bicycle-camping trip: Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island

When I was in my 20's I used to do a lot of travel by bicycle: across Europe, around the Maritimes in Canada, and in Japan. I still think it is the best way to travel - fast enough to get somewhere but slow enough to really see the place.

When I first moved to Vancouver in my late 20's,  I heard about this good bicycle trip: from Vancouver up the Sunshine Coast, then take the ferry over to Vancouver Island and ride down the Island and then take the ferry back to Vancouver. I've heard it called 'the loop'. However by this time I wasn't doing much cycling anymore, and so I never got around to it.

I'd always thought of this trip, and now, many years later, I finally did it! Cycle-camping is a little more challenging than other types of bicycle trips I've done where I stay at youth hostels. Namely, you have a lot more things to carry like tent, sleeping bag, cooking gear and food. Makes for a fully loaded bicycle.

Here is a brief outline of the trip, with the dates, the kilometers covered, and some notes and a few pictures. You could do this in a much shorter time, but I wanted to take it easy and have lots of breaks, to make a real holiday out of it. The total of kilometers was 315 km, over 7 days of cycling.


July 22
Vancouver to the Porpoise Bay Campground outside Sechelt. 27 km from home to the Horseshoe Bay ferry and then 30 km to the campground.

I was in a hurry to catch an early ferry so I took the highway in Vancouver, which is not exactly comfortable for cycling. Lots of traffic, and lots of junk on the side of the road like chains, rocks, car parts. I hit something and ended up limping onto the ferry with a flat tire, which I fixed while on the ferry.

I took the scenic road to Gibsons, near the water, and stopped there for a coffee. But then there is the HUGE hill getting up of Gibsons back to the highway, and I had to walk most of it. More highway riding to Sechelt, and then turn up the road to the Porpoise Bay campground.

A very nice campground, with a walk-in camping area for cyclists, a building with washrooms and hot showers, a beach and a day-use area.


July 23
Porpoise Bay Campground to Saltery Bay Campground. 56 km.

This was the longest hardest day. Lots of long, steep hills. And it was quite hot. I stopped at a restaurant at a golf course just past Pender Harbour, and then continued to the Earl's Cove ferry. It's about an hour ferry ride to Saltery Bay, and the campground is only about one km from there.

I met a few other cyclists on the ferry. A couple were staying at the campground and doing day trips. And a woman had cycled all the way from Vancouver that day!

Saltery Bay is a beautiful campground in the forest, bordering Mermaid Cove. The cove is nice because it is shallow when the tide first comes in and the water gets warmer. Great place to swim and hang out.

July 24
I spent the day hanging out in the Saltery Bay campground.


July 25
Saltery Bay to Powell River. 31 km.

A fairly short day. Hilly but nothing like the day before. The weather became cloudy and it rained fairly hard for an hour or so.

To take a break from camping and get cleaned up, I booked a motel in Powell River, and I was there by about 1:00pm. Nice simple motel, called the Westview Center Motel. Powell River is on a hill facing the water, and there are some very steep roads going inland. The motel had a very steep entrance, and I'd push my bike up to my room.

Powell River has a nice small town feel, but also an up-and-coming artistic feel as well. It seemed like there are three main parts to it. The first part I rode into, near the terminal of the ferry to Comox, is called Westview. It feels like the small town with a row of older single story wood buildings along the road next to the water. Inland, up the hill, is the town center, which has the big-box retail and newer buildings. If you keep going along the water, through a park, you reach the townsite, which is the location of the original Powell River built around the mill. The mill is still operating, and the townsite has rows of old houses, a market building with artists, and a craft brewery.

After getting cleaned up at the motel I road over to Townsite Brewing. Very good ale and IPA. While there I saw posters and coasters picturing something called the Ale Trail, which corresponds to the trip I was doing.

July 26
I spent the day exploring Powell River. I had a coffee at a very cool cafe near the motel. And in Westview there is a really nice seaside walk.

I then did a historic walking tour of the townsite area. The original town was designed according the Garden City movement in town planning in the early 1900's. I think the old houses dating back to this time are privately owned. And there are old churches from that time as well. There is a mix of things that are maintained, and things that were pretty rough but are in the process of being fixed up. I get the impression that the townsite was neglected for some time, but is now experiencing a renaissance.

Another interesting thing is the breakwater around the mill: it is made of decommissioned World War II ships. They have an eerie feeling.

