One from the other day....
In Coober Pedy now. Waiting for pizza
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One from the other day....
In Coober Pedy now. Waiting for pizza
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Hope you blinged up the bike a bit with a few local opals while in that hood!
Couple more phone pics...
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Time for some more pics... From last weekend
Sneaky camp, somewhere sneaky
Near a lake
Mackenzie pass
Dunstan rd (?)
Rock Rabbit
Poolburn reservoir
A church
Insulation needs some attention
Don't ride to close to hard pieces of the planet covered in grass
Thankfully the Bourbon remained unscathed
Another camp... not so sneaky
Watching the sun go to bed
Lake Onslo rd
The Shreks weren't home so I shot up another road and went to a ROCK !
Watched a bird for a bit
Down the hill... into town... then up another hill, or 2
there was some ancient ruins
almost to the other end
then nothing happened, nothing at all.... I didn't get fuel or food, just rang 2MotoKiwis and met up briefly was a great ride over the Crown Range though
Carried on past Lakes Hawea and Wanaka
And camped just past Hells Gate, not very sneaky again
then came home, over this river
Is that mainly over Lake Onslo road or others as well? Man that scenery is beautiful. Just the terrain that is making my next bike be a little more off-road capable.
It's been a while... perhaps I should update this ??
Bring it big boy!
Strangely enough, I find myself with a bit of time to kill over the next wee while so thought Id make a start on chucking a few words and pictures together, to amuse myself...
Canada and Alaska has been on my radar for a while now, but I'd had no luck tracking down a hire bike company who would rent me a bike and allow me to go where I wanted, so I'd put it on the back burner and focused on other stuff. Then late 2018 i stumbled on a post on F/book where some random wanted to know if anyone was keen to go riding in Canada. I considered it for about 2 minutes and fired off a pm. then waited... and waited.... and waited....
A couple of months later I had a message out of the blue, I was on holiday at the time so said I'd call when I got home.We had a phone call and discussed a couple of things, went through some "not negotiable" things and sorted out the timeline.
Looks like I'm going to Canada
what followed was a whirlwind of organizing on my part, esta's, eta's bike shopping and purchasing, insurance company letters, telling the boss I would be away for 2 months, meeting my travel buddy for a coffee when I happened to be in Orkland on business and a hundred other things.
Fast forward to July 19 and I was on a plane to Vancouver That's quite a long flight but went quick enough. customs was a piece of piss and I was shortly spewed out onto the streets of Va, got a cab to my BnB in Surrey and settled in. Next day I went to pick up my bike, Google maps said "its not far" so I figured I'd walk.... I had clothes suitable for winter in NZ and it was about 30 deg, and google was full of shit. after she directed me down here
A cab just happened to stop at an intersection in front of me so I piled in and got to my destination. Got the paperwork out of the way... Reg/insurance (about $1100 nz for 3 months,with a 40% disc because I'd had no claims, remember those letters from Ins.co's ?) so don't bitch about our rego fees', new plate, owners paperwork, a rundown on how to operate the bike, a recommendation on where I could go for a quiet pootle. I was let loose on the streets of Canada... they drive on the wrong side of the road for starters, and their road rules aren't quite the same as ours
I managed to get out of town, nerves still intact, and found some quieter roads, I had to get a pic of this dude
and a wooden Sasquatch and some random tourist who photobombed my shot.
Before long I arrived at Lake Hayes, very touristy, and rode through a carpark and about 20m into the park, to get a shot of my new ride.
Pretty cool aye ?
I'd been there maybe 2 mins before I was accosted by a woman with badges on her shirt telling me I can't just go riding through a carpark and into a park, I'd best move NOW ! or the authority's would be all over me. DANG !! time to move.
Grabbed a bit to eat and made my way back into town. 1 more shot of the bike before I settled in for the night.
Next day I just hung around Vancouver, riding here and there, no real urgency...and got used to buzzing around a big city with different road rules I met up with my traveling buddy briefly, lets call hi Si, then shot out to have a look at a park that I found on google maps.
There was a monument to the fishing industry
Some people flying kites
Boats cruising by
Family's picnicking.....and a guy just over there chuffing on a bong I didn't realize it was legal, maybe I need to do some more homework on destinations.
Google recomended a spot called Vancouver lookout so I banged it into the phone and set off, thinking it would be a hill or summat, I had no idea it was a tower smack bang in the middle of the city. Cool views though
Next up was a ride around Stanley park, pretty cool, although places to stop for pics appeared a bit limited. I did risk getting this one.
A brief note on Canadian drivers. the speed limit around town is 50, most people were doing around 60 and no one cared, everyone just flowed together. M/ways are 100, mostly, 110 was normal, by everybody. At traffic lights the cars behind always left a decent amount of space, and 4 way stops worked just fine, try that in NZ and see what happens
Next day I met up with Si and moved in with his brother (and sister) in law.
