The new season of a hit BBC reality TV series is showcasing just how difficult it is to travel through British Columbia without a vehicle – particularly in northern B.C.
The BBC reality series Race Across The World premiered its third season in March and the first episode spotlights Prince George.
The show follows an Amazing Race type journey where contestants must make their way across Canada starting in Vancouver’s Stanley Park and finishing in St. John’s Newfoundland.
The first leg of the journey has contestants traveling from Vancouver to Tlell, a community on Haida Gwaii – without access to the internet, phones, airplanes or car rentals.
The contestants are also given a £2,498.13 budget to complete the entire journey across Canada of 16,000km in 50 days, equating to a budget of just under £50 per day.
“In a country where a loaf of bread can cost twice as much as in the UK,” adds the narrator, in an ominous voice over.
Three of the teams decide to journey through Vancouver Island to catch the Port Hardy ferry to Prince Rupert, and another two teams decide to travel north through the interior.
Husband and wife team Zanib and Mobeen head north through Whistler, where they ask a local for recommendations on how to get to Prince Rupert.
“Well, there is no bus service now from that direction and you can’t ride the train up there no more,” the man says.
“So, there’s no concrete way of getting past Whistler?” Mobeen asks incredulously.
“Not, on any kind of transit.”
All of the teams end-up having to rely on the kindness of strangers to help them make their way to Prince Rupert.
When Zanib and Mobeen make it to Prince George, they end up in the Costco parking lot holding out a cardboard sign asking for rides north. Luckily, they meet a man named Corey who agrees to take them for $250.
“It was going to be a nature day. It was going to be - go out and find a good place. It’s not quite warm enough but I was going to jump in a lake, so on the way I probably am going to find one?” says Corey, who later explains he used to jump in a lake with his dog, who has now passed, every May 1 as a tradition.
They all agree to make a pit stop to jump in the lake in memory of his dog along the way to Prince Rupert.
“Until we met you, I thought we would never get to Prince Rupert, honestly,” says Mobeen.
While the show highlights the struggles of transportation in British Columbia, things only get worse as the following episode has the contestants go from Haidai Gwaii to Dawson City, Yukon.
