We have booked travel on the 8:25am ferry to Tsawwassen as our drive is looking to be about 5 1/2 hours for the day. This meant an early rise so that we can load the bikes, enjoy a quick breakfast and say our goodbyes before leaving for the ferry terminal at 7:00am. After a week of being lazy and sleeping in more than a little, the early morning was a little trying but we did it and managed to be on our way shortly before 7.
We’ve had a great time visiting and catching up on ‘life’ over the past seven days and the island has been a perfect place in which to recharge ourselves ahead of the drive home across the country. We can’t thank Tony’s parents enough for their hospitality.
Back on the mainland our first stop was a Walmart to top-off our provisions and remount the bikes onto the rack. I kept them in the van for the ferry ride as the ramps can be notoriously bumpy and I was afraid of dragging the rack while embarking or disembarking. Wouldn’t you know it though, on this crossing the ramps were almost level and bump free.
We drove from Tsawwassen to Surrey via Hwy-17 in order to join the Trans-Canada highway. From there we headed towards Hope, BC and enjoyed an ever thinning traffic volume as we went. By the time we had reached Hope, the traffic was quite light.
We drove up the Coquihalla highway (Highway thru Hell) and have a completely new appreciation for the truck drivers that take this route in the Winter months.
The scenery changed as we approached Kamloops to something similar to what we had seen in Utah/Nevada, mountain grassland meadows and scrubland.
From Kamloops we turned and headed East further into the mountains. Our stop for the night is a charming winery in Tappen, BC. Only a few kilometers from the highway, but peaceful and serene. Good night one and all, enjoy the pictures from today.
