Oh, and by the way, what is up with these seasons? When I got to the UK I had 2 weeks of unbroken, late spring, mostly warm; then I got to Toronto and it was sunny again (mostly) and warm too, but the trees seemed to have stepped back about a month in how leafy they were – late spring, they told me. Then, up in North Bay it was sunny to start with, then cold and wet, still no spring in the leaves. Now, in Thunder Bay, it is light at 10pm, like I’d expect it to be in Summer, the sun has been shining all day (like Summer – it is nearly June after all) but it never got over 7˚C and the trees are still barely out of Winter. I mean I wouldn't mind, except that its like driving about in a greenhouse and then I get out of the car and need to put on Winter clothing. I am confused!!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Heavy on the Seasoning...
Water, Water Everywhere
Did I say fun? I meant hard labour. What was I thinking? I somehow imagined that the kindness and generosity I’d shown Mike and Janelle in Wellington would be repaid when I got to their manor, squire, but instead I was put to work in their new house – a real fixer-upper – within moments of my arrival on Thursday afternoon. OK, so Janelle fed me first, but then she got out her whip and jackboots, and not in a good way! With a kitchen installation looming on Friday morning, we were on a tight schedule to get a whole, freshly plastered kitchen to undercoat and double top-coat before then. With 4 hours of drying time between coats, we used a fan heater to speed things along but, even still it was quarter to one in the morning before we were done. And then the installation was delayed to Tuesday anyway. Never mind, I thought, it’s the least I could do to earn my keep for a couple of days…and then the landscaping started.
In the end, I spent four days with them, shifting dirt, clearing brush, digging vegetable beds, planting seeds, and having a great time. Their new house is right on the lake side in North Bay, Mike’s parents, grandparents, niece and nephew came up to help and were great, and in a way I see it as earning my whole trip. In South America I did voluntary work with kids and animals to feel like I earned the ride, and this time…well, this time I guess it’s much the same…just not quite for as long…but then neither is the trip.
The worst thing about spending the first two weeks of my trip with friends is that I was sorely tempted to ditch the whole cross country drive thing and just hang out and re-paint Mike and Janelle’s house for three months. Still, that would be cop out, so enough of that kind of talk.
Anyhoo, work done, back still in one piece, just about, and it was time to hit the road properly – at last! I plotted a vague course for a few days and got cracking, aiming on the first day, not for the touristy town of Sault Ste. Marie, but to the Lake Superior Provincial Park a bit further north, for some camping out and an attempt to get into the spirit of the trip.
It was a good call. The road itself was interesting enough…for a while. Then, however picturesque the mixed pines and silver birches were, decoratively interspersed with reflective lakes and creeks as they were, they got a bit samey after a while. Even trying to check each clearing for a glimpse of a bear or moose that might have been wandering past, lost its excitement factor after about 6 hours with not a sniff. Still, thinks I, it won’t last for long…except it did. It lasted for hours…days, in fact as it turned out, as it was still the same at the end of the third day of driving, I was beginning to get an idea of just how large Canada is.
Case in point: I have so far driven along the shores of three of the Great Lakes – Ontario, Huron and Superior – and while they are definitely beautiful to see, they are so unbelievably large that it’s hard to tell them apart from the ocean for a lot of the time. It’s a bit like looking at the pixels that make up a picture, close up. They lose any kind of meaning until you take a step back and they merge into an image. The lakes are like this. You’d need to be able to look at them from a great distance to get any sense that they were, indeed, lakes rather than oceans, and even then it’s not that clear.
There were plenty of spots to pull in and stretch the old legs of course – and more importantly the even older-feeling back – but, rather disappointingly, if they were in a Provincial Park (of which there are many to drive through) the spots all required a hefty parking fee, in cash - of which I didn’t have any. So, I chanced it, parking up and rushing to whatever cliff edge or waterfall this particular stopping point was promoting, taking some quick photos and skidaddling. A bit dishonest, but I tell myself (and you, too, you judgers) that I was quite willing to pay if they’d had a better system in place that took plastic or notes rather than exact change.
