Tues 27th/Weds 28th August 2013, days 47/48 - Banff to Vancouver

Moose Tour part 2 – The Rockies

Day 12: Banff to Kelowna

The group we had departed Banff with on Thursday diminished further to five as the Scottish girl 'hopped off'. We were picked up by a new guide again, Kari, the only female one I'd had so far and she seemed cool. As on the previous trip between Vancouver and Banff, the bus was a big twenty-one-seater, and most of the other passengers had been with this guide on a shorter trip round the Rockies. So they knew her, they knew each other and everyone was already in little groups.

The drive to Takakkaw Falls took about an hour and a half. Located in Yoho National Park, back in British Columbia, the name is also Cree and means something like "magnificent". Around 385m tall, it is pretty impressive and, like at Bridal Veil Falls, we climbed the rocky slope on one side to get closer. We got a bit damp though, with the large amount of spray, and it was quite cold.

Like the previous week, we made a rest/coffee stop at Golden an hour later, then another at the Rogers Pass Visitor Centre. We left the Rocky Mountains after this, but we were still in the Columbia Mountains. Our lunch spot was at the Giant Cedars Boardwalk, which I liked. It reminded me of the rainforest on Vancouver Island... probably because it was rainforest. From there we had an hour drive to the town of Sicamous for ice-cream at a dairy there. I had mango-and-cream and it was delicious! I thought it would be an interesting place to help out: it was a farm which produced its own ice-cream and other products, not just dairy but pies and things as well, there was a fruit and vegetable shop, and animals. While there I had a brief conversation with one of the other girls on the bus, and found out she’s doing a PhD studying the human factor side of air crash investigation! Which I thought was incredibly cool! Of course I told her I used to watch the National Geographic programme all the time, but that's nothing compared to having a degree in it haha.

We continued another hour to Kalamalka Lake, in Vernon, where some jumped off the dock to swim in the warm water. I took the opportunity to sit quietly on the sand of the lovely beach and just have some time to myself after the near-constant company of the last week.

Our hostel in Kelowna was the same as last time, and it seems all the dorm rooms there are ridiculously cramped and have unsteady top bunks, but dinner here was included again. This time we had steak and crushed potatoes, still with vegetables and that salad with the delicious dressing.

Day 13: Kelowna to Vancouver

I'm including this day in this post because I haven't written much at all. As on the trip east, this trip back west was mostly spent sitting on the bus and by this time I just wanted to get back. We left Kelowna at 9:30am, stopped half an hour later at a grocery shop in West Kelowna for lunch supplies, then drove an hour to the British Columbia Visitor Centre at Merritt for toilet break. It was another hour to Hope, where we had our lunch next to Schkam Lake, which was really pretty.

The only interesting part of this day was our stop in Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park, a matter of minutes from Hope and popularly known as The Othello Tunnels. Basically it's a decommissioned stretch of railway that has been turned into a walking trail: there are five tunnels and a series of bridges following a fairly straight line through the deep, sheer-sided canyon of the Coquihalla River. So we got to walk through some very dark indeed old railway tunnels, which was cool. The canyon was impressive and the walk along the river from the car park to the tunnels was nice, so I enjoyed the short while we spent there :) We left at 3pm, next stop Vancouver.