Journey Day 16 - Savona to Vancouver

Breakfast Conversations

After a better sleep we packed up ready as breakfast wasn't until 8:15; later than we had been running. We ambled around the house to the breakfast room looking over the garden. Everything is very green and last night Domm was watering with a hose which surprised us in a fairly arid area; apparently they will be moving to metered water so that may become more difficult.
We entered the breakfast room to be greeted by other guests and sat ready to be served breakfast rather than working a buffet. It was odd to have to decide what to have rather than just browsing and going back for something else. Fresh colourful fruit and real milk were the prime pleasures.

Railways

Conversation came and went including discussion of the massive freight trains passing the far side of the lake. Canada was built upon the railway; the Canadian Pacific Railway linked the two side of Canada together confirming it as a country. Another contender arrived in the shape of Canadian Northern to build a competing line.  Canadian Northern are now "CN" due to US interests, simlar to when British Telecom became "BT" when it moved into the global market; a national connection in a company name is not always seen as a good thing.
Most of the routes both companies operate are single track and intense competition has prevented the logical cooperation of sharing so that trains could run on go and return lines.
I have mentioned in a previous post the immense length of the trains made largely of tanks and flat beds carry  double level containers. I would say many trains are in the region of a quarter of a mile long and they are limited by the length of sidings required to pass. Keeping sufficient pressure to operate air breaks on the trucks also limits the length but they now insert another loco halfway along which is remote controlled from the lead loco enabling twice the length.
Railways CN and Canadian Pacific - no co-op

Little is manufactured in Canada and the rail freight reflect the country's economy of oil, grain, coal etc outward; global goods inward. Each container represents three trucks loads so it is no wonder that so little freight is on the roads.
I expressed a concern that as the 4 laning work on the Trans Canadian Highway proceeds, more will move to trucks and the road will become clogged. The local view was that that would never happen; I'm not so sure they are right.

Speed & Politics

The speeds have varied all across the Provinces. Here in BC it tends to be 100 kph on both single and dual carriageway, about 62 mph, which is perceived as fast. Different to the UK, it is taken as fact that their is a 10 kph leeway in which there would be no ticket. We heard the same from a taxi driver in New York.  Regardless of the speed limit, no-one is likely to be caught in BC now as the last government were elected on a promise to rid the province of speed cameras! The world over politics seems to be being run on populist ideas, the odd thing on this one is the politicians actually did what they were elected on an removed them all.
For non-UK readers our maximum out of town speeds are: Single carriageway 60mph/96kph and Dual Carriageway 70mph/113kph.

Last Long Drive

Before leaving we had another walk down to the lake to take in the gardens and the wide views 

Lakeside Inn - our room at right end of veranda

Jetty

Garden

A trip to the garage to add 21 litres of fuel as a rough estimate of what is needed to complete our journey and not donate much to the rental company then back on the highway.
The rolling fells are covered in sagebrush which grows a bit like a heather bush but smells strongly of the herb sage. It has a silvery colour which makes a scene look as if it has a morning frost.

A few flat areas are irrigated and the colour difference is striking.

A wide river carves its way through a flat bottomed valley. The fells continue to remind us of the Scottish Highlands but the pale brown colour is from arid ground rather than poor grass on peat.

Leaving Highway 1

Highway 1, Trans Canadian Highway heads South to make its way to Vancouver but we are not following it further and instead taking a slower more interesting alternate route West via Whistler.

HW97 Caribou Highway

At Cache Creek we branch off North briefly on HW97, the Caribou Highway and not too far on we stop at Hat Creek Ranch, a museum based around a large ranch which had interested Lynne for the history. We stopped to evaluate it but came to the conclusion it was a bit 'theme parky' in its approach with Stage Coach rides and Panning for Gold. With little time and a $13 entry fee we decided to give it a miss though we did enjoy looking over the small legitimate wagon at the gate.

Leaving the Ranch, I return to the road and continue up Highway 97, only to realise that I should have turned the other way from the ranch. Where we turned had some nice horses in a coral so at least we could pretend we had a reason.

HW99

Back to the ranch and take Highway 99 which will take us all the way to Vancouver, our ultimate destination.
We pass over a ridge and the view changes into a green valley bordered by forested fells with exposed rock. Occasional meadows spread out and we pass two attractive lakes. There are no stop points on this road as it winds through the valleys.
This is a stunningly beautiful road.

Ornate chuch in valley town

A steep descent brings us down from the alpine heights and a massive valley opens up ahead with canyons cutting through the land around.

Frazer River

The river cutting the canyon is the Frazer River surrounded by high mountain. We descend along the valley in a winding curve accompanied by an extraordinarily steep gradient railway line.

rail bridge across the canyon

Approaching the town of Lilloooet we pass first nation settlement on the far side of the river. It has been interesting to note the use of 'aboriginal' in Canada as I tend to think of that term as being appropriate to Australian populations.

The English Crown gave rights to the area to be opened up in 1670 (not that they owned it!)
The river is named for Simon Frazer who discovered the route though had thought he was following the Columbia River and was desperately disappointed after the incredible effort of following it including climbing along cliffs and returned to camp after 71 days a financial failure.
Later Lilloooet was actually the largest town outside San Francisco & Chicago at one stage after gold had been found.

