-- From Port McNeill to Harrison Hot Springs
The road tracklog
from Port McNeill to Harrison Hot Springs
from 2011/05/16 to 2011/05/22
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
The reading of Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones bought in New Zealand encouraged me to read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. After a long search in Australia then in the USA I finally found a single specimen at the Beacon Books bookstore in Sidney after having unloaded a ferry in Vancouver Island. I finished the first reading, it was not easy so much the vocabulary is rich and dates back from the 19th century. Fortunately the broad introduction clarifies the topic of the book and the Dickens' process by putting in prospect protagonist’s characters. As points out by Mathilda, the heroin of Mister Pip, the version read by Mr. Watts does not correspond to the book by Dickens, “Mr. Watts had rewritten Mr Dickens' masterwork”, to read again.
Monday May 16 was a long driving day from McNeill Port to Nanaimo, Departure Bay, to take the 3 pm ferry bound for Horseshoe Bay on the mainland in the north of Vancouver. At the departure the surrounding summits were always covered with snow. The sail of the ferry lasted 1:40 with ten minutes waiting for unloading. I arrived at my bivouac in the adjacent street of Wallmart around 5:30 pm. I had remained 11 days on the Vancouver Island. In spite of very dubious if not rainy weather, it was an exciting and improvement experience.
En route
Hwy 19
16/05/2011
Ferry gate
Horseshoe Bay
16/05/2011
The next day I went to the Main Post Office of Vancouver to take the parcel sent by the back base. But it was not arrived. The post woman says to me to come back in the afternoon. The day was stretched in length, fortunately the sun heated the atmosphere. I spent into the Library where computers were in self-service during one hour, I read the French press devoted to the DSK's arrest. Articles of the English press was not very eulogistic of French political community and rule not to touch at the private life of the politicians. The left party was described as Socialist champagne. Around 4 pm I returned to the Main Post Office, opposite the Library, the post woman consulted the website of the Canadian Post, the tracking n° returned the information that the parcel was in Montreal. Perhaps it will be in Vancouver on Friday if not on Tuesday because Monday was a public holiday -Vicoria Day… I decided not to wait in Vancouver but to visit the northern coast of Vancouver and to come back on Monday evening.
Wednesday May 18 I left to explore Vancouver Coast & Mountains by heading Hwy 99 which is mainly with twice two lanes along the sea at mountainside with still covered caped summits. On the move I visited Britannia Mine Museum which was in the 19th century the largest copper mine in the Commonwealth now rehabilitated.
En route
Hwy 99
18/05/2011
Mine Museum
Britannia
18/05/2011
Mine Museum
Britannia
18/05/2011
A couple or so kilometres further away Shannon Falls is the third largest in British Columbia. I bivouacked at Riverside RV in Whistler which is out of price, $45, with paying showers! Canada is more expensive than the USA in all domains.
Shannon Falls
Squamish
18/05/2011
I left Riverside RV without regret to visit Pemberton, winter and summer sports resort. It was too late and too early in season. There was nothing to see if not a waterfalls, Nairn Falls, where power and erosion by water carved the rocks by cutting a no visible on pictures a bridge and potholes. I found in the early afternoon a bivouac close to a bridge over the Birkenhead River. The sky was blue and the temperature pleasant.
Nairn Falls
Pemberton
19/05/2011
Nairn Falls
Pemberton
19/05/2011
Nairn Falls
Pemberton
19/05/2011
Nairn Falls
Pemberton
19/05/2011
Nairn Falls
Pemberton
19/05/2011
Bivouac
Birkenhead River
19/05/2011
The following day I traversed the superb mountain road from Pemberton to Lillooet culminating at 1300 meters high by skirting first Joffre Lakes where I walked in snow to see Lower Lake still cold, then it was at an altitude lower than 1000 m Duffey Lake before arriving at Lillooet around noon. St' at' imc people lived in this place since more than 8,000 years. Cariboo Gold Rush from 1850 to 1860 brought a population of approximately 15,000 people with the construction of saloons and hotels. The District is home to approximately 2500 people. The village is kilometre zero of Cariboo Road built northwards since 1859.
The Mile 0 Cairn
Lillooet
20/05/2011
The Mile 0 Cairn
Lillooet
20/05/2011
The Museum-Visitor-Centre is installed in an old Anglican church rebuilt of the St Mary the Virgin. As accustomed the museum is odds and ends of items of the 19th century. I returned in the mountain to bivouac on a dirt ground.
St Mary the Virgin, Museum
Lillooet
20/05/2011
St Mary the Virgin, Museum
Lillooet
20/05/2011
Sunset on mountain
Lillooet, bivouac
20/05/2011
Alas the following day was a dark day in Fraser Canyon. The road is fixed on mountainside and often protected against rock-slides. The town of Lytton at the junction between Hwys 12 and Hwy 1 does not have much attraction. Then Hwy 1 crosses seven tunnels before arriving at Yale. I bivouacked at the exit of the last tunnel!
Frazer Canyon
Hwy 12
21/05/2011
Fraser Canyon
Hwy 12
21/05/2011
Attraction at this spot
Lytton
21/05/2011
Hope is recognized as the "Chainsaw Carving Capital of the World". It exposes along Fraser River and in streets about fifty sculptures, more or less inspired. On the other hand I remain subjugated by aboriginal sculptures, called here First Nations people.
Cariboo Road
Hope
22/05/2011
Harry
Hope
22/05/2011
Harry
Hope
22/05/2011
First Nations Art
Hope
22/05/2011
Forty kilometres further away Harrison Hot Springs at the edge of the eponym lake is drowned in fog fixed on mountains. I bivouacked on the spot. Monday is Victoria Day, public holiday in Canada. I head back to Vancouver by hoping that the parcel sent by the back base on May 11 is finally delivered to the Main Post Office on Tuesday May 24!
Frontage
Harrison Hot Springs
22/05/2011
Harrison Lake
Harrison Hot Springs
22/05/2011
DSK's arrest in New York
I followed
the alleged sexual aggression by Dominique Strauss-Kahn –DSK– (Chief of IMF).
He is supposed innocent until a decision of an American court.
For more than five years on the roads round the world I have had shame of the
French political community, verbal gesticulation by the left-wind and
oppressing silence by the right-wind.
I recall to J-F. Kahn and B-H Levy that all that is excessive is
insignificant…
I thank Gisele Halimi for her eloquent and balanced intervention.
I encourage all despisers of the American legal system to read or re-read
the always current book by Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America”.
I encourage all those who will remain in the USA to read
this work to understand to what they are exposed in the event of crime.
I point out that a civilization is a coherent and indivisible totality. When
one visits, remains or settles in a foreign country one have to assume laws,
habits and customs of this country if not to remain at home.
