Quesnell and Barkerville

Left Cache Creek early Friday morning while it was still relatively cool 20C. We were not impressed with the first 100KM of the Cariboo Highway. Land is very poor, buildings and homes in very poor state of repair. It was probably one of the poorest areas of Canada that we have driven through. We only took a couple of pictures due to the shape the buildings were in as well the amount of junk cars, farm and industrial machinery that were rusting away in the yards.

The land had some interesting shapes and soil colors. We were slowly moving out of the desert environment into an area with more trees and green fields. There was quite a lot of highway construction on this stretch of highway as the BC government is turning this highway into 4 lanes from 2. Once we got to Williams Lake the countryside looked better and N began to get more active with the camera. We'll add those pictures to the pictures page later as photos are downloading very slow tonight. Must be a lot of people in the campground using the internet.
Arrived in Quesnel (pronounced kw-NELL) around lunchtime. Things got a bit interesting in the last kilometer before out GPS was to lead us into this campground. The navigator was following the GPS closely, when Jill (our GPS female voice) told me to turn right, which I did. Very quickly learned that we were entering the loading yard of a VERY large sawmill operation. Nothing to do but say a few blessings and follow her along. She eventually led us back to the highway but we were so shook up that we stopped and called the campground to find out how to get there. Come to find out we were only 500M away, so in 30 seconds we were in the yard.

Quesnel is an interesting small city. It's basically a lumber economy driven town. Two pulp mill, five sawmills, one plywood plant, planer mills and an MDF plant. As well it plants hundred of thousands of flowers along the city streets, and has won many awards over the past few years for these efforts. We spent some time down town to replenish our groceries and look around.  The city has walking trails and parks all along the river. As well, they have restored an old bridge to a walking bridge so we are probably the only people from Bridgewater who can claim to have walked across the Fraser. The water was high and moves along at a fast clip even this far away from the ocean. 

The other thing we noticed was a visible police presence in the down town area.
On Saturday we headed in towards the Cariboo Mountains to the restored gold mining town Barkerville.
The internet is speeding up so I think I'll continue and describe our trip to Barkerville.
It's about an 85KM drive, mostly uphill. On the way in you pass several ghost towns, mostly off little side roads that have nothing left but overgrown cemeteries and maybe some foundations. Also passed the site where a murder was committed and the only white man to be hung in Barkerville was the guilty person. Apparently he paid for the services of a prostitute with the diamond stick pin of the deceased man. 
Barkerville was founded by Bill Barker who struck it rich in the area. At one time Barkerville had a population of over 10 thousand people. One half of that population was Chinese who worked for low wages in the mines. They also started up businesses in town - laundry, bathhouses, restaurants etc. The south end of town was the "Chinatown" section. 

We took over 100 photos in Barkerville and most of them will be posted on the photo page.There are 130 buildings that have been restored to varying degrees. It is a job of love by a lot of private individuals who raise funds and obtain a few grants from the provincial government. They do a great job. There are several restaurants, bed and breakfasts and it is open year around. There is of course an entry fee, but well worth it. The town had one full time resident. The postmistress, who also runs one of the bed and breakfast operations. It takes a good full day to take in all the sights and interact with the people who role play in town. We met the town doctor, the postmistress and a beautiful lady of doubtful character as she worked in the local theatre. I just had to have my picture taken with her.
We ate lunch at the local chinese restaurant called Lung Duck Tong. We ordered combination plates and the food was just super. The price was reasonable as well. I had chinese tea while N just had water. Watched several demonstrations relating to mining. Boy, it was a hard life. Miners lived to the average age of 35 years old before they died, either through hard work or accident. As well broken limbs, mangled hands put an end to many dreams of getting rich.

The interesting thing is that most miners who struck it rich died paupers. You have to be a gambler to chase gold and I guess they gambled with the money they made. The ones who got rich were usually the merchants. I'll close off for today with the picture of the lovely dancehall lady. 
Tomorrow we head back towards Barkerville to another gold mining town called Wells. From there we plan to take a back country road up into the Cariboo Mountains. It's about 130KM long and is all dirt. It's supposed to be a great place to spot wildlife and there are lots of bears in the area. We hope to get a lot of good pictures. The road is supposed to be passable. We have been assured that the big 4 wheel drive should be able to get through.
Thats all for tonight!


Quote of the day:

You don’t stop playing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop playing.

Cheers

P & N