Letters to John — From Canada — Letter Three

From Vancouver to Porteau Cove Provincial Marine Park

It’s not easy to rest when adventures are waiting just around the corner, but… better to crash on a bed than on a tree

When I went to Canada in 2016, I wrote John a letter (email) every day. In this way, we felt as if we were travelling together. This is part of my third letter to John. I wrote it on the second evening in Canada while sitting in my van at the Riverside Camping & RV Resort in Whistler.

The previous part of the letter you can find here:

It was well before 10 am when I was back at the plaza. All shops there were still closed except for Dollarama — kind of like our Crazy Clark. I bought there some cheap biscuits, cereal and water before strolling through the plaza to find a supermarket. Nevertheless, I couldn’t find anything.

“Excuse me, could you tell me please where can I find a supermarket?” I asked a security man.

“What do you want to buy?” — replied the man in a typically Canadian way, meaning without showing any feelings or emotions and not even a shadow of a smile.

“Milk, cheese, cereal, bread — just the basic groceries”, — I replied

“Then you can get them in the Asian market over there; it is already open. The other opens at 10 am,” — said the man and turned around, ready to walk away

“Oh, it is already 5 minutes to 10, so I can wait 5min. Could you please tell me where is the other supermarket?” — I continued with my usual enthusiasm

“I already told you, you can get what you need in the Chinese one”, — replied the man in a slightly irritated voice and walked away.

This was odd. Why couldn’t he tell me where was the other supermarket? Anyway, I had no choice but to get my groceries in the Asian shop. I have to admit that they had a lot of different stuff, plenty of things I’ve never seen before — including many kinds of dried fruit, nuts and even dried veggies! I have never eaten dried veggies before, so I had to get some and try.

Unfortunately, this supermarket didn’t have what I would call “usual sliced smoked salmon”, the type of salmon I use in my sandwiches. I found some smoked salmon soaked in maple syrup (isn’t it weird? maple syrup? sweet fish?!) and preserved in long-term packaging. It had to be a delicacy as the cheapest was about 15 dollars for 100g — ridiculous! Yogurt and “normal cereal” or muesli were also missing…

It was almost 11 am when I finally made it back to the van. I was still suffering from jet lag, and already during the walk, I felt quite tired. Then the lovely shopping also added to my fatigue, so in the end, I was exhausted. Was I fit for driving? As fit as any other person would be after consuming a couple of bottles of wine. Nevertheless, of course, I didn’t have time for a nap. What-for wasting my time sleeping when I can go on the road and discover places!

I drove on Highway 1, and again, as you can imagine, I seriously struggled to stay on the right side of the road. I wasn’t driving against the traffic (probably only because there were two lanes in each direction), but most of the time, I drove over both lanes, again resembling a drunk driver.

I still can’t comprehend how it was possible that nobody beeped the car’s horn on me. Canadian are very interesting people, they don’t smile, but they also don’t beep their cars’ horns, which indicates they have to be quite patient and tolerant.

I took exit 8 to the Cypress Provincial Park. The Cypress Bowl road is rather steep and winding, so I wasn’t surprised to see a few motorbikes (and feel a little sentiment about how nice it would be to experience all these here on a motorbike.). Also, a group of cyclists enjoyed the road, though a couple of push-bike riders, a lady and her man, parked at the lookout and obviously enjoyed each other’s bodies much more than the riding itself (yeah, they definitely should get a room — lol ;)

I stopped at a lookout with a wonderful view over the city. As soon as I got out of the car, I stumbled and almost smashed my super expensive camera equipment into pieces — this truly woke me up! There were a few people around, but I kept to myself, avoiding any company.

After recording the moment on my camera’s memory card, I continued driving on the winding road as far as it went. There weren’t many spectacular views on the way, everything was hidden behind the trees of the thick forest, but the smell of the fresh mountains’ air, the traces of snow here and there and the peacefulness made the drive worth it.

I stopped in Cypress Mountain in a couple of places, at a closed ski resort and later at the Cypress Creek Lodge and… dreamed how nice it would be to be there with you, either now or in wintertime.

I know you don’t like the cold, but I think it is only because you have never experienced a proper snowy winter. If you knew how it feels to go for a walk through snow-covered fields on a sunny day or how it is to build a snowman and have a snowball fight, lie on the ground and paint an eagle with your arms. Or the cozy evenings, sitting at the fireplace with your loved one and through the window watching big snowflakes falling and resting on the ground, shining in the light of the moon. If you have experienced all this, you would wish to have it every year! But, who knows, maybe one day you will experience the winter and the snow and love it as much as I do. The snow is the only thing I miss in Australia…

Slowly I made it back to Highway 1, and when it came to an end, I continued driving on the Sea to Sky highway in the direction of Whistler. The drive along the road overlooking the waters of the Strait of Georgia with the mountains in the background was spectacular.

