Day 77: Vancouver to Home

November 22, 2022

True to form, Patrick and us were ready to leave for the 9:00 a.m. ferry, at 7:30. Theoretically the ride is 20 minutes. Dodie had spent part of the night thinking about how to handle the bikes and our gear at the ferry terminal. I'll describe the issue here for a bit, since no doubt on a future trip we will be wondering how we did it!

The basic situation is that we had the bikes, with no pedals and bars turned sideways, and slightly wrapped in bubble wrap, but still roll-able. Then we had two "carry on" bags, which were essentially two of the panniers, resting in shopping bags, and finally a giant duffle bag with the rest of the stuff, and oh, the two handlebar bags. So that is seven, maybe eight items to jockey. With her "broken" wrists, Dodie is some help as a mule, but not so much.

The ferry has no carts, but they do have a way for heavy bags to be deposited by walk ons, to be picked up at the other end. Walk ons follow a different path onto the boat from cars, and cyclists usually go with the cars (or actually, with the big trucks). We were a hybrid case - part cyclists, by virtue of having objects that somewhat resemble bicycles with us, and walk ons, by virtue of dragging a huge duffel bag in my arms.

How did it work out? Stay tuned, because as I write this we are still on the ferry, and the computer is about to die.....

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The staff at BC Ferries looked on the partly disassembled Bike Fridays as bikes. In our experience this is how it normally goes. When a Bike Friday is folded down, partly disassembled, and resting in its suitcase, we have still been told on occasion that it is a bike, making us eligible for bike surcharges. Bike Friday recommends a suitcase like that bear a label "bike parts".

But in this case the bikes could still roll, so they got to go park with the trucks. The good part was that there was a quite direct pathway from the walk on area to the correct vehicle deck. That allowed us to drop the duffel bag as if we were walk ons and then proceed to the vehicle deck, like vehicles.

At this point we were the only users of the baggage service.

See the walking the bicycle sign on the way to the ferry berth from the walk on area. Someone had already foreseen people like us trying this stunt.

Ok, so we had to wait, slightly in the rain, to get the bikes on board.

With bikes and bags safely stowed, we were free to go looking for breakfast. We had eaten nothing since on the plane from Marseilles, some unknown number of hours earlier.

On this tour, breakfast is always a big topic, so the offering now here in Canada made an interesting comparison for us.

Clearly, the "All Aboard" was the choice for me, though Dodie pointed out that this was almost identical to a "Full English". Dodie prefers oatmeal, which as you see, was available. The price was 10x our usual ploy of the packet of instant with some boiling water, but availability is worth a lot.

Interestingly, the boiled egg plus cheese and charcuterie, which would be a prize to find in France, did not interest us at all. I argued that without croissant it loses all appeal.

So here (below) it is. $Can 30 or about 23 euros. That is in line with the upper end of hotel breakfast cost (at our kind of cheap hotels) in France. And with resemblance to Full English or not, at this stage it tasted so good!

Vancouver Island was welcoming us back with cold and rain. But we did like seeing the cormorants.

When that ramp descends, the way will be open to return to our Island.

And again, a way was provided to go with the bikes from the truck deck to where our bag would be waiting with the foot passengers.

Cormorants notwithstanding, the best welcoming party is Marvin. We have often, maybe too often, prevailed on his good nature to come and rescue us from the ferry. Even though we appear to be strong, while charging by bicycle across Europe or Mexico or America, we seem to reappear at the ferry in a heap. Marvin gathers us up in loving arms and more or less puts us in our bed. Thanks Marvin!

(Shout out to other friends and family - Sandra, Travis, Marius, Sandra, Karen, Erhard, and others, we know we could count on you as well!)

Starting about 3 p.m. local time, we went into that bed mentioned above, and when some amount of consciousness came back to me it was dark outside. The clock said 7, and I lay there trying to work out if it was evening or morning, and what time it "really" was according to my body, which still thinks it is in Marseille. I totally failed, and like when you lose your sense of physical direction, I could not sense how I came to be here, at this time of (apparently) night. So I gave up, made sure all the clocks in house or pocket agreed with the time and date the internet claimed it is here, and will restart life from this point.

So that means it's supper time. We're off to cook something, first time doing that for ourselves in 77 days!

Don't forget to check in for other trip statistics and impressions. Coming soon.

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Sue PriceGlad you made it home safe and sound! We are currently "on the road" enjoying beaches, snorkelling and paddle boarding in lieu of cycling. Hope to see you when we return in March (unless you've taken off again!)
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Sue PriceThanks Sue and Jim. In southern France the weather was equivalent to what we would call mid Autumn here, while right this moment we are experiencing the very beginning of Winter. It's only about an 8 degree C difference, but in the one case you feel like cycling and in the other it is already too damp and chilly.

Of course none of that is paddle boarding!

Yes, hope to see you asap!
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1 year ago

Bruce LellmanWhat an ordeal getting home! We know all about that. But I'm glad you made it. Congratulations on yet another wonderful trip. You guys are pretty damn amazing!

Bruce
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1 year ago