The same thing happened at Lake Superior Provincial Park, which was closed up when I arrived at 6pm and still closed when I left conveniently early at 8am, once again being unable to pay the ridiculously high camping fee (C$35 a night!! That’s more than a hostel charges!) . Still, I grabbed myself a spot along the deserted lake front, with a view of the setting sun, where I was able to organise the back of Flash Harriette and cook my first evening meal. No hiccups there…except that the fuel bottle of my Whisperlite stove decided to leak like a geriatrics bladder instead of carefully channelling the fuel to the burner. Luckily, it did this before ignition, but trying to fix fiddly little metal bits with very cold hands indeed was not easy. I was equal to the task however and got it plugged and fired up safely. Dinner was a snap, the sun set over the horizon (not sure where else I’d have expected it to set), and the back of Harriette was fixed up for sleeping. Nice. This was what it was all about!
Next day it was further on round Lake Superior, all the way to Thunder Bay – no, really, that’s its name. A bit ‘Hollywood B-movie’ for my tastes, but a nice enough little town. On the way there, I pulled in to check out another impressive vista, and as I pulled in to the car park I got my first taste of real live bears! A mother and her cub were scavenging around the bins, and my car startled them. The cub scrambled up the nearest tree (so fast that I instantly dropped “climbing a tree” from my list of bear evasion strategies) while the mother stood and stared down Flash Harriette. I got a quick photo before they shuffled off into the bushes, but it was a better sighting than I’d expected to get outside of a rubbish dump. Definitely a highlight of my two days so far. Still, I gotta say that I miss my bike. Its not as challenging, somehow…
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Back on Track
I’m not sure who to thank in particular, so I’m sending out a general thanks to everyone who sent out positive thoughts about my car predicament. After a frustrating Monday spent phoning the Canadian Ministry of Transport to check the licence issue (the insurance guy was right, no joy), I called a number of well known and not so well known car rental companies, and had pretty similar and discouraging responses from all of them.
You choose, from “we don’t let our cars out of Ontario”, to “If you got to the US you’ll have to arrange separate insurance for that time,” to “we’ll only give you 2500km free for 84 days, then its 20c a kilometre after that,”to “by all means take the car, but every month you’ll have to visit one of our distributors and get the car sited before signing a new contract…and we’ll charge you about $1 for every kilometre you are away from our office as we have to swap cars and we’ll have to get that one back here somehow.” All very depressing, until I was put on to Carter’s Car and Truck Rental.
They came good at the last and let me have a brand new (well, 2010 model with 30,000km on the clock) Dodge Caravan – actually a minivan with seats that disappear into the floor leaving a huge sleeping space – with 5333km free each month and I was able to pre-sign 2 extra contracts before I left, so that all I’d have to do every 28 days was phone in a mileage reading. The only down side was that my credit card does not provide automatic insurance on rental cars, so I have to pay an extra $500 odd per month, but even still, the final cost will be just less than if I’d bought a car at the top of my $5k budget and had to fork out for insurance anyway. With a rental I don’t get to recoup anything by selling it at the end…..unlesssss…no, that would be illegal and, besides, they have my credit card number. I’d better give it back.
Incidentally, they had offered a Toyota Sienna minivan first, which I preferred due to Toyota's reputation for reliability, but this vehicle’s alternator caught fire on its way to the service shop just before I picked it up. So, lucky for me, then.
To sum up then: I am now the proud (temporary) owner of a 2010 reddish-coloured Dodge Caravan and I am about to let rip across Canada. It is a far flasher car than I would have bought for myself (hence its temporary name: Flash Harriette), and I can plug my ipod straight into the radio. Perfect. This is where the fun begins. Tomorrow: North Bay and a visit with Mike and Janelle for a few days.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
An Early Spanner
It had all seemed so simple:
1) Arrive in Canada
2) Buy car
3) Drive back and forth across Canada until time to stop
4) Sell car
5) Leave Canada.
