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- - - - - This is the story of my trip to Hope in November 2004 - - - -
6.000 Miles to Rambo??
It was in early September 2004 when I first had the idea of visiting the filming locations of my favorite movie - "First Blood" -
Well, the only problem is, that the area where the film takes place is situated in Western Canada. More excactly, the town's name
is "Hope" and "Hope" is in British Columbia... Considering the place where I'm at home - a Bavarian town in Germany - it didn't seem to
be the same like a camping trip at  the weekend for example. But I somehow had to get to this little nice town (7.000 residents)
surrounded by its breath taking mountains. After some recherches in the internet, I deci-
ded to do it finally.
So i booked my airline tickets via internet and ordered a single room in a Hope motel. Only 2 months later I was sitting in my plane on the
way to Vancouver, British Columbia...
The First Day in Hope
From Vancouver I took the next Greyhound Bus and after a quite exhausting day I finally arrived in Hope at 9 p.m. At the next morning I couldn't wait
to get to the Tourist Information Center, where Ms. Inge Wilson was already expecting my arrival, because we had had an e-mail conversation before, in
which she informed me about some of the filming locations. She warmly welcomed me and after a very exciting exchange of Rambo related stuff (pictures,
newspaper articles, etc.) I told her that I now wanted to go the Othello Tunnels (Rambo's jump
from the cliffs!)..but as it turned out, these Tunnels were many miles away from downtown Hope, so she was so nice to took me with her car up to the
location. Besides she showed me all the other filming locations of the movie..thanks again so much!!
Some pictures from the trip
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Famous railroad tracks |
Me in front of bridge |
Inge at the tunnels |
Me at the post office |
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The FIELDS shop |
Railroad tracks with fog |
Where the heli flew over |
You know this wall!! |
Trip to the Othello Tunnels
Some days after the "Rambo Tour" with Ms. Wilson I wanted to go to the area where Rambo had hung from the cliffs by my own. The weather was rainy and
you could see the fog above the top of Mt. Hope..so I took an extensive breakfast at the "Kan Yon" which was my favorite stop for having a breakfast
and meal.About 1 mile outside downtown Hope I discovered the famous "Gateway to Holidayland" sign which Rambo passes by at the beginning of the film.
To my surprise I found it at the entrance of a Hope campground.
As heavy rain coming down I hurried to get up to the cliffs. An endless street further
I crossed the street near the Hope cemetary to get up a trail which would lead me to the Othello Tunnels. Unfortunately I totally lost the way and I
found myself miles away from civilization somewhere in the wilderness of the British Columbia rainforests. I felt like Rambo because he also
stumbled through the woods, but compared with me he was better trained in rough areas and he definitely had better weapons ;-) My green umbrella
wouldn't even chase away a rabbit..
 ...ok just kidding -
I really didn't have to fear for my life as I minutes later came out of the forest and saw a house from a distance. Completely soaked by the rain and
a little disappointed by my sense of direction I knocked at the door of that nice little house and was heartly welcomed. This family not only dried
my clothes at their stove, I was also offered to have lunch with them..some very relaxing hours later they took me with their car
to the place where Rambo hung from the top of the cliffs..the weather was - some would say pretty bad - but to me that was pure First Blood weather.
Just have a look at these photos...
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