After packing up all our gear from Charis’s apartment, we headed over to Ocean Park Ford to meet Lorne Burns from KPMG, and finally purchase the support vehicle. As you may remember from the previous (mammoth of a) blog post, Lorne is a Partner with KPMG and he agreed to loan us the money we needed to buy the car until we had sorted out the issue with our debit cards. They weren’t working on the card machines here for some obscure reason, despite the funds being in our account!

Naturally, a quick drive down to the local Ford dealer has its hitches, such as being stopped by the police TWICE just a few minutes apart. On both occasions much more time was spent taking pictures of the car rather than actually checking our documents! One officer kindly offered to commandeer our car for a quick jolly…we politely informed him that he wouldn’t be insured on such a vehicle. He then seemed to remember that he was a policeman and put his cap back on his head and walked back to his squad car.

Anyway, as promised, Lorne was there at the dealership on time with his wife Shelley, who also got to see the car, and the whole transaction was completed very swiftly after that. Our thanks go out to Richard Smyth and Rick Lloyd of the Ford dealership who gave us a great price on the car as well as putting up with hours of payment difficulties! It was soon time to say our goodbyes to everyone though, and along with our new vehicle, we headed off to the Canada-US border.

Just a few miles down the road, we see the border. Well, we don’t actually see the border, but merely the extensive queue to get to the border. This was just time we didn’t have to waste, so we sought alternative methods to get across. Richard, the biker accompanying us for this part of the journey, sped ahead and went to find out if we could get across faster. There turned out to be another way indeed; apparently if we went through the duty free shop, we could get a ticket which put us closer to the gate with much less queuing involved. Needless to say, this is exactly where we headed, and it was not long before we were sat in a much shorter queue than the rest had to endure.

After an hour of waiting, the queue moved and we slowly inched towards some very stern looking border guards. We were warned that these were some hardcore ex-Marine soldiers, and raising attention to oneself was not advised. But just take a look at the SRZero…is it very inconspicuous? Unfortunately not, so the SRZero as well as the 2 vehicles following it were asked to go into an office for extra questioning. In all honesty, we weren’t expecting much else, but when we got to the office, there just seemed to be a lot of stamping of various documents going on; they weren’t particularly bothered about the car entering the US or anything like that. There were no interrogations like Nik had in Houston, and the border officers were mainly curious just like anybody else. One officer expressed concern about our ability to drive fast:

Officer: “You know, over there in Canada, they drive real slow. Here we drive fast like at 60 or 70 miles an hour.
The team collectively raise an eyebrow in surprise, especially the German contingent who are used to 150mph on the autobahn.
Officer: “We have like 16 wheeler trucks driving bombing down the highway here…you sure your little electric car can keep up?”
Team: “Yes officer, we have no problem keeping up with the traffic.”

Anyway, after our carnet had been signed and stamped, and our passports returned, we were free to go and enter the USA! It was a surprisingly nonplussing experience, and given the fact that pretty much everything was exactly the same on the other side of the border, from the cars to the restaurants to the road markings (apart from the change from kilometres to miles), it was difficult to believe we were in another country!

Onwards we drove, always heading south until we hit a petrol station where we fuelled up. We also took the opportunity to collectively regress to the age of about 4, and have a cherry pip spitting competition. There were some animated attempts but with no clear winner unfortunately. Quickly behaving our age again, we got back into the vehicles and carried on driving down to Seattle. There were some stunning views of a snow-capped Mount Baker in the distance, with its peak forever shrouded in its own little cloud in an otherwise perfect blue sky.

A few hours later we arrived at Seattle’s most famous landmark; the Space Needle, but not before being stopped by the police twice. The first time was just a curiosity call, but after finding out we were a tad lost, he escorted us onto the right road…our first police escort! The second stop was completely valid; I ran a red light in the support vehicle. Fortunately however, the officer was very reasonable and let me off without any consequences.

Anyway, back to the Space Needle where coincidentally there was a film festival finishing right there, and so 30,000 gushed past the SRZero as we were parked. Much as we love showing the car to everyone, we had other things on our mind at this point. We had just found out that our charging and accommodation arrangements in Seattle had fallen through, and so we now needed to very quickly find somewhere to charge up the car.

Now it was time to get a bit plucky and see what we could get away with. So we drove down the street straight into a Ramada Hotel. Very quickly we had a host of guests outside staring and the car and asking questions, and shortly after, the manager appeared. We explained the project to him and how we desperately needed to charge, and he was very receptive indeed. He immediately called down the hotel engineer and told him to assist us to find a suitable plug. Unfortunately, after hours of searching through the kitchen, laundry room and other non-public areas of the hotel we found some plugs, but none in a suitable location that could reach the car. At 10pm we were forced to cut our losses and move on; there was no chance that we could charge here.

But where could we go? Ever since I’ve seen The Rock, a film starring Sean Connery where he (amongst other things) escapes from the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, I’ve wanted to go to the Fairmont Hotel. Put it down to childhood fantasy! Anyway, a quick look on the internet revealed a Fairmont Hotel (only the most expensive hotel in the city) just a couple of miles down the road, and somehow I knew that this is where we must go. So, brimming with confidence we set off, and a few minutes later pulled into the carriage driveway of the Fairmont Hotel, and we stopped right in the centre. What an entrance!

There was utter amazement from all the staff, and very quickly word was passed up to the manager about this very cool looking car that wanted to charge up. Again, the staff were more than helpful, and an engineer was sent to help us locate an appropriate plug. After a brief searching mission, we found a plug about 20 metres away just inside the lobby, and very quickly we were wired up and charging!

But don’t forget the second conundrum…we still needed to find a place to stay for the night. So I went off to make friends with the manager and to see if he could swing us some (free) rooms for the night. It turned out that, after a bit of a chat, he would be very willing to help us out, and so he tapped into his computer to see what he could give us. The computer beeped. Nothing was available, not a single room anywhere. This was due to the film festival I mentioned earlier, and according to a number of hotels we subsequently called, they were full to the brim too. Charles, for that was the manager’s name, wanted to help us though. He was a resourceful chap, even suggested getting some beds into the conference room for us! But the hotel was so full, there were no spare beds either, and the thought of us roughing it in sleeping bags in some remote corner was just too discomforting for a hotel charging a minimum of $300 a night.

Fortunately, we still had the RV with us and so this is where we were going to crash for the night. However, there were no RV parks around, and the only place we could park was a car park in a very dodgy section of town. It seemed to be a transit for the local gangs, and was also home to a number of homeless people, some of whom tried to sleep with us in our RV. As much as we wanted to help out, there was no space whatsoever, but we did give them some food and wine.

And so there we were, sleeping in a car park while the SRZero was getting 5 star treatment at the Fairmont. For any sponsors reading this blog, take notice of where our priorities lie .

