What you can see in a day

Diablo Lake in the Cascades National Park, WA

And 300km later.......

Mel with Elvis impersonator Corny, and below another Elvis strutting his stuff at the Elvis Impersonation Festival, Penticton, BC.

Washington State National Parks

Olympic Peninsula vista

We have spend a magnificent week or so travelling around Washington State, USA. It has been an opportunity to get used to driving and living in the campervan, and so far it has been great. We even bought a mini doormat to help keep our cosy home clean. There are a few of those typical camping-stlye chores - finding clean water, campsite, etc, but we've even managaed to 'dump' out our tanks successfully a few times!
We spent a few days circling around the Olympic Ranges National Park. It is right on the north western peninsula of Washington and is huge, with wet forests and great old trees (some up to 550 years old). We went for a walk through one forest to some natural hot springs one day, dipping our legs into the luxuriously warm water (though smelly). We also visited the Hoh Rainforest. We did several small walks, seeing mossy old trees (the moss was sometimes 1 metre long and actually waved in the wind) and crashing rivers.

Ancient mossy trees

For anyone who has read the Twilight series of books, they are set around this peninsula. We visited Port Angeles and the township of Forks, where most of the scenes are set. The townsfolk have certainly capitalised on the popularity of the novels, and you can't walk 5 metres without seeing a sign advertising Twilight memorabilia (or saying that a character 'shops here' or 'eats here'). We even went into the souvenir store which was specifically directed towards selling merchandise relating to the books - an entire store!
We visited a place called 'Ruby Beach' right on the coast (the last beach we'll see for a while!). It was protected and we saw wonderful sea stars, and driftwood. Dave wants to rename it 'skimming stone' beach as there was a river running into the sea with the best skimming stones ever! Quite amazing though - forests, rivers and the sea all in one location.



Sea stars at Ruby Beach

We spent one night in a state forest of some description. We will forever remember it as 'Bogan Woods'. We arrived at about 2 pm or so, and until 7-8pm there were about 500 shots heard further up the woods as the bogans shot every living and non-living thing in the vicinity (both rifle and shotgun blasts). To make the scene even more idyllic, 6 motorbike bogans revved their way around the campgrounds, drinking Bud and generally talking about shooting things and the Republican party.

A little friend

Happily, we then moved on to probably the best place we've been to yet - Mt Rainier National Park! The park is centred around the mountain, a magnificent snow-capped beast. It has a 93 mile walking trail circling it called the Wonderland trail. There are about 6 glaciers running in all directions down from the 14,600 foot summit (sorry for the imperial). Overall it is an astonishingly varied place. We walked through wet forests in the morning and then travelled as high up as we could get by road in the afternoon, with the temperature at 0 degrees C and snow everywhere.
Somehow Dave convinced Mel to climb to Panorama point which is at about 7,000 feet (the walk is about a 500 metre elevation over 2 miles). It was also predominantly on snow. We had the walking boots, but were bereft of snow poles. We ended up walking up through the clouds, and after an hour of fun, we decided to turn back as we heard from other walkers that we would not be able to get through the clouds even if we reached our destination. We saw a cascade mountain fox hiding in the cloud up there, and when we stopped for a quiet look around a deer appeared just 5 metres away from us on a journey somewhere. We also slipped over amusingly a few times (when we say 'we', we mean Mel).





Mel 'walking'

On the road

Sunset at Porteau Cove - our first campsite on the trip

We have ducked into the United States for a couple of weeks. After crossing the border, giving our fingerprints and paying US$12 for the privilege, we travelled to a town called Anacortes and took a large ferry across to the island called Friday Harbour. To give non-locals some perspective it is a few hours up the coast from Seattle.
We are staying with a friend of ours, Nickie, and her partner and child. It is a beautiful island, well forested and extremely scenic. David was playing volleyball on the bay last night when a huge bald eagle flew majestically overhead. We have seen huge undersea kelp forests where Orcas come to feed, and done a little bit of work on an organic farm in the area. The freshest snow peas ever!




Nickie and Louise ready to go!




So far our campervan is going great. We walked into a Walmart in Vancouver, and came out with a trolley-load of gear to kit it out. You can get anything in these obscenely-large stores - from a gallon of mayonnaise to pots and pans, pillows, foodstuffs, RV tank deodeoderiser solution, camping gear, American flags, you name it. The campervan is fantastic inside - roomy and comfy. Our new GPS system makes getting around cities and towns a breeze. We only need our larger book of maps to decide which towns and regions to head for and this little gadget does the rest. It is fairly easy to drive as it ended up being an automatic vehicle. So much for all that manual practice before we left. The previous couple named the RV 'Leader of the Pack' (geddit - so slow that it's always leading a line of other cars) and we like that name so much we are tempted to adopt it if we have no inspiration of our own.

