Here follows a bit of a dark day, friends. And as is usually the case on such days, several factors compound.
I thought I’d tricked the jet lag, having used sleeping pills on the preceding few nights to get on the time zone. However, we’re both awake at a silly hour and sleep evades us until dawn. We get up around 6am with the intention of hitting the road early-ish, after breakfast. On the way to the toilet block, Andy claims he’s feeling ‘a bit bleugh.’ We’re not planning to exert ourselves today though; it’s just a long drive to Sun Peaks – or Heffley Lake actually, the campsite we’ve booked in the area.
We’ve decided today is the day to try out the protein-pancake mix we bought. We soon discover that there’s no fish slice or spatula in the utensils we’ve been given (a minor annoyance, but try flipping pancakes with a big spoon, I dare you). After that messy endeavour, we get on the road.
Pemberton to Lillooet
We stop for gas at Pemberton, just 20 minutes up the road and we’re faced with the choice of service station or McDonald’s coffee. Now, we love a ‘gourmet’ burger and NZ is full of gourmet burger places so we’re never in Maccas, but NZ Maccas coffee is passable. Let me tell you friends, I don’t know what they served us in Pemberton Maccas but coffee it was not. To quote Lunch Lady Dora from The Simpsons, it was ‘brown and water.’ It keeps our hands warm at the start of the 350km drive.
There’s not much to see between Pemberton and Lillooet, where we stop for lunch. Highway 99 takes us over a rugged mountain pass – steep slopes descend sharply from the road to the river valley below. The mountainsides are all forest: ponderosa and whitebark pine, Douglas fir and spruce; it’s a very green place with only the occasional tree at lower elevation starting to change colour. Pleasingly, the greyness of yesterday is starting to lift.
Lillooet – give it a miss if you drive this way, unless you need to eat. There’s a cracking wee bakery called Abundance though the two ladies behind the counter could not have looked less pleased with their roaring lunchtime trade. Service with a smile, it was not. Banging tuna melt though…
That being said, apparently Lillooet is an emerging wine region thanks to a dry summer climate and long growing season. We see a sign for Fort Berens Estate Winery but that’s not on the agenda today. And Andy says the town is giving him ‘Queenstown vibes… but not Queenstown, NZ – Queenstown, Tasmania.’ Now, we loved our tip to Tassie maybe 9 or 10 years ago, but Tassie Queenstown was not a highlight – as you descend into the town it feels like you’re driving through a massive mining pit, which it pretty much is.
Lillooet gained prominence during the Fraser Canyon and Cariboo Gold Rushes of the 1850s and 1860s, and mining and industrial mineral extraction remain active in the broader area, which is why it has a similar vibe. Travelling east towards Kamloops, as we’re doing, brings you into one of British Columbia’s most active mining districts, passing through a major mining corridor dominated by large-scale copper and gold operations.
The Heffley Lake Stop
We stop for groceries in Kamloops. Fresh Choice is the best supermarket chain we’ve encountered but after a big drive we’re overtired and overwhelmed with the choices, and we have to think about what will fit into the tiny van fridge and what we can do on the two-burner stove. We faff around too much trying to pick proteins and salads and Andy starts to get a bit shivery.
By the time we reach Lakeside Heffley Retreat it’s 3:45pm – 15 minutes before check-in is due to close. And yet, check-in is closed. There are instructions in the box outside, including highlighted directions to our site. However, the automatic gate doesn’t open automatically (cue running up and down a hill to activate a manual switch), you have to pay for the showers with ‘loonies’ which are apparently just $1CAD coins (we have none), and the firewood is locked up as you need to pay for it in the shop. To make matters worse, there’s a little bar restaurant which is closed for a private function, but that private function is a large, loud group of 20 somethings who arrive about the same time as us, but who have had more than a few by that point. We’re pretty hacked off. There’s a ‘text us if you need anything’ number on the door of the office. I text, but there’s no reply.
But the site itself it stunning! We are right on the edge of Lake Heffley and the late afternoon sunbeams make the water sparkle. It’s not quiet as the yobbos are still just within earshot, but they are nearly out of range. Andy just wants to sit for a bit, so I take a cuppa down onto the pontoon and dangle my feet in the lake. As I’m sitting there thinking about whether it’s too cold to swim, someone else appears and jumps in. He reckons it’s about 15 degrees and while I’m still deliberating, the decision is made for me – the yobbos appear and their chat is excruciating so I go for a swim and a float to get away from the noise. This should be idyllic: I breathe deeply, I try to find an inner calm, ground myself by noticing the beauty around me, but I’m kind of seething. There’s some kind of noise trigger that’s part of my own neuro-spice, and something particular about young people confidently spouting stuff that’s just factually incorrect.
The lake isn’t warm enough to just float around in without putting in a solid swimming effort. I find that I have no energy for that today. (In hindsight, I think if this stop had happened later in the trip I would have got a little 500m or 1km in; I sort of regret not doing more, but I know I had nothing at the time).
When I get back to the camper-van, Andy is fighting nausea. I find various kinds and sizes of wood along the lake and we manage to get a bit of a fire going before we have dinner. It’s about this time that someone from the site replies to my text message and I get some coins from the shower from her, but we decide against the firewood. Andy doesn’t eat much and he heads to bed early, with the heating on full blast in the van as he’s feeling so cold. Sometime in the middle of the night, he eventually has to go out and throw up ‘in the most scenic spot [he’s] ever thrown up in.’ We head to the washrooms, watching for bears but distracted by the magnificent white carpet of the Milky Way overhead. Sleep comes a bit easier for us both after that.
An Easy Morning
We sleep late, and Andy is feeling a little better but not spectacular. The great thing about the campsite is that we don’t have to leave until midday, but most folks seem to check out early. We largely have the place to ourselves, and enjoy porridge, strawberries and maple syrup by the lake, with the sun on our faces.
There are a few trailheads nearby: Embleton Mountain is pretty much across the road from the camp site, and Whitecroft Falls is 6km along the road. It’s a stunning morning and a big part of me is keen to get out there, but Andy is really not well enough for it. I feel like I’m missing out, but at the same time I know I am pretty tired as well. It’s never good when your partner or someone in your family gets sick, but it forced me to slow down as well, and I think I needed to.
Heffley Lake: The Verdict
As we left, I wished we’d booked two nights here. Between the setting and weather, I could have lay by that lake and read all day, getting in and out for swims whenever I wanted to. I am really guilty of hitting a holiday hard when it comes to ‘doing stuff’ really early on and I’m not good at being still when there’s places you can go. Could I have sat by that lake all day knowing there were trails across the road?
As for the site itself, it’s too spectacular not to recommend as a place to stop. Just get there well before check-in is due to close.
Next stop, Wells Gray National Park…