We knew we had a few days of intensive logistics work ahead of us, so we took the opportunity to enjoy ourselves. We were invited to a birthday party at a wonderful restaurant in downtown Vancouver; the name eludes me now, but I do recall having a lobster gnocchi which was quite the gastronomic experience. Judging by the murmurs of contentment from the rest of the team, they were enjoying their meals to a similar extent! With the locals and RGE mixing very well, we headed off to an all but deserted karaoke bar a few blocks away. It became clear that team RGE should stick to building cars rather than singing, but nonetheless it was a very fun experience!

Wednesday dawned and the team was up early to make the most of the day to work on both the car and logistics plan for the next few weeks. So, the team split up with Toby and Nik going over to Don Chandler’s house to work on the car, and the rest heading over to the computer and internet facilities at the University of British Columbia. No, we didn’t break in or anything like that; we had Charis with us who is a medical research student there, and she kindly let us use her office. While we were here, Pambo got down to some web coding, Andy got stuck into organising our big KPMG event on Friday, and I wrote another blog post and researched what we were going to do about our next support vehicle as the RV had to be dropped off shortly.

So, all pretty mundane stuff you may suspect; working on computers, some light work on the car…nothing much to go wrong, right? No, wrong, for today saw the arrival of the elusive thermistors; those tiny ceramic components that we chased half way across Canada. But now, with them in hand, Toby and Nik set about trying to fix the 2 damaged chargers. If our suspicions were correct about what damage had been sustained, the operation would be fairly simple with just the replacement of the damaged part. So, after a few minutes of soldering and reassembly, both chargers were ready for testing…

BANG!!

It hadn’t worked. The same component as before had failed in a spectacular flash, and the chargers were once again paralysed. Clearly something else in the circuit had been damaged by the high voltage transients experienced up north while we were charging off non-grid supplies. Let me explain; when we were up north in the really remote locations, with tiny towns of just a few hundred people, we found that these communities were not connected to the electricity grid like much of the rest of us. As they are so remote, rather than laying huge power pylons across the country, they have a big diesel generator in town which provides for all their electricity needs. The problem is that this is a miniscule generator compared to the gargantuan power stations found on normal grids, and when one big local power-sucker unplugs, for example an RV drawing 50 amps, you can get sudden high voltage spikes. It’s these spikes that we suspect damaged the chargers.

By this time, it was pushing 8 o’clock, everything except the restaurants were closing, so it was time to forget about the stresses of driving down the Pan-Am Highway, and find some good food and great company. So we met up with Charis and some of her friends, and off we went for a delicious meal at a local restaurant, followed by a midnight team swim in the sea. This may sound foolish, but it wasn’t actually; the moon was bright, and the presence of Vancouver Island just off the coast prevents anything but the tiniest waves getting to shore. Nothing like a chilly swim to refresh oneself and get in the mood for some sleep!

Thursday brought about some serious urgency as we needed to send off the chargers back to England, as well as organising the support vehicle for the rest of the journey. In addition, Toby and Andy were due to go and visit an electric vehicle manufacturer out by Fort Langley, around an hour away from downtown Vancouver…busy, busy, busy! So, first up was a call to FedEx. You may remember that our previous brush with FedEx, way back in Kitwanga, resulted in a frustrating call with a robot who didn’t understand English. It would seem that a week and a half later, nothing had changed as Toby verbally wrestled with said robot until it gave in and finally passed him on to a real person who, by the sounds of it, had spent too much time with her robot colleague.

After a lot of back and forth, we organised the shipment and then had the task of trying to source boxes and wrapping materials. So, Clemens and Charis jumped onto some bicycles and headed off to source the goodies. Meanwhile, I was scouring the internet for a worthy support vehicle which would last all the way to our final destination at the bottom of the world. The question was whether or not to rent or purchase, and where to do it; here in Canada or across the border in the US…

It was decided that as we had time in Vancouver and not immediately when we entered the US, and the fact that the RV needed to be handed back in Seattle, it was definitely easier to get the vehicle in Vancouver. Furthermore, no rental company would ever be mad enough to hire out a van to a bunch of twenty-somethings driving all the way to Ushuaia, so buying a vehicle and selling it at the end of our trip remained our only option. What vehicle should we get though?

There was much debate within the team as we walked down the road to obtain a caffeine fix, but all of a sudden a Ford E-350 rolled past and we knew that was the vehicle for us. On first impressions, it had all the prerequisites; high ride height, and enough space for luggage and passengers. Further research showed that it was by far the most popular van in America, accounting for a shade under 50% of the entire van market. This translates into many spare parts throughout the length of our journey, and a wealth of happy customers to back up our choice. In addition, it had a powerful engine and good suspension; exactly what we needed.

So, I started to look around for these vehicles, but found very few of them available. I did find one though, which seemed in good nick, so I called up a guy called Richard Smyth from the Ocean Park Ford dealer, just a few kilometres out of Vancouver. He informed me that the vehicle I was interested in had just been sold, and he also explained why there were so few of them around. Firstly, it’s a very popular model, and secondly, as it is the summer driving season, all the rental companies soak up the vans to rent out, and when the driving season is over in autumn/fall, they put them on the second hand market. He assured me, however, that he had a man at an auction that would be able to get us the model we wanted and that he would get back in touch. So we waited, and turned our attention back to shipping the chargers.

Once Clemens and Charis had returned with bicycles laden with cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, and sticky tape, we set about packing the two chargers in such a way that they would survive any maltreatment. By the end, it could have doubled as a small nuclear bunker, and serious doubts were raised as to whether or not the box, after being un-flatpacked, would fit through the door of the apartment! Anyway, shortly after, a FedEx pickup man arrived to collect the box. As he came in, he recognised us and the project, which was quite something! Apparently we had been in the local newspapers that morning, which was strange as we hadn’t given any interviews, but somehow word had leaked that we were in Vancouver! We then had a very friendly chat about what we were up to, but before long he had to dash, and he expertly navigated the box through the door singlehandedly, and off the chargers went on their intercontinental journey.

By this time, Andy had returned from a lunch with KPMG, who were organising a big day for us on Friday. He and Toby then headed off to Future Cars for a tour of their facility and the chance to have a quick drive in some very sporty looking vehicles. By all accounts, the technology they were using and the design of their vehicles were highly regarded by the RGE team members, and they brought back interesting titbits of information for the other team members, that had been otherwise occupied, to devour.

Shortly after Toby and Andy’s return, we headed out to the Sand Bar, a restaurant on Granville Island. I know I’ve spoken a lot about food over the last few weeks, but this actually merits its own blog post. In fact, merely entering the restaurant was somehow more than enough to convince me that moving to Vancouver would be a very sensible idea. We walked into the 3 storey restaurant, and noticed a live band playing classy jazz in the corner. Everywhere you looked was some sort of warm, dark wood, with fishing related equipment dotted here and there. Walking up the stairs to our table revealed a fully fledged fishing bout hanging from the ceiling, and right in front of our table was a huge window the height and breadth of the entire building.

