17.04.2009
Noon. I leave Vancouver for vancouver Islan, my training field. Alaska is too much of a challenge yet (around -20 degrees Celsius), and living in Vancouver is very expensive. Planning my trip also takes time and I hardly keep any to invest into job search. Having a bike, and the sun being back, I quickly made my mind!
I have been too optimistic and thought I could take the 3 o'clock ferry boat at Tsawwassen terminal, located "a few" km south from Vancouver. That's forgetting that Canada is a car country. That means being on a bike makes you make many detours to reach places where cars can go following a straight road.
My map of Vancouver also just stops where I get kicked off a Oak St Bridge into Richmond.
After some detours, I finally find myself on the good road, and a cyclist explains to me that I'll have to take a bus to make it through a tunnel under Frasers River.
It's a bit tricky, but the bike does fit on the bus rack. Tricky, and scary, because it's so heavily loaded that it seems to be ready to trip over (or to bend) at every speed change.
But we make it! Also thanks to the driver, who i think took extra care to avoid an accident.
The rest of the road will be a straight highway leading to the terminal access, which is... a straight highway. Facing winds, of course!
I push hard to make it to the ferry before 4 pm, I arrive at 3:58, just in time... to hear the 4 o'clock boat horn and leave. I'll have to take the 5 o'clock ferry.
6:15. I arrive at Swartz Bay, Victoria's north ferry terminal. I already know that time will be an issue, and I discover that the area is not really flat. I have to push the bike uphills several times, and start thinking about finding a place to sleep around as the sun sets.
8 pm. A local tells me I'm less than 20 minutes from Victoria. It gives me extra energy and I make it to Mark's place (a couchsurfer), at 9:15 pm. Problem : he's away. I told him I was going to arrive around 6 pm, so he didn't wait for me that late, especially because it's friday night. I'll know later that he left just 5 minutes before I arrived. I'll sleep in a youth hostel in town.
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