Remote Canadian Van Life Adventure- That's a First. [S7-E61]

In the depths of the foreseer! I've never seen this before! What is that? The mist hugging the mountaintop, that's very cool! Telegraph Cove looks like it might be foggy! We might have a San Francisco moment! We're Marianne and Chris, in 2018 we quit the 9-5 and bought Trudy our campervan. We are currently on an adventure to drive the circumference of the world. Good morning, well we didn't get the knock after parking in this car park last night, but we are in the middle of nowhere. If you're just joining us and didn't see the last episode, we parked up here because it was getting dark, we couldn't find anywhere else, even though there are signs saying no overnight parking. But a number of people, some guys slept in their car here, some of the other cars are for people that are camping, but it was a very peaceful night's sleep. We've woken up, it's a bit of a grey day here at San Joseph Bay. Right let's show you the map and the plan today, if all goes according to plan. Let's get the map up on the side. Okay so we've woken up here in San Joseph Bay, where we went walking yesterday, and the plan is to drive back to Holberg and then to Port Hardy, which is there. We'll go and get coffee somewhere in Port Hardy, because when we were at Clinton Lenders, we made coffee in the morning, we brought our own coffee in and of course we left it there! So we're caffeine free this morning, which is never good for our brains! So from Port Hardy we're going to go to Telegraph Cove here, because we didn't have time to stop on the way up, and then we're going to drive back to Campbell River, catch up with Clint and Linda, who are making us brisket! They're going to cook us something amazing tonight! He's got a smoker and he's just showing off! So we're looking forward to that, and then tomorrow morning when we wake up, we're going to we're going to drive down and do a little trip into Strathcona Park here, before heading back and reuniting with Trudy, who is parked down in Duncan. So yeah, we've driven a long way, this is actually probably the height of the UK, just to put it into perspective. So we've got about two hours, I think, to get out to Aunty Julia for letting us borrow JB, because without JB we would not have the opportunity to make these adventures So it's 20 past nine in the morning, hopefully we should see some bears or nature on the way. We were lucky last time we drove here, we did spot a black bear on the road. So yeah, we'll keep our eyes peeled to see if we can see anything for you guys this morning. Goodbye Cape Scott Provincial Park, we're in the depths of the Forest Sea. I think if I was a bear, I'd stay in bed all morning and not get out. I think that's a good plan, I'll definitely be by a salmon river as well. Yeah, I just love the moss on these trees as we're driving down, you can see it all hanging like beards coming off the trees. It's definitely like a fairy forest here, reminds me of that forest when we were in Ireland. Yes it does, it did. You literally just wait for a little fairy to come out. We just passed a sign Port Hardy 50 kilometers, 50 kilometers not miles, so that's I don't know 35 miles and progress is a bit slow, it's a bit wet and muddy this morning. I think JB, Aunty Julia if you're watching, will take us to the car wash. It's a big machine there, oh it's one of those ones with the funny tyres, to do the grading. Over a little wooden bridge, very nice, over the river there, it just opens up doesn't it? So you can see down the river, yeah it's very pretty. Just going through Holberg, look at the size of that tree stump there. So we've made it back to the town, the one town between here and Port Hardy. That's a very cool little pub, probably gets lots of hikers, oh that's a bit of a bump love, and yeah it's lovely next to the lake here, see there's lovely little houses here, but yeah very very isolated, past the general store. I'm a bit stiff after that hike! Morning, I did my trade at VW, oh yeah? I was adapting this intake for the cooling of the engine, yeah I was involved with the tooling of it. Oh really? Where abouts was that? In South Africa. Nice, that's very cool, there was another one that came out, the newer models came out, and then they were exposed, different engines, so yeah it goes down, and then of course this is the intake for the cooling system. Oh yeah, Julia, who this van belongs to, she said to me that this is the last model of the VW with the back engine, the engine in the back, I think they're radiated, these do have red, yeah I think so, yes because it's come radiating now too, the old days we called them *** trucks! Do you get many tourists down here? Yes, a lot of hikers in the summer, a lot, we've in actual fact this year was the most that the locals that have been living here for 44 years, and they said it was this year's record. After Covid, probably everybody wanted to get out. A lot of nice, 75% of my customers come from Victoria. And Pops! Oh Pops, you're Pops and this is Pops's Zoo, yeah I love it! Look at this, I've never seen this before, what is that? It's