What good is a window without a view though, eh? Well this place had a view, I can tell you! The restaurant was located directly under a huge iron bridge spanning all of Vancouver’s marinas, and right beneath us you could see beautiful yachts sailing in and out of the harbour as the sun slowly set behind Vancouver Island in the far distance. Ideal location for sure, but we were even more bowled over when the food hit our taste buds. Delicious, tender and fresh seafood abounded…I really shouldn’t say anymore as the memory is just torturing me! Anyway, after an exquisite meal and fantastic atmosphere, we decided it would be prudent to have an early night as tomorrow would be a long day…

Friday started nice and early for Toby and Andy who were ready and waiting for the media to kick off our big KPMG sponsor’s day at 6.30am. Shortly after that, Clemens and Pambo drove the SRZero out to meet KPMG and the media in downtown Vancouver, where a whole section of road had been closed off for us…VIP treatment! Here esteemed members of KPMG’s Vancouver branch had a chance to ride in the car, and all the local news channels were able to get some great footage. Oh and just so you can keep count, we got stopped again by the police, but once again, our documents proved sufficient to get us off the hook. A fantastic start to the day, but unfortunately myself and Nik were not having such a good time over on the other side of town.

We were over at Ocean Park Ford supposedly picking up a 2009 Ford E-350 in great condition, very few miles on the clock, and bargained down to a fantastic price. But after completing all the paperwork, inspecting the car, test driving, and going through all the motions of buying a car, our cards weren’t working. It transpires that across the pond here they don’t like using chip and pin on debit/credit cards, and over in Europe, our banks think that swiping a card is potentially fraudulent so neither of our cards were accepted. We tried calling our banks, we tried calling Visa, we tried getting a bank draft from local banks, and we tried different machines, but all to no avail. And with the next day being Saturday, the chances to get hold of our banks were very limited, and so we needed something almost miracle-like to happen. We didn’t have too long to wait fortunately…

Anyway, now that we had spent all our time at the dealership, we had to shoot back to downtown Vancouver for 3pm in order to be on time for the second half of our sponsor’s day. Without going into too much detail as to how often we broke the speed limit and other traffic violations, we made it to Howe Street just in time. As our readers from Vancouver may know, there is a restaurant simply called “C” situated right at the bottom of Howe Street and overlooking the waterfront. With the car shining as new (due to a professional car detailer that had been brought in by KPMG) and parked just in front of C, we were ready to receive a number of high profile guests.

So, while snacking on delicate delicacies including oysters, jumbo prawns on sticks and some tuna thingies, we welcomed high profile members of KPMG and government, including the Honourable John Yap, Canada’s Minister of State for Climate Action, as well as some of KPMG’s top clients.  This gave us the opportunity to talk about the car and project to a wide ranging and highly receptive audience. It was also a fantastic networking opportunity for many involved, and we have subsequently been in touch with a number of the people we spoke with.

The event at C ended at around 5.30pm, and from there we moved ourselves and the car over to a restaurant called Marmalade just round the corner and also on the sea front. Here we were educated and entertained by an energetic presentation from Dr. Wal van Lierop, President and CEO of Chrysalix, a VC firm specialising in energy. This enabled us to get to know our KPMG hosts a lot better in quite an informal atmosphere, complimented by drinks and yet more food. And this is where RGE was saved from a support vehicle-less fate. There I was chatting with Lorne Burns, a Partner at KPMG, and having a general moan over the inexplicable lack of chip and pin debit card recognition and how it stopped us getting our shiny silver Ford, when he offered to come down and pay for it himself!

Now Lorne looks like a nice guy, he even sounds like a nice guy, especially after speaking so positively of the RGE project. But when someone offers to come and loan you tens of thousands of dollars, and to agree to come over and do so on a Saturday morning, you know they’re exceptional. So, I would like to very publically thank Lorne for his help on this matter; without his assistance we would still be stuck in Vancouver! Arguably, this wouldn’t be such a bad thing at all, apart from meaning that we would miss our other sponsor’s events we had to make across the border. RGE has a tight schedule!

The day’s events finished at around 9pm, and we quickly dashed with the SRZero over to Don’s house to give the car a charge, then back to Charis’s for a shower and change, and then out for our last night in Vancouver!

The team loved every minute of our stay in Vancouver, and have a huge number of people to thank for making it so pleasant; chief among them being Charis, Don, Lorne and KPMG’s wonderful staff!

OK, I need a deep breath before I start this blog post as this was a long day and a fair bit to write about! We had only 242 miles (387km) to Vancouver, but we knew the terrain was going to be tough as we crossed the Rocky Mountains and took on the precarious twists and turns of the mighty Duffy Lake Road. It sounds like a nice and easy road by its name, but I can tell you that it turned out to be very far from it!

Given the route, we decided we needed a full charge, and as the name of this entry suggests, we were going to go via Whistler and spend some time there too, so we needed to leave early as well. But, avid RGE followers, as you’ll remember from previous blog posts, 2 of our chargers are out for the count and we have but one charger remaining. So we did what any other mad engineers would do; we got up at 3.30am, and tow charged the car behind the RV (effectively simulating regenerative breaking) until it was full! This worked fantastically, and before long, we were back where we started at the RV park. As mentioned previously, whenever we do tow charge, which is an absolute last resort by the way, we always go back to the same position so that the SRZero drives every metre of the Pan-Am Highway under its own power.

But when we wanted to start driving, there were problems. The car didn’t seem to work properly all of a sudden, and we noticed that the low voltage circuit, normally sitting at a comfortable 13.8 volts, was falling. We had seen this behaviour before; a long time ago we had realised that if we charged at too high a current, a fuse in the DCDC converter would blow. We had fixed this problem and had subsequently not seen this issue crop up for months, so how could it have failed this time?

The tow charging turned out to be the culprit because we were able to charge at very high currents by towing the car fast and using higher charging currents than we had ever previously employed. I admit I did get a little excited with the RV throttle pedal, and may have gone faster than we had done previously towed at, so quite clearly this is where the problem lay. After diagnosing the problem, it was time to whip the seat out and get to that meddling fuse! This constituted the first break down of the entire trip, all 2,500 miles (4000km) of it so far, but very quickly everything was fixed and back in the car…problem solved!

Fixing the problem, while teaching us not to tow charge at speeds in excess of 65mph (104km/h), did delay us, and it was only after some hurried calls to our friends who were to meet us in Whistler hat we finally got on the road.

And what a road it was! It very quickly turned from an easy and fairly straight road surrounded by lush vegetation, into the complete and utter opposite. All of a sudden, we were negotiating tight hairpin bends as we wound our way into the almost desert-like Rockies. The dense forest turned into scrubland, and the valley we had previously been in morphed into cliff top roads overlooking plummeting ravines and bottoming out with gushing rivers. It was exactly like the scenery you’d get in your typical western; breathtakingly beautiful, rugged, and dangerous all at the same time!

But we couldn’t let our eyes wonder; now more than ever before we had to be 100% concentrated on the road ahead as we took on the mountains’ steep contours. Quite frequently there were rocks and other debris on the road from recent rock falls that needed to be quickly avoided, and the traffic behind as kept us moving at a brisk pace. And don’t forget the random road flooding, where the SRZero had no choice but to go wading through a puddle with similar proportions to an Olympic swimming pool! These things one just can’t avoid, but without any fuss, the SRZero made it through without being worse for wear!

