Nairn Falls and the strange place known as Whistler

Sad as we were to leave Juniper Beach, we knew that there was a ferry booked and on the way, a couple of nights in another interesting camping site - Nairn Falls. It was a longer trip there than most of our runs but again, through some great scenery and on pretty quiet roads too. We made the compulsory coffee and cake stop in Lilooet where we also topped up the truck so it didn't feel left out. We get carrot cake, it gets unleaded gas. Not quite as exciting. For info, petrol (gas) prices were around 35 cents per litre more in the remote areas than around Calgary. That is around a 25% hike. We've seen way worse % hikes in the Outer Hebrides where they can kind of justify the costs of shipping the stuff in and something close to that in Britain's grim / expensive motorway service areas.

The "Artisan Bakery" in Lilooet was as good as the reviews left about it on various social media. For once, the hype matched the reality and the queue when we arrived proved the point too. For a flavour of the place have a look at this Facebook page link. An elderly lady in a wheelchair was pushed into the queue by what we strongly suspect was her daughter, who then proceeded to buy her the biggest pastry in the place. Normal ones were huge but this was obscene. Poor mum attempted to eat some if it, then the daughter, with quite a glint in her eye, said that she would wrap it up, take it home and have it later on. We fear that this game has been played out many times before - mum's purse was used to pay too.

Walking back to the truck and Airstream along the main road we had to admire the colour choice of this B and B owner, which was reflected in the name of the establishment:

It really did not enhance his oldtimer car though:

All in all not quite to our taste but it showed serious focus and determination:

The rest of the trip went well until the crew squealed just as we were at a junction outside Pemberton. The captain momentarily wondered what was wrong. No oncoming traffic, we had only just started to move across the adjoining road.  The Airstream was following us, no funny noises from the truck. Then from watching her outstretched finger and deciphering the squeaks she was making, he saw a bear just ambling across the road towards the town. The crew had seen so may little rivers and stream on the way, checked them for bears fishing for salmon and never seen one. Then, heading into a little town where we guess that food scraps could be found, we spot one. Such is life.

Narin Falls campsite was very quiet indeed. Few folks there (the season was coming to an end) and lots of free pitches. They were all well spaced and secluded anyway so it felt as though we were in our own bit of forest. At the camp entrance there was a nice sign saying that there had been bear activity in the area that week and from the notes it sounded very "normal". So, we followed the caution notices on the picnic tables:

and dug out the spray just in case.

It was a great spot and of course, with no audience, we backed the trailer into our space with no trouble. Typical:

Very peaceful spot indeed and we slept well after the now regular BBQ dinner.

We'd booked 2 nights there so we could drive into Whistler and explore it for a day. There was good and bad in that it turned out. First of all we found the local waste disposal site in town which also had a sanitation dump facility for RV's and trailers. We would need that the following day as there was no facility at the camp site. Pit toilets and nothing more. Close by was a good local hardware store where the captain bought some stuff to fix the things we'd broken on the Airstream. Actually broken is a bit unfair. We found that a domed nut had come off one of the bolts securing the awning frame and when we checked another one was loose too. So, a new nut / bolt combo and some threadlocker was purchased together with some BBQ cleaner to spruce it up after our final meal and prepare to hand it back to Martin and Inge.

Then we wandered into one of the best bakeries just across the street:

Too much choice. Way too much. We ended up buying a couple of raspberry and white chocolate scones that we consumed back at  the campsite later. They were very very good indeed. Up to the standard of the Olive Tree café in Bangor, Northern Ireland and that is quite an accolade.

We then drove into the "Village" of Whistler stopped in an expensive car park and were suitably unimpressed with the place. It was kind of a big outlet shopping village with hotels around it and a Disneyworld feel:

The gondola trips up the mountain were not operating - we were in the dead season between summer holiday folks and the arrival of the ski tourists. Shame but so be it and that made the place quieter. We had to take the typical touristy picture of the Olympic rings:

Sorry about that. Whistler was one of the venues for the 2010 Winter Olympics and trades on that rather well. After a good walk around we decided that Whistler was not like the rest of the places we'd visited and not in a good way either. Kind of a make-believe place after the reality of the Rockies and other national park areas. Glad we saw it, not sad to leave it though.

We were a bit sad that evening though. Firstly it rained a lot so no BBQ (meaning we didn't give it a proper final tidy up) and it was going to be our last night sleeping in the Airstream. As you can see from the table, we consoled ourselves with a large bottle of water. #lifeontheedge:

It was a rather inviting place to be and it had enabled us to see all sorts of wonderful places:.

in rather a lot of comfort. We were going to miss this lifestyle.