| British Columbia does
have a wine industry but this wasn't quite where we expected to find it. |  |
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After all, the rest of the scenery is pretty rugged. The road from here to
Whistler is in serious need of some TLC. |
| The waterfalls are like
the rivers - huge gushing torrents. You wonder where all the water is coming
from at this time of year. |  |
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This is a 'creek' and is one of many we crossed on this section of the road. |
| Another waterfall just at
the side of the road. They are certainly impressive. |  |
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This is Lake Duffy with a log jam in the middle of it. The lake has a
shallow section and logs regularly get stuck here. It is even mentioned in
Milepost. |
| Although it was quite
dull, there were gaps in the clouds sometimes just illuminating the snow on
a mountaintop. |  |
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So to the town of Whistler, the premier ski resort in North America. It
looks quite European in style but this is deliberate - it is very much a
high end resort. |
| A serious fire engine and
the most advance technology of its type we have seen in weeks.. |  |
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So who's been eating my porridge?? |
| One of two mountains at
Whistler with ski slopes. At this distance they look almost vertical. |  |
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Whistler was host to the last Winter Olympics at which the Canadians did
very well. |
| The main centre is a
compact shopping precinct but you would need a second mortgage to buy
anything. |  |
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Summer use for the ski slopes is serious mountain biking. There was a bike
for sale in the village at $1700. |
| The kids on these are
absolutely fearless but you can see the body armour they wear as they walk
around. |  |
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But we headed on. We had considered stopping at Squamish but with a four
lane highway from Whistler we were tempted to make the home run to Vancouver
and the US. |
| As we reach Howe Sound
there is a huge waterfall. We could have walked right up to it but it was in
a National Park with a very small car park and there wasn't space for us. |  |
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So the road and the railway come down to sea level as we travel the last few
miles along the sound to Horseshoe Bay. |
| This is a huge sound and
there are several places where car ferries come in. We are just to the north
of Vancouver. |  |
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I seem to remember that Howe was an English admiral around the time of
Nelson. Many places round here are named for English mariners of that era.. |
| So round the corner and
into Vancouver itself. This is the Lions Gate Bridge into the city. Traffic
was very heavy and it took us over half an hour to get across here. |  |
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It was getting late as we crossed the bridge and we still had some way to go. |
| Vancouver centre itself.
We will come back and visit here properly next year. |  |
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We took a wrong turn which led to us travelling down the main street. Not in
the plan and it only made us later. Taking a 30ft motorhome through cities
like this is not recommended. |
| They have trolleybuses in
Vancouver. Our plan for next year is to camp on the edge and travel in by
bus. |  |
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Heading out the other side we found these native art banners on the
lampposts as we headed through Granville. |
We still had another 30 miles to go to the border. The crossing wasn't bad
but we were pulled over and they took away our tomatoes - something to do with a
codling moth in Canada. But it could have been worse. They hurried us through
because we were blocking things up a bit.
Another few miles brought us to Ferndale where we stayed overnight. |