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01/06 The final leg of my journey to Squamish. Lillooet to Pemberton, Whistler to Squamish.
I was thinking that today would follow on from yesterday and continue to be hot and sunny. Working on the basis that it always starts off a bit overcast before the sun burns away the clouds and starts to burn me, I put on shorts and T shirt before stepping outside. Wooooo! Winter has decended, overnight. Clouds had decided to meet the trees for breakfast and drink from the rivers. What a change in the weather.
Nearly as soon as I started on the mountain road down came the rain, I mean it poured. The temperature dropped even more and a quick change of clothing was called for. The last thing I wanted was to be caught out only wearing shorts and sandles in this. Now Bernie had warned me about this drive and told me that I needed plenty of daylight to negotiate the road between Lillooet and Pemberton. He was not wrong. The problem was that really low cloud and mist coupled with heavy rain were reducing visibility down to about 30 yards at times. The road heads into a ravine and negotiates lots of 90 degree bends where you are taken over the river via bridges made of wood. These are single track bridges and very slippery. They require you bring your speed right down before you line the vehicle up to go over each bridge. You dont get much warning or run up so unless you have got everything right you risk losing the back end, if something comes in the opposite direction, look out! It was a good drive though and I arrived at Pemberton in need of a coffee and petrol (again) but definately in that order. I can't tell you much about the scenery on the way there because I didn't see it!
Pemberton is a quaint, do I mean quaint?, err no it is a small town not short of a few 'red necks'. Didnt see any banjos' but I suspect they were there twitching those net curtains as I passed through. They were still sharpening the chainsaw teeth as I left! Actually I am being unfair because Pemberton has some lovely properties and yes there are those hill billy places out there but the town is very nice. If the weather had been better I would have stopped for a look round and there appeared quite a lot to do in the vacinity. In winter the town gets hit heavily by snow and I believe they had about 12 feet last winter. That would have brought Britain to a complete stop for a year and we would have something to talk about for the next twenty I suspect.
I had a quick coffee, filled the car with 'gas' and headed off in the direction of Whistler and a visit to the Olympic village. I was really looking forward to this stop as most of us have heard about Whistler as a ski resort in any case but will be the focus for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The resort is very smart, very affluent and very harsh on your pocket, right up my street then! Parking was free, take note Britain, the village centre was full of youngsters, there was no rubbish, no graffiti, no violence or abuse, no spitting, no shouting but the Cops do carry guns and tazars (is that how you spell it?).
Whistler was cold, very cold actually but I walked around the village and spent a very pleasant afternoon there. Somehow I have lost a day and I realised that I was going to arrive at Bernie and Debs' home a day early! Whoops. After a grovelling phone call they very graciously let me carry onto their house that night.
Squamish. The road improvements around Whistler and Squamish are amazing. They have literally blasted millions of tons of rock to build a new freeway, or at least it will be when it's finished. There is not the volume of traffic at the moment to cause any major problems but the traffic is slowed. This actually worked in my favour because having heard the stories around The Rockies of Bear sighting, I finally saw my first Bears. There were two black bears and a Brown bear (not a Grizzly) by the road side just grazing. it is quite exciting seeing wild Bears just yards from you, it is really strange. I couldnt believ one guy who had got out of his vehicle and was walking back to the second Bear I saw in order to take a picture. I heard other vehicles sounding there horns and saw the Bear run off into the woods, the advise is not to stop and definately not to get out of your car, seems pretty simple to me, encounter a 600 pound Bear or stay in your car - no competition! This is also the home of the Baldheaded Eagle and there is a viewing area just outside Squamish. I arrived at the Hodges houshold to be greeted by a fantastic homemade Rib supper, three great people and two big dogs. It was really good to catch up, I haven't seen Bernie for two years, since the last time he was at Le Mans and it was as if we saw one another just the other day. I am very pleased to be here indeed. The weather is still pretty bad but I really don't care, I'm having a great time, Bernie and Deb have been stars ever since I arrived.
02 - 05/06
I haven't done too much other than catch up with myself since I have been here. I have done a lot work on the computer and still have to do more. I have had an update on the hire car which is positive so keep your fingers crossed. I have also had my third Hep B jab, Deb arranged it for me via the local surgery in Whistler and it ended up costing half what I expected which was another good result. Thank you Deb.
The area is very pleasant with decent people. The Hodges have two dogs, Sam a collie x and Tom a pure tri-colour border collie but about a third bigger than my old dogs, and therefore quite a handful on a lead. It's good to get out with them and Tom seems to have bonded with me, well that was my impression as he jumped on top of me in bed the other morning! The cloud base has not lifted yet in fact today, 5th, the weather has worsened, however, we have things planned and I am promised a view of the coastal mountains if the clouds lift. Personally I think Bernie is having me over and the mountains don't actually exist! The good ol' boy is desparate for me to see them, chill Bernie, it will happen.
All the best, Chris
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