Babs’ travels -The Peking to Paris Rally and other driving adventures.

George Vancouver was a travelling man. Born in 1757, he only lived for forty years but achieved great things. He is best known for exploring and charting the Pacific Coast of North America but his voyage also took him to Hawaii and the eastern coast of Australia. His charts were so accurate they were used by several generations of sailors after him. He was quite a guy and had risen from humble beginnings after joining the navy at 13. He died in obscurity, from an unrecorded means. What a tragic end to such a great life. His downfall was due to Thomas Pitt, 2nd baron of Camelford and a complete waste of space. He signed up for George's big expedition as an able seaman at the age of 16. George had to severely discipline him on several occasions. As Pitt was only a low rating seaman this involved shackles and floggings, according to the Naval code of the time. Pitt resented being disciplined by what he saw as a low born man, but George was just doing his job. Unbeknownst to...

We felt that we had to spend a night in a Walmart car park just for the hell of it. Well, we're all over it now! Tonight we are staying in beautiful Port Townsend. Our rig is parked on the marina just a couple of feet from the water of the Straits of Juan de Fuca at the entrance to Puget Sound. A more idyllic spot it is hard to imagine. This little town made its money during the Victorian era when it collected all the customs duty from every ship arriving on the west coast. It nearly became the state capital; how different it might have been. It is now a prosperous, arty place with a laid back atmosphere, great shops and restaurants and beautifully restored old buildings. We ate yet more crabs and spent a lazy day sitting in our camp site, the most beautiful, peaceful place to be. I had my kindle but we spent much time just watching the little sailing ships, ferries and a couple of cruise ships on their way to Seattle. Tonight we will go to sleep liked by the sound of the...

We found out this morning that Jeremy, the fireman on our steam engine at home, was in Seattle, just over an hour from where we had spent the night. We quickly convened a Board meeting of The BLR at Pike Place Market, where we ate crabs. We hadn't got round to discussing any business when Jeremy had to leave for the airport to fly home. It just turned into a works outing instead. Whilst the Executive Fireman was making his way back to LHR, the Chairman and Director of Hospitality caught a ferry across Puget Sound to Poulsbo and, for the first time on this adventure, found all the RV parks full. Never fear though, because we are spending the night at Walmart! There is even a Starbucks next door for wifi and a view of Mount Olympia. An added bonus is that Walmart is open 24 hrs a day for any middle of the night shopping we may require. Yes folks, you can overnight in their car park in your rv for free. American's call it 'boondocking'. Thrilling, and yet another ...

The 'Sea to Sky' highway has it all. Snowy mountains, lakes, creeks, glaciers, a squillion trees, sea views, the whole shebang. Gorgeous. The road south to Whistler is narrow, twisting and has very steep grades. The road from Whistler down to Vancouver was massively improved for the 2010 winter Olympics. I first visited Vancouver almost forty years ago. I caught my thrilling first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean as I cane in to land from London in pouring rain (it is rain forest) and we went straight off on a camping trip. When we returned, three weeks later, I was astounded at how beautiful it was, with bright sunshine glistening on the Pacific and discovering that it was surrounded by snowy mountains that had all been hidden in the murky weather when I arrived. It was so much smaller then. It is still lovely though. Today, we arrived in the gloom, with not a mountain to be seen and the sea a murky grey. Never mind; we were both here not long ago and had already decid...

We hope that the London Olympics are safe and successful. Although we're not entirely sorry that we aren't there.

Well not me, obviously, but my, there are many lumberjacks around here, in north central BC. Most of the traffic seems to consist of three trailer long lorries laden with trees. We passed a couple of HUGE timber processing factories too. Lumber is BIG business in this area. Fort St.James was the capital of New Caledonia and the centre of the Hudson Bay Company fur trading operations from the early 19th century. It continued trading well into the twentieth century. It is one of the most completely original forts in Canada and is now a splendid living museum and was well worth the 70 mile round trip away from our path south to go there. We had the place to ourselves and the (in character) staff were most informative. The fort is next to a massive lake and it seems that dried salmon was the staple winter food. The bottom fell out of the fur market when it became fashionable for top hats to be made of silk rather than felted beaver fur. Although many other furs were still in deman...

Alas, we could only peer in through the glass at the 'Toaster Museum' in Stewart BC. Tantalisingly close!

We've had a pretty mellow day driving on the 'Yellowhead Highway' after completing the southern part of the 'Cassiar'. just 376miles today! Although there has been more traffic than on the other roads we have been on on our northern adventure, the traffic is exceptionally light. We have been constantly surprised at how empty all the roads are in the north. Critter count: Nil. Do we care? No, frankly. After the magic of yesterday we forgive all the critters in the wilderness for hiding in the woods today. The detour off the 'Cassiar' to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK is about a 60 miles round trip. But my goodness the riches that little drive offers. It is remote, the road goes nowhere, a little corner of the USA that time forgot. Like most places in the north their heyday was during the Klondike period when mining was king. Stewart, before WWI, had a population of around 10,000. Toady it stands at 500. Hyder, in Alaska, is a virtual ghost town, th...

Critter count: 2 black bears 1 red fox + 3 glaciers and all this BEFORE LUNCH, and what a lunch; king crab legs. Making you jealous? Close your eyes and I bet you can almost taste them from wherever you are! Post lunch: 1 beaver Several bald eagles Lots of GRIZZLIES! All this and then halibut and chips cooked in a school bus for supper. Life does not get better. For scale; the grizzly in the road is a juvenile at 200 lbs. The one in the creek is a fully grown male and is 800 lbs. The wifi is poor here in Hyder but I will tell you more about this astonishing place when possible. A stupendous, wondrous, magnificent, unforgettable day. As our US friends would say - awesome!