Wednesday June 27th. Out of the desert and a jerky experience.

Westwards was the direction we needed to head. The countryside remained as it had been the previous evening.. Very dry and desert like. Eroded hills, sparsely treed, and often bare, except for an occasional lone burnt out or broken-off dead pine. There were several areas where fire had stripped all but the remaining blackened tapering trunks; a see through  forest of charcoal spikes.

The road here is narrow by Canadian standards. Generally their roadways are vast expanses of bitumen, but here you have to watch your boundaries lest you lose a mirror in a duel with oncoming beasts, or tear a flank on the barriers of the verge. Occasionally the barriers disappear and the flank-side anxiety of impact is replaced by plummet-o-phobia. Racing rivers directly below, silenced by the distance, still look menacing.

In a rare piece of roadside greenery

The vehicle groans on the ascents, which are steep and it roars painfully down the descents as it automatically gears down. One descent was 13% which felt quite steep indeed.

This was not a road for fast travel. This was going to be a long travelling day again. This is one of the real catches in RV-ing.. the distances here are vast, and if you decide you want to see a lot (which we did) you end up sacrificing many days getting from A to B. No, I wouldn't do it again, but it's a reasonable compromise for travelling with adult children. But it does involve compromises, as any close family living does. We often have different ideas about what we want to do, and both V and W have compromised their sleep-ins in the interests of harmony with us oldies.

Suddenly the terrain changed as if we had emerged from a rain shadow back to verdant British Columbia. The rivers looked the same, but the surroundings were now forests again, and the horizon slowly populated with tall green-blue peaks with caps of white. 

We hadn't been expecting to see snow again after leaving the rockies. We were headed to the environs of Whistler today, heading via Pemberton. The route into Pemberton was lovely, but what became obvious was that the approach valley was a poor area and the local population was predominately non-Caucasian. We are pretty sure that these were the pre-colonisation locals, many of whom seemed relegated to subservient jobs and very humble dwellings. Just short of Pemberton we filled up with gas (the environmental cost is another reason I don't think I will ever RV again) and chatted with the attendants in the store who were interested in where we had come from. They were lovely and friendly. It seems all of Canada we have encountered has with it a good dose of "welcome".

At Pemberton I made a very thoughtful purchase of some jerky for William. He refused it and asked if I was serious. Here it is….

There was much amusement in the grocery store when I took it back for a refund and explained why. The checkout people and other customers were still laughing as I left. I needed to leave this town and never come back! 

Some graffiti at Pemberton

At the tourist information centre we bumped into some other RV people heading in the opposite direction. The centre had no information for them about the Rockies, but we had an excess of accumulated brochures, guides etc. We gladly disposed of them.. doing our bit for recycling. The recipients were also grateful.

Whistler! What a place. This is definitely Vancouver's winter playground. Impressive lodges and much has been put into attracting the tourism. We did a quick circuit of the town, but had decided that Vancouver Island was pulling like a magnet, so we pushed onwards to Squamish.

The Squamish Eagle Vista RV park is lovely, and Janice, one of the owners was cheerful and helpful. Once again, "Free Wifi" doesn't always mean much. These parks are not set up for the demand and the internet dropped in and out at will. Our original site had no access so we had moved close to the source, but even then it was flaky. We did the essentials on the internet, which was mainly banking and essential emails. No way I could post the blog efficiently. Somehow Canada seems a bit like France regarding the internet.. it's more like Australia was 4 or 5 years ago.