Our Canadian Dream - Days 29 & 30 (Whistler and Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park) [The black blob is a bear!]

Thursday 9th June

I really was intrigued about the trains on Tuesday night with their horn blaring through the night.  I emailed the site manager who told me that it was the trains across the river. Apparently there is a "siding" over there and one train would be waiting for another, coming from the opposite direction, to pass by. The trains are required by law to sound their horns because there aren't any controlled crossings over there, regardless of the time of day.  At least it is an answer but imagine living with that day in, day out AND all night!

The weather forecast for today was dreadful.  In fact the rain today had been forecast for at least a week both on the Canadian and British weather services.  

It looked as if the rain would come in between 10am and 11am so we got up early and drove the 30 minutes to Whistler.  It took us a while to find where the Village gondola went from but on our way we saw our third bear!  This one we have called Bobby Bear as our youngest grandson, Bobby, will be 3 tomorrow 😍😍

This is just a pretty river that we walked across.

We found where the gondola went from and we were up and away at 10.30am – it was just starting to rain.  The ride up to the top takes 25 minutes. 

At the top we had a coffee in the Rendezvous Restaurant and noticed that it was snowing outside, well maybe sleeting would be a better word.  The top of Whistler Mountain is 7,155 feet.

We decided to do the Peak to Peak gondola quickly in case the rain really came in.  We shared the pod with a lady and her almost three year old and an 8 month old.  It made me realise that I am going to miss Bobby’s birthday tomorrow 😢

The Peak to Peak is pretty amazing.  I’ve just looked at Wikipedia and am even more amazed now!  Just in case you want to learn more have a look at the Wikipedia page.  

The Peak to Peak gondola was started in the winter of 2007 and completed in the winter of 2008.  It held two World Records when it was first opened.

• World's Longest unsupported (free) span for a lift of this kind in the world World's Highest lift of its kind
• World's Longest continuous lift system

Some technical details

• Speed - 7.5 metres per second
• Crossing time - 11 minutes
• Total distance - 2.73 miles
• Length of unsupported span - 1.88 miles
• Highest point - 1,427 feet

When we got off the Peak to Peak at Blackcomb Peak it was lovely.  A few rain drops but nothing much and I was able to take some nice photos.  

We had lunch in the Roundhouse Restaurant - at almost 8,000 feet the view should have been amazing but this is what we sat and stared at!!

Back across the Peak to Peak and I seemed to get some better photos this time.

Back on Whistler Mountain we stopped for this photo and then headed straight back to the Village gondola.  

Life didn’t seem to bad above the clouds but once we got below them it was raining quite hard!

We walked back to the RV in light rain but by the time we got to the Riverside RV Park it was raining quite hard.  I need to mention here that there IS free wi-fi at Riverside, and it was good.

There are lots of facilities at Riverside, one being a laundry so we made good use of that.  Another facility is a Thai restaurant.  It is mainly take-away but it also has 4 tables and I guess can seat 10 or 12.  We decided to give it a go and the food was excellent.  The girl on reception said that it was the best Thai in all over south west BC which we couldn’t really believe, but I don’t think it was far off.  A very limited menu but it was enough.

Two more photos that I thought I would add

The mascot of the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010

Friday 10th June

Today we were heading down to the coast and over to Vancouver Island.  It was a beautiful day though the cloud was very low over the mountains as you can see from my photos.  What a shame it had to rain yesterday.  It was a bit sad, though, as it will be the last place we will visit with Mokey II.

We found a large sign beside the road saying “don’t feed the bears”. I had visions of this!

I wanted to video message our grandson, Bobby, who’s 3rd birthday it was.  It was a case of finding a spot where we could stop and where I had signal.  Eventually we found one, and called up only to find Bobby on the potty who proudly told me that he was doing a poo!!  I’m not sure why he was sitting on the potty as he is quite capable of using the loo, but he seemed to be very proud of himself!  He is ever the comedian!

It looked like the spot we had chosen to stop in, had been blasted out of granite and the boulder next to the RV was a beautiful colour.

South of Squamish we noticed that the road signs were not only written in English but in First Nation language.  (I have probably been totally incorrect in how I have written that, and I apologise to anyone I may have offended.  Maybe someone can put me right on the correct term).  

All the rest areas had signs telling the various tribes’ story, which were very interesting. 

Here is one of them (without the accents etc.)

“Before the Great Flood was the time of glaciation.  Our Siiyam (Chiefs) and Elders tell how the snow covered our longhouses like a swekwelh (mountain goat wool blanket).  This was a time of extreme cold and hardship for our people.

The Chaatl’em (hunters) would go out for many days and often came back empty-handed.  Only a few of our villages had great syelhwa7 (wealth), storing enough tools, food, medicines, clothing and blankets to keep the people alive.  

Along Atl’katsem / Texwnewets (Sea to Sky corridor) the backbone of our territory, there are rivers, creeks and waterfalls.  Some are large, like Kwekwetxwm (Shannon Falls); some are smaller, like (Stl’alkem Stakw (Derek’s Creek).  All are important.
These places have names and meaning to the Skwxwu7mesh (Squamish) people.  Our Ancestors and Elders have told us how we are undeniably connected to this landscape – where we have lived since time immemorial.”

I think I might do a complete post once we are home on the signs and information gleaned from them.  

We passed this lovely waterfall, I think it is Shannon Falls.

These are some more photos of our journey to Horseshoe Bay.

We were soon down in Horseshoe Bay, where we were to take the BC Ferries ferry over to Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island.  Coming out of the Bay the scenery was amazing but that didn’t last long.  The crossing is 1 hour and 40 minutes so there wasn’t much to see once we were in the middle!

We disembarked in Nanaimo and went in search of a car park that would take RVs so that we could have a look round the town.  The first car park we came to already had RVs in, so that would do!

We walked along the harbour front walkway and watched a seaplane taking off.  There was a real mixture along the harbour front as there were multi million $ motor cruisers and some quite small and not so beautiful fishing boats, side by side!  There was also a large tower block of flats centre stage which, in my view, rather spoilt things.

We had hoped to explore the old city quarter but we just can’t do everything 😕

We went back to the RV and drove north along the coast to Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park where we had a pitch booked.  It wasn’t the nicest of Provincial Park sites with everyone rather crammed in together – there was little or no privacy.  

We walked to the sea, but the tide was out – typical!  I bet in the summer the place is crammed.  

The tall mountain in the middle is Mount Churchill (6,500 feet)