Vrooom

The scenery around this part of the world is spectacular. We drove along the 'Sea to Sky' road north of Vancouver the first day we had the campervan. It winds snugly along the coast, with snow capped mountains and forested hills complementing the ocean view. David was so awestruck he kept forgetting he was driving the vehicle!
Everything is big around here. The roads, the supermakets, the sights. We are keen to do some typical American things while we still find it new and interesting - like going through a drive through, visiting all the crappy fast food places and diners, seeing live baseball games and eating lots of coolwhip (whatever that is) and donuts. In fact the first meal we had upon crossing the border was a pizza and a jelly filled donut for Dave. Yum - we're 7 kilos heavier already :) David found 12 huge donuts for sale for $5 - no wonder there is that obesity problem in North America 0 they have to resist temptation every time they even go near a supermarket!

Birthday Wishes

We want to wish a whole lot of people who have celebrated their birthdays over the last few weeks a very happy birthday:

Pete
Dad (Meldrum)
Grandma Meldrum
Kim
Stuart
Claire
Alexander (literally, as it was his actual day of birth into the world)
Mikael
And anyone else we've missed!

Hope you all had a wonderful day.

Arriving in Canada and the campervan

The European part of our adventure is over and now we are starting the Canadian / North American stage - the destination that makes up the core of our trip. And so far we love it!!
We flew into Vancouver last Sunday. Long trip from Paris - about 24 hours when all the transfers and public transport and general waiting around was counted. For some reason this leg has been fairly hard on our bodies - we're feeling a lot of jetlag (wide awake at 4am anyone) and Mel has come down with a bad flu which has kept her in bed for the past 2 days feeling pretty crook.
Despite that, we have had a very successful, if not very exciting week. We started our search for our campervan straight away. Unfortunately, the sales yards we had been looking at sold out of their cheap stock just before we arrived, another promising prospect ended up being some kind of Nigerian internet scam, and another vehicle we looked at was so large it made Mel 'physically ill' to be inside of and imagine driving!
But we found our new home, restaurant and transportation and have signed the papers and registered it today. We are now the proud owners of a 1988 Okanagan Class C Campervan!

What a little beauty!

It is the biggest purchase we have ever made, both jointly and individually, so it is a big deal for us. We will be kitting it out over the next few days. The couple that sold us it kindly provided a whole lot of basic essentials like cutlery, crockery, other kitchen things, a BBQ, firewood and sheets. We plan on buying warm blankets and comfy pillows and a range of other things to make it our palace for the next few months.

Comfy mobile digs anyone?

Hopefully we will leave the youth hostel tomorrow and collect our camper and head off on the adventure. If Mel is still unwell we might hold off one more day before we go. The plan is to head south, cross the US border and visit a friend, Nickie, who lives on the island of Friday Harbour. We will pick up some gear we posted over earlier, and explore that beautiful place. Then we have about a month to explore the west coast and Rockies region.

The bed is above the drivers and passengers seats.

Vancouver itself has been great. We had to rush around a lot for the first 3-4 days, opening bank accounts, checking out campervans and doing other bureaucratic chores. We got to see a lot of the city out of bus windows!
Dave went to Stanley park for half a day. It is an amazing wooded chunk of land, just smaller than Central park in NY, filled with recreational areas, dense forest, squirrels, totem poles and other attractions. It is amazing the variety of life in the park - swans, turtles, eagles, blue herons, raccoons, ducks, the aforementioned squirrels, fish, etc.
Vancouver itself is blessed with mountains, the sea, inlets, beaches and lots of open space. The people are amazingly friendly, everyone says hello or is welcoming to you or is polite in the extreme. We swear, even old people get up for you on the bus. We keep being told that people in smaller Canadian towns and in the East are even friendlier. We like that!
Everything has worked out for the best so far, and we are both stoked to be finally on our epic cross-Canada trip.




Totem-, or story-, poles in Stanley Park.

French Adventures

Paris

Paris was our first stop in France. We found our way to our hotel which was just 10 minutes walk from the Eiffel Tower, and about the size of a shoebox as expected. Legs did some hanging off the edge of the bed there.
In our walks around the city we viewed all of the typical highlights - Pont Neuf, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and a terrific walk through the Louvre for a few hours. A particular highlight was sitting under the Eiffel Tower at about 11pm with a bottle of wine while it lit up majestically.

