Chapter 7
MARTHA
We scattered like mice, all scurrying off in different directions.
Harrison and Sam were quick and heading into the trees.
Priya and Tara were off to the path by the water.
Femi and his wife, Liz, not far behind them and the brothers, Don and Pete, ran towards some buildings near the car park.
I grabbed Erin’s arm and pulled her onto a woodland path before stopping dead.
‘I think we should try and get a lift,’ I said. ‘There’s a main road running through the park and if we get up to it, we might just persuade someone to get us back into the city. If we walk it could take ages.’
‘From a stranger?’ Erin said and looked appalled.
‘Yes,’ I said firmly, ‘but a nice one.’
Reluctantly, Erin followed me up the path to the main road which was busier than I thought with three lanes of traffic. Cally and Noah were hot on our heels but said nothing about our choices.
‘There’s a slip road for cars coming out of the park. We should get there and flag someone down.’
‘Okay,’ Erin said reluctantly. ‘Let’s do it.’
We stood for a few minutes with nothing more than a couple of bikes going by but then a car drove up and I almost jumped in front of it.
The driver looked shocked and before I could suggest he wind down his window and talk to me, he drove around me and joined the main road without a backward glance.
‘I’m not sure about this,’ Erin said. ‘No one will want to give a couple of strangers a lift.’
A small motorhome with an older couple in the front came up the slip road from the park and I waved and smiled. The woman was driving and she stopped and opened her window.
‘Hey there,’ she said. ‘Are you guys okay?’
‘Thanks so much for stopping,’ I said. ‘We’re actually in a race on a TV show and need to get back to the city. Well, really, we need to get to Prince Rupert and on to Haida Gwaii but the city would be a great start. Do you think we could be really cheeky and ask you for a lift, please?’
‘Well, we’re actually going north to Whistler to see our daughter, not back to the city, but happy to take you if you want a ride,’ said the woman. ‘I’m Carol.’
‘Martha and Erin, lovely to meet you,’ I said. ‘Are there bus or train links going further north from Whistler, do you know?’
I opened the corner of the map to check where Whistler was and could see it was in the right direction at least.
‘Limited, but you won’t get a train out of Vancouver all the way to Prince Rupert either. You have to go via Jasper but that train only runs a couple of times a week. You could get a bus but you’d be looking at around three hundred dollars each and there’s lots of changes.’
‘No coaches? No trains?’ Erin asked. ‘Nothing at all?’
‘No, nothing easy or direct. Canadians are used to car-sharing. You could get lucky at a gas station,’ said the man from the passenger seat. ‘I’m Jack.’
I hesitated for a moment. Getting a lift back to the city was one thing but driving off into the unknown was something else.
Car-sharing sounded so much nicer than hitch-hiking, but fundamentally that was exactly what it was, but just with payment towards fuel expected.
It was quite a stretch to get all that way on the kindness of strangers, but while the others were walking out of the park and back to the city to find out there was no easy or cheap public transport, we had a solid lift, even if only for a short way.
If the worst came to the worst, we could blow some of our budget on a taxi or a hire car further north.
‘Okay,’ I said, looking at Erin. ‘I think we should go for it.’
‘Jump in, ladies. Happy to help,’ said Jack.
‘My husband loves a damsel in distress. Or two,’ said Carol.
‘You are both wonderful,’ I said and pulled open the side door. ‘Our camera guy, Noah, will have to come too, if that’s okay.’
‘No problem,’ they both said together.
That was when I saw their dog. It was smiling, I’m pretty sure it was smiling, but just with its teeth.
‘Now don’t you be worrying about old King there. He’s a pussycat really,’ Jack said.
I glanced at Erin who looked straight back at me, slightly wild-eyed.
Erin had an allergy to pet hair and it was the only reason I’d never got the cat I’d so dearly like.
I was about to say that we couldn’t possibly get in with the dog.
I did also wonder if Jack would consider giving up the passenger seat in the front for her, but she shook her head.
‘I’ll be fine,’ she whispered.
‘Sure?’
‘Yeah.’
We sidled past the huge dog who refused to move from the doorway and slid into the seats behind the couple. Noah got some footage of King and then joined us.
‘See you in Whistler,’ Cally said and closed the door on us. She was going back to her producer car to follow us.
The overwhelming smell of dog invaded my senses as we joined the main road but I tried to push it to the back of my mind and opened the map on the table.
‘So, you’re on a TV show,’ the woman said. ‘Have I heard of it?’