On several occasions, the twists and turns and the RV’s inability to handle these roads particularly well meant that we were out of radio contact with the SRZero for much of the time. But after passing the worst of the road, the convoy reunited, and we continued up the road to Whistler; one of the world’s most famed ski resorts and home of the 2010 Winter Olympics! Unlike many alpine resorts which rest high up on the mountainside, Whistler is based quite low down due to the region’s very cold winter climate, and as such, the resort is fairly flat and spread out.

We drove around a bit and found our way to the centre where we were to meet 2 people that turned out to be vital to the project. First up was Don Chandler, past-President of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association. He had organised the stop at Whistler and the chance to charge off the first of Canada’s high power EV charging points. In addition, he also helped organise the procurement of the new thermistors, let us use his garage in Vancouver for charging and storage, and set us up for a photo that very few cars have ever had the pleasure of being in.

At the centre of the village stands a sculpture of one of the world’s most famous of emblems; the Olympic Circles. Five meshed circles each around 2.5m in diameter stood at the base of the mountains and on a major pedestrian thoroughfare. Yet somehow, forces beyond team RGE had designed to get the SRZero in front of this famous landmark, and so after a sumptuous dinner, we were parked in front of the emblem taking photos and explaining the project to many a passerby. Quite epic!

The second person that we met when pulling into Whistler was Charis Segeritz, an old friend of Clemens from boarding school in Germany. She had very kindly let the team stay at her apartment, but her mothering nature didn’t stop there as you will see later on in the blog post!

So, after a quick dinner, charge up and photoshoot in Whistler and the sun rapidly setting (we were now sufficiently south for darkness to set at a reasonable hour) we headed south for Vancouver, our first major city stop. But not long into the journey we had a minor delay; yep, another confrontation with the law and also giving us one of the best quotes of the trip so far:

Police Siren: “NEE NAW NEE NAW BEE BOO BEE BOO,” accompanied by the customary red and blue lights of a squad car.
The RGE convoy pulls over and wait for the sharply dress Mounty to come over from his squad car.
Mounty: “What in hell could possibly make you think that this car is legal to drive on the Canadian highway!?”

The usual document-showing ensued, but nonetheless, 2 more squad cars were called in to deal with us foreigners, followed by the actual Police Chief in his unmarked car. Why it was necessary to have 10 policemen in 4 cars stop just 2 people in one car is baffling, but perhaps it was for the large number of pictures they took of the car afterwards! As always though, we were treated with complete courtesy and professionalism.

So, fast forward to Vancouver where the convoy now consisted of Don’s car, followed by the SRZero, followed by Claudio and Greg on the bike, and tailed by the RV. After dodging in and out of the inbound Vancouver traffic, we finally made it down to 32nd Avenue and to Don’s home out in the leafy southern suburbs. We quickly had the car on charge and the RV parked up, and then Don very kindly offered to ferry the whole team over to Charis’s apartment about 15 minutes away. Don’s help was certainly instrumental in making the day so smooth, so a big public thanks from the team!

And upon entering Charis’s home, the team immediately felt like I would imagine new born chickens do as their mother hen clucks above overhead. A whole bunch of beds were laid out for each team member, the fridge was stocked up especially for us, breakfast equipment was already on standby, and the cupboards in the kitchen were labelled according to which contained food we could munch. It felt like home from home! Charis’ flatmate, Laura, was also very accommodating, as were her neighbours who put up Nik and Pambo for a few nights too.

So we enacted a full speed evacuation plan, despite still being mostly undressed, and ended up with Nik sitting in a t-shirt and boxers following the RV in the SRZero. It was comfort driving at its finest! So, off this dishevelled convoy went, following Toby’s directions to the closest Boston Pizza and one which we had passed the night before. After pulling on some trousers, I entered the restaurant and asked the hostess if she had seen a bunch of 3 rowdy football supporters with English accents.  She hadn’t, it transpired, and a quick sweep of the restaurant confirmed this. After calling them and ascertaining that they were in fact at a different Boston Pizza, apparently due to momentary confusion over the difference between left and right, we turned back in the opposite direction and raced across to get them.

With Claudio and Greg catching us up later on the motorbike, and with RGE now reunited, we decided to head off to our last stop before Vancouver; Clinton. Now, you may or may not have seen a picture of the RV we had rented for this first stretch of the Pan-American Highway; it’s huge. Had we been in Africa or Asia, elephants would look like little chihuahuas in comparison, and it has the mechanical equivalent of a heart attack upon taking on any gradient at a speed above 55mph. So, after arranging a rendezvous point at an RV park in Clinton, we sent the speedy SRZero off ahead and the RV lumbered along in the rear along the lengthy and undulating road.

Aside from the RV overheating at the top of a rather steep hill, I’m afraid nothing eventful happened at all. The Canadian roads were just too nice and the car was working too well for anything major to happen, and it was after a good 5 hours of driving that we pulled into the beautiful little village of Clinton. By this time, the support vehicle and the SRZero were well out of radio range, and we in the RV now attempted to find the campground where we were to stay. But after 2 minutes of driving, and the southern boundary of the village getting further and further behind us, there was no sign of the RV park. We also knew that the SRZero and its occupants must be running low on energy, so we were anxious to get back to them ASAP so charging/eating could commence!

It was clear that the RV was heading back out into the wilderness and that the RV park must be behind us. So after a quick 3 point turn, which in the RV entails someone getting out to ensure that its gargantuan bottom doesn’t flatten the odd passing car, we headed back towards town. On the subject of bottoms, we noticed a beautiful, curvaceous white and green one poking through the trees a few hundred metres down the road. Yes, it was the SRZero and it was currently sitting in the entrance of the elusive RV park. As it turned out, they had only just arrived and the RV may have actually been ahead of them. Apparently, the SRZero crew had taken a lengthy toilet break somewhere, and the RV had unknowingly passed them by. Anyway, reunited once more, we booked ourselves into the park, having a chat with the very friendly proprietor at the same time, and set the car up for a charge.

With stomachs on the verge of catastrophic implosion, the next port of call was the only restaurant which appeared to be still open (it was a Sunday night after all). We burst in through the door, and the conversation goes roughly as follows:

Team: “Food! We need it now! Are you still serving?”
Owner: “Sorry, the kitchen has just closed, eh.”
Team: “Nooooooooo!”
Owner: “I could serve you some readymade pizzas though, eh”.
The team’s eyes light up in anticipation, much like a dog shifts his ears forward when expecting a treat…
Owner: “But I don’t have the pizzas; I only have the oven, eh.”

