Vancouver

Seagulls are the soundtrack to everything in Nanaimo. Going to bed or waking up, even in the middle of the night they are joyously singing their chorus of tunes.

Today was an early start as I was heading to Vancouver and back.
The plan was to take a bus to the BC Ferry terminal, the ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay and then buses to Vancouver downtown to pick up the first bike I would be riding over here.
This one is a Honda Rebel 300. We don’t have the 300 in Australia so this will likely be my only opportunity to try one out.

🚌 Travel tip: properly check how to pay for public transport. I had speed read that you can tap on/off for public transport in Vancouver. And that worked fine for the airport train. Turns out that doesn’t include Nanaimo.

I jumped on the bus in downtown Nanaimo, tapped my credit card and the driver (kindly) tells me that won’t work - here’s a flyer on how to pay.
For the bus you need one of:
* the correct amount of cash;
* a Umo pass;
* or the mobile app.
Sweet, I’ll just download the app and then I can tap the app.
First hurdle: my region is Australia and that app isn’t available in the Australian App Store.
Back to google to find out how to switch stores. Easy, just go into your settings, change your region and you’re good to go.
Second hurdle appears: if you have a subscription (like Apple Music), you must cancel it first.
All good - jump in and cancel the subscription. Still won’t work. Wait a half hour. Still won’t work.
Back to google … you have to wait for subscription to expire. Hmm 🤔 Apple Music doesn’t expire until 29 August. Not at all helpful since I’m leaving Canada on the 26th!
Third hurdle - buy a umo pass. Where can you buy these? Who knows. There’s lots of addresses listed but I don’t have any idea where any of them are because all the names are unfamiliar. And there’s no handy dandy interactive map to find them. And my usual hack of searching on google maps doesn’t show them either.
Hmm. I haven’t managed to find a cash point so no cash.
So by the time I’ve worked out all this, I’m already off the bus and at the the ferry terminal - for free!

At the ferry terminal, I spot a cash point and pull out $100. I look up the fee for the Vancouver bus. Seems like it’s going to be either $3.20 or $4.65. But I’ve also learned the drivers don’t give change. Paying $20 (ex ATM) just isn’t going to cut it for me. I mean all of this tipping is doing my Australian head in already - I’m not going to tip the flipping bus company as well.

Upon arriving in Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) I had to work out how to get to downtown.
You betcha - google maps says not one but two buses.
They depart every 20 minutes so I let the first one go (super crowded) while I try to work out how to pay or how to look innocent if I get caught travelling without a ticket.
I wander around and because this ferry terminal has lots of ferries coming in from all over, they have a dispensing machine for the bus pass thing.
I line up and once I get towards the front I realise that they DO take credit card taps here.
So I mosey back to the bus, jump on, tap my card and hey presto the light went geeen. Phew 😮‍💨 no jail time for me today.

In a move that will surprise exactly no one …. I start chatting to the lady next to me. It’s about 40 minutes to downtown (including through the beautiful Stanley Park trees). So we exchange stories and after checking my google maps multiple times, I missed my stop! And not just one stop - about three. 🤣

I jump off, reset google maps and manage to get to the bike hire place with another bus.

Oh my gosh. This place rents electric foot scooters, bikes, e-bikes, scooters & motorbikes. It is absolutely jam packed with vehicles of every type and size.
I sign over a hefty security deposit, sign all the waivers and I’m off.

I put my ear buds in so google maps can tell me where I’m supposed to be going and we are away. This bike is definitely a “little” sister to Reba.

I feel she is marginally smaller physically - although that could be my imagination.
But at 300cc versus 500cc she doesn’t like to go too fast.
This is not a problem because I don’t actually know what the speed limits are … and the signs (of course) are different to the ones I’m used to looking for. So I just stick with everyone else and hope that they aren’t speeding.
I make my way to Lynn Canyon which was on my list of places to visit.
Not a park to be found anywhere for my little bike.
Another pro travel tip - bike footwear is not super comfortable for walking long distances.
Decision made - obviously this wasn’t meant to be today and we head back to the ferry.
I start picking up the speed limit signs so I know that the speed limit is 90 on this highway. Not a single car or truck or bike was sticking to the speed limit … except for me and little R (she now has a name).
The line of cars for the ferries seemed to be broken into two parts. The first set of 3 or 4 lines was about 2km long. The second set about the same. Good grief lucky I’m here early (1:45) for the 4pm sailing. ⛴️

I need not have worried. Motorbikes go to the head of the queue! Who knew. So we ride right on past all those waiting cars and had time for a drink and to sit in the shade while waiting for the loading.

The ferry is huge - not as huge as the Spirit of Tasmania but it has three vehicle decks, a passenger inside deck, a sun deck for passengers, a proper cafe as well as a kiosk and a tourist shop. So pretty big.
The crossing takes around 1hr40min which turns into about 2 hours from the time they unload/load passengers and vehicles.
Interestingly you are free to visit the vehicle decks during the crossing - something you cannot do on the Spirit no matter how much you beg.

They also have puppers on board! You can leave your puppers and puddy cats in your vehicle OR you can bring them up to the sun deck. You must follow the paw prints from the vehicle decks to the sun deck, and then all puppers must stay behind the yellow line!
Because it’s a 4pm Friday afternoon sailing there are lots of excited puppers going on a weekend holiday with their families. Much tail wagging was happening!

Finally made my way back to the accommodation, worked out where I could park little R overnight, grabbed a lovely meal from a cafe and then it was time for this tired person to hit the hay.Read more