Mel and Dave then parted for a day to explore on their own. Dave tried to get into the French Open at Roland Garros (no chance without a pre-paid ticket) and settled for a lovely day walking around the King's old hunting forest. Mel on the other hand continued with the mega sightseeing, visiting the Bastille, Victor Hugo's apartment, the Moulin Rouge and Montmatre. Her favourite moment was listening to an impromptu concert on the steps in front of Sacre Coeur.

Eating in Paris 

We experienced both the highlights and lowlights of dining out in Paris. One night we found a lovely little restaurant located in a University district. The food was like peasant fare, hearty and filling; and the restaurant was really pretty. Sadly however, this is not the meal that remains in our mind.

The next night we chose a semi-takeaway pizza restaurant near our second hotel. If the food wasn't bad enough, the service certainly took the proverbial cake. We found little chunks of glass in the (awfully plain) pasta, reporting it to the 'chef'. He grunted and returned to the kitchen. Had he noted it? Was he preparing us another sumptuous dish as a replacement? Who could say? We got up to leave shortly after, and after he rung up the full amount, we displayed the glass, disputing the bill. He started yelling at us to pay the full amount. Dave left enough for the pizza, then turned to go. The hairy bastard then came out, grabbed his arm to try to stop him leaving, gave up on that and then threatened us with a knife and a stream of obscenities. In the end we reluctantly paid after a failed negotiation with his underling.

Bordeaux 

Upon our arrival in Bordeaux we were met with quite a spectacle. It turned out that the local soccer team had become the champions of the French Soccer League the night before, and the official celebrations were still continuing. In the main park were hundreds of zealous supporters, cheering their heroes and lighting flares to show their approval. Songs were sung, applause was roundly handed out and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Dave and Mel took a little trip out to a winery in St Emilion where we were shown all of the various stages to wine-making. By far the most interesting part (other than the wine tasting!), was the cave where they store the wine. It was carved from limestone and remains a steady 12° centigrade throughout the year. A photo op if ever we saw one. Oh yeah, and the wine was nice too!

Plonk tasting

Guethery 

Thanks to the kind hospitality of family Hautemont, we were able to rent a car in Bordeaux and drive down to the beachside town of Guethery, near Biarritz. We stayed in the Hautemont summer house, which was a lovely change from our hotels. The town was warm with a panoramic view of the Atlantic. We also had the unadulterated joy of being able to shop in a supermarket and cook! Thank you very much Kinou and Jean-Claude.

Toulouse 

This was sadly a short stop for us. Our driving in France to this point had been rather stressful, with many an enthusiastic expletive emanating from Dave as he bravely navigated the French freeways, by-ways, tollbooths, lanes and alleys. Luckily the manual car was very forgiving to drive. We were only able to wander the streets of Toulouse for two hours, but were both delighted by the canal and bridges, as well as the beautiful gardens and fountains in the city. Mel was particularly overjoyed to see a rotunda with flowers in the shape of Mickey and Minnie Mouse surrounding it.

Toulouse in the summertime

Carcassonne 

After another stressful drive (our habit was to enter a place with no map, or a super-lame printed one), we stayed in this walled city for the night. Wonderful castle, lofty parapets and ramparts were to be found. Cool samba drum players banged away on the outskirts (for hours - did'nt their arms get tired?) and we slept in the pinkest room imaginable (great [pink] bed though).

Montpellier
Now we've dropped off the dratted car and are catching the train back to Paris tomorrow. All we have seen of Montpellier so far is this internet cafe! Our time in Montpellier was short and sweet. We took a walk into the suburbs in the evening and then relaxed with a few beers at a very cool cafe in one of the squares in the centre of the town. The weather blessed us here with warmth and sun, so staying out late in the beautiful evening, having dinner and drinks was just what the doctor ordered.

Paris Again!!

Thanks once again to our gracious hosts, Kinou and Jean-Claude, we have been able to stay in Paris for our final European days. We were treated to some beautiful dinners and entertaining conversations, as well as the most comfortable doona either Dave or Mel have ever experienced.

One fun day was spent at Disneyland Paris, where we made ourselves sick (and in saying ourselves, it was mainly Dave), riding rollercoasters and eating fairy floss. A day well spent. 

The happiness of spun sugar

Tomorrow we will move on to our ultimate destination, Canada!