Decisive action was immediately taken. “Where’s the nearest convenience store?!”  we asked. We were told it was just down the road, but we had better run as it was closing imminently. Run was all we did, and seconds later we were outside the convenience store, to be greeted by a closed grille and an aged man of Asian origin locking up. Upon explanation of how utterly starving we were, he duly opened up and we pounced upon the frozen pizza section. After purchasing said pizzas and other supplies (a.k.a. Pringles and iced tea) we went back to the restaurant where the owner happily agreed to cook the pizzas we had bought, for no extra cost; yet another example of the unbelievable kindness we have been shown along the entire length of our trip.

As a side point, you may have noticed from the above transcriptions, as well as others from Canadian lands, that many of the native’s sentenced end in “eh” pronounced like the word “a”. It is a common nuance across Canadian English, and it’s quite endearing! I’ve started using it myself on occasion, eh.

And so it was with beer in hand, pizza in mouth, and pool cue in the other hand, that we happily passed the Sunday night away in this beautiful log cabin restaurant as the stuffed moose, deer and caribou heads stared down upon us.

Upon waking up and finding the RV park bathed in bright sunlight, we discovered that we were in the middle of a beautiful 18 hole golf course replete with a wide gushing river down one of its borders. As there were still a few hours of charging time left, what better way to while away a sunny morning than having a quick round o’ golf? There was, in fact, nothing better to do, so off we went to borrow some clubs from the clubhouse.

Unlike the scenario where one is expected to be dressed appropriately for such a gentlemanly sport, we teed off in t-shirts, swim shorts and flip flops, with Clemens feeling especially liberated and missing out the last item all together and playing completely barefoot! Despite the late night and sub-optimal footwear, there were a number of excellently played holes, and the team came off the round feeling refreshed and ready for lunch!

After lunching on a terrace overlooking the golf course, we met with the owner of the property who had seen the car and was very keen to get some photos. A pretty standard occurrence one might think, but he requested for the car to be parked on one of his fairways; certainly a first for the team! So off we went to the car, unplugged it from its electricity supply, and drove it onto the golf course. If any of you are wondering, yes, we did try wheel spinning on the grass, yes it was cool, and no the grass wasn’t ripped up!

A small crowd gathered to take photos and to see what is surely the sexiest golf buggy ever to grace a golf course! It was a very enjoyable affair, parked up on fairway one, with a number of very astute and pertinent questions asked by the audience. It was, however, over all too soon as we had to get on to our next stop before the RV park closed for the night.

And that, dear readers, was the highlight of the day, as for the next few hours we drove to Prince George on a pretty but very uneventful drive. The car worked flawlessly, as it had done for the previous 9 days of driving on this vast continent, and it was only the nagging issue of the 2 crippled chargers in the back of our minds that caused us any concern. But as we were confident we would get the replacement components in Vancouver and fix the chargers then, we were happy to leave this issue alone until we could do something about it.

Prince George, a city of just over 83,000 is the largest population centre in northern British Columbia and is based at the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers and is a major transport hub for the region. However, as we were rushing to get to the RV park before it closed, we had no time to explore the area, and it was a mad dash to get in on time and get the car charging up as fast as possible.

And that, my friends, is all that happened on the 12th day of this epic adventure!

Today was an important day in our quest to chase down the elusive thermistors needed to fix our two crippled chargers. We were told by FedEx, the company shipping the components from the UK, that we would definitely be able to pick up said components in a small town called Kitwanga, about 220 miles south from Iskut. So, in order to pick up these components as early as possible, we aimed to get to Kitwanga for mid-late morning, and as usual, this necessitated another hideously early start!

This leg saw the team complete the Cassiar Highway, and we were told that the road condition would be significantly better on this half compared to the last. It was true; smooth tarmac awaited us as we sped down to Kitwanga. When I say that we “sped down”, I mean it in the literal sense…the drive seemed to be going continuously downhill, with some spectacular road plunging down between vertical mountain cliffs, and amongst waterfalls and river rapids. However, one could notice the landscape changing, and it wasn’t long before we were out of the mountains and driving on relatively flat land.

During the drive, we had the opportunity to see some more bears, three of them to be precise, but all at much closer range than we had seen them on the roadside before. Due to the remoteness of the road and very low levels of traffic, the tarmac borders right onto the forest rather than having a cleared area of land either side of the road in which to spot roaming animals before they jump in front of one’s vehicle (the usual scenario for more frequented highways). This enabled us to see these animals, one being a tiny cub, mere metres from the car, and each occasion this elicited squeals of excitement from the team and words to the effect of “LOOK, OH LOOK AT THE BEAR! ISN’T HE CUTE?!” I admit that I am the main culprit of said squeals, as well as the accompanied change in voice to something resembling a mother cooing over her newborn baby!

Other than seeing the bears, the drive passed very uneventfully all the way until we reached the tiny town of Kitwanga, nestled in rolling countryside at the base of the Seven Sisters mountain range, a chain of 14 high, jagged and permanently snow-capped peaks. We headed directly for the local RV park, and set the car up for charging. We also took the opportunity to go and ask the lady at the desk if the package containing our components, which she had been forewarned about, had arrived yet. “No it hasn’t,” she said, “But don’t worry, it will be delivered here by the end of the day” she added. With this comforting thought in mind and a warm, cloudless day developing overhead, we sauntered over to the local cafe for brunch and some of that oh so sweet wifi!

After some refreshing food made with delicious local produce, we checked the FedEx tracking number we were given to try and ascertain exactly where our components were. Apparently, the last FedEx had heard was that the package had reached Prince George (around 300 miles away); no further information was given. This was when the first seeds of doubt began to creep in; would our plan to rendezvous with our components shipped from halfway around the world actually work?

We headed back to the RV park to find out whether the package had been delivered. By this time it was around 4pm on a Friday afternoon, and local shops and businesses were beginning to close for the weekend. Nonetheless, we were hopeful that at some point during our absence, a postman would have found the time to drop off our little package. So, we winged our way across to the office to find another woman waiting calmly at the desk. The conversation goes something like the following:

Alex: “Hi there, my name’s Alex. I would just like to check if a parcel has come for me. I think it was you I spoke to on the phone earlier, no?”

Woman: “Hi there, we spoke earlier, but your parcel hasn’t arrived, eh.”

Alex: “But I was assured it would be delivered here today.”

Woman: “Oh no, a parcel that small would be delivered to the post office, eh.”

Alex: “What?! The previous woman told me it would be delivered here.”

Woman: “Oh, that woman has been ill recently, and sometimes gets a little confused, eh.”

Alex: “So is it at the post office?”

Woman: “I have no idea, but the post office is closed now, eh. You’ll have to wait until Monday.”

Anyway, you can imagine our frustration when FedEx tell us one thing, and two different women from the RV park tell us contrasting things as well. We were now desperate to try all options in order to recover these components. First up was a call to FedEx. A chirpy robotic voice could be heard from the other end. She kindly asked me to say the department I was looking for out of a list of options. “Tracking”, I said. She thanked me and then proceeded to pass me on to the accounts department where I was greeted by another robot. Similar things happened on several more tries, and I quickly concluded that getting through the maze of robots may take me until the following decade. More drastic measures needed to be taken…

It was pushing 5.30pm, everything was closed, but we thought an attempt to somehow infiltrate the post office would be a good idea. This was another occasion where Greg, our biker friend (now nicknamed “Sexy Bitch” after some very feminine posing with a plastic bag) came in handy as he offered one of us to jump on the back of his bike and speed in towards the post office. Special Agent Toby Schulz was selected for this mission, and off they sped into “town”.