‘The Trip of a Lifetime,’ Erin said just as King walked over to her and laid his head in her lap.
He looked like a cross between a Labrador and a Rottweiler.
A sort of soppy but potentially dangerous animal.
Erin’s eyes widened and locked onto mine as she tucked her hands behind her back, keen to keep her digits intact and hopefully to stop her eyes from itching and her nose from running.
‘It’s a British show. It’s actually our first day.
We’ve got to get to St John’s eventually, but Tlell in Haida Gwaii to start with. ’
Jack let out a long whistle from the front. ‘That’s a heck of a long way, ladies. Do you realise how far that is? It’s gotta be, what? Eight, nine thousand kilometres to Newfoundland.’
‘Yep,’ I said. ‘That’s the show.’
‘And Tlell, that’s a good couple of days driving and sailing in the wrong direction for St John’s.’
‘Is it?’ Erin asked. ‘Haida Gwaii didn’t look that far on the map.’
‘I can tell you it’s about 1,500 kilometres north,’ Jack said.
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ said Erin. ‘I think I need to take another look at that map.’
‘You both gotta be mad,’ Carol said and chuckled while shaking her head.
We settled back and took in the scenery as we headed north out of Vancouver.
We had water to the left of us with a line of fir trees bordering the road and a rocky embankment to our right.
In the distance there were mountains. Some were covered in trees and others with snow-capped peaks.
And without a cloud in it, the sky appeared vast.
‘Beautiful,’ I said.
‘There’s a reason this road is called the Sea to Sky Highway,’ Carol said.
I could have gazed at the view forever but we were in a race and so I turned my attention back to the map.
‘It’s possible we could be in the lead for this first stretch. They’ll all get back to the city only to find out about the difficulty of public transport. We could get a few good hours ahead of them,’ I said.
Erin looked doubtful. King kept his head firmly in her lap and she smiled down at him. ‘Sorry I can’t pet you, you’ll make me sneeze,’ she whispered to him.
‘You’ll have a friend for life there,’ said Jack, looking back at Erin as King wagged his tail back and forth across the floor of the van, a cloud of his fur lifting into the air with each swipe.
Erin couldn’t help but laugh and Noah swung his camera away from the view to capture the moment.
‘Have you been to Canada before?’ I asked Noah, but he shook his head.
‘No, never. The scenery is stunning,’ he said.
‘You have a great job,’ said Erin. ‘Travelling the world and catching beautiful places on film.’
‘Occasionally,’ he said. ‘And don’t let my wife hear you say that. I frequently have to convince her it’s a lot of hard work. More often than not I’m in a studio, to be honest.’
‘Did I see you doing a jigsaw?’ Erin suddenly asked.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘My secret passion: speed puzzling.’
‘Where was that?’ I asked but Erin quickly changed the subject.
‘I’m thinking about that boat over to Haida Gwaii,’ she said. ‘Are the crossings regular – do you know, Jack?’
‘I’m not all that sure. We’ve never done it.
We live in Seattle and usually just come up to see our daughter and her kids.
We’ve never done the big tourist thing. We only know about the public transport issue as some friends of ours tried to holiday in British Columbia last summer.
They told us all about it and then they ended up hiring a car. ’
‘We could do that,’ Erin said.
‘If you’ve got about a hundred and seventy dollars a day to spend then you could absolutely do that,’ said Carol.
‘We don’t. That would have to be a last resort,’ I said.
‘I’ll check out the times on my phone,’ said Jack.
‘How long will it take us to get to Whistler?’ Erin asked.
‘Oh, only about an hour and a half,’ Carol said. ‘You’ll be there in time for lunch.’
‘Right, there are only three crossings a week and the next one goes tomorrow night at 10 p.m. It’s an eight-hour crossing and will cost you about eighty-four dollars for the two of you. You’re advised to book in advance,’ Jack said.
‘We can’t do that. We only have cash,’ said Erin.
‘So, we have about thirty-two hours to travel 1,200 kilometres,’ I said working out the maths on my fingers with Noah smiling behind the camera.
‘We have to get that boat,’ said Erin.
‘If they only run three a week then everyone will have to be on that boat or, theoretically, they’ll be out of the race,’ I said.
‘You know what we could do for you,’ Carol said, pulling up on the side of the road. ‘I just need to get King out to do his business. What we could do is book the tickets for you and you could give us the cash.’
‘Carol, that would be fantastic, thank you,’ I said. ‘You know what, Erin, if everyone is as friendly and helpful as Carol and Jack, we could really win this race.’