To begin with, it was. The arriving bit went very well indeed, including being collected by a friend at the airport, catching up with more old friends that night, as well as making some new ones. There was drinking. Lots of drinking. And lots of eating. Sunshine, even. More old friends – nice ones, too.
But, alas, it turns out that it was all part of a lulling process. I was being lulled. Tricked into a false sense of how easy everything would be. I was further lulled by a couple interesting and useful test drives of various Volvos and Toyotas. I was even on the verge of completing the second part of the plan, i.e. buying a car (even getting as far as obtaining large quantities of hard cash to sweeten the deal). Unfortunately I had underestimated the Canadian – in particular the Ontario-an – love of red tape.
Before I could actually buy a car, I would have to sort out insurance. Fair enough, and easy, right? Wrong. So, so wrong. I was eventually asked by a small town insurance broker (after being ping-ponged between several larger insurance providers, including the all powerful Canadian Automobile Association) whether I had an Ontario driver’s licence. Of course not, I’d replied. I have a NZ one. And an International one, if that’s any help. Nope. No help at all. If I’d had an Ontario licence, I’d have been insured to drive anywhere in Canada and the US, which would have been great. However, it seems that without an Ontario driver’s licence, I can’t get motor insurance in Ontario. Without motor insurance I can’t legally own a car. Without a car, I can’t drive back and forth across Canada. Ah. Bugger. Quite the kick in the plums.
There were options. I could get a friend to buy a car and go on their insurance, but then they’d have to take 6 – 10 weeks off work to accompany me. I could take a driving test and get an Ontario licence, but I’d have to hand over my NZ licence, and probably wait ages for the new licence to come through. I could maybe (still to be investigated) go to the US, buy a car there and start and end my trip in a whole other country. Inconvenient, but last resort do-able. Or, least stressfully, I might be able to rent a car for 3 months…although I still have not had an opportunity to investigate this either, so there may be restrictions on how far from the rental shop I can drive it.
It is now Sunday, so everything is closed or limited, including my access to internet. I will have to get into it on Monday. Wish me luck. It seems like I may be needing some. Incidentally, I received the bad news two days ago...on Friday...the 13th. Coincidence? You decide.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
South American Facts and Figures
Before I set off across Canada, I thought there might be some people out there who would like to know some of the stats from South America. I’m certainly curious myself, having never yet got around to sitting down and doing the sums, so now seems as good a time as any. It’s going to be a bit listy, but I’m sure you’ll be able to manage. To add a bit of comic relief - or perhaps, preferably, some awe and wonder - the photo is of my biggest 'offsie'. Rich is standing where I began to lose control of the bike, and the bike is where it finished cart-wheeling. Cool, huh? (Mother, close your eyes!) So, here goes with some Crazy Roads accounting: | Total distance covered | 30,810 km or 19,145 miles |
| Greatest distance covered in a day (best guess) | 660 km or 410 miles (Foz do Iguaçu – Curitiba, Brazil) |
| Shortest distance covered in a day by choice | 158 km or 98 miles (Azul to General la Madrid, Argentina) |
| (Actual) Longest day in the saddle for the shortest distance traveled: | 105 km or 65 miles (Mendoza to Uspallata, Argentina) over 10 hours, in the snow and sunshine. |
| (Perceived) Longest day in the saddle for shortest distance traveled: | 137km (Huanuco – La Union, Peru) over 6 1/2 hours, in the rain and mud. |
| Top speed (by me) | 140km/h (Route 26 between Villa Unión and Villa San Agustin de Vallé Fertil, Argentina – throttle fully open, level ground, straight road, no wind) |
| Highest altitude ridden (by me – Rich went higher when his girlfriend came to visit in March) | 4748m Paso de San Francisco, between Argentina and Chile) |
| Largest number of ‘offsies’ in a day | Impossible to count, but certainly over 30 (Mendoza to Uspallata, Argentina) |