Toby returned empty handed, but with an ace up his sleeve; he had managed to recruit a local couple who somehow had access to the key of the post office, and were currently rifling through the mail to find our package. However, they turned up at the RV park half an hour later and also empty handed. This was well and truly game over they assured us…no more chance to get the package until Monday. They did promise to pick up the package on our behalf and forward it to our address in Vancouver though. Actually, this kind of incredible friendliness, helpfulness, and hospitality is something we have found everywhere throughout our trip so far. Perhaps it is the spirit engendered by a small close-knit community, or it’s just that Canadians and Americans are super friendly, but either way it’s a humbling experience.

However, back to the charger issue; with no way of getting hold of the components until Monday if we were to stay in Kitwanga, we decided the best course of action was to carry on driving and ensure we manage to secure the components upon our arrival in Vancouver, around 750 miles away. We decided the best place for us to drive to was a town called Smithers a few hours down the road. At around 7pm, we set off on the second drive of the day…

With a population of just over 5,500 people, Smithers was a blast of civilisation for us! All of a sudden there were lots of buildings, people, cars and shops. It was quite a pretty place actually, with wide and well kept streets, but we did not have much time to appreciate this as RGE was soon in trouble! Bright flashes of red and blue came into view as one of the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) squad cars sped into view and pulled over the SRZero. Finally, after months of waiting and hoping, we were stopped by the police! With Claudio filming covertly while hidden in some nearby bushes, and with Nik snapping away like a Japanese tourist, it was lights, camera, action!

A policeman stepped out of the car; “We have a ten-four, over,” he said into his radio before walking over to Toby and Andy, who were waiting with huge grins on their faces while sitting in the SRZero. The policeman asked to see some documents, but before much else could happen, Clemens rushed out of the support vehicle with his trusty leather satchel containing all our vital paperwork. The policeman was presented with all our vehicle registration documents, and then went back to his car to radio in all the information.

He came back a few minutes later saying the Canadian authorities had no knowledge of this vehicle in Canada and was therefore illegal to drive on the road. This was because the insurance we had for the US and Canada was based in California, so there was no record of the car being driven in Canada. Clemens’ face fell; as our logistics man it was his job to ensure that we were legal to drive everywhere we go. He rummaged through his folder to find the right document to get us off the hook, but it was not there. After a quick scrounge around the RV however, he found the right folder with the necessary document; a letter from the head of the Canadian transport authority authorising the car to drive through Canada. After seeing this document and conferring with his colleague, the policeman was happy to let us go. The whole episode was very professionally conducted by the RCMP, and we were free to go. However, as we were stopped in the centre of town, we had a huge crowd surrounding the scene and taking pictures…this was not a conspicuous entry into Smithers!

After our little soiree with the local bobby, we continued on towards our destination for the night; an RV park just out of town. We had heard from all the people we had just met in town about what was going on with the Friday nightlife, so we were eager to get the car on charge and head off into town for some food and night-time entertainment.

With the car safely on charge and the team fed to the brim on some delicious pizza, we headed off to The Legion where we were told the entire of the town’s youth population assembles. It was a fairly dingy affair, but the atmosphere and the crowd was great, and almost immediately the team was recognised as the bunch of foreigners with that sexy car from earlier. We were quickly making friends, including the policemen who stopped us as they were at the bar too (!), and soon it was time to move on to the next haunt; a nightclub called The Garage. Here we met more people that heard of us and the car, the news had spread like wildfire apparently, and we happily danced the night away with some very pretty locals!

But it didn’t end there! While talking to some guys out front, we were invited to an impromptu house party a few minutes walk away. The socialising continued there for a number of very happy hours, and it was 4am by the time we arrived back at the RV after a long but very enjoyable day!

After a short 4 hour nap during the charging run, Andy and I got ready for a 2am start driving from to Iskut. Clemens had told us there would be a right turn soon after leaving the RV Park marking the start of the Cassiar Highway, however, the junction was so well disguised however that we missed the turning! By the time we found it we assumed the RV would now be ahead and trying to catch up with us, as we had left a few minutes before them. Therefore in our minds, the race was on to catch up with them, knowing little the rest of the team was actually behind us. Now driving fast at night might sound like a lot of fun but it actually turns out to be rather tricky. Not only were the nights much darker already as we had left the far north but also the road was of quite undesirable quality. When driving around 50-60 mph this leaves you just a second from seeing a pothole until you either hit it or found a good way to dodge it. Flying ahead on our catching up spree therefore turned out to be very exciting but also rather nerve wracking.

We had been going like this for about 20 minutes and could still not see the tail lights of the RV or Greg’s motorbike which really made us think. Surely the RV was not capable of this sort of speed on such a bad road? Just at this instance we made out a front light in the far distance behind us which turned out to be Greg on his motorbike. As decided earlier that evening he went ahead of us to spot bad road conditions to be able to warn us in advance which really helps a lot, especially when driving at night. Now we were wondering where was the RV?

As the motorbike caught up from behind we decided to slow down since they were most likely catching up with us too, however even after half an hour creeping along at 30mph there was no sign of our support vehicle. After about one hour the RV finally showed up in our rear view mirrors and it turned out they missed the same junction as us but had carried on for 15 minutes in the wrong direction. Andy and I felt relieved not to be the idiots of the night! What really caused the problem was that our mobiles didn’t have reception and once we were past the 500m range of the radios no communication to the support vehicle was possible. Lesson learnt? If you have no safe way to communicate stay within line of sight!

Now all reunited, the journey continued at a better pace. It seemed that the road had been going uphill for the last two days and particularly this night. Our observation was correct and at about 3:30am we were rewarded with one of the most stunning views since we started our trip. Particularly the area around Dease Lake was absolutely breath-taking. It is very unfortunate we had to drive this leg during the night; otherwise we could have posted pictures of this scenery words can’t really do justice to. This mistake will not be repeated however and we will now aim to only drive during the day! Having said that, I personally found the mountainous scenery with its harsh rocks and lakes reflecting the surrounding woods in the moonlight extremely impressive and will never forget it. Maybe it was actually more of an experience than driving this part of the Cassiar during the day; there was something very magical about it.

After the peak a 18 mile descent started which was needed as our nightly chase and going uphill for a long time had drained a big chunk of our charge from the batteries. From one test to the next our car now had to face a 6 mile stretch of gravel road. Not that we hadn’t driven on gravel road before but here the road had very short spaced ridges going across it giving a ride similar as on cobble road. Having a racing car chassis this can be felt in every bone for the drivers and some suspension components felt it in a similar manner as we discovered upon arrival.

