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.