Day 21 - Vancouver

Adam and Lauren at Cascade Falls
see all photos »

Today we took a trip to Hamilton hot springs which is east of Vancouver. It took us 4 hours to get there but only and hour and a half to get back on a different road! We did stop on the way at Cascade Falls which, according to the sign on the road, looked as if it was only a short distance away, but turned into a 20 mile diversion! However, once we got there they were really cool and we wished we had taken a picnic and some swimwear as there were loads of people swimming in the river and around the falls which was pretty cool. The scenery was really amazing. However, this was slightly overshadowed by the fact that I needed the loo really badly and according to all those swimming there was no toilet around. I eventually decided that the situation had got too desperate and took a walk to go find a bush and hopefully not get disturbed by a bear. But all was not lost – I managed to find a hut which housed nothing less than a pit-toilet – I never thought I would be so happy to find such a thing, but I was! Upon my return I found Lauren, Laura and Adam scouring the river for a flip flop which Adam had managed to misplace whilst crossing it. After about a 10 minute search the missing item was located in a really obvious place, but it was funny watching them search for it! We finally arrived in Hamilton and were all absolutely starving as we had not anticipated that it would take so long to get to. Hamilton is located on a really pretty lake and there were lots of boats out and about, but the hot springs themselves were really rubbish. They are 73 degrees and smelt really badly of sulphur which was rather nasty, but people were still dipping their feet in the pool which resembled a muddy puddle. Not really worth the trip I have to say, seeing as we had missed the Gay Pride parade in Vancouver to go to it! In the evening we went out to Davie which is the main street with lots of gay bars. However, it was really disappointing as there weren’t many people out and about and there also weren’t many bars either. I thought this was strange seeing as it was the day of the parade so we didn’t stay out that long. It was nice to see another part of the city however.

Hamilton lake
see all photos »

Distance travelled today – technically 0, but round-trip to Hamilton about 300 miles.

Distance travelled today – technically 0, but round-trip to Hamilton about 300 miles

Bearwatch – 0.