The road was now a bit more modest and allowed time for thought and conversation again. This is when we noticed how cold it had been the entire night (1 dec according to Gregs bike) and that our legs had become rather numb. Even though I was wearing gloves my fingers were stiff and moulded to the shape of the steering wheel, once again time to man up and push ahead. Think about lying in the sun and forget the uncomfortable feeling in fingers and legs. By now it was about 5am and almost bright outside revealing some of the beautiful landscape in dawn for a change. The surroundings were a bit more level than earlier but you could see massive mountains shimmering in the morning light in the near distance.

Usually we are used to have a good eye on the battery level of the SR0 but this time it was the RV that was low on petrol. Here comes another disadvantage of driving during the night, if you pull up at a petrol station at 5am in the middle of nowhere, there will hardly be anyone present to serve you! Another look at the map however confirmed that with what we had left in the tank and a spare jerry can of fuel we should be able to make it to our next stop. At 7am when we had been unlucky again at yet another unmanned petrol station, I gave really needed to warm up and let Toby take over to drive the SR0. I am not sure how Andy managed to hang in there with Toby for the last hour of driving until we hit Iskut without getting hypothermia, but I was extremely happy to take over the steering wheel of the RV and made sure the cockpit was nice and warm.

We arrived at 8am at the Mountain Shadow RV park, were it was finally time for sleep. Most of us had been up all of the night so we made sure to go to bed as soon as the car was put on charge. We woke up to bright sunshine and summery temperatures at one of the nicest RV Parks we had seen so far, located just next to a lake with stunning views over some huge Canadian mountains. Time to sunbathe and discover some of the lake in a dingy while the car was charging. Later in the afternoon we inspected the suspension and found that the battering from the gravel road had increased the wear on some rubber mountings. We noticed before that these mountings would not last the entire trip as they slowly started deforming but now it was time to order replacements as we were sure they would not last much further than Vancouver.

Alex and I wanted to go fishing in the lake later in the evening but instead of lending us his fishing roads, the owner of the RV Park gave us 5 beautiful rainbow trouts. This instantly made us fire up the BBQ, clean out the fish and prepare it with salt, butter and garlic. Fish only 20 minutes out of the water with some simple flavouring, grilled on the BBQ is one of the most delicious things one can find, in my opinion at least. The rest of the evening was spent telling stories and learning how to imitate moose noises for hunting from another visitor. It was a very long but equally successful and enjoyable day and we all crashed in bed at around 12pm for yet another short night’s sleep.

Soon we started calling shops much further afield even all the way to Vancouver (1600 miles away), but still could not find a shop with the component in stock. We realised that the only option was to get it shipped out from a trusted source back in the UK. But where do we get it shipped to? Whitehorse is the largest town within 3 days driving – should we wait there for it or try and get as many miles done with one only charger? In the end we compromised by getting the parts sent to a place 750 miles down the road, and all agreed it was best to get as many miles towards Vancouver done as possible.

Day 8 did not feel like a particularly productive day and the team were itching to get back on the road. However, one positive outcome of the day was the arrival of a biker called Greg. Greg offered to join the team between Whitehorse and Seattle and it’s great to have him with us. His versatility on the motorbike allows Claudio to capture some great shots, and also gives us an extra vehicle in which to whizz into town now and again for food supplies! So, welcome Greg!

In order for us to get as far south as possible on one charger, we needed an early start to day 9. A few hours sleep for the driving members of the team and we were up at 3am ready to roll south. Clear skies beckoned as we hit the road at the break of dawn. The SRZero was out in front with Claudio zipping around on the back of Greg’s motorbike getting all the right angles for the video footage. We were headed towards Watson Lake which was 273miles (438km) away. Watson Lake is situated at the junction between the continuation of the Alaskan Highway and the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. It was actually the first time we had the choice between two roads since the beginning of the trip in Alaska.

Even though we had many more exciting things going through our minds, certain factions of the team could not resist the Germany v Spain World Cup semi final which was on later that morning. So we set a firm pace into the morning sunrise.

A breakfast stop came at the little community of Teslin situated around the cast iron bridge over Teslin Lake. This provided an awesome environment for some more filming and photography. Claudio even spotted the first grizzly bear of the day down at the lakeshore. Not only the mountains and the vast forests, but especially the huge waterways of the Yukon and Mackenzie Rivers and their countless tributaries have been a highlight in the scenic driving we have done down from Alaska. Teslin Lake was another one of these beautiful waterways stretched so long it is almost a river.

On we convoyed towards Watson Lake when suddenly someone in the motorhome spotted a black furry ball moving around in the undergrowth just 25m away beside the road. In fact nearly all the highways have a border region beside the road which is cleared of trees – sometimes only a few metres wide, and other times up to 20m. This is consistent along the thousands of miles of road in this very vast and remote part of the world, and serves only one purpose; to make sure drivers aren’t surprised by wildlife jumping out onto the road! So out we jumped to take a closer look. It was exciting to get so close to a bear in the wild – nothing separating the bear from yourselves apart from 20m of grass. It hung around for a while making its way slowly along the edge of the forest, and after giving us a couple of interesting looks, the bear thought there would be tastier food elsewhere and decided to move on back into the bush.

But it was not long until we spotted another bear next to the road, this time a much larger grizzly! As we were driving at the time, we had just enough time to take some photos from the vehicle before it lumbered out of sight. But nevertheless, you truly got the feeling that you were out in pure untouched wilderness.

We arrived at our destination in the late morning, just in time to catch Spain’s winning goal against Germany. Despite half the team’s disappointment, we played our own not-so-friendly game of England vs. Germany…

Waking up to a cold and heavily overcast sky with the aforementioned warnings ringing in one’s head would have deterred many travellers, but not us…we were fired up and ready to go! I strode out onto the Alaskan Highway, took a sniff of the wind, looked towards the horizon, and strode back to the team confidently predicting blue skies in 3 hours. Where I plucked this figure from, I am still trying to work out, but it turned out to be a very accurate forecast, and before long we had the road ahead and blue skies above.

In some ways, the people we had spoken to were right; the road was indeed terrible in many places. But what onlookers don’t realise is how nimble the SRZero is, and where others in their big pickup trucks have to slow down to go over large dips in road, our short wheel base, low centre of gravity and racecar-like handling means we can swing round these obstacles at relatively high speeds. In addition, our ground clearance is deceptively low, and so far we have not found a road obstacle which prevents us from passing.

To say we sped down the road would be a bit much as we certainly had to temper our speed a fair bit over the first 100 miles, but what excitement we lost by going slower was more than made up in the scenery. Breathtaking views abounded, with snow capped mountains, wild rivers and miles upon miles of virgin forest at every turn.

Our first stop came 116 miles later as we pulled into a small town called Destruction Bay. The name comes from a camp that was used to build the Alaskan Highway which was destroyed during a violent storm that raged off the neighbouring Kluane Lake; a huge 400km² body of water. We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant on the shore of the lake, and then headed down to the lake to stretch our legs. In doing so, we found the cutest and friendliest Labrador who was intent on playing with us as much as possible. But time was ticking on, and we had to leave the dog to his own devices and complete the next 164 miles.

