Clearwater to Avola to Summit River

After struggling into Clearwater, fighting off the mozzies, and falling into bed, I awoke the next morning feeling tired, but ready to continue the next stage of the ride toward 'the serious' mountains in the Icefields Parkway. 

The previous evening I had briefly met another cyclist, a German guy who was set up in a camp site near me, and we had briefly chatted before I lurched off to find some dinner.

In the morning he had left, so I didn't necessarily expect to see him again. He seemed like a nice guy ... in his 40s ... professional ... no names at that stage, just the mutual admiration of anyone else silly enough to take on touring a bike through the Canadian Rockies.

It was another hot day in the low 30s, but it wasn't long before my German friend ranged up alongside me. It seems he had thought to take a more 'scenic route' that ended up not being a route at all, so he had to backtrack to the highway.

Turns out his name was Holger and he is an IT Manager who had taken a few weeks off to ride up from Vancouver, through the Parkway to Lake Louise, and then back through Revelstoke to Vancouver. He told me that his next scheduled stop was at the Log Inn Pub in Avola, a 'biker pub' that had a few rooms and cabins available for visitors, and served good beer. (A German pre-requisite, apparently)

Not sure whether it was a language thing, but my idea of a 'biker pub' conjures up images of Harley Davidsons, tatts, big guys with big attitudes and big beards ... not touring cyclists.

Turns out I was right. We rolled into Avola in the early afternoon and proceeded to look for The Log Inn Pub. The Pub is a labour of love by its owner Larry, an old biker from wayback. When we arrived he advised that he did, in fact, have an extra available 'cabin' that I could sleep in, because there had been a cancellation that morning. So we had a shower, quaffed down one of his 'World Famous Log Inn Burgers' and then had a look around town.

15 minutes later we had seen all the sights of Avola - not exactly a big place. Walking back towards the Pub we noted a sign pinned to a power pole that simply said 'Burgers'. We thought it remarkable that Larry had managed to pin his whole menu to that pole.
Back at the cabin I had a bit of a rest. Despite it not being a particularly long day (about 69km), the previous day had been big and I was quite weary.

For dinner we had another burger and met a couple of the locals. The Pub is quite iconic, with lots of character, and Larry was great. We had a couple of beers and then turned in for the night.

Rob, Holger and Larry at the Log Inn Pub.

What is it about Canada and trains that rumble along right next to your bed ... all night?

I am obviously still in need of some serious cultural acclimatisation. All of the locals tell me: "you get used to it". Probably like you get used to "industrial deafness".

The next morning I awoke to yet another glorious day in the mouintains. The weather forecast was for 'showers later in the day' but the only evidence of that was a little extra cloud, as I strapped all of my gear onto the bike for another day in the mountains.

Holger was travelling considerably lighter than me and although he had a tent, sleeping bag, a (very) few spare clothes, and some muesli bars for emergencies, his trip had assumed he could find reasonable accommodations each night. Apart from having to push less weight on his rather flash mountain bike, he is also a bit younger and, I suspect, quite a lot fitter than me. So I encouraged him to forge a path through the mountains for us and I would just dawdle along behind, catching up for our next stopover at Summit River.

The scenery everywhere is really quite mesmerising at times, and there is something about the amount of physical effort involved in cycling that makes you feel like you have earned the right to this much enjoyment - totally immersed in these amazing mountains.

It was a good days riding, nearly 110 km to Summit River, with some reasonable hills and descents, but nothing too paralysing. I kept having this feeling that I was following along behind a rain shower that was just a little ahead of me as we wound our way up the valley. Occasionally there would be a sprinkling of rain and I would start to think about whether I should stop to put on my rain gear, but then it would clear a little and so I would decide it wasn't worth it. The air was getting a little more chilly though, so the 'sprinkling' made for cold riding conditions at times. I couldn't help thinking about Holger who was a little further up the road and probably getting a lot more rain than me.

There is something about snow covered mountains shrouded in cloud that make you feel like you are deep into the Rockies. Stunning!

Eventually we made it to Summit River where we discovered that the Campground had not yet opened for the season ... but that they were happy for us to stay the night. These guys were amazing and so hospitable, and the Campground had excellent facilities.

But check out the view that we woke up to ...

 Absolutely stunning!


Next stop Mount Robson, via Viewmount, and only 2 days to Jasper and the start of the Icefields Parkway.

