Vancouver to Calgary - Road Trip

After having a great time venturing in and around Victoria, Garth was keen to stay at their Lake House (Moyie Lake) which worked well for us as it was only a short distance from Cranbrook where we could catch the Greyhound bus to Calgary where our daughter Briony lives.

Our road trip started very early as the total distance was more than 900kms and we wanted to get the early Ferry to Vancouver therefore avoiding much of the morning rush.

One of the many commuter ferry's' to Vancouver

From Vancouver we travelled east passing through Chilliwack, Hope, drove through E.C. Manning Provincial Park and stopped at Princeton for lunch on the banks of the Similkameen River. Continued onto Osoyoos where we stayed the night in a Hotel. Osoyoos is in the southern part of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia near the border with Washington state.  Went out to the Pub for dinner
where the specialty of the night was pork ribs!!  Luckily we ordered mini pork ribs as that was plentiful even to fill us up!!

As we sped up the hill I snapped this photo looking back over Osoyoos

One of the many accommodation choices on the Osoyoos Lake beach front

Our Hotel for the night on Osoyoos Lake

View from our balcony - note many wakeboard boats all waiting for the summer vacationers

Our Hotel in Osoyoos

After a great evening we were off again fairly early as Garth wanted to get to the Lake House in daylight as he needed to connect water etc - the Lake House had not been opened up since winter.  This is so foreign to us as prior to winter they have to drain the water pipes to stop freezing the lines.  Also with the Lake freezing over the dock needed to be pulled out and stored on dry land.

We weaved our way through the mountains and valleys seeing some beautiful scenery, arriving at Moyie Lake early afternoon allowing plenty of daylight to connect water, clean up and open up the Lake House for the first time this season.  The Lake House has a rustic theme and wonderful view of Moyie Lake from their balcony - we had a fantastic couple of days relaxing, eating & drinking!  One of the highlights was the camp fire at night on the edge of the lake and our introduction to s'mores which is a traditional nighttime campfire treat popular in the United States and Canada.  Janthea had some lattice biscuits, chocolate & marshmellows and with the squares of chocolate resting on the stones around the fire, we cooked up the marshmellow then took a lattice biscuit, put the slightly melted chocolate on, put the cooked marshmellow on top followed by another lattice biscuit.  From here you squeeze the biscuits together and then eat the best way you can without making too much of a mess!!!

We also met Moose one of the other Lake House owners dog and I made the mistake of throwing a stick into the lake for Moose to retrieve, much to Garth's amusement.  After what seemed hours at throwing the stick out, Moose was still eager - actually had to go and hide from him in order to get some "quiet time"!!

Lake Moyie - early morning

Janthea & Helen enjoying morning coffee on the balcony of the Lake House

Good old fashioned 'outhouse' with a lovely view if sitting with the door open!!

Janthea & Garth's Lake House

Campfire on the edge of Lake Moyie 

Meet Moose, he never tired of retrieving the stick!!

Cooking of marshmellows in making s'mores (note chocolate melting method)

In a sticky situation - struggling to eat s'mores

Does not matter what part of the world you are visiting it is always good to sit around a campfire

After a great few days, Janthea & Garth drove us into Cranbrook to catch the 9.30am bus to Calgary and after morning coffee we waved goodbye after having a wonderful visit.  We were the only passengers who boarded at Cranbrook so sat up the front and had a good chat with the driver.  Was good for me to sit back and enjoy the scenery as we had not travelled between Radium Springs and Banff previously on our RV tour.  We took on another passenger at Kimberley and as we drove out of the town we noticed a number of police cars and the bus driver saw a fully armed personnel on the street path.  As it turned out we were lucky to drive through as a siege was commencing and the road was closed behind us!  Most of the trip to Calgary the discussion revolved around what we had seen and the passenger who boarded in Kimberley kept us informed via frequent updated phone calls to his wife!!  Both driver and passenger had never seen anything like this in the area before - how do you think we felt, as never seen this sort of fire power before in Australia!

After a pleasant ride arrived in Calgary mid afternoon and had a great reunion with Briony at the bus depot.  Caught taxi back to where she lives and looked forward to spending 3 weeks quality time with her.