the humpback vertebra, so this we found at Tech Beach, with a friend of mine, Nick Moore, who's actually happens to be the son of Patrick Moore, he's a founder, one of the founders, co-founders of Greenpeace. Oh wow, and he lives locally? Yes, yeah he's got his property. So you got all the cool people living around here, look at that, I can't believe how big that is! This was all, this is all part of the same whale, and then this is a different, this is a grey whale. And they just, they were just washed up on the beach? Yeah, and he's able to tell you that, because he's a scientist and a marine biologist, he'll identify that. Wow, that's amazing. That's incredible. This is my honey bun. Your honey bun? Yeah. Oh, lovely to meet you. I can meet you. Fancy's glass, you know. Oh the glasses. And she gets all these ideas from the trees and the mountains, she goes and takes pictures and photos. Very talented. She's been building little sailboats out of beech wood. Oh, driftwood? Driftwood, yeah. Yeah, wow! And all, this is her, this is her old connection here, she's been, she's taken mugs and then she's put Holberg on them. Oh that's nice. And these, she's painted that. Oh that's beautiful. I want to know why you don't call me your honey bun? Sasquatch. You're my Sasquatch. Warning, please do not, please do not feed the Sasquatch. I love that. Do they have Sasquatch here? Is there rumour that they? Yes. Because I heard BC is the place for Sasquatch. Guys you are absolutely amazing, thank you so much. If you guys are, anybody's driving down here, the Holberg store, these guys are the most hospitable people we've met. And the warmest welcome! Yeah, thank you very much. All right, take care. A treat to meet you. Yeah, bye guys. Thank you. Oh, what a lovely couple. I'm so pleased we stopped back at that store. Um yeah, it's all clear. They were so, so lovely. They gave us a coffee and welcomed us and they even invited us to stay for lunch. But we're off meeting uh friends in Campbell River again tonight, so we had to say no. It's a bit interesting how people have found a community, joined the community, want to be part of that community and grow the whole tourism aspect of it and share how beautiful this place is. Yeah, so he's talking about maybe getting a boat and one, they get some hikers and stuff here, so I'm sure over the years this area is so beautiful. The North of the island will be just as popular as the South. But he was saying most of the the houses in the in the little community there, are actually owned by workers that work in the forests and on the land here. The sun's come out, isn't that lovely? It's burned through the early morning mist. Just going slowly because there's loads of little sharp pointy stones on the road here, not great for tyres. And we still got about probably about 45 minutes drive to Port Hardy, which should be in perfect time for lunch. We had so much fun with the guys at the shop, that it's we should be there by lunchtime. So far no bears this morning. And we've made it back! JB made it love! What a rocking van! This van has done very well for such an old van. She's still up for an adventure aren't you Julia? You should definitely big up JB. There you go. Welcome to Port Hardy. There's a car wash, a laundromat and a lottery. The A&W drive through. We'll see if we can see any little snacky places for a bit of lunch. All the way stop. Let's have a look. Oh look at the mural on there. Oh that's nice. There's a lot of murals on the island aren't there? Yeah they're nice. There's a cafe down there, Cafe Guido. Oh JB, you've definitely been on a bit of an adventure. Okay so we've come down to Cafe Guido. I think it was the only place over the A&W that looked like they did food. So we'll see if we can get a scooby snack. I feel incredibly spoiled. I've got the veggie one which is goat's cheese and mushrooms and pesto and caramelised onions and peppers. It smells absolutely delicious. Okay so after a quick pit stop lunch, we're just having a little wander because we spotted these lovely murals on the wall here. This one's cool isn't it? The orcas, we've seen a few of those since we've been here. I'm loving that. We are privileged to have seen orcas. It was a really emotional time wasn't it? Yeah definitely. If you haven't seen the video you should, when we went whale watching that's an absolute amazing sight. Right we're going to start the journey south again now. Yep and back towards Campbell River. So although we still got about half a tank, we better top her up, because there's not a lot of gas stations on the on the way down. Gas stations? I've been here too long! Petrol stations, garages! No but you actually said, he said this morning um have you seen my pants? And i was like yes they're here, and he's like no my pants? And i was like yeah definitely we've been in North America too long! Time to go to Mexico! Okay let's quickly fill up. Okay all filled up $2.26 a litre, definitely seems to be going up recently. I think it's because the infrastructure required to get the fuel up here. Yeah I think the north of the island is definitely more. So just