I was disappointed and even annoyed that there weren’t any stopping bays along the road where I could pull over and immortalise the beautiful moments in photographs. In New Zealand, it was much better — I could stop every few hundred meters and take hundreds of photos.

After a while, my tiredness started to be really dangerous — I literary couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was getting agitated and losing my concentration. I desperately needed a break, but there was nowhere to stop.

From time to time, I came across small roads coming off the Hwy, most of them marked with names, but whichever turn-off I took, it was a very narrow no-through road. Some had signs saying “marina-bay, private property, unauthorised vehicles will be towed away”. I was too scared to try to go to the end of any of the little roads — what if I couldn’t make a U-turn there.

There were also roads with U-turn signs. I couldn’t understand what it meant, so I learned the hard way — the streets with U-turn signs, even if they had a name, were practically U-turn bays, and so a couple of times, I did an accidental U-turn and ended up driving back direction Vancouver.

Finally, in Lions Bay, I found a spot to stop. There was a very small park-and-ride parking near a train station, already occupied by a few vehicles, but I found a place to squeeze my van.

Was it parked on a designated parking spot? Definitely not, so I was not parked lawfully, but it was safe, and I decided that even if they caught me, I preferred to pay the fine in monetary value instead of crashing the car and paying with my (and most probably somebody’s else) life. So, I crashed on the bed instead of on a tree, and 10 sec later, I was gone, sleeping like a baby.

I don’t know how long I slept, but it would be around 2 hours. When I woke up… “nature called me”, so it was one of the moments that I was really grateful I didn’t need to go and look for a toilet and a shower — all in my little mini-home. And this time, I got the toilet paper already from the rental company; in this way, I avoided the additional excitement of forgetting to buy it, which had happened to me on my trip through New Zealand.

It was already after 3 pm when I was back on the road. I was starving but didn’t have time to eat, so I started picking on the dried veggies and fruit I had bought that morning. As I said, I have never eaten dried veggies before, but they were simply delicious! Have you ever tried dried kiwi fruit? I ate it for the first time today too, and it had a very interesting taste, but not too bad.

I continued driving on the wonderful road, the strait on my left-hand side got more narrow, and the mountains from the other side appeared much closer. And again, the problem of having nowhere to stop and take photos. Where the best views were, there was nowhere to stop, and when I finally could stop, there were no views. Mega annoying!

My next stop was in Porteau Cove Provincial Marine Park. I wasn’t sure what Marine Park actually was, and if I was allowed to drive and park there, so I parked in a designated area with public toilets in some forest (it didn’t feel particularly safe, but there was not much I could do) and went for a walk.

Now at least I understand what ‘Marine Park’ actually means. In the beginning, the signs confused me and somehow made me believe that access there was prohibited. I probably should have familiarized myself with the Canadian road signs before coming here… It is not only safe to park in a Marine Park, but you can also have a lot of fun there! You can go for a swim, do some scuba diving, take your boat to the lake or just relax.

While I walked, I noticed a row of big V8 with boat trailers attached to them parked next to each other. Of course, I had to take a couple of pictures of them! Not only because every car makes me think of you, but also because I love big cars! Most of them were twin-cab utes, not wagons, but… I can imagine how wonderful it would be to have such a big wagon and take it for a drive! I would know where to take it — like from Homer in Alaska to Bahia Thetis in Argentina! (Don’t laugh at me; I‘ll make this trip one day!) I am just not sure if I could afford the fuel for such a big engine ;)

I strolled on the empty wharf and admired the magnificent scenery. In some respect, the mountains rising from the waters with their summits dusted with snow resembled the scenery in New Zealand. It was much colder here, and obviously, the greenery covering the slopes of the giant hills came from very different types of flora.

The sky was clear. The water of the lake was covered with little wrinkles. A lane of pine trees separated the inland sea from the grey escarpment doted with deep dark green dots, the conifers. The shores were rather rough, grey and covered with little stones, and the big brown tree logs weren’t missing here either.

I turned to the south, and I noticed motor homes parked between the trees. Lovely spot to camp overnight. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t feel safe here by myself; it’s why it wasn’t a spot for me.

However, as you know, I would love to be here with you. I know you would love the place too. Yes, it’s a bit fresh for a swim today, but we could hide in our motor-home parked amongst the mix of dark and light green colours of the native trees and enjoy the view and each other’s company. Or we could go for some walks or have a picnic on one of the benches overlooking the waters.

This story is from my unpublished book called “Letters to John — From Canada.” One day I hope to publish the entire “Letters to John” series, but until then, I decided to share snippets of my books on various social media and writers’ platforms.

More articles relating to this book and my adventures while driving across Canada you can find in the following collection/list

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