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Published: March 16th 2006
The alarm worked - more luck than anything, and now it was time to face D-Day. I haven't had much success at crossing the road so far in Canada, due to the fact they drive on the right (wrong!) side of the road. Despite this we are hiring a car for the week to travel up to Jasper and Banff. I thought I would get some fitness work in by running into downtown Vancouver. It was pretty cold, but once I got going I was fine, and was a great way to the city, especially running over the bridge (Burrard Street).
The expedia website had come in handy again, and with Phil's help we picked up a rental car for the week at only $209 - a bargain. On top of this we took out the highest insurance, which was around $26 a day.
It was a foreign feeling, but I managed to get the car back to Sal and Phil's without any dramas. Our first destination is Jasper, but we wont get there in one hit more than likely. The car we've got is pretty cool, just a little sedan, but it should do the trick.
The thing I'm having
difficulty with (other than being on the WRONG side of the road) is driving from the left hand side of the car. I'm used to lining up the right hand side of the steering wheel with the middle of the road, and now I've got to consciously do it via the left hand side of the steering wheel. I tend to be a little bit too far to the right in the lane.
It took us a little while to get on the freeway (couldn't find an entrance), but once we got on it was smooth sailing. It is my sister Rachel's birthday back at home (14th of Feb in Australia), so we stopped at a town called Chilliwack for lunch and to call Rach.
Back on the road we were heading to a town called Hope from which there was two ways to get to Kamloops. The quick way was through the mountains on a toll road so we decided to go that way. The weather was overcast with sunny patches, but of course this all changed in the mountains. It started snowing and by the time we got to the toll booth it was bordering on a blizzard.
On the other side of the toll booth it was definitely a blizzard, visibility was poor, and it wasn't exactly how I was planning to spend my first day driving in Canada.
Soon enough two trucks were blocking the road, and we just sat there hoping we would get through. Luckily they were just putting chains on, and we continued on our way after about twenty minutes. We took it very carefully down into Kamloops, trucks were crawling along, there was a 4WD in a ditch, and on the other side of the highway there had been a few accidents so traffic was backed up for a couple of kilometres. As we got to the bottom there was a truck completely overturned, so we were diverted off the freeway.
The conditions had cleared by now, but the road was still a bit icy. We decided to keep going past Kamloops, and planned to stop at Barriere or Clearwater for the night. There wasn't much in Barriere, so Clearwater it was.
I've decided we need to get a CD because the only music we are getting is from the 80's, you get a few gems, but they are rare. We did
hear on the radio though that there was traffic delays and poor visibility on the Coquihalla Highway - a bit late!!!
At Clearwater we called into a service station, and the lady attendant filled the car up for us, and cleaned the windows - above and beyond the call of duty. She also gave us advice on where we should stay, and was very friendly.
We stayed at The Wells Gray Inn, it reminded me of a country pub at home like Eskdale. The room was very good, and all of the staff were very friendly.
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noely
non-member comment
brings back memories.
No fun driving in those conditions, I remember when we all hit a blizzard at night time driving home from yellowstone, trucks were flying past us at 70m.p.h. Will need to check out this expedia site sounds great.