to give you guys an update on the parts, if you if you're new to our channel, we're not in our van because we've been waiting for weeks now, for parts to repair Trudy our van. The latest update is that the company in Slovakia, has sourced the spindle after all the confusion, and said it will be posted next week. But Ersel's in Istanbul, he sent the spindle, so that should be here by the middle of next week. Fingers crossed! So hopefully in about eight days time, Trudy should be fixed. She's booked into the garage with Sean next Friday, and then we'll be able to hit the road again. I know we've had quite a few comments going, you're crazy driving a two-wheel drive 18 year old Fiat Ducato, to some of these roads like Tutankhamun and the roads in Georgia. But she has been going, we we picked her up at 40,000 miles, she's done 110,000 miles now, and this is the first time, that she's had her bearings and wheel bits replaced. So I reckon she's done pretty good, considering the miles and the roads that she's been on. And we are an adventure channel, and we like to show you adventure, so we'll be doing more roads like that. And let's face it, you're right, she is not built for those kind of roads, or those kind of adventures, but neither are we! And that's what makes her special! Thanks love! We've only got a couple of kilometers to go to Telegraph Cove, there's a huge logging area there, that's pretty large scale isn't it? They quite often transport them on the water though don't they? Yeah I think just send them down the rivers. I think just underneath that mist. Oh you can see them all floating in the water there. Yeah I can't believe how misty it is, we're coming in and out of pockets. It's like wrapping the clouds, and then it's sunny again. So hopefully it's sunny when we get to the cove. Telegraph Cove looks like it might be foggy, it's getting more and more dense. Everybody told us we had to come to Telegraph Cove, if we're coming up the island, because it's going to be so beautiful. And it's really picturesque, and you get beautiful views looking out. So yeah I'm not sure, but we'll see. It might clear, we've got another mile, we might get lucky. We might have a San Francisco moment. Okay we're coming into Telegraph Cove. I was hopeful that the fog would have cleared, but it's not looking like it's going to. Oh that green roof, I thought that was the water. Oh Marianne. Lovely little houses, look at this. We should be able to park up, and at least have a little look around. Oh look at this, oh this is beautiful, even though it's foggy, it is looking pretty nice. Telegraph Cove office. Let's just go, I just want to go to the top here, because you might have, unfortunately the cove is down there, but it's just so poppy. So Marianne's just parked JB up behind us, I thought I'd just come and have a look, but it's just too foggy today. Here you go, look this is the view looking over the cove down here. Sometimes when you travel, you have epic fails, and the beautiful cove that is just behind here, I think we've done an epic, it's just one of those things isn't it, you can't control the weather. In the summer this place is absolutely packed, but I'm just going to have a look over the side here, and just see if we can show you any views at all. There you go, how beautiful would that be on a sunny day? There's a lovely harbour here, and there's no boats down there at the moment, but like I say in the height of season, this would be absolutely rammed. We've just left Telegraph Cove, and about a mile out of town, they've got this little viewpoint, look how amazing that is with the mist hugging the mountaintop, and that is the the logging area that we drove up, that's very cool. And we're up in the clouds, look you can actually see the clouds moving up around us. Suddenly the sun's come out, and the view looks so different from the drive up that we did, because it was cloudy on that day, and now look at this, it's the north of the island, it's very very beautiful. Just driving along looking at these epic mountains looking down on us, I'm trying to figure out why there are pine trees all the way up the sides, I don't think I've ever seen that before. How can they grow on like vertical cliffs? I don't know, but they're really long. They really are! Something smells good! We've made it back to Clint and Linda's house, and you've been, what have you made? You've been a little bit, these are Kansas City barbecue burnt ends, and I put on the smoker at about five this morning for 10 hours. Oh my goodness! And basically we call this meat candy. So I'm looking forward to that, it smells absolutely delicious! It really smells so sweet and smoky! I think we're being spoilt tonight! The smoking god! I think we couldn't end today without showing the the the taste test, because it looks amazing! Look how tender that is! That's literally just falling apart! I think we're going to come back again, you can't get rid of this now! Sometimes you meet people and you connect on a carnal level, I think this is exactly what it is! Oh yeah that's good isn't it? Okay we're going now because it's time to eat!