| Total number of ‘offsies’ for the trip | You’re kidding, right? How the hell can I remember that? Well over 100, and thankfully ever fewer towards the end of the trip. I think Rich came off about 5 times in total. Git. |
| Most destructive ‘offsie” | The 60km/h cartwheel I did between Viedma and San Antonio Oeste (photo) |
| Total number of days on the road | 278 |
| Different places stayed at night en route | 116 |
| Number of nights camped out | 27 (24 different locations) |
| Most nights stayed in one place | Cusco, Peru (2 months - volunteering) |
| Least nights stayed in one place | Rafael, Argentina (3 hours) |
| Number of windscreens broken | 2 (3 if you count breaking the repaired one a second time) |
| Number of times handle bars bent and replaced | 3 times bent, 1 time straightened and finally 1 replacement |
| Number of panniers damaged | 2 – both the left and right were held on to the racks by straps by about the 5th week. They remained 100% waterproof throughout, however. I was impressed! |
| Number of times of chain/sprockets replaced | 1 |
| Number of times tyres replaced | 2 |
| Number of punctures | 4 |
| Number of breakdowns | 1 (in Punta Arenas, Chile) |
| Number of Injuries | Not many. Coupla cuts and bruises, mostly my own fault! |
| Number of times food poisoned | 2 (Fiambalá, Argentina; Lake Titikaka, Bolivia) |
| Run ins with the cops/customs | 0 |
| Number of tantrums | Too many, all ‘offsie’ or stress related |
| Approximate cost of whole trip, including shipping and flights | NZ$30,000 |
| Number of unforgettable memories | Countles |
There were times during the trip when all I wanted to do was go home. By the end, however, I was left with the certain knowledge that I want to do another motorbike trip some time. “So why not take a bike across Canada, instead of a car?” I hear you ask.
Well, during my time in Cusco and the Bolivian jungle, I was suffering some fairly severe back and sciatic leg pain. I got some treatment in Cusco and, by the time I got back to the UK in May, it seemed to have calmed down. About 3 months after returning to NZ, however, in October 2009 (and probably as a result of visiting chiropractors and massage therapists to ease the pain and tension I was again feeling) the locked muscles that had been doing their best to protect my lower back, were released sufficiently so that I burst a disc in my spine (the L5S1 in the lower back, for those with experience of these things) which inpinged on the sciatic nerve in my right leg. I have never felt pain like it, and suffered a week with only about 6 hours sleep before I was given a cortisone injection to kill the pain. I was off work for 5 ½ months, and have since been advised that long days of riding would be a bad idea at this stage in my recovery. The fact that my baby bro suffered a similar (but surely less severe ;-p) injury to mine several years ago, and is now planning a big bike trip of his own, suggests I just need to be patient and keep doing my exercises, and one day I will be up to another bike trip. That will be the time that I look at riding from Anchorage to Cusco, or some such. Until then, it will be 4 wheels on my wagon, and I’ll keep rolling along. And that's it for today. Thanks for tuning in, and see you next time &:-)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Once more unto the breach, dear friends...
Well, I'm back after a somewhat extended hiatus. It's as though we've been at a work Christmas party and conversation dried up. We've been standing in awkward silence, swirling our drinks, looking at our shoes and rocking on our heels, desperately trying to think of something interesting to say or, better yet, an excuse to go and talk to someone else ("How about those Hurricanes / Maple Leafs / Harlequins (insert sporting team of choice here)?").
Luckily for you (you be the judge), I have come up with a new topic on which to wax lyrical: I am poised to embark upon an epic road trip across North America. OK, I agree, its not quite as interesting as South America - unwittingly, I set the bar rather high on that one. Very little I ever do again will compare to that, unless I am able to return to finish what I started (Mexico to Peru anyone? Now there's a thought!) but, for now, I have engineered a spare 3 months this year, and this is what I have decided to do.
