(My solo road trip of western Canada – Sunday 27th September)

Ok, so here is part 2 of this wonderful drive.  The first forest fire danger sign I saw when I arrived in Banff, and the several I saw after, the danger level was low, very reassuring let me tell you.  As you speak to people who have good local knowledge, you come to the realisation, very quickly, that forest fires are no joke, and as you may have seen on a previous post, can be truly and utterly destructive.  Anyway, on this particular drive, I saw the first sign where the danger level had moved low to moderate, a step in the wrong direction, I hope the danger level does not go any higher?

Lillooet was a very special place, beautiful mountain peaks, lovely, dramatic green coloured water and very interesting facts (see photo below).  The steep, rough and rugged mountains contrasted so beautifully with the mountains that were covered by pine and fir trees.  I love the fact that some rivers have a railway line running alongside them, makes the whole environment more dramatic.

I like the fact that some road signs instruct winter tyres between certain dates, it highlights the point that these roads can be dangerous, actually, the fact that some of these roads are closed from mid-October make it real.  The switch backs on the mountain pass were unbelievably exhilarating, on some of the bends, my heart was thumping as I was so close to the edge, and from the 12th and 13th photos below, you can get some idea of the drop!  It wasn’t the best way to conduct my thoughts while driving these mountain passes, but I could not help myself from thinking that if  I did make a small mistake, the car would plummet very, very quickly to the bottom, I thank the Lord above, with all sincerity, that all went well.

As I look back through these photos, I am reminded how lucky I was to take this trip and see such magnificence and mind blowing beauty.  The last nine photos are the photos I am most proud of, they are mega fantastic, I was so lucky to be there on that day, at that time of day, to capture such flawless and mind boggling scenery, so much so that you really cannot believe your eyes, it almost looks fake.  Its like a dream where reality is questioned with the sheer clinical imagery in front of you, I absolutely loved this place, the colours, the air, the contrast, the fallen trees that had gathered together, the sheer perfection and reflections that surrounded me.   I honestly found it very hard to leave, but time was of the essence, and I had to move on as I still had to get to Whistler and there was Joffre Lakes that I was told was worth visiting along the way…

(My solo road trip of western Canada – Sunday 27th September)

According to common opinion, the drive through the Canadian Rockies is one of the most amazingly scenic drives in the world, it is true, and I was still recovering from the spleandour and positive energy gained from such a fantastic drive so far during my road trip.  There are many beautiful things I saw along this drive from Kamloops to Whistler, I will show them in 2 different blogs, blew my mind, let me know if you agree?

The first photo shows my humble accommodation for the night in Kamloops where I arrived after sunset, the second photo shows  when I awoke in the morning,  the view is from outside the door that I was welcomed by, nice!  As I left Kamloops, I was greeted by two frozen lakes, at least that is what they looked like, very strange considering the surrounding landscape and the current weather, very beautiful nonetheless.

Kamloops is a city in south central British Columbia in Canada, located at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River near Kamloops Lake. It is ranked 37th on the list of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in Canada and represents the 44th largest census agglomeration nationwide, with 85,678 residents in 2011.

The Suede Hills were one my favourite things along this particular part of the road trip, it really is as if the hills have been covered with blankets of suede, really awesome sight and gave me a taste of how I was going to be blessed with some very different landscape along the way, quite different from the majestic and splendid Canadian Rockies.

I drove past Okanagan Lake which seemed massive and just looked as if it was going to go on forever, very lovely scenery, gorgeous mountains and the railway along the lake was really cool, not to mention the green and brown fields which I had to adapt my senses too after seeing so many snowy white and grey mountains in the Rockies.

The mountain drive was truly, truly spectacular, as you can see from the photos below, at times, I was literally driving along the edge of the mountain roads, and to be honest, at times it was quite scary as it would have only taken one mistake and it could have been bad, real bad!  If you have time, look carefully at some of the mountain passes and you may see what I mean when you identify some of the awesome, windy roads.  I am totally aware of this as there were a few times when I was quite close to a mistake and my heart was literally in my mouth with a huge dose of adrenaline whizzing through my mind, body, and soul (which I think left my temporal existence a few times!).  This was not because of my lack of focus, just simply because there were certain parts of the drive that were a bit tricky and needed a lot of caution.

There was also something very, very special about the sky on this day, the beautiful blue was dazzling, at times mesmerising and hard to believe.  I was told about the vineyards, they were amazing and it was quite refreshing to see, not because I drank any wine, but because I was now driving on a much lower, safer level!  Apologies if I have said this before, for example, when I was driving through the Icefields Parkway, but this is one of the most fantastic and buzzing drives I have ever, ever experienced…and there is more to come in part 2…

http://www.kamloops.ca/index.shtml