Day Five - Kamloops to Clearwater

Leaving Kamloops

It didn't take long out of Kamloops for me to register the first puncture. Cruising up the highway and the whole rig started to feel a bit sluggish. Looking down I realised that the rear tyre was looking a little sad and sorry for itself. So time to pull all the gear off, extract the wheel, and get out the puncture kit.

The ride North from Kamloops was so scenic, and the traffic wasn't too bad. Generally the road shoulder was pretty generous, but having the rear-view mirror on the bike was a definite bonus for checking traffic ranging up from behind.

Having ridden for a couple of hours I found myself looking for somewhere to stop, grab some snacks, and just rest for a while. I stumbled upon the Pinegrove Campground and R.V. Park at McClure. The owner was lovely, offering the back deck for me to sit in the shade and relax for a while. Then the maintenance guy (Dave) came around and lit a small campfire nearby and invited me to have some BBQ sausage with them. 

I even got to meet Felix, the cat, who was quite a character. Long chats about what a lovely place this was, and about Dave's plans to come to Australia to compete in Masters Wood Chopping. Special thanks to Martina and Dave for a wonderful stop.

Rolling hills, beautiful riding ...

This was a long day, the longest so far. The ride finished up in Clearwater at the KOA Campground after 133km in the saddle. I was very ready to slug it out with the overly friendly mosquitoes while setting up my tent, grabbing some dinner at a nearby eatery, and then falling into bed.

Day Four - Merritt to Kamloops

Day Four 

... began bright and early, with Helen and I packing up our tent and other gear into the car for the drive across to Merritt. The plan was for her to drop me off at the bike store by 9:00am, maybe grab some breakfast together, and then she would drive back to Lytton to collect Rachel. They would then drive on to Calgary together.

The drive to Merritt was lovely, from Lytton to Spencers Bridge up Highway 1 and then down Highway 8 that winds its way through a small valley to Merritt. All of the rivers and waterways were very turgid, swirling masses of brown, sediment laden water. But we hadn't seen much evidence of actual flooding, something that many people had been warning us about for a few days now.

We arrived in Merritt a little before 9am and met Travis, the bike shop owner, who said he could have the spokes replaced in about an hour. Excellent! Just enough time to find somewhere nice for breakfast, probably our last meal together for a while.

Walking along the street, we met a lady painting the fascia of one of the shops. The best source of local knowledge is the locals, so we asked where we should go for breakfast. 'Brambles Bakery and Cafe' was recommended, just a couple of hundred metres up the street. What a treat. Real coffee - and home made soup, breads, cakes (fudge browny).
A wonderful breakfast.

Then back to the bike shop, unload all of the gear from the car, and bid my lovely wife adieu.

Riding out of Merritt there was some evidence of the flooding that people kept talking about. The river was running hard and there was sandbagging along one section of the road that was nearly 0.5m high, with the river brimming behind it.

On the road again and the ride up the 5A to Kamloops was lovely. Relatively flat undulating road along the shore of Nicola Lake, until I got to Quilchena. The General Store there has been recently re-opened and I stopped in for some soda and a couple of bananas. 

Catherine and Melissa had decided to start the store up again, and it looked great. Evidence of the recent flooding in the sandbagging across the front of the building.

Whilst at the store I was asked whether I was riding with the other cyclist that had come through some 20 minutes before. A 'fellow traveller'. Intriguing. I decided that I would either catch them up or I wouldn't and that there was no point in pushing hard to make up that kind of time difference (There's a life lesson in there somewhere).

About an hour later I came across a guy resting on the side of the road. From a distance his prone bike looked dark and ominous ahead (all obsessions about bears aside), but when I rode up he was sheltering in the shade of a small bush on the side of the road, looking very flushed and tired. Turns out he was about 26, a bicycle courier from Toronto, and starting to have some serious doubts about this idea about riding to St. Johns Newfoundland.

We spoke for a short time and then he just took off up the road ahead of me, which was interesting. Stopping for a short 'lunch break' I thought I would let him get a comfortable distance ahead, since he apparently didn't want to ride together. It was hot, I was thirsty, and I had nothing to prove.

The riding to Quichena from Merritt had been very cruisy, gentle rolling hills, but then we started getting into some more serious riding. About one and a half hours later I found myself catching up to my Canadian colleague as we headed up a small rise. Before I actually caught up to him, he abruptly pulled into a house, apparently to refill a water bottle, and I sailed past. I didn't see him again.

