Canada

The Canadian border 

Looking off the bridge over the Fraser River 

Looking north from the start of the Pacific Coast route (which heads south)

The bike gets to rest its tyres in the deep pile carpet of the kiddies playroom 

Quite an exhausting day – so many fiddly cycleways, narrow sections,  tight turns, bollards, stop signs, road crossings and people on foot not looking where they are going (one in particular with an enormous shopping trolley). It started beautifully – once out of Bellingham, which is neither large nor busy, we were into lovely countryside with cattle grazing, crops (including a field of spuds) and patches of woodland. This lasted almost to the border crossing into Canada. There was no bike lane at the border so we walked the bike through bit by bit in a line of cars – it took quite a while.  There were only two kiosks open out of about 10 or 12, so I’m not sure how busy it needs to get before they open more?!

Once in Canada we had a little bit more rural countryside but them came some busy roads (with a shoulder for bikes), several bridges with narrow bike lanes and then a bike path which followed an elevated railway. The Adventure Cycling route from the start of the Pacific Coast route proper to where we are staying at Richmond has definitely been better than the Cycle.Travel planned one we followed to the start, so hopefully that bodes well for the rest of the way to the Mexican border.

We have covered 119km with 950m of ascent. The AirBnB lady where we are staying is away and screwed up embarrassingly by accusing us of staining the sheets before we had even arrived at the property. She even issued a bill for almost £40 – since cancelled. Kind of amusing but I could do without it!

Thanks so much for the contributions to our Justgiving page 😀

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/graham-dore

Hopefully they will let us back into the US tomorrow!!

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