I rode back to the motel and had dinner at a good Latin restaurant. I talked with some people at a neighbouring table. Some were from Powell River, some had recently moved here. They said a lot of there friends were moving here. Seems like the city is a place in transition.


July 27
Powell River to Lighthouse RV Park at Fanny Bay. 41 km.

I caught an early ferry to Comox, on Vancouver Island, and started riding south along the Old Island Highway. A bit busy with traffic, but once I was a few kilometers outside of the city of Courtenay, it was fairly quiet. Nice and flat riding. Sunny but not too hot. Great day for cycling and I made good time.

I'd booked a campsite that was about days ride from Comox. It was an RV park, not my first choice, but it turned out to be ok. Other people with tents were there, and it is on a nice stretch of land between the old highway and the water. The campsite is by Fanny Bay, which is famous for oysters, and on the water you can see the oyster farms.

In the evening I rode the few kilometers to the Fanny Bay Inn where I could have raw oysters for dinner.


July 28
Lighthouse RV Park to Englishman River Falls Campground. 50 km.

I continued south along the Old Island Highway to Qualicum Beach. Another really nice day. I took some time and walked along the beach for a while. Then turned inland and rode uphill to Coombs, which has the famous Goats on the Roof market. I needed to get food for the next couple of days camping, so I stopped there. Super crowded. I had planned to hang out for a while but ended up just getting what I needed and getting out of there.

I rode inland some more, through farmland, and forest, to the Englishman River Falls park. I saw people parked on the side of the rode with mountain bikes, so there must be good trails in there. I kept going to the campground. I wasn't able to reserve a campsite at this park - it was fully booked, but I got there in time to get a first-come-first-served spot.

Wow, another very nice campground in the forest, with some big trees. I was getting used to this wandering and camping life.

There are walking trails around the campground and the day use area. The main feature is the falls.

But upstream there are also some great places in the river for swimming, and a lot of people come for the day just for that.


July 29
I spent the day hanging out at the Englishman River Falls Campground. I walked the trails, went for a swim.


July 30
Englishman River Falls Campground to Nanaimo. 49 km.

It was cloudy and threatening rain, but fortunately the rain held off. I rode downhill toward the water to Parksville, and back along the Old Island Highway. As it got closer to Nanaimo it merged with the main highway and so was very busy.  Fortunately as I got into the city of Nanaimo itself there was a bike path to follow, which made things much nicer.

I checked into a hotel in Nanaimo for my last night of the trip. I made a last minute booking and so I got a really good deal at a nice hotel downtown overlooking the harbour. The Coast Bastion.

In the afternoon I tried another craft brewery, White Sails. I tried their IPA and ale but frankly didn't like them much. I walked over the old quarter of Nanaimo, with artisan shops, and had a bite to eat at a pub.


July 31
4km from Nanaimo to Departure Bay ferry terminal, and 27 km from Horseshoe Bay to home.

That's it! It was great trip. A really good break. And it was so good to get back into cycling again.

Last day in Hanoi, end of trip

This was the last day of my trip. The next morning is a flight to Vancouver via Hong Kong.

It was very hot in the morning, but I walked to the area that has the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the grounds with the house where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked, and the Ho Chi Minh museum.

Not sure what to think, really. The image that is portrayed is that of a father figure with a passion for his country, who is highly revered. It is easy to believe he had a passion for his country, and one way or another he was instrumental in liberating Vietnam from the brutal French control, and he was able to inspire people to fight for his cause. On the other hand it was still a one party totalitarian state with everything that that entails. Complicated.

When I left the museum, it was still very very hot, so when I saw something like a tuk-tuk I got a ride to the hotel. Tuk-tuks are rare here. It's either taxis or people sitting on motorbikes offering a ride. However the internet is full of warnings about taxi scams, so I'm hesitant to take one unless the hotel has called for me.

Back at the hotel they were performing a ritual, to get blessings after a recent rennovation. There was a lot of food as offering, and someone came to do a chant. Afterward they burned the paper offerings outside.

After resting at the hotel for a bit, I ventured out again. I went to Hoan Kiem Lake, which the centre of Hanoi and not far from my hotel. There is a legend that a king from the 1400's pulled a magic sword from the lake that allowed him to vanquish the attackers.

There is a temple on an island close to shore, with a bright red bridge to it. Probably the most visited spot in the city.

After resting at the hotel again, I packed for the airplane and went out for dinner. Then to the craft beer place again (of course) and this night they had live music.