Some gorgeous scenery as I rode along beside streams and past lakes, until I got to a rather nasty climb, just to the South of Kamploops. It was a bit of a monster, and the first really serious climb that I had experienced fully loaded with all of my gear. Ouch! Lowest gear, and just grind it out. 3.5km of up!

Getting to the top was a real sense of achievement and there was a real sense of being 'on the top of the range'. 

The big roll down into Kamloops was wonderful after such a long day. 93.5 km travelled and 775 m vertical. It was a good day.






.

Yale to Lytton

Day Three - Yale to Lytton

After an extraordinary home style breakfast at the Ward Tea House, cooked by the lovely Kerry with eggs laid by her own chickens, and home made blueberry and strawberry jams to go on the home made bread (yum!), I saddled up for the next stage from Yale to Lytton.

This was going to be a big one. 95km and some fairly serious hills in between. I was in the Fraser Canyon proper now, with rearing walls on either side and the Fraser River churning away below me. The road shoulder varied a lot, sometimes quite generous, sometimes fairly tight, and I was glad that we had the foresight to attach some serious tail lights and a rear-view mirror to alert of approaching traffic. Most of the drivers were pretty considerate and maintained a reasonable distance.

Shortly out of Yale and I experienced the first tunnel. With no traffic visible in either direction I chose to blast through it without using the 'sidewalk' on the other side of the road. Upon reflection I thought that was probably intended for my safety and determined to use the sidewalk from that point on, even if it meant crossing to the 'wrong' side of the road with little idea of whether there was traffic coming.

It turned out there were 7 of those tunnels on the way up to, and through, Hells Gate - named for a constriction on the River, rather than any reflection of the quality of the roads.

The scenery was amazing. Some stiff climbs meant that we were making good elevation and could look back down the valley.

It was another hot day though ... temperatures ranging up to about 29C. I'm not sure what happened to all of that mountain 'coldness' but we certainly aren't getting it here.

The other fascinating thing was the tunnels. The Keeper of the Roads in BC has obviously decided that it isn't safe for bicycles to travel on the road through tunnels, so they have thoughtfully built slightly elevated sidewalks through each tunnel to allow us to pass safely. There is only one small problem. At each end of every tunnel they have placed a hazard sign right in the middle of the sidewalk, meaning you have to either get off your bike and wind the handlbars around the sign, or else ride onto the road to avoid it.

It's called Civil Engineering, they tell me.

By the time I got to Boston Bar I was starting to feel a little dehydrated and had no idea where Helen and Rachel were in the car. I had been using the Strava app to track my location, and it has a handy 'beacon' function that allows you to send a tracking link to your 'emergency contacts', allowing them to spy on your every turn. Unfortunately, that only works when they have access to internet and when you are not so deeply embedded in the midst of tall mountains that no signal can get in or out. It seems that they had been waiting at the Hell's Gate Cable Car when I blasted past down the hill into Boston Bar.

I had already quaffed an ice-cream and chugged a large orange soda before they caught up with me. Cold ... Nice!

Having lunch at Boston Bar we met a fascinating young local called Mitchell James, a young First Nations guy with an interesting turn of phrase and skinful of beer who came sliding in sideways on his BMX bike. He shared lunch with us whilst telling stories about the local fishing, mushrooms, customs, and the like. He also looked at me kind of funny when I said where I was going, commenting that I would be riding over Jack Ass Mountain between there and Lytton ... and good luck with that!

Well Jack Ass Mountain was all that and more. 10% plus gradient for kilometers without letting up, it even seemed like it got worse toward the end. Perhaps that's the origin of the name. I was rapidly using up my liquid supplies - still stinking hot and lowest gear climbing is a magical combination.

The girls had blasted on through to Lytton to check out camping sites for the night, and then came back with some much needed refreshments. I was near the top they said, and the rest was a fairly cruisy ride down past Lytton to the Provincial Park campsite they had chosen.

I arrived there and spent the next hour or so lying on a plastic tarp (trying to recover) whilst the campsite magically took form around me. These girls are amazing. I'm going to miss them when they head off to Calgary tomorrow.

Checking over the bike I noticed that I had managed to break two spokes, and that before the bike was fully loaded with gear. Not a great start. Looks like we will be detouring (68km) to Merritt, to the only bike store in the area, to get that sorted.

Our Plan B for tomorrow is that Helen will drive me and the gear to Merritt to get the bike fixed, and I will ride up the 5A directly to Kamloops. It will be a late start and a long day - my first 'fully loaded' leg.

