Thursday 8th September: Are We stuck In A Time Warp :)

Up and on the road again for our last destination of this trip. The sun rose over the lake on another beautiful morning and luckily the road south is open again and we can wind our way down to join the 97C for our journey over the mountains to Merritt  and then south onto Highway 5. The scenery was quite diverse, very dry and arrid almost desert in places and mountainous and valleys in others.
We made a comfort stop in the middle of no-where, no-one around, at The Lumberg Grassland Interpretive Site. I'm kicking myself now that I didn't get a pic of the toilets and surrounding area. I should say here that we have been in a great variety of drops of varying conditions, much like when we were in Alaska. However, these we thought oh my, ok we need to use them..........they were the very best we have used they even had pictures on the walls of the various birds to be found in the area.......one of those moments of not judging too soon !!

This pic and next is mega amounts of logs waiting to be transported.........

We had a fabulous easy drive through the mountains and valleys to Harrison Hot Springs and our home for the next 2 nights at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort
We do have to smile, in a nice way though, as it is very sweet but a time warp. We looked at each other and said Eastbourne/Bournemouth !! The hotel is a bit reminiscent of The Norbeck Castle in Blackpool ! In fact it's a little piece of England in Canada.....

The white spots on the shore line are dead salmon (did think about a BBQ !!) and no problem they have spawned and now die it is quite natural. Sadly we missed the salmon run and we are too early for the return of the Bald Eagles who come in their hundreds in October to winter here but we can't complain we have seem such great sights

Ummmm an old boy on a bench, well it is Eastbourne !!

The hotel complex where we are staying has 5 hot spring pools of varying degrees of heat, we tested out a few this afternoon, very theraputic..........it has also been a wonderful hot day today, 30 degrees.
We do have a fan in the room !!!!!
We plan to visit the source of the hot springs tomorrow and hike across to the next bay....then again maybe laying by the pools with a beer.....................!
Next morning we are up and on the last leg of our journey back to Vancouver and our flight home...
We have driven 4987 kilometres and thoroughly enjoyed our Canadian road trip and seen some amazing sights...
Until the next adventure it's bye from the Travelling Brits...

Wednesday 7th September: A Hot and Sunny Day at Lake Okanagan

It's another beautiful morning here at Okanagan Lake.
Luckily they seem to have the fire contained although the road still remains closed

We decide to have a "kick back day" due to road closure and it is such a sunny and hot day
What better than to get some practice in ready for the big return to Blackmoor GC

We have had to laugh, this resort has taken us into a time warp/time travel
This is so Greece in the 1980's............

Ummm not a bad shot !!!
It was just a 9 hole par 3 but very hilly so we had some good exercise for a couple of hours and we had previously had a good walk along the lake and around the resort.
The area around the golf course is well maintained as it is also where the time-share/condo/chalets are situated.
Lunch, a rest and a swim and not a bad day.........
Tomorrow we are heading off to Harrison Hot Springs, hopefully more news from The Happy Travellers from there and if not we shall be in touch again after our return to Blighty
In case this is the last posting we have had the most fabulous time in Canada, we have so many wonderful memories and I'm sure we will regale/bore you to tears for some time to come and of course there are all of my photos !!!

Tuesday 6th September: Time To Read Up On Evacuation Procedures ?

Back onto Highway 1 and another blue sky and hot day as we move on from Revelstoke to Kelowna.
Our first stop is Craigellachie.........
Craigellachie was named after the village of Craigellachie on the River Spey in Moray, Scotland, the ancestral home of Sir George Stephen, the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)

A ribbon of steel united Canada when the railway line from the east to the Pacific coast in the west was completed with the driving of the 'Last Spike' at Craigellachie, British Columbia, on November 7, 1885. This historical event is commemorated at the small settlement of Craigellachie in Eagle Pass, located alongside the Trans-Canada Highway between Sicamous and Revelstoke in the BC Kootenays.

Onto Highway 97A...........Mara Lake.
Again this has been a very beautiful drive through Three Valley on Highway 1 and then down Highway 97A
Charmin' Garmin keeps trying to get us to turn north and head toward Kamloops but we disagree and call into the Visitors Centre at Vernon. Lucky for us we did as there is a big forest fire only a few kilometres from our next hotel The road to it from Kelowna is closed. The very helpful Barbara phoned the hotel to check they are open and the situation. All ok but we do need to go the way Charmin' told us !! She actually isn't that clever it was an alternative route we now discover but although it is a one lane narrowish road it is a very pleasant drive rather than a highway and large town.  