Bet you were thinking I'd left George at home That tree line in the background is Point Roberts, US territory, it's quite bizzare
Went and did some last minute shopping. I needed to replace the MSR fuel bottle and lighter that CAA removed from my luggage, but they left the 2 fuel bladders that were in the same bag. Si picked up some Bear spray. just the Canadian brew, not the full strength US brew.
The entrance way to the Bass Pro shop in Tsawassen was something else, unfortunately, I only had cell pics so nothing to post, I'll explain later...
Next day, we were off... with detailed instructions from the sister in law how to get through and out of Vancouver. I was navigating so it got all messed up and ended up taking 3 time longer than it should've
Once we got free of the city and onto the road to Whistler it was way more betterer. We arrived in Whistler just in time for a coffee, about 3 hrs after leaving the city. Not really my kind of place, very touristy/mountain bikey/pretty peopley.
It was however my first Tim Hortons experience, the Canuk Starbucks. Average coffee, very hot, and damn quick.
Here's a pic of the entrance to town...
Back on the steeds and onwards, past a lake
Up a hill or 2
Past some signs
Eeeeeek
And logging trucks
Then into Lillooet (love the place names)for gas. I think we were supposed to get to Williams lake for the night, but spied this st the turn off
There'd been a slide and it wasn't going to be cleared anytime soon, so we swung right and headed for Kamloops for the night. Past this replica Western town.
The owner must've been having a bad day cause he came out and squawked at us about blocking the road and told us to move on, quite loudly too I might add, it was little more than a gravel driveway
Campsite for the night in Kamloops
Next day was just a slog to get back on track, not to many pics. Through Little Fort, over a hill and back onto the main rd heading for Price George.
Its taking me a while to find relevant pics on imgur, they're all out of order and it takes a while to sift through them, and it was several months ago I was over there ...
I'm pretty sure we just bombed along the h/way
past trees and rivers and lakes,road signs
and a burning car (no pic) nothing remarkable. And into Prince George and set up camp
There was a bit of light rain over night and I woke up in a small puddle, not what I expected from an almost new tent. I made an executive decision to ditch the tent and replace it with something else. Into town to a camping store... and picked up a shiny new one It's interesting that the price on the tag does not include tax, ever. It can be quite a shock when you get to the register I left my old one at the store, to be picked up on the way back through, and the nice girl in the shop even offered to take it home and dry it out for me.
Anyway.... more h/way riding, nothing remarkable again...
Interesting buildings...
And into Dawson creek, home of Mile 0 of the Alcan H/way
We grabbed rooms in a motel 'cause the weather still looked dicey, and it came with a free breakfast, then went out for tea. I may have had a couple of ales to celebrate (as you do) Si didn't 'cause he wasn't a drinker....yet and on the way back to the unit I may have gone through a red light, thinking it was a 4 way stop. Unfortunately there may have been a watching. There wasn't to much converastion going on as I left my papers/passport back in the motel, but she was real good about it and let me off with a stern telling off and a warning to keep to the rules. Lesson learn't, it could've been a trip ending experience.
Next day Si needed to find a doc as he'd been feeling pretty crook since arriving, while I went and took some more pics
then hooked back up with Si to go get his prescription filled. Check out the size of those car parks
Suitably drugged up, we headed off north. More h/way...
Past a beaver dam
How cool is that !!
Then it was just more riding, we could see a weather window opening up which would mean we'd have a good run further North. Just had to get to a rendezvous with another couple of riders. Not to many pics from the rest of the day, into Fort Nelson for a quick bite at a servo and book a cabin at Toad river. It was still raining off and on, and getting dark but the ride over Stone mountain had us both grinning like idiots., love to go back and do it in the dry.
No cell coverage at the cabins but WiFi if we walked over to the owners house ( they also had wolf skins on the wall, one of which was shot on the property) I was also thankfull I'd invested in Klim gear before the trip. Si was drenched, with water squirting out the end of his boots. I had a mildly damp foot, but I think that was sweat
TBC...
Awesome mate! My wife and I were there in May on the way home from the Uk, Iceland Mallorca etc. we spent about a week in Vancouver, went on a day trip to Whistler which was exactly as you described, and went up Grouse mountain etc. Made the common, as it turns out, mistake of walking from chinatown to Gastown and you end up in the worst part of town stepping over and around all the junkies. There was a native lady going from one to the next asking them if they were OK and trying to help them get comfortable, she was asking us where we came from as well. Just one of lifes wonderful selfless people doing a job most people would dread. The shops selling weed and all the gear associated were everywhere in the city!
Look forward to your next installment
Only a Rat can win a Rat Race!
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