You’ll excuse me for borrowing this week’s subject line from an old Ewan McGregor motorcycle adventure but it seemed quite apt.
So, you live in Western Canada and want to take your 4×4 van to Australia for a year or so of touring and exploring. Australia lies thousands of kilometres across the Pacific to the south west. Logically, you would drive to Vancouver, put it on a ship ( going in that direction), allow a month or so of transit time, then fly down to meet it and begin your trip. Or so you might think. Alas, with an oversized Sprinter van it gets more complicated – much more complicated in fact.
That all said, I’ll save the sordid details of shipping a van from North America to Australia for a future blog when the whole process is ( hopefully ) complete and has ( ideally ) gone off as planned. Right now there are still more hoops to jump through, a ship ( coming from Europe ) to wait for and then a long passage from the East coast of the US to the East coast of Australia. Yes, I said the the “EAST” coast. For reasons I will explain later we have chosen to drive the van to the US East coast ( Savannah, Georgia specifically ) to catch said ship to Australia – this week’s blog will chronicle the first part of that journey – getting to Savannah.
Driving diagonally South East across the US would have been faster ( and warmer ! ) but following our general principle of “why make things easy when you can make them more complicated”, we chose to drive directly East across Canada ( to Winnipeg ) before turning hard South East to Savannah. We had good friends in Winnipeg we wanted to see so chose that route, all the while thinking how cold could it really be on the Canadian prairies in December ? I mean, it was only December – technically, it wasn’t even quite winter yet. The plan was pretty simple; we’d drop the van with the shipping company in Savannah then fly home to Kelowna in mid December for Christmas with our family before flying on to Australia in January to eventually meet up with our van later that month. But, first things first – the drive across Western Canada……. in December.
As we left Kelowna it was already snowing ( not a good omen ) and that got heavier as we crossed the Rockies. Frankly, it was pretty hair raising at times especially with so many heavy trucks on the route. Centre line mostly invisible, fog patches a constant worry, we made it only as far as Calgary – normally just a 6 hour drive, it took us all day. We knew not all campgrounds would be open in December but did not count on none being open ! This would be a recurring theme. That, and the extremely short days of December, made worse by the fact that we were driving East – there were simply not a lot of daylight driving hours in each day. Without campgrounds we made do with the best that iOverlander could offer – a Husky Truck Stop in Calgary, and a Walmart parking lot in Moose Jaw ( where we spent our coldest night: -26.5 celsius or -16 Fahrenheit ). Perhaps unsurprisingly we were the only campers parked in both locations.
The extreme cold proved an excellent testing ground for the insulation qualities of the van and the performance of the diesel heater – both proved up to the challenge and at no point were we cold inside the van. Outside was another story entirely with all three days it took to reach Winnipeg being in the high minus teens or low minus 20’s. Serious cold ! Once across the Rockies ( after Calgary ) visibility generally improved with the only real driving challenge being the mesmerizing snow drifts swirling across the road for much of the journey. The vast expanses of white offered up their own beauty, albeit best viewed from inside the van ! Mixed with that winter beauty were typical Canadian Prairie scenes and a few local tourist attractions. Neither of us had much enthusiasm for getting outside the vehicle for photo ops – it was so cold at times that we simply took photos from inside the van – we did NOT walk inside the worlds biggest teepee in Medicine Hat, nor stand in front of the worlds biggest ( fake ) moose in ( where else ) Moose Jaw. Quirky and kitschy, yes, but definitely not worth a case of severe frostbite !
Our good friends, Aldyn and Keith, who had recently moved to Winnipeg, gave us a very warm welcome for the night and we spent a wonderful evening celebrating a milestone birthday of Keith’s while enjoying Aldyn’s awesome chili dinner. Thanks guys, it was a fun night and the highlight of our trek across the Prairie’s.
Just a couple of hours south of Winnipeg lies the border town of Emerson where we crossed into the US. Could not have been easier, nor any quicker, with the US border staff super friendly and helpful. Crossing south of the 49th parallel did not bring any immediate respite from the biting cold – there’d be a little more cold weather yet. More of that to share next week.
Stay tuned…….
