Oliver - Vancouver : Back to Civilisation 7th - 10th Sept

September 12, 2007 by paulandnaomi.

Oliver made its mark on our map by providing us with the best and booziest meal we’d had on the trip. The Toasted Oak boasted Okanagan wine tastings with excellent food to complement them. Unfortunately, the evening blurred as we worked our way through the very good wine list and our memories now fail to recall most of the wines we drank. (oops!) For more information that we can’t provide, take a look at http://www.winecountry-canada.com/.

After watching the all-clear and sunny forecast (thankfully without a hangover), we set off on minor road that had been recommended, towards Keremeos. It was quite possibly the steepest road out of Oliver but thankfully with very little traffic (this usually makes the effort well worth the climb) and were suddenly hit by a completely different weather system. We were bombarded by wind around various corners and encountered our first rainclouds since Kootenay Lake. After hearing various stories about cougars (and attacks being on the rise!), there was a bit more of an adventurous edge to the day’s journey - and we still had the usual (but not quite so scary) bears to worry about! While dodging said rainclouds, we eventually came to our highest point of the day after four hours (once again) and once more reached civilisation at Twin Lakes golf course, incongruously perched at the top of the mountain. Highway 3 took us back down to the not so picturesque Keremeos (although it must be said that the mountains around it are). Once again we found ourselves in the cheapest motel in town, although this time we could tell why! Our appetites were quenched with an excellent take-away curry from the Sanderson’s fruit stand down the road.

We went to sleep with the wind whistling through the trees, and the next day’s cycling was spent battling the wind towards to Princeton through the Similkameen Valley (we thought this might mean ‘westerly wind’ in the local First Nations language). Luckily, the road was relatively flat compared to what we had been used to which made the wind a fair bit easier to deal with. A quick stop for coffee in Hedley turned into a long stop to hoover up a big plate of not very nutritious or tasty ‘hotcakes’, served by a waitress who refused to fill our waterbottles. Instead, she turned us in the direction of the hose outside and now I’m convinced that the $3 tip I left her was $3 too much. Luckily the sweet girl in the petrol station next door was happy to fill them - in the same kitchen as the restaurant!

Luckily the closer we got to Princeton, the wind died down and N had developed a big craving for Greek food - luckily the only restaurant we found was Greek. However, confusion reigned when she found that her moussaka was not only served with a salad, but with potatoes, rice and bread too! As the moussaka itself was enough to fill the hungriest cyclist’s stomach, the plate went back to the kitchen with all the unnecessary carbs untouched.

The next day presented us with another big dilemma: we had to be in Vancouver in two days’ time, but with over 300km and a range of mountains separating us, this was going to take some imaginative, if not, hardcore cycling. We decided our only palpable solution would be to try and get a ride, and were somewhat nervous and excited as we really had very little clue of where we’d end up. After a short half-hour of thumbing, we got picked up by a retired primary school teacher, Rika, who was on her way up for a Sunday hike in Manning Park. She dropped us at Cascade Lookout, one of the highest points in the park with a spectacular view. Although feeling somewhat guilty, this lift (all uphill) did save us a day of total uphill cycling. Despite having an excellent, although short, descent to the main road, we did have to get up to the second summit named Allison Pass, which gave ourselves the opportunity to warm oursleves up before the descent. Unfortunately, this was marred by a narrow road with little shoulder, speeding traffic and some nasty and unexpected uphills. The highlight, however, was Hope Slide where a big chunk of mountain had fallen off itself (see photos 8th Sept).

Our next stop was Hope, a bit of a misnomer at first, as in terms of public transport, there was little hope of getting into Vancouver. However, after whipping out our thumbs once again, it eventually lived up to its name by bringing us the lovely gregarious dog-breeder Sonja and her husband Jim, and their enormous empty pick up, who/which took us down to Deroche, from where we cycled to Mission just before sundown. This was not such a misnomer as our goal for the day had indeed been to get to Mission, the last stop of the West Coast Express train service into Vancouver.

It must be said that the closer to the city one gets, the more of a nightmare it is for a cyclist to proceed in a safe manner. This last leg from Deroche to Mission along a narrow shoulderless highway was very intimidating as we now had to deal with the added danger of cars (mainly towing enormous boats) who blared their horns at us - I suppose as they perceive that we’re in the way (who’s taking up more room is my question!), and the downright nasty passenger who felt that giving us the finger would somehow be productive. We counted ourselves lucky, however, as many cars did give us sufficient space and we didn’t get sandwiches thrown at us, as happened to Stephanie and John (our hosts in Juneau) when they were cycling around Australia.

The following morning found us on the last train into downtown Vancouver (at 7:27am!) where there was a PRIORITY SPACE FOR BICYCLES with special straps and everything, which we were so impressed by we took a photo. On arriving in Vancouver, we had our own little tour of the city while looking for bicycle shops and breakfast, and eventually made our way to the SeaBus, which is a very efficient ferry that takes foot passengers (and bikes!) over to North Vancouver. At said neighbourhood, we very slowly made our way up our last hill of the journey to Wendy’s wonderful house in Upper Lonsdale, where we spent the rest of the day doing little more than eating, resting and relaxing.

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