The group was called Extinguisher, and they were very good. I stayed quite late, until there were just 8 or so of us upstairs where the music was. Others would take turns singing, like people who worked there, often very old songs. It was quite special, like a common experience with the Vietnamese, a young couple from China, and others, all sharing in the music. A great way to spend my last night in Hanoi.

Back in Hanoi, temples

My flight arrived in Hanoi in the morning, and I got the ride to the hotel. The hotel is on the other side of the old quarter from where I stayed before, and I spend some time walking around.

I was able to get a picture of something I'd seen before: someone burning paper prayers in a small stove outside, as a kind of offering.

In the evening I went to Denis' place - his wife Van Anh was there - to pick up my bag which I had left there at the start of the motorcycle trip.

Next to my hotel is a craft beer place!! Called Pasteur Street Brewing, it is run by an ex-pat with the goal of combining craft beer techniques with Vietnamese flavours. I had a Jasmine IPA that was awesome. While I sat there I finished a drawing of the Japanese bridge in Hoi An. Drawing is a great way to meet people because everyone wants to see what you are doing. I ended up talking with a couple of people that work there.

The hotel was quite nice and I slept well.

I spent the next day walking around Hanoi, on a mission to visit some Buddhist temples. Perhaps I was inspired by the prayer offerings I saw, but I wanted to see more of the Buddhist side of life in Vietnam. It isn't as obvious as in Laos, but it is still there. I located a few temples on the map and headed out.

I first went to Chua Quan Su, not far from the hotel. Built in the 1400's it serves as a place of worship for residents of the area. There were people making offerings and praying as I was there.

Next I did a long walk north of the old quarter, past some market streets. It was the middle of the day and getting hot. I'd stop for iced coffee to get into a place with a fan or air conditioning. It took over half an hour, but I reached Chua Hoe Nhai temple. It was not open when I arrived, but there were a couple of older ladies waiting outside, who explained through sign language that it was opening soon. This temple is quite old, from about the 1200's, and is one of the first temples of the Soto Zen sect. There is a famous statute of a buddha sitting on the back of a prostrating king (I like that idea).

There also seemed to be monks living there.

There was a special peaceful feeling about the place.

Finally I walked to the famous Tran Quoc Pagoda on West Lake. Another half hour walk in the heat .... (such devotion, I know)

This the oldest pagoda dating from the 500's. It has the ashes of important monks. While small in size it has a special appeal in its design.

There is a temple in the back with statues of important monks. There were people making offerings and worshipping, and there happened to be a monk performing on the gongs while I was there.

Next was a long walk back to the hotel. It was interesting, however, passing through large tree-lined streets with what looked like government buildings, and walking through different parts around the old quarter.

I rested and got cleaned up and then went for craft beer!

Hue

I did a day tour of Hue, about 100km north of Hoi An. Hue was the capital of Vietnam and the home of the emperors until the country was taken over by the French, and it known for the buildings from that time.

The tour was in a van that held about a dozen people. I met a nice older couple from Malaysia. There was also a Vietnamese family and a couple of girls from China. Most of them were staying in Danang, so I was the first to get picked up in Hoi An, and it took over an hour and a half before we were really on our way. I had views of the big port city of Danang.

After leaving Danang we took the winding road up the neighbouring mountain. (On the way back we took the long tunnel that goes right through the whole mountain.) This gave us great views. At the top of the pass we stopped at the Hai Van gate, which was built by the Americans during the war to separate North from South.

A couple of more hours of driving and we reached Hue. After lunch we visited our first site. This was the tomb of the last emperor of Vietnam. It is amazingly elaborate, both iside and out.

At the first level outside, there are rows of statues of soldiers and scholars, as symbols of following the emperor into the beyond.

The next stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda, which was an important religious site at the time of the emperors. There is a beautiful garden behind the pagoda, and an active temple with many people worshiping.

Our last stop was the biggest one: the imperial palace of the emperor. The grounds are huge and it is still being restored. The design is very elaborate in the classical Chinese way.

We learned some things like: buildings with yellow-tiled rooms were for the emperor, while buildings with green-tiled rooms were for the queen and concubines, etc. 

The emperor had his own study room:

Afterwards we went back to the van, tired from the walking and the heat. Long drive back to Hoi An.