For those out there who have been outside the cirlce of trust (its your own fault, the door has always been open to you) I was originally gearing up to use May - August as a precursor to working with the Toronto Fire Department for a year on the International Firefighter Exchange Program. I'd calculated that, with a little careful planning, I could spend the summer tripping around out west and then concentrate on the rest of the year out east. Unfortunately, my planning was a little sharper than my exchange partners, and while I was ready to sign contracts in November last year, he wasn't, and by the time he was, there was no longer time to organise the requisite visas without seriously altering my own plans, so the year of work was moved to the back burner. Disappointing, but when life gives you lemons, you say "Bugger the lemonade, I'm going to make a lovely big lemon meringue pie. Now, do I have any eggs?"
So, there it is. Arrival date in TO: 6th May. First order of business: secure a vehicle - at this stage I have been looking at either something my father would be proud of, or alternatively something fun...but ridiculously impractical and asking for trouble. I suspect the Volvo station wagon will prevail. As soon as I have it in my sweaty hands, I will change the front page photo. Thereafter, I will spend a fortnight or so catching up with a few friends around the area before heading west.
I have only a vague idea of what route I will take at this stage, but basically it will involve getting to Vancouver, exploring some of British Columbia and returning via the US of A through the northern states. I'll be aiming to get back to TO by 1st July, where I will collect a travel companion for a month or so of exploring Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and getting to North Bay, Ontario for a canoe trip in the first week of August. After that, I should just have time to chill out and do some more local exploring before finally hitting TO and flying back to NZ on August 18th. All these plans have been made, needless to say, with only a minimal understanding of just how large an area I am crossing, so it could turn out to be an altogether different trip. I have already re-jigged it once and dropped Alaska from the itinerary - it'll keep! Watch this space. If it all goes to plan, I will have driven across both Canada and the USA, and will feel very special.
I will begin up dating the blog again once I get underway, which is actually around April 21st, when I head back to the UK for a flying visit. I will be checking up on my niece (at 9 months old, I will be expecting an intelligent conversation from her about the situation in Libya...or at least some pretty solid raspberries), and bidding farewell to my little brother who is about to undertake one of the biggest sibling rivalry one-uppings in history, as he sets off on a motorbike trip of his own, from London to Beijing in a group, then on to Anchorage and down around South America (and maybe Africa after that) on his own. I am, needless to say, rather jealous (particularly about the second part of his trip) and very proud of him. I don't take any credit for inspring him, he was talking about big bike trips way before I even considered my own adventure. I have added a link to his own, far more professional-looking blog for those that are interested, and will be following it closely myself. I just wonder how professional he will be able to keep it when he realises his secretary is not there to do it all for him ;-p It is somewhat galling to find his writing style is very nearly as good as mine.
I have left the charity links in place for the same reasons as before, really: I wish there was some way of earning the amazing experiences I am anticipating on this trip. Maybe this is one way. If you feel inclined at any stage to make a donation on my behalf, as gesture of appreciaton for the blog updates or whyever, that would be fantastic. Helen House is such an incredible set up, and having spent a considerable amount of time working with Bruce Peru, I cannot say enough good things about it, nor stress how much they need help to stay afloat. Do what you can, and thank you.
As for the new look of the blog...well, it has a vaguely Canadian feel (Autumnal , slightly Maple leafish, the best I could do without a secretary or an Applemac). I quite like it. Oh, and I'd like to say thank you at this point to all the people who were kind enough to tell me that they enjoyed reading about my South American trip. Its nice to know I wasn't wasting my time. For those that are interested, since I got back I have been trying to write it all up into a kind of travel book. It is a very slow process and so far has consisted of committing to paper (OK, hard drive) as much detail as I can remember. I have only got as far as Rio, and its been two years. One day it may even be in a state worthy of being read, at which point you will all be welcome to take a look. Now, run along and tell your friends that Steve's blog is open for business again. TTFN.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
And now, our main stories again...