Now I know I keep on babbling about the scenery, but each and every day has a different landscape which is quite incredible in its own right. Today was no exception as we followed the shoreline of the entire 70km long lake as it twisted and turned at the base of the mountains. The road improved dramatically and it was an easy drive over to Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. Despite a bit of anxiety in the last 50 miles or so as to whether or not we’ll make it all on one charge, we arrived with a comfortable 7% left.

As always, however, there has to be some drama. This time, it began at the RV park as we plugged the car in for a charge, and in doing so noticed that one of the chargers had something rattling inside it. Upon further inspection, we found the culprit; one of the small electrical components had failed and fallen off its mountings. This was possibly due to the quite varied electricity sources we have experienced out here in the wilderness i.e. non-grid connected electricity.

So we continued charging off just 2 chargers which is really not a problem as we can still charge from empty in 12 hours. But then we noticed that one of the other chargers was not delivering any power, despite the fact that all the lights and indicators were positive. Further investigation found the same component at fault as the previous charger.

Now, we are perfectly able to charge off one charger, but it can take up to 25 hours to do so, and this is really pushing it if we are to make our deadlines in Vancouver. Fortunately, we had internet access so we could Skype more knowledgeable people in other parts of the world and we could research where we could get replacement components. After a lot of calling and research, we found out what the problem was and how to fix it, but locating the components proved more tricky as evening dawned and people went home from work.

As such, the team went to bed with a real challenge hanging over everyone’s heads…how were we going to get these spare components come daylight?

Upon waking up each morning, members of team RGE perform a fairly standard routine which involves stumbling out of the RV into the 24/7 daylight, and checking that the chargers have done their job and charged the car up full to the brim. On this occasion however, the car was not charged up…not even close! We attributed this to an overnight power failure as the car and chargers were still working fine. So we plugged everything back in, got the car charging again, and waited for it to charge.

This is where Fast Eddy’s and their extremely friendly staff helped a lot because, despite the rain and cold, we had a warm and spacious place to eat, drink coffee, and glue our noses to whatever internet-giving devices we could lay our hands on. A few power cut free hours later, the car was charged up, the team was doped up on caffeine, and it was time to hit the road!

Normally, we try and get between 250 and 300 miles done per day as this requires only one charge and means not too many hours are spent driving. However, on the days in which we are scheduled to cross borders, as we were today (US to Canada) we have to give ourselves extra time. So, on this occasion, we chose an RV park about 20 miles past the border in Beaver Creek, and shortened the day to a meagre 140 miles.

About 40 miles on from Tok, the road deteriorated rapidly, and in some stretches speeds as low as 25mph had to be endured as even the big SUVs had to navigate around elephant-sized dips and loose, uneven gravel. The poor quality of the road is actually due to efficient maintenance rather than the other way around; the ripped up carriageway is part of the process of repairing it and bringing it up to a quality standard. This is more difficult than in other parts of the world as freeze-thaw conditions and copious amounts of melt water during and after their long winters all contribute to yearly road damage. But the SRZero continued through it all without any problems, and 80 miles later, we reached the US-Canadian border…

…well that’s what we expected to happen! The reality was that all of a sudden we saw a sign saying “Welcome to Canada” with not a border guard in sight. It was here that Clemens’ homework paid off; while the rest of us were laughing about how lax the border was (or seemed to be) Clemens was asking us to stop and turn round! We had forgotten to have the Carnet signed; an official document detailing every item of equipment we have with us to prove that nothing that had been imported into the US had been sold or retained inside the US.

So, back up the hill we went until we reached the US border (now from the wrong direction!) where we were greeted by a very enthusiastic border guard. The conversation goes something like the following:

Guard: “Hi, how are you?”
Clemens: “Fine thanks” as he mumbles something and gets out the car to have a friendly chat with the border guard.
Guard: “REMAIN IN YOUR VEE-HICKLE!” he shouted.
Clemens scurries back in.
Guard: “YOUR PASSPORTS!” he exclaimed, followed by general murmurs of approval as he checks our faces against our passports and scans them through his machine. Much time is spent thumbing Clemens’ passport with a very perturbed expression; clearly he wasn’t a fan of the 2 Iranian visas in there!
Guard: “Is this your motorhome?”
Clemens: “No, we’re hiring it and depositing it in Seattle.”
Guard: “OK, let me see some proof of the vee-hickle rental and registration.”
Toby passes across some documents to the above effect.
Guard: “The rental seems in order, but you have given me the user manual for the motorhome. I do not need this.” He hands back said document.
Alex: “But the vehicle registration document is in the back of that folder.”
Guard: “I will ask you for that document when I need it!”
2 seconds later…
Guard: “Let me see the vehicle registration document!”

Anyway, you get the gist. But everything was signed and handled efficiently, and we weren’t delayed for too long. The SRZero, as usual, got preferential treatment and was waved through without much hassle. From the border post we followed an incredibly scenic route through no man’s land until we reached the official border, and incredibly, the border between Canada and the US could be visibly seen. In the forest separating these huge nations was a massive tract of trees that had been felled to mark the border. Dead straight, it extended in both directions for as far as the eye could see…quite amazing actually!

A few miles later we arrived at the Canadian border post where we were greeted by a friendly woman who made light work of our passports and Carnet. She even knew that the SRZero was electric, and she asked a few more questions, more out of curiosity than duty I suspect. Unlike the previous border, she was quite content to allow the team to film and photograph the whole experience, and so it was after a pretty easy and hassle-free day that we entered Canada. First border completed!

After a few more miles, we turned off the road into Beaver Creek RV, one of a handful of buildings in this incredibly small population centre. The weather and scenery was fantastic, and provided the perfect backdrop for an SRZero first; doughnutting! In front of the RV park there was a big gravel yard, and with the SRZero’s fantastic power and handling, we were doughnutting away to our hearts’ content, much to the amusement of the assembled locals!

Doughnutting on dry gravel has a side effect though; lots and lots of dust! So we decided it was prudent to take the car apart and do a full on service and clean. So it was for the next couple of hours that we happily tinkered away on the car while the sun imperceptibly inched towards the horizon, and the barbeque crackled away on the side. After putting the car back together and plugging in all 3 chargers, which were working flawlessly now, we ate a fitful meal of sausages and burgers. The setting was fantastic.

But then, the evil software monster had to rear its head! Toby and Alec, the team’s software gurus, wanted to try a new software update that would enhance our data collection. So after uploading the new software, it was time for a quick test. Two metres down the road however, it conked out, bringing back memories of problems we had just before shipping out the car. Fortunately however, it was the wrong software that was uploaded, and very quickly we had the right software on and everything worked again…a great feeling! After a few more minutes scrounging wifi off the local petrol station, it was time for bed after an initially frustrating, but ultimately very enjoyable and productive day.

Photos to come soon!