Hoi An

We arrived in Hoi An about 4:00. Hoi
An is in a corner of an area that is essentially surrounded by the greater area of Danang, and we had to ride through the industrial area of Danang to get there.

We found a hotel, and I walked around for a bit. The old part of Hoi An is a World Heritage Site. It was a very important trading port from the 1400's to the 1800's, and was home to Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese traders. It is famous for the preserved streets and houses from that time, and is a huge tourist spot. Sometimes you could barely move through the streets it was so crowded.

Later, Luc and I found a place for dinner, and nearby was a big night market.

The next day we road to the Flamingo Travel office and dropped off the motorbikes. The end of a chapter. Luc left for Danang, and I spent the rest of the day walking around. I found a travel agency to book a day tour of Hue and my flight to Hanoi.

All the streets in the old part are lined with the characteristic yellow houses. You buy a pass to go into the old quarter and it comes with 5 tickets for entry into certain houses, assembly halls, and museums. From the upper floor of a museum I had another good view.

I went into the houses of some prominent people of the time and an assembly hall. The architecture and decoration was classically Chinese.

One of the most famous spots is a bridge that connected the Japanese part of town with the rest.

There is also a walkway by the river, which is all lit up at night.

Back to Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh Road

It was a fast and easy ride to the Vietnamese border. The line-up of trucks waiting to clear customs was huge, but we went straight to the gate. The process for crossing the border was quite streamlined: the person who did the exit procedure for Laos and the person who did the entry procedure for Vietnam sat at the same desk, and there was only one form to fill out. In each case it was mainly a matter of checking the stamps in the passport. We were on our way quite quickly.

The contrast when entering Vietnam, and the border city Lao Bao, was immediately apparent and overwhelming: cars pushing past and everyone honking. I missed Laos already.

Fortunately we soon turned off the main highway and onto the Ho Chi Minh Road. This is a road built over what was the Ho Chi Minh Trail: a trail cut through the mountains to carry supplies to the south during the Vietnam War. It is a very winding road through the mountains but most of it is well paved. It still has the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere. There are very few villages and only a couple of towns along the way. You can go almost 100 km without seeing anything but forest. In a couple of places there were abandoned government stations that were being overgrown with vegetation.

A couple of times there was a group of tourists on motorcycles going the other way, with a Vietnamese guide in front and at the back. Apparently there are several-day motorcycle tours of the Ho Chi Minh Road that are offered out of Hoi An.

We kept going until it got late, and spent the night in the town of Aluoi. The next day, Luc and I stayed on the Ho Chi Minh Road as far as the town of Thanh My, and then turned off toward Hoi An, while Denis and Claude continued south on the Ho Chi Minh Road.

Luc had always planned to only go this far and return the motorbike in Hoi An. Originally I was going to do the whole trip with Denis and Claude, going as far south as Da Lat and the up the coast back to Hanoi. This would have been another 3 weeks on the motorbike. But after a couple of weeks I was done. Overall I'd been travelling for over 6 weeks by this time, and I was ready to go home. So, I decided to join Luc and return the motorbike at Hoi An. Then I could sightsee in Hoi An and Hue, and then fly to Hanoi, and change my flight to return home earlier.

Thakhek - Savannakhet - Phin

Another long day on the motorbike. From Thakhek we took a secondary road to Savannaket. The road was rougher, but went closer to the river. It turned to be a good choice as it past some interesting things.

During first part of the day we had many views of the wide Mekong River and the life of people beside it.

There were many small ethnic villages similar to what we saw in the mountains: some seemed ok while some were very poor. It seemed to depend on the land they were on and what they could grow. The better-off villages had rice fields while the poor ones seemed to be trying to survive on a small plot of banana trees in the forest.

Being a secondary road, it got very rough in places.

At one point we passed a complex that turned out to be an important site. It was the Sikhittabong Stupa, originally built in the 1500's. Inside a temple a Lao woman offered to take a pcture of me.

The location was once a populated area, and it is now callled the Ancient City site with a few replicas of old style Lao houses.

We stopped briefly in Savannakhet and then continued on. This is a large city on the Thai border. The highway from Savannakhet to the Vietnamese border is fast and very well paved but full of trucks.

We kept going until it got too late and stopped in the small town of Phin for the night. Next to our hotel was a restaurant and bar with pool tables, and all the youth of the town spent their evenings there.

In the morning we found a place that was open early and had our usual breakfast of Pho. While we were there the monks came by in their daily collection of food donations.