Should be interesting!

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Harrison Hot Springs was a wonderful first stop, even if it was a bit over-the-top in terms of our anticipated accommodations for this trip.

After 96km of riding in 32C heat we were tired, dehydrated and hungry and pretty much ready for a natural hot spa. Four of us shared the one room, which was 'cosy' and we managed to get some sleep, though Helen and I woke too early again (could still be a jet lag thing). So we thought we'd go for a short walk along the lake shore. It was another lovely morning.

After a slow start, Paul and I were back on the bikes again for the ride up to Yale, about 66km away. After the relative flat of our first day we found a few small hills to negotiate on the way to the town of Hope. But the riding was relatively easy.

Helen and Rachel had gone on ahead of us to check out the town and arrange for some lunch at the next reasonable sized town, Hope BC.

The Fraser River is pretty turgid at this time of year, with huge volumes of Spring melt swelling the river. We got to the turnoff down into Hope and seriously had second thoughts about all of that gratuitous downhill to get lunch, but knowing we would have to climb back up again to continue on our route up the Fraser Canyon.

After an excellent lunch, and a bit of a rest, we were ready to continue our journey up to Yale, where we would stop for the night at the Yale Historic Site. There seemed to be a few more hills in the second half of the day, and the temperature was a strident 32C, making it a bit tough. But the overall distance of 66km for the day meant that we had it done in about 4 hours of riding.

Our accommodations for the night were the historic Ward House, built in the 1880s and quite delightful.

Ward House is an historic cottage with modern appointments. Quite delightful.

Paul's girlfriend Jessica joined us to 'retrieve' him and take him back to Vancouver, and we had a wonderful meal together.

One of the interesting things about the Fraser Canyon is how ridiculously steep the 'hills' are on either side. The Canadian Pacific Railway winds its way up the canyon, passing through each of the small towns en route. Of course that means it passes through Yale, and quite close to pretty much everything. Large freight trains move through on the hour, every hour, which makes for an interesting time sleeping, especially when your bed is less than 50 metres from the tracks.

... every hour!

But we had a wonderful time in Yale, the first official visitors to stay at the Ward house ... ever ... it was quite an honour. The people were wonderful and friendly, and even the CPR trains seemed to fade into the distance. 

Tomorrow we have the haul up to Lytton.

Unpacking

Something we didn't notice at the airport, when we collected the bikes from the 'OVERSIZED BAGGAGE' counter and wrestled it out to the car, was a rather sizeable hole in the box that contained my bike. Even at midnight when we got to Rachel and Steve's place, where we were to spend the next couple of nights, we remained blissfully unaware because we left the bikes in the car.

It was only the next morning (well, OK, afternoon because we slept in just a little) when we pulled the boxes out of the car that the damage was discovered. 

My heart sank just a little.

What kind of damage did it represent to my bike? How was I going to find somewhere that could repair or replace damaged parts at short notice? What implications would this have for the trip? Fortunately, there were no problems and the bikes were soon reassembled, ready for action. 

So, tomorrow we are off to Chilliwack BC.

Or apparently not. In all of our planning we had failed to realise that bicycles are not allowed on the main Highway 1 between Vancouver and Hope BC, so we would need to take a very circuitous route to get to our accommodation in Chilliwack adding at least another 25km to that leg and making it a VERY long first day. Probably not good to realise this the night before you set off. Hmmm.

Plan B involved continuing up Route 7 to Harrison Hot Springs and spending the night there.

Cancel the reservation at Chilliwack and hope that we have it right this time.

Day One

Waking up on the morning of Sunday May 13th and the realisation that this is where it all starts. We had set a nominal departure time of 10:00 am and were to be joined for the first couple of days by Helen's nephew Paul. It was awesome to have a 'local' to guide me out of Vancouver and to share the ride with.

We set a cracking pace and were soon out of the city and cruising along the North side of the Fraser river valley, and stopping at Mission for some lunch. The scenery was wonderful.

It was a big day of riding though, some 96 km for a first day was probably a little ambitious but we had the comfort of knowing that our first night would be spent at Harrison Hot Springs           ... nice.

Speaking of 'hot'. We had spent quite some time acclimatising ourselves to the cold of a rampaging Romsey autumn, riding in temperatures down to 6C, just to make sure we were ready for grinding through the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in late Spring. 

