4500km of self-isolation across Canada

I first met Joe on the same day I met my girlfriend, with them both volunteering in the same hostel in Barcelona. The kind of person whose very presence can bring energy to a whole room he is someone with an endless supply of both positivity and fascinating stories. I recently saw Joe again after two years, again in Barcelona, and it was as we shared tales of our pandemic adventures I opportunistically asked if he would be interested in writing them down. And so, here we are, the first or perhaps multiple wonderful stories – both in content and prose – from a traveller who truly appreciates the concept of serendipity.

Tom

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I take you back to March of 2021, a time of freedom and reopening for some, and a time of lockdown, new restrictions and increased uncertainty for others. I spent my Winter/Spring last year out in British Columbia in the far west of Canada, a country that was heading for the latter around that time. Coming to the end of my current seasonal job working in a ski equipment rental shop and with the start date of the next seasonal job looming, I received an email which put me in a position that initially made me groan at the cost and inconvenience, but ended up getting my travel taste buds tingling and setting me up for an epic adventure.

You guessed it, I had to isolate. And not the ‘I've got COVID and am protecting those around me' kind of isolation, although I'd already had my fair share of those up to this point. Not even the 'government lockdown so we're all in this together' kind, although I think we can all agree that the knowledge that everyone else around you is also isolating doesn't always improve your mindset during the actual lockdown period. No, this was the 'in order to start this job you need to isolate for two weeks prior' kind of isolation. The worst kind. The 'how much of my mental health and finances am I willing to sacrifice for a job that only lasts 3 months' kind.

Now, for some reading this, it may not sound like too much of an issue but I'd like to add a little context so you can understand my situation at the time. I was out in British Columbia, my new job was starting in Ontario, a place around 4,500 km away, almost exactly two weeks after I finished my current job. I had no house in Canada, nor a friend who had a spare room I could isolate in and I hadn't even booked transport to this job at this time. Finally, hotels in Canada are expensive. Like, really expensive.

The job itself was tree planting in rural Ontario, a place where myself and 60 other people would be camping in the bush and be in close quarters with each other at all times. As a job that has such a short time window due to weather conditions and a variety of other factors, a COVID outbreak would had been devastating to the season, and Canada's numbers were currently higher than ever.

So I found myself faced with a choice. Do I fly to Ontario and put myself up in a hotel for two weeks, something that would have cost so much it would have rendered my first few pay-checks completely pointless, or do I try and do what has always been of my favourite things in life, find a loophole.

I mean, you've gotta try, right?

There must be a way to not waste all this money, isolate AND not miss out on exploring this beautiful country for the only time I had between jobs! After all, work or no work, I'm always a backpacker at heart!

Some friends of mine at the time had their own truck camper (if you're from outside North America, you may not know what this is, but it is pictured below), a sort of campervan attached on the back of a classic North American truck. Having never seen one of these before, it started my neurons firing and I decided that, no matter what, I was going to find a way to isolate in one of these monster machines.

The idea seemed perfect to me, Canada is such a huge country and so I could easily park up anywhere, hike through national parks, and never see another human! Isolating but gaining experience at the same time. Not to mention I'd have all my cooking equipment, water, fridge and bed ready and made in the back. Well, maybe not made...I'm not the most diligent bed-maker in the mornings.

The only issue now was how. And how much was I willing to spend? But I know myself. And I know that when I get an idea in my head, I will always find a way to do it. I figured I could always book a flight and a hotel last minute if things went wrong, but decided in my head that this was never going to happen, and so I plugged myself into the computer, sought the aid from my favourite travel companions, a pen and paper, and started brainstorming. I'll be honest, the process wasn't fast or easy, and I spent many hours trawling the internet, calling rental companies and sending emails out all instead of doing my actual job in the here and now (sorry Sun Peaks Rental Shop if you're reading this).

With all my time, energy and thought invested in the idea, you can only imagine the joyous feeling that rose up inside me when I finally got that golden email. CanaDream, one of the country's largest rental companies, had a truck camper...in Vancouver (British Columbia)...that needed to be in Montreal (which borders Ontario). And they didn't have someone to move it yet.

Typing so fast I must I have caused record-breaking snowmelt in the mountains around me with the heat generated from my excited fingers, I sent off my hopeful reply.

A few more hiccups and some signed forms later, it was mine. A Northern Lite truck camper complete with full gas canister for heating and cooking, water, bedding and all the usual camper stuff. For absolutely free! Well, almost, 1$ a day for legal reasons. In fact, they were willing to pay me 300$ towards fuel to help fund my journey! (I mean, I was doing THEM a favour, right?).

My Cana-Dreams had come true.

When I arrived I was struck by two more surprises. One, that my new Truck was brand new, 2021, with only 20km on the clock! And two, by far the most useful, was that the camper was being sent out East to be used by rural firefighters, meaning that by delivering it I was classed as an essential worker! Something that came in very handy, as many provinces (the Canadian equivalent of US states) were making it illegal to cross borders or drive from one to another without a valid reason. I encountered police checks along my journey which I couldn't have passed without my golden ticket of being an essential worker. I sat up proud and said "you're welcome" to every "thank you essential workers" sign I passed.

So, smile on my face and light in my eye, I pulled away from the rental shop and began my two weeks isolation. Not before pulling over straight away and spending an hour or so trying to figure out what all these buttons were for. Full disclosure...I figured out about 30% and vowed to never touch the rest.

The cross-country road trip is a story in itself that could take up pages of writing, and so I'll only touch on it slightly here, but my main purpose of sharing this piece is not to show off, or gloat about my adventures, but to try and light a spark in people and help them to realise that there is almost always a different angle to look at things. A different way to do things that still follows the rules, but doesn't take away from whatever experience you feel you personally need to have. There's always a loophole, be the one to keep poking at it until it opens to be a tunnel to adventure.

Needless to say, my experience of driving across Canada was extremely humbling. From the gorgeous snowy mountains, through to dry desserts and rocky cliffs, the sheer vastness of the country and the immense contrast of the ever-changing scenery (well, until you hit the flatlands that is), is really something hard to describe in only a few words, and something I won't attempt too much here but will probably write in another piece.

But if you take only one thing from my story, it's this: 'find the adventure inside of you, and although the world can sometimes throw you curve-balls at the wildest of moments, try to remember that you have a bat in your hand and you can always turn it into a home run'. I don't know when I started thinking in baseball analogies, I guess my time in North America has rubbed off on me.

By: Joe Ashley (@mojojoejoe95)

Posted: 13/02/2022