After a night’s sleep in Vancouver, it was time to hit the open road in our rented cars to head to Kamloops - the first stop on our Rockies journey. The plane flight from Anchorage to Vancouver the previous night had been delayed and delayed. Apparently they were waiting for the cabin crew to arrive from Spokane. Eventually they advised that the plane from Spokane containing our crew had arrived but they couldn’t taxi into their parking spot because there was another plane in that spot waiting for THEIR crew. Anyway, long story short, we eventually filed on the plane for the short flight to find that my seat - 4C - had been allocated twice and the woman who had the other allocation was very determined that she was going to sit there. Another long story cut short - they upgraded me to Business Class!!!! Yep, I was upgraded to Business Class on a 22 minute flight. It was a bumpy old ride. We hit an air pocket or a giant pteradactyl hit us or something, but we dropped a considerable way. It is actually the most nervous I have ever been in a plane. We finally landed with a bang (I think the pilot dropped the plane from about 20 feet) and collected our luggage and caught taxis to the accommodation for the night - the Courtyard by Marriott - for an extremely late check-in.
After a very late wake up the next morning, the men took off to the airport to pick up our hire cars - a Jeep Patriot and a Dodge Caravan 7 seater. Mark and Wayne had a very frustrating time trying to get Sally (the Sat-nav) to operate correctly, with Wayne succeeding, but Mark not having any luck.
So in we all piled - Wayne, Bernie, Don and Helen and most of the luggage in the lead car (Dodge) and Mark, Liz and I in the Jeep. Much to Mark’s surprise and dismay, Sally told Wayne to go a different way to the one Mark had gotten from reception, and at the first set of lights, Wayne changed into the right lane abruptly and with a bus and humungous truck bearing down on Mark, all we could do was turn left instead of going straight ahead.
This meant doing a bit of a trip on unfamiliar roads to get back to our accommodation so that we could start all over again. We found out later that the others had pulled over for a bit to wait for us, but had to leave when we didn’t show up too soon.
So with some written instructions, me in the front seat as navigator and Liz in the back seat for back-up, Mark set off on our route. After another hiccup, when the navigator looked up, said “That’s the Dale/Surrey turnoff, we don’t want that one” (and Mark agreed), we continued on our path. The navigator then said “Tunnel coming up” and Liz volunteered that as it was the tunnel to Seattle, we were NOT going in the right direction. With the navigator reading further down the written instructions, it was discovered that the Dale/Surrey turn-off was exactly the one we needed.
With Liz directing us to roads to do some back-tracking, we finally got on the right highway and off we went. Oh, there was another hiccup when the navigator looked up, spied a train crossing and said, “It’s a train”. Poor Driver Mark nearly caused a multi-car pile-up as he braked, only to have the navigator say “I’m sorry - I should have said “It’s a train line”. Another crisis averted and we were on our way.
Please everyone remember that Mark and Wayne are driving on the other side of the road from Australia in unfamiliar cars with the steering on the wrong side (but right for Canada). Mark was doing a fantastic job.
We had a few destinations in mind for the trip to Kamloops, but due to the late start and an incompetent navigator, we doubted whether we would make them all.
We made the first stop the town of Hope, which had displays of chainsaw wood carvings and was also close to the Othello Quintette Tunnels, which we were all eager to see.
Hope was such a beautiful, scenic little town. We all loved it. With mountains on one side and beautiful water on the other, there wasn’t anything not to love. The town is quaint, quiet and beautiful. With our tight time schedule we had no time to waste, so had a very quick lunch (delicious) and raced around town to see as many carvings as we could. There was even a carving modelled on Harry from Harry and the Hendersons. You might think “Oh, just wood carvings” but these are done with a chainsaw and it can’t be too easy to carve so intricately with a chainsaw.
Then we moved n to the Othello Quintette Tunnels. The tunnels were designed to save trains of the Kettle Valley Railway going around the Coquihalla Canyon. It is now a decommissioned railway and the trestles have all been converted to walkways. Apparently Rambo : First Blood was filmed there in part (the bit where Sylvester Stallone is hanging off a cliff and a helicopter tries to shoot him down). The Adventures of Yellow Dog and Cabin in the Woods also used this location. The tunnels are a marvellous engineering feat and to see the solid rock walls that were blasted through is amazing. It is a beautiful walk to the tunnels (and not long), but as the day was marching on and we still had to get to our other “must do” destination - Hells Gate in the scenic Fraser Canyon - we rushed up there, did 2 of the tunnels and headed off again.
Arriving at Hell’s Gate at 4.40pm (the attraction closes at 5.00pm), we parked the car in the carpark on the opposite side of the highway and had to go up stairs and over a pedestrian overpass and then down some stairs. Of course it was now raining. Most of you know I do not move too quickly these days, so Mark and Liz hoofed it across to get the tickets while I brought up the rear. It was getting so desperate I nearly broke into a run, but managed to control myself. We bought the tickets at 4.46pm and the last tram brought people back across at 5.15pm - so a very quick visit.
Hell’s Gate is 750 million litres of water travelling through a 33 metre wide passage and you travel DOWN in a tram/gondola to the other side.
On the other side there is a suspension bridge, gold panning station and a fudge shop. We got off the tram and headed directly to the suspension bridge. What a fantastic sight - millions of litres of water rushing loudly through the narrow passage. The suspension bridge was not the swaying type but a very sturdy construction with an iron grate walkway you could see the water through. To my surprise after all I have done this trip with suspension bridges that DID sway, I could step onto it, but could not bring myself to walk over it. Weird.
Running out of time to get the last tram back, we of course bought some fudge and were the last to get in the tram.