But here we are riding in 32C heat along the Fraser, sweating profusely.         I wasn't expecting that.

The riding was relatively flat along the expansive river valley, flashing past dairy farms, with the accompanying pungent smell of concentrated cow - delightful. We also passed a number of sawmills and were greeted each time by the wonderful smell of sawn cedar.

After a long day we rode into Harrison Hot Springs, a resort town at the South end of Harrison Lake.

Stunning!

Final Preparations

May 11 rapidly approaching and Helen has been systematically laying out all of our gear in the boy’s bedroom, so we could get an idea of how much stuff we would need, the relatively small pile now growing and now shrinking as we debated the necessity of various items.

Dismantling the bikes for travel the day before we left was relatively easy – just undo all of the bolts. Packing the bikes into the boxes was somewhat more of a challenge and took much longer than it should. There are some good videos around to explain how that is supposed to work, and then there’s the reality of trying to get a rather strange shaped combination of bits of steel into a box that doesn’t seem quite big enough. The prodigious amounts of diced and sliced foam noodles, electrical tape, and bubble wrap also contributed to the situation. It … took … ages.

Note to self (and others) … do NOT leave this to the last minute.

Strangely enough, my larger bike fitted into the (only slightly larger) box relatively easily. Flushed with the success of that exercise we started on Helen’s machine, the frame of which seemed considerably smaller, even if it was destined for the smaller of the two boxes. 

How hard could it be?

‘Particularly hard’, as it turned out. Obviously the padded-out frame fitted into the box very easily by itself.  But the wheels! We eventually resorted to removing the tyres and tubes to reduce the wheel diameter and thickness, and eventually managed to slide most of it into the box.

Each box was weighed to make sure it would fit under the 23kg luggage weight limit, and other small items were added to bring them up to about 22.5kg each, to optimise the packing space.

The day has finally arrived and it is raining and cold in Romsey, really cold. 6C.

It’s like Australia is giving us a cold send off to make us appreciate the warmth of the Canadian Spring that awaits us on the other side of the Pacific. At least, that’s what we hope is awaiting us. I must admit that the first section through the Rockies has been some concern, partly because we are not familiar with the steepness of roads, what the weather will be like, or any idea of how far we will be able to ride each day.

Going for conservative, we had mapped out the first two and a half weeks from Vancouver to Calgary via Jasper and Banff and had gone for relatively short days of 65km to maximum 90km days. We have no idea if that will be achievable. This is one of the real challenges of planning the trip.

The ‘we’ is a bit misleading because it is pretty obvious now that Helen will not be riding for the first 3 weeks, if at all. Her left wrist is not healing well, with little improvement in movement or strength. There also appears to be some overlooked damage to her left shoulder that is making things more difficult too.

She has been pretty stoic about it much of the time, but is obviously extremely disappointed not to be starting out the trip on the bike. We’ll just have to get her to Calgary and then decide what we are doing when I get there in early June. Her only consolation is that she will have lots of time with her cousins and nephews and others, and will actually get to see Calgary for more than just a fleeting visit.

Final packing on the morning of May 11^th included wrapping the bikes in Cling Wrap (from a 300m roll, the largest Helen could find in the local supermarket) to provide at least a little protection for the boxes from the rain. How fun would that be, watching our carefully packed bike boxes slowly disintegrate as we try to load them into or out of the car?

Triumph! All of our gear, including camping stuff, panniers, and clothes, fitted into our two suitcases plus carry-on luggage with kilograms to spare.

So all we need to do is get to the airport.

Vince and Lisa Boyle have been so encouraging of all this madness. Bike tourers themselves, they came back from a cycle tour of the UK and Ireland last year with tales of soggy insanity and of the wonderful people they met, including those whose homes they stayed at through www.warmshowers.org – a wonderful global initiative for bicycle tourers. Lisa enthusiastically volunteered to take us – and all the gear – to the airport.

Airport, check-in, over-size baggage, security, and then we were finally in the International terminal. This is really happening! It’s strange how a trip like this starts off as a vague idea, and then gradually begins to take shape. All of the planning, purchasing, packing, and yet it seems a bit surreal until you are sitting in the terminal, with your hand luggage (and a cup of coffee), gazing through the window at very large aeroplanes on a cold and damp Melbourne afternoon.

The first leg to Hong Kong was 10 hours, then a 2 hour layover until the flight to Vancouver, another 13 hours. Looking forward to getting to Vancouver on Friday night (that international date line thing), having a good rest, and then doing our final setup on Saturday before heading out for Chilliwack on Sunday, our first day ‘on the road’.

