Driving & Rafting

We had a couple of long driving days next. The distances seem to take a lot longer to cover here, maybe because of all the ups and downs and winding roads. It is fun driving though. On our first driving day we stopped at Nairn Falls in the morning and at a lakeside viewpoint for lunch before camping that night at Juniper beach.

The van

The second day we stopped in Kamloops for supplies including a very large amount of trail mix. We have been getting very hungry on our walks in the mountain air.

Trail mix supplies

We did two short walks in Mount Revelstoke national park.  There was a lot of smoke in the air blowing across the border from fires in Washington and we didn't see the sun all day. (Or the amazing mountain views). We were a little disappointed, hopefully the smoke will clear overnight.

Smokey boardwalk

Some wildlife - Rosie's caterpillar friend

I was finally feeling almost 100% better after my plane illness so we celebrated my birthday a couple of days late. I had not wanted to celebrate while I was feeling so ill and as it's just me and Rosie here, there was no one to mind. We opened my birthday cards and had birthday chilli at the campsite. Rosie declared it our best camp meal yet even if we had bought dairy free sour cream by mistake.

Preparing the birthday chilli

The next day we drove to Golden and spent the afternoon doing laundry and catching up on the blog. The laundry situation was getting desperate after 12 days of travelling. We had had to start recycling socks and underwear. Lovely.

We stayed in Golden the next day and went on a day rafting trip on the Kicking Horse river. There was lots of white water and rapids so it was a little scary at times. There was lots of 'holding on' and 'getting down' in the raft as well as some frantic paddling. Only one women on our raft fell in and it wasn't one of us. Later on we had the chance to get in the water and float through one of the rapids so I did that because I was a tiny bit jealous that I hadn't fallen in. Rosie stayed on the raft which was probably a wise decision because the water was 4 degrees. I didn't stay in very long because I felt like my arms were freezing off! I flopped back into the raft like a beached whale. Rosie pulled me in.
In between rafting we stopped for a lunch of steak and chicken, wedges and salad that was yummy and gave us the strength to keep paddling in the afternoon.

Getting changed for rafting....in the car park.

All wetsuited up. 'I look awesome' - Rosie.

Back at the campsite we warmed up with hot showers and then hid in the van from the mosquitoes that are really vicious here. The night before I had ended up with swellings all over my face from them. Rosie was OK, as usual they all preferred me.