As we drove down that stretch of Highway 1
for the 9th time in 4 days it almost felt like we were locals. That being said, our familiarity with the
drive didn’t stop us staring out of the windows in admiration of the beautiful
scenery we were driving through. We were off to see a man we had a met during
the very first 2 weeks of our whole world tour.
I say see a “man”, but really Larry felt more like a friend. Cycling with people for that length of time
through those conditions can create bonds that are quite special. |
| Goat's on a Gate at the Wheel |
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| Our new ride.....we wish! |
The first few hours of the drive rolled by
as we negotiated our way back down to the turn off for the Okanagan
Valley. I had mentioned this place often
to Julia and was curious to see how much of it I remembered from all those
years ago when I had last been to Armstrong.
Pretty soon we were in the thick of it and the odd bits seemed to strike
a chord. I was recognizing various
things – especially the Dairy Queen in Armstrong!
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| Brilliant idea using the river as a float...hundreds of people were on it with beer coolers and all sorts.. |
On the shores of the Okanagan Lake the
countryside just blossomed into beautiful greens and yellows, the hills covered
in trees and the lake all different shades of blues. The skies were dotted with puffy clouds and
this seemed to be a very different part of the world to the rest of British
Columbia. The valley is famous for its
hot and perfect micro-climate for growing fruit and all around us the orchards
and farms had little stalls on the side of the road selling their produce.
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| Mmmmm.....cherries! |
We passed one great place on our left just
after we had gone past Vernon I think.
Rather like a motorway service station, if you turned it into a themed,
rural service station with dinosaurs and Western themes. They advertised “everybody’s favourite walking
goats”…..which seemed a mite strange.
Camera at the ready, we drove on by and saw the most bizarre
thing…..goats walking up a gangplank that led to the top of the main entrance
gate. Here there were wheels that they
could turn with their hooves, before they made their way back down the other
side! Salvador Dali would have had a
field day on that one!
Muttering about how life in rural
communities must get a little bit “particular” for those kinds of things to
seem normal, we then drove past a creek on our right where people seemed to be
doing much more sensible things. There were
hundreds of people enjoying the sunny Sunday afternoon, floating down a creek
on inflatable rafts and tires, some with their cool boxes full of beer. It looked like such a simple yet perfectly
excellent way to spend a Summer’s day.
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| Larry and us at dinner |
Eventually we pulled in to Larry’s driveway
and there he was, stood at his door, looking almost exactly the same as we had
left him in the lobby of the hotel in Saigon back in February. Sure a little less tanned, but certainly a
lot more hale. The heat and food had
taken its toll on some of us. With a big
smile and lots of bustling around as we decanted Burt’s load into our room he
had set out for us, we invaded his home.
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| Thank you Larry!!! |
The next 18 or so hours were bliss. Sitting on his deck overlooking the lake in
the setting sun, drinking bottle (after bottle) of white wine, reminiscing,
talking of the future, chewing the cud and eating a great meal – it all seemed
so perfectly relaxing. For the pair of
us slightly road weary travellers it was great to be able to just unwind and Larry’s
hospitality asked nothing of us in return.
By the time it was time to go we were truly sorry we had had only one
night with him – but such is life and as we’ll definitely be returning to
British Columbia in the future, we’ll certainly be invading again and taking
him up on his offer of a tour of the local wineries.
Breakfast with Larry that morning we left
was so relaxing we realized we had left it a little late to be making our
appointments in Vancouver. We had to be
there by 1pm to pick up the keys to our place we were staying in and then
immediately drive over to Grenville Island to drop off Burt. By the time we drove those winding (but
stunning) roads through the southern part of the valley over to Vancouver we
were well and truly late.
So when we arrived in Gastown, a little
flustered and on edge to get things moving, it was a bit of a shock to the
system. We were certainly back in the
gritty end of urban humanity here….wow!
The place we had booked via Airbnb was beautiful, full of charm and
personality, really comfortable and with a well-stocked kitchen. Unfortunately Gastown is home to almost every
hobo, vagrant, junkie, drunkard, weirdo and nutter in British Columbia. In fact the only people that didn’t seem to
be one of that rather select group of people were Asians, tourists or both. |
| I've never looked slimmer! |
Julia was a little less than impressed by
the time we left Vancouver, especially having liked it so much when we first
arrived a week earlier.
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| Typical Germans! Always cheating ;o) |
We unpacked Burt as quickly as possible and
I left Julia with the father and uncle of the lady we were renting from, then
drove to drop off Burt. By the time I
got back we were both wiped out so we rested up and went for a bite to eat a
few blocks away. My goodness that was a
shock! Our first impressions of Gastown
were as nothing compared to the full on sensory assault we got as we walked the
streets at sunset back from the sushi place we had found.
Day two was …..well, not much to write
about. We stayed at home. All day.
I went to the Chinese supermarket on the corner and discovered Julia’s
kryptonite……a pack of dried cubes of gluten!
Day three we wanted to go on a boat tour
and see Vancouver from the sea.
Unfortunately we couldn’t decide on one and most seemed to insist you
eat a more than likely over-priced buffet (probably where there profits come
from). So instead we went on a bike ride
on a cycle path around Vancouver. Our
landlords allowed their guests the use of their two bikes, which was
perfect. Off we went and soon were
cycling through downtown Vancouver. Very
different to Gastown…but then we came to the port area and some of the people
wandering the promenade were proper nutters!
Very strange how our experience of this city seemed to feature so highly
on the insane-o-scale.
Once we were out of the marina area though
everything calmed down and we were amongst families taking their kids to the
beach or similar couples taking advantage of the beautiful weather. We stopped along the way to enjoy some cherries
that Larry had given us at a beach then pushed on and back around the headland
to home in dear old Gastown.
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| One for you Rudi....the joke that just keeps giving |
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| Pineapple Island |
That afternoon we were due to meet a cousin
of mine, Melita. It had been quite a few
years since last we had seen each other and a lot had changed / happened in the
meantime. For a start, she had never met
Julia and of course, as you would expect, Julia had never met her either! It was lovely to see the two of them together
though. They clicked almost immediately
and soon we were sitting in a bar by the marina, enjoying a cocktail and
reminiscing about dad and talking about our travels.
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| Julia had obviously eaten a clown |
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| The "my bum hurts" pose |
Melita showed us other parts of Vancouver,
stopping to see the university where her son, Sasha, studies. Then it was off for a bite to eat with Sasha
and Andre her husband. Again, it was
excellent to see them, especially as the last time I had seen Sasha was in
Paris, when I was 18, he was a baby and I had hair! Clearly even more has changed since the last
time I saw him.
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| Melita and us on the beach |
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| She grew! |
Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long as we
had to be up before the crack of dawn to catch an early flight to New
York. We were connecting in Chicago, a
hateful airport and so it would be a long trip before we landed in LaGuardia
Airport. Melita drove us home and when
we said our goodbyes it was lovely to see Julia so happy to have met her.
We had a couple of hours sleep, then we
were up and at it again. A quick bout in
the kitchen, making some sandwiches for the long journey whilst facetiming with
mum back in the UK, then into the cab which thankfully arrived on time. Check-in at the airport went off without a
hitch and before long we were sitting around waiting for the plane that was to
take us to our next exciting destination.
New York……a city which was cool enough in and of itself.
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| A photo for mum.....look at those roses |
This time though, we had imported our own
fun. 4 friends, 2 from London and 2 from
Sydney, would be joining us in an apartment in Tribeca for 14 days of fun. We couldn’t wait to see them all again.
