Zorba the Greek - Elton John (the Bread and Beer band)

Zorba the Greek - Instrumental (1969?)

Music by ??
Produced by Chris Thomas

Recorded 1969 at EMI Studios,
Abbey RoadNever released (The Bread And Beer Band)

(A bit like the Coquihalla, this song starts slow, slow, slow and steady and then goes absolutely crazy through to the end...!)


Hope to Merritt
111 kilometers / 68 miles

Looking back on the day I can say that it was one of the Top 5 days of my life.

Everyone was nervous setting out that morning – I was super chatty, BC was quiet and Andrew was a nervous wreck. All of the ‘Newbies’ seemed to be waiting around camp – perhaps trying to postpone what lay ahead… the dreaded Coquihalla. We set off at around 8:00am and within about 500 meters from camp I immediately sensed that we were climbing. My legs said that we were climbing but the road looked like it was going downhill… It was a really strange feeling and is a common ‘optical illusion’ in road biking – your eyes say one thing but your legs say another. The lesson here is, ‘always listen to your legs’ and man oh man were they ever already burning…!

Fortunately Andrew was behind me and he noticed that I wasn’t using my small chain ring properly (eg. not at all) so while I got a lesson in the difference between the big cog and the small cog, Brendan had pulled out the map and was trying to figure out if we’d just biked 10kms, uphill and in the wrong direction. We stood at the side of the side of the road humming and hawing and consulting the GPS…Not really trusting the map, the GPS or our instincts continued on to one of the ‘chain up areas’ and got directions from a heavily bearded transport trucker who assured us that we were indeed on Route 5 and we had a fun few hours of climbing ahead of us..!! Everyone seems to raise their eyebrows and say, “You’re going to bike the Coquihalla..?!”

I’d love to say that I breezed the remaining 20kms of the climb but I didn’t – it was tough, a lot of work, very sweaty, I ate 4 peanut butter sandwiches along the way, drank 2 liters of water, and worked my small chain ring like crazy. It was tough but not impossible and I managed to maintain an average speed of about 9kms / hour over the 8% grade. BC, being a power-legged triple-chainer, sped off ahead so Andrew and I took it slow. We both have double chain rings rather than triples which makes a HUGE difference. Where we have resistance in our lowest gear, triple-chainers are still ‘spinning’. This means that we ‘double chainers’ expend twice the amount of energy going up hill.

We stopped every 5kms at the chain-up areas for water and food and to assure each other that it was going really well… And it genuinely was – I had expected much, much worse and the difference between the gradual 8% grade climb vs the 11% climb that we’d done the day before was huge.

When we reached the summit at 1244metres I was quite relieved, very sweaty and TOTALLY excited about one of the things that I am learning about road biking:

What goes up, must come down. And man, did the Coquihalla ever go down and it was sweeeeeeeeet……

With the wind at our backs we literally flew down… no, SOARED down, the highway. It was absolutely, without a doubt the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever experienced in my life and I hit my new speed record of 72kms / hour. Awesome.

It was the best reward that we could have ever imagined after what we’d pushed so hard to achieve. We met up with Ian at a rest area where we all inhaled huge plates of nachos, more peanut butter sandwiches, bananas, refilled our water bottles, and indulged in ice-cream and then excitedly got back on to our bikes eager for more rewards from the wonderful Coquihalla Highway. And it did not fail to deliver – amazing, amazing views of the Coastal mountains - a bear playing in a stream alongside the road, a moose grazing in a field of tall grass…. We saw the cedar trees turn to pine and the once rugged hills start to roll. There was not a cloud in the sky and the traffic was not too bad. It was a fantastic, fantastic ride. Absolutely breathtaking and I could not imagine doing it any other way than by bike.

We left the highway and turned onto a smaller, less trafficked, paved road into a more ‘rural’ and scenic area. The road was lined on either side with ranches and the hills rolled us the final 30kms into camp at Merritt. Again, amazing scenery – we were absolutely spoiled.

It’s awesome how the senses become so alive as you look around with your eyes, feel the road under your bike, smell the pine, and hear the birds, cows, sheep, taste the fresh unpolluted air… . Again, it’s really tough to put into words how beautiful it was – I was awestruck. It was the first time in so long that I really ‘relaxed’ and really, truly appreciated being alive and having the opportunity to see Canada at this level. Monumental day.

What made the day so enjoyable as well was that we decided to really take it slow and well and truly enjoy it – we soaked it up – why rush back to camp to shower and set up a tent if you can cruise up and down the hills at your own pace, stop and take photos, chat and snack and, more importantly, take the time to look around. A valuable lesson to learn early on in the trip..! We cruised into Merritt at about 5pm ready for dinner.

A fantastic meal was served at the campground by Galley Crew 3 who put on a feast of burritos followed by strawberry shortcake for dessert. Everyone was in fine form and there was no shortage of cold beer as we would have a Rest Day in Merritt.which meant no biking the following day..!

The Merritt Pub Crawl

Brendan, Andew, Dave and I decided that a change of scenery was in order so we ventured into Merritt which is the "Country Music Capital of Canada". The whole town has a country music theme and there are images of country western singers such as Michelle Wright painted on the sides of the buildings.

We ventured into a local bar and so began the pub-crawl of Merritt. Brendan was the instigator of the pub crawl and Andrew was the instigator of the drinking game that brought out the shots of whiskey and more pints...I was the instigator of the best BBQ chicken wings I’ve ever had.

The pub crawl ended many pints later in the only other bar in Merritt (directions provided to Brendan by three local 13 year-olds) and then well and truly ended at the 7-11 (you can see BC on a mission for icecream in the photo) where we bought impromptu midnight snacks of ice-cream, M&Ms and penny-candy.

A fantastic day – great company, great views, great weather, great food, great biking, and lots and lots of laughs. What more could one want!