We survived the night in Golden with all of our arms intact.
Despite everything we had a really good nights sleep, in fact Karen didn’t awaken until 9am. Anyone would think we were on holiday. It took 31 minutes from Karen waking to us pulling out of the car park, not that we were eager to leave the Ponderosa Motel or anything.
We declined the ‘breakfast’ on offer at the motel and headed to downtown Golden to find breakfast. There was not much to see, and so easily located the number 1 rated place for breakfast. I am not sure there was much competition.
Golden is like a one horse town where the horse has either got up and left or died. It really did not have any redeeming features.
We chose to sit outside at the Big Bend Cafe and the breakfast was actually fine. I even managed to logon to the Wifi from the bank next door, but that was almost as bad as it had been in the motel.
There was a supermarket across the road so we popped in to buy some rolls for lunch and top up the dwindling fruit supplies.
From here we drove up to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. It was nice to see the Ski chalets but there was nothing worth getting out of the car for, so instead we decided to start our journey to Revelstoke. This was about 92 miles.
This took us up and over the mountains and it was quite amazing although our views were hampered by the smoke from the Forest Fires and we did actually drive quite close to one. We could smell the smoke in the air.
We stopped for a picnic lunch at Hemlock Grove which was a boardwalk through parts of the Forest that were not alight. We stopped again at the Great Cedar Boardwalk Trail which was very good through the rainforest. The Cedars are over 500 years old and incredibly tall.
After the not so good motel from last night it was some in trepidation that we pulled into the Swiss Chalet Motel in Revelstoke. We had checked all the recent reviews which were all extremely positive. They were not wrong. You can get a feel for the place as soon as you go into reception. This was warm and friendly. Our room was compact but lovely and we were very happy with our choice to stay for the next 2 nights. Plus the Wifi was great.
Our first port of call was a 10 minute walk to Starbucks as Karen was getting the shakes for not having had one for a few days. We then returned to our room before setting out on a walk in the opposite direction to downtown Revelstoke. Sadly we didn’t get very far as Karen’s knee gave way and we had to go back for her to put strapping on it. We instead drove the short distance into downtown to give her knee a break. That meant I wouldn’t be having a glass of wine with my meal but heigh ho.
Revelstoke was everything Golden wasn’t. A pretty place with interesting shops. In fact it has turned into my favourite place of the trip so far. We chose to eat in ‘The Village Idiot’, prompting much teasing of Karen that I was just taking her back as they had been missing her. This turned out to be my favourite restaurant so far. It had a great atmosphere and the place was buzzing. The food was also fab. We both had a Caesar salad, Karen had chicken with hers whilst I had mine with seared tuna.
To celebrate summer (which must be a relief when it arrives as Revelstoke averages 60ft of snow each year) the town have 60 nights of an outdoor music festival down the main drag. Tonight the band was called Echo Nebraska. Not only had we heard one of their songs on the radio earlier this trip, but they were really good. The songs were melodic and words were very good. We sat for 90 minutes listening to them on the chairs provided. It was interesting that there was no alcohol as it is not allowed on any streets in Canada but all the locals were happy to sit around in the warmth just watching and listeneing.
Then to top it all we had a beautiful red sunset over the mountains as we came back to our motel, ending another good day.