Wow, you *are* gluttons for punishment, driving through the prairies this time of the year. Thanks for your report; I am looking forward to periodic updates. By the way, the “rainbows” you saw are called “sundogs” and are created by sunlight reflected by ice crystals in the atmosphere. There are usually at least two of them, to the left and right of the sun but sometimes four, at 90 degree angle. They also spell “cold”. Thankfully, you missed the massive Colorado Low this week. Merry Christmas in Kelowna and safe travels to “the Land of Oz”.
Chuck from Pinawa, MB
Thanks Chuck. I know we have a few regular readers in the Prairies so I thought I might hear a bit about the weather we experienced there. Good to know the “rainbows” were in fact sun dogs. There’s probably a name for the snow ( that looks almost smoke ) that drifts across the highway just inches above the ground ( as in the feature image ). Merry Christmas to you and your family as well.
Safe travels, stay warm
Thanks and Merry Christmas, Tonia !
Brrrrrrrr! (sipping my hot coffee). Every day will get incrementally warmer now!
And we look forward to it Chris !
Nice to hear that you were able to have a few days in the Great White north in the Provinces of AB, SK and MB. You are missing some brutal cold weather coming our way from Siberia.
We live in Beausejour, MB and enjoy the area for its winter fun and no mud skids, forest fires and a few tornadoes. Once in ten
years. The weather is cold but, no bugs. They all went south, dead for the winter. Been in MB all our lives.
We will be following your adventures, from Sint Marrtins in the Caribbean starting in mid Jan. to mid Feb.
Have fun and keep trucking.
Later, Bert and Irene
Thanks guys, and the Caribbean sounds delightful !!!
Wish I’d have known you were heading this way; we could have given you a warm bed to sleep in instead of the Walmart parking lot. -26 just the norm here on Prairies; but it’s a dry cold….
Hi Tanya,
Very kind of you to offer and sorry we did not get to drop by ( even a driveway would have beat Walmart !!! Lol ! ). I knew we had quite a few readers in the prairies but was not quite sure who, nor where they were. I’ll need to telegraph our plans further in advance in future !!
PS: And yes, I know that -26 is by no means the worst of it.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I look forward to reading about the admin hurdles you went through before driving on Australian pavement. You won’t need that ice scraper for a while I’d think.
Hi Marc,
I will certainly be giving a full account of it. We have ( at least ) a couple of other Overlanders who are considering Australia watching the shipping process and all the official stuff once we land in Oz. Fingers crossed it goes well !
I love reading about you travels.
So much fun. Cheers!
Hi Tom,
Yes, mostly fun, but there are the odd headaches and stresses. We will both be relieved to find our van safe and sound ( hopefully ) in Melbourne in January. Merry Christmas !
I plan to follow you all the way, as I did on your South America trip. I would have loved to do something like this when I was younger, but never had the courage and probably not the funds required. Bon Yoyage, Jeff and Lois
Thanks Abe, glad to have you along for the ride !
Wow! Stay warm and safe travels.
Merry Christmas
Thanks guys – you, too !
you must be crazy!!!!!!! great photos though.
where will you be for Xmas?????
Ha ha ! We are !!! We will be back in Kelowna.
Jeff, we always follow your travels with relish! Sorry couldn’t get together in Summer, it passes so damn quickly these days. We are in Bali now until April so will be enjoying your trip from here. Who knows?, there’s a possibility we’ll be in Oz, but where and when is a big question.
No problem Garth, I was running hard to finish the van so had no time myself ( how did I manage a career ? lol !). Love to connect if you do get to Oz…we hope to be there all 2023. We did it Bali, we can surely connect in Oz!
From one extreme to the other – it could be 110 when you get out here to Oz. Glad your heater worked!!
110 is getting a little toasty…..!
Brrrr. Glad your heater worked. It will could be around 105 here when you get to Oz
105…..nice ! We are ready !!! Look forward to seeing you all soon
Merry Christmas Lois and Jeff, wishing you both all the best in 2023, safe travels!
Naida
And Merry Christmas and HNY to you and your family Naida ! So nice to hear from you and please say hi to those who might remember me at Bernard !
Wow, you guys are crazy, but love the adventure and look forward to the next stage. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you, Lois and family!
Thanks Jo, and same to you and the family !