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Driving

We have now completed our last long drive so perhaps this is a good time to talk about Canadian driving.
In the past 20 years I have not come across a serious road accident at home, in the last three weeks we have seen two. Both were in the morning so presumably not pissed drivers, my suspicion is they fell asleep at the wheel, the roads are smooth and not too many sharp bends and nothing to keep the driver awake, not even changing gear as all cars are automatic. A few potholes in the road might help, perhaps that is what Shropshire Council are doing to keep drivers awake!
Before any traffic lights there is an illuminated sign which warns you if the lights are about to change, Canadians, being law abiding souls slow down, We Brits accelerate so as to get through the lights before they go red. Google maps makes no distinction between good roads with tar and those which are like forestry tracks, in a plum English accent the Google lady says “turn right onto Banfield Main” when we are leaving one dirt track onto another!
One good idea, just the same as in America, you can turn right (left if it was the UK) at a junction even if the lights are red so long as you give way but we have not really got used to traffic lights, sometimes they flash either red or amber, no idea what that means.

I have already mentioned trucks having to stop before hills to check their brakes but they also have to stop at a weighbridge to be weighed at regular intervals, in the 300km we have driven in the last two days there were three or four such places, why? With so many checks no truck driver is going to risk being overweight (the truck not the driver, at least I assume they don’t weigh the drivers separately) it seems like job creation on a grand scale.

The Canadians seem to like a bit of a bang. Earlier in the blog I mentioned that largest man made explosion before Hiroshima was in Halifax. The largest since was in the 1958 close to Campbell River where they needed to remove a big rock which was blocking the channel to the mainland. The local museum showed a film about how mine passageways were dug under sea and up into the rock and then 2.7 million pounds of explosives were put in place. The explosion cleared the route for ships so cruise passengers can now pass in safety. An amazing bit of risky engineering.

The pictures above are of our truck which for some reason is called Roxanne, no idea why, perhaps the owners are fans of the Police (the rock band not plod). It goes back tonight together with the unused bear spray. Gill has been practicing her bear evasion techniques to no avail, we have not had any close encounters and we are unlikely to from now on unless the Canadian train breaks down in the middle of the Rockies.

For the next two nights we are staying with my uncle and his family in Victoria before going back to the mainland.