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Three months off work! It was early June and finally the time
was here to start our big trip around the world. We had a couple
of nice days in Perth with Huw and Elina.
We flew to Sydney and stayed with friends. It was great to
catch up with all our friends there. We lived in Wollongong for
4 years and Ronnie worked in a Volkswagen workshop in Sydney so
we caught up with all his old workmates and his 2 bosses who had
sponsored him in 1998.
On Monday the 11th of June we flew out of Sydney. The flight
took 14 hours and we were very excited to finally land in
Vancouver. My uncle, my mum and her partner were waiting for us.
Mum and her partner had flown in from The Netherlands two days
before our arrival to spend time with us in Vancouver.
The weather was beautiful and we drove around the area before
we went to my uncle’s place. We could see the Rockies in the
distance; still lots of snow on the peaks, hopefully it wouldn’t
be too cold when we had to cross them.
The next day we picked up the 1977 BMW R100S and Ronnie checked
the oils and other bits and pieces. It all looked pretty good.
(Ronnie had found the motorbike on the net and we had asked my
cousin if he could have a look at it and purchase it for us if
it looked ok.)
We had a great time catching up with my family and exploring the
area. We took the ferry to Vancouver Island and had some very
nice days there. The first night we camped near a lake and the
second night we booked a motel. All very reasonable priced. Our
first encounter with a bear was on the way to Tofino. Tourists
had stopped to take pictures of a bear cub. When we came closer,
we thought: where is mother bear? All the cars had blocked the
road but we managed to get through and luckily never saw the big
bear.
We took the ferry back to Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) where we
took the scenic road to Whistler and saw lots of bears on the
side of the road. Because there is not much fish to be caught at
this time of the year they just eat grass and fruits.
On our way back to Vancouver we hit a traffic jam in peak hour
and it started to pour down with rain. It was so cold and I was
glad to hop in the shower at my uncle’s place.
We explored a ranch on four wheelers and in a Jeep. We saw
beaver dams and deer. Amazing country here. We took a helicopter
flight over the area, which was another great experience. After
2 weeks we had to bring mum and Popke back to the airport and
another 2 days later we left my uncle’s place to start the trip
across to Toronto via America.
It was cold but sunny when we left at 8.30 in the morning. We
went to Hells Gate, something amazing to see. The Fraser river
is very narrow here and there is a huge amount of water rushing
through this valley. They have had a lot more rain in British
Colombia this spring so it was even more spectacular.
At Spences Bridge we went to the Log Cabin pub, a real bikers
bar. Complete with motorbikes on display. They even do burnouts
inside in front of the bar, we had some lunch there but nothing
spectacular happened while we were there. Still a great place to
visit though.
We kept on going and the scenery changed completely from green
mountains to bare mountains. In Kamloops we stopped to boil the
some water so we could have a cuppa. The weather had changed, by
now it was sunny and warm. We put up our tent in a provincial
park, had to pay $21 (which is the normal price in Canada for
camping in a National park or provincial park) If you want to
have a fire, you pay $7 extra plus $7 for firewood.
We were camping right on the Thompson River, this was flowing
very fast, the mosquitoes were very annoying and there were lots
of them. At 5.00 we woke up, there was a huge crash: a tree had
fallen into the river. Because of the high level of the river a
lot of big trees were pushed over. Along the way we had seen
this already, big trees flowing down the river. And a lot of
properties were flooded too.
The next day we rode into Alberta and Jasper was the next
destination. We had some lunch in town and set up camp in Jasper
N.P. The red squirrels are very cheeky here and very friendly.
We had to watch our food.
Another creature who really likes food is the bear. In the
towns and parks they have special bear lockers and bear proof
bins. You can store all your food and other items with a smell
(deodorant, toothpaste & shampoos etc) in these lockers.
After a good night sleep without bears we took the beautiful
Icefields Parkway to Banff. It was very cold and overcast but
still spectacular. We stopped to have a look at the Athabasca
Glacier and had a look at Lake Louise which was not as beautiful
and blue as in the brochures. Never mind, still really nice to
be here.
We camped
in Banff N.P. that night. Had a buffalo and an elk burger
in the local pub for dinner, yum! Banff is a beautiful town, I
really liked it. It’s surrounded by big mountains (3000 metres
high).
We left early the next morning and had a look at a lake before
we went to Canmore, another nice town.
We didn’t want to go through big cities so way before Calgary we
turned south towards the American border. The road was amazing,
no cloud in the sky and the mountains covered in snow. We
stopped at the Highwood pass which is 2,206 meters high.
Later that day we rode across the border into America. We had
purchased our visa’s at the border for $6 each. They need to see
your passport and they need your fingerprints. You also have to
fill out a form but all was easy to do.
We were now in Montana and found a place to stay in Glacier N.P.
(US $20) We also bought a $80 annual national park pass. There
we a lot of bicycle riders here, some of them had traveled an
huge amount of kilometers to get here. I thought we had it tough
. . .
The camping ground was packed with people, but we didn’t see
any big campervans. They were all traveling in cars, small
campervans or on pushbikes. Later we found out the overhangs of
the mountains are too low to take a big campervan across. So
remember this if you want to go there, it would be a shame to
miss out on this road called “Going to the sun road”. They only
opened the road 10 days before we got there, too much snow
before that.
We ended up in sunny and warm Polson where we found a spot on
the RV park (they had only 3 tent sites and about 150 RV sites)
Lots of grass though for us and we had 2 nights there. We went
to the Polson rodeo that night which was an experience. They are
very passionate about this here and we had a good laugh when the
Mutton Bustin’ competition started. A 3 year old girl won, she
stayed on for 8 seconds!