Pushing for the Border – Day 11 – 61 miles

I knew today would be a long ride. I was determined to camp near the ferry which I'll take to the US tomorrow. As much as I'm loving Canada I'm ready to cross the border and enter the States. The Canadian leg of the journey has been a deliberately dilly-dallying kind of affair. From now on I should be doing bigger mileages and constantly moving south.

I left Nanoose Creek Campground at just after 9am and headed back along the busy highway. 10 miles in came Nanaimo, the biggest city on Vancouver Island. I'd not been looking forward to this part of the ride. Luckily it was Sunday so the roads were a little quieter than usual. I was also able to follow a bike path, running alongside a railway track. It was quite a relief to relax a bit after having cars speed past me at 70MPH on the highway. I didn't see too much of central Nanaimo but I did stop off briefly at the harbour to watch a man trying to catch a snake he'd seen in a bush. He didn't really want to do it but his daughters were egging him on. The snake escaped so I went on my way.

Back on the highway I came to an amazing Japanese Deli where I bought a delicious potato salad and carrot cake. I sat on a tree stump by the side of the road, enjoying the hot sunshine. I've realised I cannot continue eating at restaurants for lunch every day. If I do I shall run out of money well before Mexico.

Riding on a motorway has its difficulties. For example, sometimes another busy road will join the motorway. When this happens a cyclist riding along the hard shoulder can find himself with 3 lanes of traffic to his left, 2 lanes to his right and a disappearing shoulder in front. I'd had enough of this so took a detour along a smaller back road. This road was generally not suitable for cyclists because of heavy logging traffic. However, it being a Sunday the road was pretty much empty.

45 miles in I reached the ferry that would take me to Salt Spring Island, a small community of hippies and a short-cut to the border. On the ferry I was approached by a tall Dutchman. He was a keen cyclist and was even more excited about my trip than I am. We chatted for 20 minutes about the route, the bike and camping equipment. He was very jealous. I was similarly jealous when he told me about the hike he'd taken with his wife this last week. They flew to a place on Vancouver Island only accessible by seaplane. They then hiked for 6 days along the coast, camping wild on beaches every night. He told me they'd seen a bear just 30 metres away. He introduced me to his wife and she took a picture of us both together. As they drove past me off the ferry he was beeping the horn and they were both waving frantically.

I was not particularly impressed by Salt Spring Island. It is a beautiful place with a lot going for it. What annoyed me were the relentless hills. After 50 miles I was not in the mood for punishing climbs. I rode almost the entire length of the island to another ferry. This one took me back to Vancouver Island, near Sidney where I'll get the ferry to the US tomorrow. I met so many nice people on this ferry I'm having to heavily edit this section. Most of the journey I spent chatting with a mountain biker from Alberta. He was a great source of information about biking in the local area. We disembarked the ferry together and he guided me to my camp site along a bike path I would've had great difficulty finding without him.

My home for tonight is McDonald Provincial Park, a very basic camp ground with a cold tap and some pit toilets. On the plus side the park rangers are really wonderful. While setting up my tent 2 ladies riding a sort of golf cart approached with a friendly welcome. They reminded me of an all-female version of the Krankees. The normal-sized lady was quite domineering over her tiny assistant. They registered me for the night and offered to lend me their mallet. I asked if they knew the ferry times to the US for tomorrow. They didn't but without hesitation pootled off in their little buggy, only to return a few minutes later having looked it up on the Internet and printed out a timetable for me. The bigger one then insisted on drawing me a map showing how to get to the ferry.

Later on, just before going to bed I took a surreptitious wee in the dark woods surrounding my campsite. I was however forced to abort upon seeing the headlights of the park ranger's buggy shining directly at me. They sped along next to my tent, waving as they passed.