More Mountains

I continue to be surprised at the continuation of mountains in this Western area which is an indictment of my lake of research. I had been guilty of seeing this as an easy run in on the last leg - very wrong and I'm using a lot more fuel than anticipated,.
After Lilloeet, we climb steeply again into high alpine mountain scenery with snow covered tops and steep wooded valleys

We drive on through miles of pretty alpine scenery with steep woodland, mountains and following a river.
We stop  at Lake Duffey to examine log jam  at the outlet of the lake. People are walking on it which looks a bad idea to me.

Lake Duffey

Log Jam

Before leaving Lake Duffy we have lunch comprising the mushroom quarter of last night's pizza which was too much for us. Sitting on the tailgate as usual with a lovely Glacier view

Afternoon

Moving on quickly as time is getting on and we have a way to go yet we make an ear-popping descent to the town of Pemberton and then it is no stopping for some time to cover some distance.

I did have to stop for this. I have been fascinated by the rail maintenance truck which have a set of rail wheels as well as road wheels and I had spotted a truck coming down the line.

Rail maintenance truck

Whistler to Squamish

As we entered the polished town of Whistler we passed a blue lake like the ones we had seen in the Rockies. The colour comes from rock flour which is washed in from glaciers; the flour absorbs other light in the spectrum reflecting only the blue.

Fuel Problems

Now clear that more fuel will be required and I miss the garage at Whistler. We stop and check distances and judge that we are ok to continue to Squamish.

Turn out lookout to glaciers

We arrive at Squamish and locate the garage. Not wanting much more fuel I add $8 worth of fuel but when I switch on the ignition the display still shows 40km remaining, the same as before I topped up. Puzzled and annoyed we discuss with the attendant and the manager convinced that the pump must not have delivered fuel.
Clearly nothing we can do on the forecourt, we pull over the road and add a further $10 of fuel; both listening to fuel being delivered. Back in the car and still 40km!!!!!
Clearly, the fuel gauge gauge system is no longer recording added fuel.

So, with approximately 65km to go to Vancouver and a further 16km to the airport we drive on with 40km of fuel reported and it is not a good feeling.

We have a break shortly after Squamish to visit Shannon Falls which is very busy with families outfrom the city for the afternoon.

Driving on toward Vancouver I dread what happens when the fuel display reaches zero, worried that the system may be intelligent and bring us to a halt. We drive on and pass through zero and continue on; not until we've passed another 16km and clearly passed any reserve do I get a little more confident but I am driving through hills that are using fuel much faster than I anticipated.  The air-con is switched off and I'm driving more carefully even than normal.

Pacific Ocean

Finally we round a hillside and we are running along the sea and the Pacific Ocean; we have crossed the continent!

Selfie with Pacific

Vancouver tall buildings appear in the distance but we're not their yet.

Arriving in Vancouver

Still on Highway 99 we find we are also on Highway 1 - Trans Canadian Highway (East). The 'East' feels odd as we have always been travelling West but it is somehow a nice completion to enter Vancouver on the TCH whatever direction.

We crawl through traffic and meet horrendous delays before getting onto Lions Gate Bridge to cross to Vancouver. Five lanes have to merge before we are on the one open lane crossing the bridge. Throughout all this stop-start crawl my stomach is churning not knowing how much fuel I have. With having the second fill due to not thinking the first had delivered logic says we have enough but logic isn't working in my current mental state.

Lions Gate Bridge

Finally over the bridge, the city is a grid layout but we manage to pass the hotel and struggle against  one way street issues getting back to the hotel.

Finally I breath as I pull into in the loading bay and go to check in. 

The booking is all good but when I come to pay, I have insufficient funds on my travel credit card. I log onto my bank to top up the card and every time I go to complete the transaction it logs me out. I even download my banks App onto my phone and try that way to be faces with the unhelpful, "Oops, something went wrong" at the same point in the transaction. Fortunately, I could fall back to my credit card which I have been avoiding due to foreign currency transaction charges.

The 24th Floor

Parked for the next 2 days and Checked in we ascend the lift to the 24th floor and locate our room with a balcony and a sea view. It's amazing! Suddenly, the world seems a better place.

CityView

Sea View

Fireworks

An international fireworks competition opens tonight and hotel reception and our server where we ate both recommended watching from our hotel balcony. We were pretty exhausted and we could tell by the full buses and car parks that it was going to be very crowded.

A bottle of rose purchased from the liquor store around the corner was purchased and we settled in to watch events.
A single small plane gave an aerobatic display before sunset which developed stunning colours out over the sea.

aerobatic display

Sunset

Robson Street as sun sets

Fireworks

It turned out that our balcony view was in a great direction and though some distance away we enjoyed the fireworks which launched from a massive barge moored in Enlish Bay.

The display finished 10:30 and through until midnight people drifted along Robson and adjacent roads. The police had the road closed so the revelers enjoyed walking down the centre of this main road and taking photos sitting on the centre line.
It was a beautiful warm evening and we felt very privileged that Vancouver had put on such a welcomne for us.

Today's Statistics

3739 miles

Statistics: Miles today: 244; Miles so far: 3730 ; Fuel added so far: 341.8 litres, 75.2 imp gals; Provinces: British Columbia; Time Zone: UTC-7 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)