Love a Good Van Trip
Never been to Canada but had met & talked to Canadians & read enough books & seen enough films to make me want to visit. Initially I set about trying to plan a trip around the trains going through the Rocky mountains however the logistics & costs made me revise the plan.
After much deliberations & more research the most cost effective means of accommodation & transport seemed to be a camper van. The combination of being able to travel stay in places of outstanding natural beauty won the debate. Flights & van booked left time to consider the potential route.
I am a big fan of google maps having used them for previous adventures so I spent time looking at the map & noting down potential places to stop. Previous van road tripping made me keen to have an outline route in mind so that it was possible to know what was possible. Most van hire is costed per km & even when ‘unlimited milage’ you still need to know you can get back to the depot within the timeframe.
I have always tried to pace the amount of driving per day & at least had an idea of potential overnight stops as had no wish to relive the ‘no room at any site’ scenario that happened in a previous trip.
Vancouver
The choice of hotel was tied to the pick up route for the van collection so was a little out of the central area of Vancouver. As a result we had to hop on the train for about 30mins to get us downtown. Once there we just started to wander about & came across a section of Chinese inspired building & a huge ceremonial bell. From there we located a Tim Hortons for sustenance & then to find the steam clock.
The Steam Clock is a fully functioning clock that is located on a pavement & if you catch it just right the steam pipes emit a musical sound to tell the time.
Use the link to a short video of the clock in action.
Onwards to the harbour area we saw many things including many homeless folks who seemed to have colonised a couple of streets. The tents & tarpaulins trying to provide some sort of shelter for those who have for what ever reason lost their way. This seems to be a growing issue for many cities & it makes me sad that the authorities seem to do nothing to tackle this.
Anyway the harbour was busy with people all coming & going as big cruise ships off loaded passengers & others hurried to work. The water was teaming with various sized vessels including the water planes that seemed to be constantly landing & departing.
So with great excitement we boarded a flight to Vancouver to spend a couple of days exploring the city before collecting the van. The van was the most well equipped that I had hired. It was very hi tech with lots of features that were to come in handy over the course of the trip. Mind you we never got to use the axe that came supplied!
