardinia:

We were just hoping that our final accommodation in British Columbia would be OK as we had booked ourselves in for our last four nights before returning to Blighty. We were not dissapointed! Unbeknown to us, we had been up-graded and our room is like a small flat complete with kitchen sink, hob, microwave, fridge, pots & pans, crockery and cutlery. In fact, everything we could possibly need for self-catering. But we were also lucky enough to have an extensive south facing balcony/patio area which is bathed in the afternoon sunshine, where we can chill with a glass of wine and contemplate the wonders of life while looking up at the snow-capped mountains around us. Ahhh......

There Be Gold In Them There Hills!
Perhaps there is but if there was, I'm sure it would be very difficult to find and we will probably never know. But this is gold prospecting country and we decided it would be tragic not to visit an old gold prospecting town; particularly as there was one such town that has been restored as a museum only about an hour's drive away (80 km) from where we were staying in Quesnel. It's called Bakerville and it really was worth the effort to pay a visit. Only CA$15 each to get in and you really get the feel of an old gold prospecting town complete with mud streets, original (restored) buildings and horse drawn wagons. 

There are also people dressed as they would have done walking around and minding some of the stores. So it's real history brought to life. 

They also run old style school sessions in both the canadian section and in the chinese quarter.

We were at Bakerville for about two hours and it started to rain heavily so with a long journey ahead (longer because of the detour to Bakerville) we were back on the road to Clinton down the Caribou Highway. We didn't see any Caribou unfortunately but it's not a bad road, which is good, particularly when you have to drive through heavy rain showers. And we did experience a Black Bear running across the road in front of the car:

It was still a long drive though and I was pretty tired when we reached our destination - a small town on-route to our final accommodation before heading back to Vancouver then home. 

We checked into the Round Up Motel not really expecting much as it was only about CA70 for the night (that's around £36) but we were very pleasantly surprised. We were greeted cordially by a korean chap (we thought he was Native American (could have been the fact he was dressed in cowboy garb?) and given our room key (and a couple of free cans of soft drink. The room was probably twice the size of what we were expecting and had a great range of helpful stuff for the weary traveller. 

For dinner, I was looking to have a nice steak (would have been the first of this trip) so we sought out a local restaurant but they only served steak 'in a bun' so we ended up with burger and chips.

The High Rollers!
Another long drive yesterday (31st May) from Smithers down to Quesnel. But despite having to endure a number of roadworks along the way, the trip wasn't entirely without interest for us. Notable sightings included a couple of Black Bears, a Moose and we were lucky enough to capture this Silver Fox on camera:

Weather was overcast all day and we had to drive through several heavy showers. However, we found our overnight accommodation in short order once we had arived in Quesnel. It's pretty easy to see from a distance as it looks like a paddle steamer:

Someone with a sense of humour decided to paint the water hydrant to look like the proprietor:

Anyway, being a casino as well as a Hotel, after our dinner (a lovelly Pizza from Panago's) we decided the only thing to do would be to go and 'break the bank'! So, armed with a good amount of optimism and our 10 dollars (that's about £5.50), we proceeded to spend the next two hours at the Roulette table slowly but surely betting our dollars away 25 cents at a time. I don't know what the management (and other guests) thought of it all? No doubt some of our friends would find it hugely embarrasing. But this trip is on a tight budget and anyway, they probably just put it down to us being English Eccentrics.