Rob-n-Hild, oot and aboot eh? Sorry - 2022

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Cache Creek - Richmond (375 km. 5.3 hrs. Max elevation 501)

Driving to Vancouver today. The original plan was to drive south out of Cache Creek, cut across on highway 8 and to drive the rest of Coquihalla Highway (route 5). Well that wan't going to happen because of a road washout. So a section of the road is now missing and we took Highway 1 along Fraser River all the way to Vancouver.

Yogi is ready for this kind of diversion and anything else from his spot between the seats. He has also become the holder of our hats. He is now known as Two-hats-Yogi.

Our descent from Cache Creek to sea-level also let us see the train line in many places. Sometimes the train would dip in and out of the mountain in partial tunnels. Some protection from landslides and avalanches - and good for photos. The eroded mountain sides look scary from the point of view of road damage, but beautiful when it comes to the view from afar.

Every now and then we caught a glimpse of how wild the Fraser River is at this point. Before we ascend a bit again and could sense how steep and deep the canyon was along side the road. The safety bollards along the road are very welcome to, literally, keep us on the (not so) straight and narrow.

And then suddenly a groundhog snuck into the photo by sitting on the road bollard, or by running across the road.

Did you notice the traffic cone? Yep, it is construction season in Canada. All these hardworking people are out here fixing the roads for us. At this particular stop, they made cars line up in one space and trucks off to the right. Then they would let through the trucks together because the temporary bridge up ahead was only strong enough to hold one truck at a time. We noticed how this piece of information made most of the cars give eachother space to only drive one car at a time too! It all went well.

Outside Boston Bar we had the option to park at Hell's Gate (is that a good thing?) and then take what they call an airtram across the Fraser Canyon. The screenshot off their website looks impressive - but we chose to pass on that one.

We drove through several tunnels with signs warning us that the lights are flashing if there are any bikes in the tunnel. Eeek that is scary. Luckily the tunnels are really short so you are in and out in no time when you drive a car, not huffing and puffing on a bike.

Meanwhile, back in Norway, Adelheid, Hege and Bjørnar drove throught he World's longest tunnel: Lærdalstunnel, which is 24.5 km long! To make it more safe there are widened areas every 6 km and to make it more interesting these rock chambers are fitted with special lighting. No room for bikes. They have to travel along old(er) roads above-ground. Click to read about the Lærdalstunnel

When we got to Hope, where route 1 joints Coquihalla Highway, we decided to take a break at Tim Hortons. Only we hadn't counted on the looooooong train. It arrived just as we could see Tim Hortons ahead of us, the boom/gate went down and we were stuck. The train kept going and going for NINE minutes! The trains are long here. At least we were really ready for a cup of tea and a bagel once we finally got there.

Before leaving Tim Hortons we noticed a cute version of the "No Entry" sign - using a rolling pin!

Further down the road we though we saw a many beautiful mountains with snow in the sunshine.

After we left Hope and drove towards Vancouver, we are happy to report that we followed the recommendation from Jess to stop at the Bridal Veil Falls. Thank you, Jess! It is a very nice picnic area in addition to the walking trails up to the beautiful falls. The trail up to the falls was lined with many old trees and facinating root systems, holes for Rob to explore and look for new species for our list, and a little creek with moss-covered rocks and trees.

The falls themselves do look a bit like a big bridal veil. We stopped at the railing and official end of trail, but many other tourists jumped the fence and scrambled across slippery rocks and logs to get a closer look.

Next we had made the plan to visit Simon Fraser University - Alexis' alma mater. We caught some photos of various places around campus and hope they are meaningful to Alexis. We could see the old buildings, student accommodation, and she will be plesaed to see that they are building new stuff too. Things are happening at SFU. We found lots of lots of trees and students walking and cycling. It was convocation time, so it was fun to see a busy campus.

As we are always compelled to go to a higher point to get a good view, "Burnaby Mountain View" sounded like the place for us. We headed up there only to be reminded that this is Victoria Day weekend and everybody and their dog are oot and aboot today. They also brought all their cars and took all the most convenient parking spots. We were thankful to find a spot in the overflow car park down the hill. And then we found ourselves huffing and puffing back up the hill. Still the view was worth it - across to downtown Vancouver and north across the river to the mountaints.

What appeard to us as a group of not quite traditional totem poles was an art installation called "Kamui Mintara Playground of the Gods". It was a gift to Burnaby from its Japanese twin city of Kushiro. The message if humans are not respectful to nature, the evil gods will punish them with floods, droughts, and other natural hardships.

We studied some more art installations in the park including a distressed-looking owl made called an "eco sculpture". Then, before heading to cousin Vivian for a couple of nights, we used this as an opportunity to eat all the remaining bits of perishable food. It became a eclectic lunch of apple, yoghurt, milk, chewy bars, coke, nuts, rasins, and dried mangoes!

The rest of the day we spent catching up with Vivian - and us chit chatting goes on for hours! It also included a visit to Vivian's favourite local Japanese restaurant for edemame beans, sushi, sashimi, and miso soup. The food and conversation was such a delight that we shamefully admit to forgetting to take photos!

May/June 2022

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