Lunch stop at Fintry Provincial Park on Lake Okanagan

This view shows the haze of smoke coming down the valley from the fire. For most of the drive down Westside Road there are signs of previous fires, we discover there have been many really bad ones. They actually class this area as semi-desert

View from road of Lake and fire haze.
We arrive safely at the resort, it look as though the firefighters have the blaze contained to 39 hectares but the road to Kelowna is closed until tomorrow earliest. Depending on any wind changes we should be ok here
We will have to drive back around and through Vernon if we want to get to Kelowna but folk have had to be evacuated from their homes so we can't complain
Very odd resort, very little renovation over the past few years (we did reject the first room offered !!)  but they have a swimming pool.........so if all else fails !!!!

Sunday 4th and Monday 5th September: A Walk, A Dam and A Mountain

We are having a bit of R & R and this morning have a long walk along the banks of the Illecillewaet River, try saying that after a few bevy's !!

View from Martha Creek of Revelstoke Lake
We visted the Revelstoke Dam, no cameras allowed, hence no pics, and did the tour, very interesting, we have not "done" a dam tour since The Hoover Dam tour we did in the late 1970's, Back then security was a lot more relaxed !
Martha Creek was a nice spot for our lunchtime sandwich

Monday and another blue sky morning, we head back up to the summit of Mount Revelstoke, it is so beautiful up here and so peaceful. We hike for a couple of hours through the alpine meadows. We are so lucky that due to the fact that this year they still had snow here until mid July the wildflower season is later. There have been frosts for the past couple of nights and we did notice driving up that the colours are not quite so vibrant as they were 2 days ago but still very pretty.
Snow is here usually until last week of June and the first fall end of October

Tomorrow we are back on Highway 1 and our next destination Kelowna
Over and out for now from The Happy Travellers.........

Saturday 3rd September: Meadows In The Sky

What a beautiful morning and this is the view from our room/balcony

Another view from our room/balcony

This is the first viewpoint of the fabulous 25 km drive to the summit of Mount Revelstoke
It's a very good road although no trailers or coaches allowed as 16 tight switchbacks and one part is a temporary road where the original had had a problem with avalanche/rock fall !

Revelstoke and The Columbia River

This is our hotel on full zoom. It does actually look a high rise but it is only 5 floors

The long down hill ski slope of Mt Macpherson.
From the car park there is a free shuttle bus for the extra 1km to the summit and The Meadows In The Sky Trail

This and next few just some of the fantastic views from the summit and The Meadows In The Sky Trail

Some of the amazing wild flowers that bloom for approx 4 weeks

At the summit, the old firehouse

Our sandwich spot, what more can you want, peace and quiet and a beautiful view..........

Friday 2nd September: A Funny Sort of Day !

Did forget to mention yesterday we are now back to Pacific Standard Time so back to 8 hours behind UK

This is the view from our room this morning, can't get much better than this really.

Sunderland Falls. An easy 5 min walk from the car park. We had to smile there are warning notices saying do not walk on the rocks etc as "you will be injured" not maybe!! We stopped here after trying and failing to find the trail to Begbie Creek and Falls and do have to say that some of the trails in the Provincial Parks (maybe they don't get the same funding as the National Parks) are not that easy to find

Blanket Creek and Dog Beach.
We had to laugh there is a sign saying no pets on beach !!!

Next stop Shelter Bay. A very picturesque spot. Needless to say the Avon Skin So Soft is well applied. The ranger at the Rogers Pass Summit yesterday said to make sure we have plenty of "bug" spray !!

A good spot for our sandwich

The Galena Bay Ferry at Shelter Bay (50kms from Revelstoke)
It looks quite small but apart from cars it had two big 5th wheelers a very large truck and trailer and two of the often seen huge logging trucks. The boat rose up much higher when they had unloaded !!
We had come down here as the guide book said "learn about the local history of Arrow Head, a once and now abandoned mining town"........well this "lake" was created by the Revelstoke Dam and the minning town is underwater !! There is nothing at Shelter Bay no village, houses....not even an information board !! The main Highway 23 ends here then picks up again on the other side of the lake. The ferry is free just turn up, supplied as part of the deal by BC Hydro when the dam was built that flodded the area. We did think about going over to the "other" side but a local said that there wasn't anything there either........

Back to Revelstoke and a visit to The Nels Nelson historic site. We did laugh, this and next 3 pics is it !!

This is the judges tower

Judges tower in background, we did read the info and learnt all about ski jumping in the area between 1900 and 1971

Downtown Revelstoke

Well at least we saw a train !
Back to our room and a cuppa sitting on the balcony in the beautiful sunshine

As Ronnie B used to say, it;s been a funny old day......
To round it off Jeeves broke the ironing board !!!