Canada 07/08 – Kicking Horse to Silver Star
Canada 07/08 – Kicking Horse to Silver Star
This morning started at approximately 8am – not too bad considering, but it was bad for me, who was up until after midnight trying to organise the daily post for the day before, and the photos. With all that behind us, we completed the last bit of packing and had breakfast, and were ready to head out the door at about 9am. Pip and I hit the shops quickly for a spot of shopping, although we didn’t find much except for Pip’s ‘Spanky’ – a goggle cleaning cloth with the Kicking Horse trail map printed on it… a very cool souvenir.
The taxi-van (vaxi) was organised to collect us at 10:15am… as always, however, the vehicle didn’t arrive until 10:45am. After a number of phone calls, and with Ed pacing up and down outside, it arrived and we loaded all of our baggage (which had grown since we arrived in Canada) and headed down the mountain. It was just our luck that the weather looked as perfect as it was the day we arrived – jinxed… again… same with the wildlife issue I’d say.
We arrived at the Husky Petrol Station – the Golden Greyhound Depot – only to discover that the bus was actually running late, and so, the rushing we had done to get there was wasted. After 20 minutes, the bus arrived, but the driver wanted a 30 minute break, so we stood around for another half an hour. When the time finally came, we joined the 6 people who were already on the bus and headed off for Vernon – via a number of stops on the way.
The first stop was Revelstoke – a small town west of Golden – where Ed decided to get a fix of “Denny’s” (burger and fries), and the rest of us enjoyed the quality facilities (not) provided at the tiny Greyhound bus depot. When we returned to the bus, we discovered that our seats had been taken by a (not so) lovely old lady who had ignored our stuff we left in the seat pockets, and didn’t budge while we leaned over her to recover our goods. What a twat.
The bus trip wasn’t so exciting after this point as we weren’t able to see anything out of our muddy, foggy window. The row in front, our old seats, had a good view, however. It wasn’t a huge problem, however, as we were required to change buses in Salmon Arm anyhow – luckily we beat this little old lady onto the new bus, and secured some better seats this time around. From Salmon Arm, it was only a short journey south to Vernon. We were continually on the lookout for wildlife, for Pip, but failed to see anything apart from a few birds.
Upon arriving in Vernon, late – as the shuttle driver who was picking us up had told us we would be – we found that the shuttle driver wasn’t actually there, anywhere, to pick us up. It didn’t take more than a few breaths for Ed to be on the phone, and to discover that he was running late, and was going to be 20 minutes (that is, 50 minutes late). To pass the time, while we waited out side the bus depot (why not inside?!) in the cold with the mountain of bags, Tess and Pip entertained themselves with a game of ‘kick the stick’. If only Bronte had been with us – she would have packed a ping-pong ball, and everything would have been alright. Kick the stick soon turned into kick the bottle, which quite soon turned a little too energetic.
The shuttle driver finally arrived, with enough people already on board to make it seem an impossible task for us to fit inside – let alone get all 9 of our bags onboard. The shuttle driver assured us that it was possible, and it didn’t take long for us to start throwing our bags up to the driver who was on the roof of the van. Pip was a little bit miffed that she had packed her clothes in the top portion of her bag, along with her new dress, and this was now sitting on top of a van – face up – in the snow. Not to worry though – nothing got too wet here.
We squeezed into the van and made the 20 minute journey up the hill to Silver Star village. We were kindly dropped right at the front door of our house, and the driver was more than happy to help carry the luggage brigade down the stairs to the front door. The groceries we had ordered over the internet at home arrived not long after us, and it wasn’t until an hour later that we had a knock at the door – the shuttle bus driver – we hadn’t paid him yet.
After a long day traveling, we settled down for a while and enjoyed (yet more) TV – more than likely an episode or two of a CSI marathon. We headed into the village at about 6pm, looking for food. Tess was in the mood for steak, and everyone else had their own agendas when trying to select restaurants. After checking through a lot of the available options, we decided on a place where we each thought everyone else had found something they liked – in reality, it turned out that everyone actually just chose the place to try and keep everyone else happy. It was a Swiss restaurant, although everyone did end up finding something that was acceptable.
By the time we had finished eating, everyone was exhausted, and in need of a good night’s sleep. We returned to the house and crawled into bed – for Pip and I, we discovered that the bed didn’t actually have a mattress, but rather, 3 pieces of foam stacked on top of one another. Not good for sleeping on, I tell you! But more on that tomorrow.
Stay tuned!
(and keep checking the photo galley here!)
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