Our amazing Pan American Highway Journey is now complete and on Saturday 2nd April in Surrey VANCOUVER  we (*) sadly said our goodbyes to Ken and Susie in RED CAR and Peter and Wendy in GREEN CAR .  😦

.An emotional moment after travelling  34,600 kms over 4 months together through South America ; Central America.; Mexico ; USA and into Canada

Green Car and Red Car go into a Storage facility in Vancouver (*) and the Slaters and Carthys fly back home to Australia)

(*) The dream continues , pleases God, to return to Vancouver May 2016 and drive to Halifax,east Coast Canada!

(*) RIP (Dave) , Shiraz (Mike and Kay) and Blue B ( Ross and I)

At Midday on Saturday 2nd May our  CANADA /ALASKA Trip began  . :-)..as we join Shiraz (Mike and Kay) in completing his dream as a young man of driving from Ushuaia to Alaska.

The map shows the planned trip..through British Columbia,.  Alberta and then onto the Alaska Highway through British Columbia and the Yukon , the  Klondike Highway  to Skagway in ALASKA  and  on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry back to Bellingham (USA) and back across the border to Vancouver (Canada).

For my record I have counted DAY 1 as our first day in Vancouver …so this  journal starts with DAY 2 Vancouver  to LILLOOET   (304 kms)

At Sqaumish we met up with friends of Shiraz, from Mebourne ,  Stu Natalie and Wendy in Black Chevrolet hire car. They had Blue B’s spare hand radio so from now are referred to by their call sign ‘Blackie’.

 

We drove via busy ski resort Whistler …winding down from the ski season I think as little snow around.

The scenery changes again in this amazing journey we have done……as we drove through steep hillsides (mountains!) covered with ,I am guessing spruce and pine trees.

What a beautiful drive..and promising drive on this first day of our Canada -Alaska Treip.

We arrived in the Lillooet in time for  a Happy  Hour 6,30 meeting  sitting outside in the sunshine and briefly joined by two young Canadian guys working on the Railway.

( and guess what..Ross was working on Blue B again!

DAY 3   Lillooet British Columbia  to BANFF in Alberta via Kamloops

We woke to sunshine again…but it sis VERY COLD…….”Blackie’ informs us it is 3 deg!!!

More  work on Blue B before we leave for BANFF via Kamloops.

Photos tell the story of the ever changing scenery and today we managed a picnic lunch (*) by the pretty river at Revelstoke  (*) albeit a from a local cafe!

We arrived in Banff,  full of memories as the last time we were here it was Dec 2004 to meet up with Andrew Shannon Peter and Wayne  for Christmas and New Year.

Banff , is a resort town in the Albert Rockies and is known for its mountainous surroundings and hot springs. A pretty town but had grown since we were last here in 2004!

Natalie and Stu met up with friends  in Banff in the evening. Mike and Kay, Wendy , Dave Ross and I went on he hunt for somewhere good to have dinner and could not resist a ‘cuddle’ with a Black bear en route!!!