Seattle to Kamloops

Day 2 (5 Sep) — Across the border again, into Canada

to Kamloops

For all our exhaustion, one night's sleep made it strangely vanish. Seattle's cool breeze was refreshing. It was hard to believe that only yesterday we had been in sweltering Japan. Last night we stayed at Seattle City Hostel. Even though it's in the city centre near the bus depot, it's relatively cheap. About a ten-minute walk from the hostel is the Budget rent-a-car office. It was quite busy, but only one man was dealing with customers, so we had a long wait. Our partner for these three weeks was not an American car.

We stopped for a toilet break after driving for just under two hours. The photo on the right is our partner, a Hyundai Elantra!! We had asked for a compact car and never expected to be lent one this big. The 1.8 L engine had power to spare, and it even had cruise control. It was quiet too; no complaints at all. Its fuel economy, as we later found out, was 15 km/L, as good as a Japanese car. When I rented a Hyundai in Okinawa before, it was a saloon but felt like a non-turbo kei car, all noise and no power. To think Hyundai had come this far... The Koreans are formidable.

Heading north on Highway 5 for a while, we came back to the border we had crossed by bus. It looks just like a toll gate on a Japanese expressway.

In Vancouver we stopped at Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), the outdoor shop that also helped us on the trip a year and a half ago, and bought what we needed for hiking. On top of backpacks and boots we got a frying pan and bear bells, so we were fully prepared. The MEC-brand pack I fell for because of its name: the Alpine Light. The 60 L size cost about 14,000 yen. Very good quality, and I liked it. Waterproof zips, stylish check-patterned fabric, sides that open wide; I'd never seen anything like it among the cheap products sold in Japan. Canada, where you can buy good gear cheaply, is heaven for hikers.

From Vancouver we drove east for a while along Trans-Canada Highway 1. Unlike America there were few cars, and it was easy driving. From the west coast we headed into the interior of the North American continent. In the suburbs I handed the wheel to Mao. We had both got international driving permits for driving in Canada.

Drive about 300 km from Vancouver along the Fraser River and you reach the town of Kamloops. We stayed here for the night. We bought sushi at a nearby supermarket, Save-On-Foods, and had it for dinner.