Woke up at 0630 for some reason, packed up and went for breakfast. Stopped off at a supermarket and bought some rolls, ham and cheese and hit the road at about 10:20.
The weather was still cloudy but looked brighter. The drive was going to take about 4.5 hours but with stops would probably be nearer 6.
We soon left Alberta and entered British Columbia, and the scenery changed – the mountains were higher and more rugged, covered in snow. We stopped at a few places along the way to take photos – Mount Robson was pretty good. We drove along a valley with huge, magnificent mountains either side, and followed a large river, crossing over it several times. The sky cleared a bit and it started to get warmer as the mountains gave way to pine tree covered hills. We had to turn on the ac as the temperature got to 20c.
We stopped for lunch in a park in a small town (population 260), a clear lake in front of us and the mountains all around. Back on the road and we passed a town surrounded by hills where the trees had been burnt – I looked it up and there was a fire there in 2003. The landscape looked a bit surreal.
We passed a few cyclists which I found incredible – there aren’t many towns about so these guys had their work cut out, it was hours between some places. We also saw lots of camper vans and RVs – huge ones which were towing SUVs.
We continued to follow the river, and soon we started to see green fields, and finally arrived at the hotel. We’d got an email from hotels.com saying the hotel we booked was full so they booked us in somewhere else. It didn’t look too flash, more like a motel. The receptionist couldn’t find the booking, then called the sister hotel around the corner and it turned out we were booked in there. It was a much nicer, proper hotel. We explained what had happened to the receptionist there, and he upgraded us to a junior suite. Yay. The room was very spacious, had a separate room with a TV, chairs and a desk, plus a small kitchen.
We only stopped in Kamloops because it was the biggest place between Jasper and Vancouver – there was nothing to do there. Neither of us was particularly hungry, so we went walking looking for a light dinner.
Found a decent restaurant, I had almond crusted chicken breast with black rice and vegetables and Song had a vegetarian plate with chickpeas and other stuff. I also had a beer, a local stout. Both meals were nice but small portions which actually suited us this time.
We got chatting to the waitress who said she lived in Melbourne for 4 months a couple of years ago – in St Kilda. Small world.
Went back to the hotel, watched tv then sleep.
Tomorrow we drive to Vancouver and drop off the car.