Vancouver

Made it!

Still a bit surreal, but how magnificent to be flying in toward the coast of BC, over the mountains and down into Vancouver airport. Still have a lot to prep … and we managed to lose a phone somewhere on the trip, so that will have to be fixed, but we’re here!

The Setback

Things were going so well ...

"Umm, I've had a small accident". "I fell over skating ... backwards"
It's March 6th, and we leave for Canada on May 11th ... (does the numbers) ... Hmm.

"How bad?". "Broke the left wrist and severely sprained the right one". O .... K .....?
"So that means 6 weeks in cast and then 6 weeks of rehab physio, right?" 

"I think so ... I hope not! The Physio at the hospital said I would be crazy to even get on a bike in less than 12 weeks." 

Hmm [Not really sure what their point was ...]

So Plan B looks like Rob cycling through the Rockies while Helen drives from Vancouver with Cousin Rachel for the first week, and convalesces with Cousin Richard, Nephews Simon and Mark, and gets in some shorter rides to build up strength for the long haul East.

OK. That sounds like a reasonable Plan B, and it means Rob can reasonably take a little longer through the Rockies, if necessary.

On Another Note

The whole 'Ride Across Canada' thing creates a great opportunity to also let lots of people know about something that we are really passionate about - Hands At Work in Africa.

Accordingly, we thought it might be an idea to get some riding shirts made up to let people know about the work, and maybe even create a GiveNow page (for Australia - CanadaHelps for Canada) to raise funds to get more kids into Hands At Work programs. 

We hope to meet up with a whole lot of people as we work our way across Canada, and perhaps even create a bit more awareness of the people doing some totally inspiring work in some of the most vulnerable communities across southern Africa. 

Go to their web site and check it out.

The Count Down

...

Oh dear! Where did the time go?

Life has been pretty crazy with preparations for a rather long bike ride, plus the Annual Equine Insight Bush Dance (which was an absolute hoot - as usual) and generally just working and looking after stuff on the home front, and horses, and visitors, and building, and did I mention riding the bike ... a lot. It's all a blur! 

We've starting laying out our gear to see just how little we think we can get away with. This is one of the seriously cool aspects of bike touring. It needs to be so minimalist because every extra thing you take means more weight for a very long time. Helen has had this thing about my bike being over the 23kg single piece baggage limit for the flight to Vancouver, so we finally got around to weighing it today (we get 2x 23kg each, so we can actually take some other stuff too). One Salsa Marakech with front and back pannier racks and a Jones handle bar apparently weighs around 17kg ... plus the box ... so we should be able to shove a little more in there too. Helen's bike is smaller, so should weigh about 14kg or less.

We are in our last week before heading off - that crept up pretty fast. We've been trying to map out the route and make some intelligent estimates about where we are going to be and when (you're right, that was always going to be fraught ... the 'intelligent' bit, I mean).

The biggest challenge is not knowing how hard the riding is likely to be through the Rocky Mountains for the first few weeks of the trip. I had the silly idea that I could blast through 140km on the first day from Burnaby to Hope - because it is SO FLAT. [Seriously, the net elevation difference is apparently 43 metres ... in 140km! I do more climbing than that in the 2.5km to the top of our gravel road here in the Macedon Ranges] But more rational heads have prevailed and it looks like we will ride a little over 80 km to Chilliwack on the first day, and then have a bit of a look around. 

The next day we will probably head up to Yale and check out the Historic Village there. Apparently, Yale, B.C. was once the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Chicago. Originally established in 1848 as a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post, Yale grew with the influx of an estimated 30,000 gold miners during the gold rush of 1858.

We have also decided that we will add a couple of hundred kilometres to the trip by heading up towards Jasper from Kamploops and then coming down through the Icefields Parkway, because everyone says it is the most stunning ride. 

The strange thing is that all of this seems so distant, even now. In four days we will actually be half way to Hong Kong, but it all seems totally surreal. 

It's mid Autumn in Romsey. The days are glorious and sunny, but the air temperature has a bit of a foreboding bite to it. Our days are full, as are our hearts. We are blessed with two amazing sons and a love that seems to just grow and grow. We are also blessed with some truly amazing friends that have been so willing to support and encourage us in this adventure.

And soon we'll be on our way to the other side of the planet to do something a little different.