Part of me is longing to get home (both to the UK and NZ) and back to some kind of normality, but equally I know that it will be most likely years before I get to do a trip like this again, if ever, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I can't imagine never coming back to South America, that's for sure, but how and when are baffling me at the moment. I think I will probably shed a tear as the plane takes off. A tough, macho tear, obviously, but a tear nonetheless.
Maybe I should start by remembering the things I won't miss. For example, buttock cramps caused by 11 hours in the saddle; wind so cold in my face that my eyeballs stop working properly and seeing things clearly becomes nigh impossible; the smell of pee in the streets, thanks to the locals' indifference to public urination at any time of the day or night: when you gotta go, you gotta go is their philosophy; suicidal / kamikaze bus drivers - it amounts to the same thing; the moment of complete certainty that I am about to fall off again, and the accompanying knowledge that it is really going to hurt, but the uncertainty of just how much; the anxiousness I always felt in the days leading up to a "new country" and the unknown (although discovering the anxiousness was unfounded was always a plus); and now I'm struggling to think of more. Which is surely a good thing.
On a more positive note, I have so many good memories, many of which I have already shared, and trying to re-cap them all here, whether for my benefit or yours, would be impossible. I guess they fall in to different categories (not sure how many yet), including places, people, activities, and so on. So, in an effort to get things moving and in roughly the order they occured, but certainly not in any order of preference, some of the most memorable moments would have to include the following:
The first crossing of the Andes, in the snow; running out of road and in to the construction crew trying to get to San Agustín; meeting Juan Manuel and his family in Chepes on account of my bent handle bars; Camping at Capilla del Montt; the ride into and then the walk across the river to Salta de Moconá; the waterfalls at Iguacú; the mountain top in Parque Naçional Marumbí; a surreal night out on our way up the coast in Brasil; Rio; Sandro and Ximena in Buenos Aires; Jorje in Azul; General la Madrid and the motorbike rally; Peninsula Valdez and the whales; crossing in to Ushuaia with Rich, and reaching the southern most point of our trip; setting off up Ruta 40 for my first solo mission; the ride from Puerto Ibañez to Coihaique and then on to Puerto Chacabucco; El Bolsón; the ride north from Bariloche to Mendoza; crossing our first high altitude pass; camping on the volcano on the Salar de Uyuni; the mines in Potosi; 2 weeks in the jungle, even with the mozzies; Cusco and Bruce Peru and the kids I got to know there; the solo mission through the Cordillera Blancas; the Galapagos Islands.
What this woefully incomplete list fails to mention, apart from a couple of notable exceptions, are the people I met on the way, tourists and locals alike. Despite my own misgivings, coupled with numerous warnings (largely from people who had never been here, it has to be said), all my fears about the dishonest, dangerous folk who roam the countries of South America robbing and beating foreigners have been proved to be false. Of course, we didn't get into every nook and cranny, but we did pretty well, and in all that time never met a corrupt cop or dicey customs official, were welcomed with smiles and help wherever we went, and I for one have been left with the idea that South America has a reputation it does not deserve. I suspect the victims of all this alledged crime and violence would, in another place, be up for a Darwin award. Common sense keeps you safe, and without that you will fall foul of criminal mindermasts in any place on earth. I have felt far more unsafe in parts of NZ than I did in the vast majority of South America, and that includes Rio!
So, coming back on task a little, a huge thank you to everyone I met here who helped us in some way, with with directions, mechanical assistance, food, beer or fun. If we never meet again, it will be a shame, but if (when) I come back, I will be in touch. And, of course, there is a standing invitation to you, should you make it to NZ at any point.
2 days later...
I'm back in the UK now, and have just re-read the above. I think I'll publish this one now to keep the poor folks happy, and pick up the thread later when I have adjusted back into the real world a bit. In the mean time, I may try and add a few photos to some of the blogs, so feel free to take a look at the back-catalogue. And just in case we don't talk again, its been a pleasure, and thanks for keeping me company along the way.