Hell's Gate! - by Craig

The gates of Hell!

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Hey everybody! The excitement continues on the west coast! Today we packed up camp in Salmon Arm and headed for the first stop, Kamloops. I’m sure Steph has already mentioned the camera incident, by which the camera was broken, so we needed to get a new one. Anyway we got a sweet new camera after a bit of shopping there, and then worked further west down the Trans-Canada. There is a new highway there now that you can take which apparently is faster … it’s called the Coquahalla (not sure on the spelling) Highway (Hwy 5) … but we opted to stay on the Trans-Canada cause it’s cooler mountain driving and better scenery.

Also, the Trans Canada goes through “Hell’s Gate” Canyon. When Simon Fraser discovered the river, apparently he said when they reached that spot that they had “surely gone through the gates of hell”, and that’s how it got it’s name. Well it’s still quite the sight today. They say that more water goes through that little opening then goes over Niagara Falls in the same period of time. Unreal. Anyway they have a neat tram thing there that takes you down into the gorge where you can do some shopping, eat an ice cream cone, watch a few movies about the place etc. I’m scared to death of heights, and also we’re pretty frugal when on the road, and we needed some exercise, so we decided to hike the 2kms down (600 ft drop) and take the tram back up so we could try that out. Riding up the tram wasn’t as scary as I imagined the downwards trip might have been! Anyway that was super cool.

Craig being brave !)

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Then we hit the road towards Vancouver and the ferry over to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. We made it in time but the boat was late (of course – just like all the planes I’ve ever been a passenger on too). We didn’t get into Nanaimo until almost midnight after a few games of cards on the boat, and ended up putting up our tent in the dark, again. We woke up to find that our campsite was gorgeous though, and looking straight out onto the water! Then we headed out the Pacific Rim Highway to Tofino for the next day, but I’m sure Steph will tell you about that!!