... And Relax!

Days 20-21

Our next planned destination was Christina Lake to visit some relatives - Ric's third-cousin-once-removed, Bob, and his wife Jane. When we woke after our second, less rainy night in Banff the skies were clear, so we made our way East out of the Rockies in the growing heat through Banff, Yoho, Glacier and Revelstoke National parks. We stopped at the iconic Lake Louise and had lunch by Moraine Lake in the Valley of the Ten Peaks where we were tormented by a couple of squirrels who were after our lunch (see the “please can I have some more, sir?” photo, but we managed to fend them off with a cucumber). Just before we pitched up in Revelstoke we rode the stunning “Meadows in the Sky Parkway” – a road that took you within a short walk of Mt Revelstoke summit, with brilliant meadow flowers and fantastic views in all directions.

Then South through the Okanagan Valley, a big fruit growing area with lots of wineries. We can say first hand that the cherries are excellent, although we held out on the wine till we were settled in Christina Lake :-) Just a few days beforehand some serious forest fires had caused thousands of homes to be evacuated and the road to be closed – fortunately these were now under control but we could see some of the burnt out hillsides on the way through.

Days 21-24

Bob and Jane have a beautiful lakeside cottage on Christina Lake, and are the perfect hosts. We've been sleeping in a bed for the first time in three weeks, and have enjoyed canoeing, mountain biking, and swimming in the 26C waters of the lake – almost not refreshing enough in the 37C temperatures we've been having! We've also had some invaluable advice on what to see in our next stretch through the states and have made some important route decisions.

Bob & Jane's daughter, Jen, also came out for the Canadian bank holiday weekend yesterday, which meant that Ric got to meet a fourth cousin for the first time. We've been having such a great time here that we decided not to leave! Well, for a day longer than planned anyway, and we'll be off tomorrow instead of today as we originally intended.

The USA Plan

We've been warned by many people about the dangers of Mexico and in particular Tijuana and have become less and less sure about our original idea to go into Baja California via Tijuana. For example one fellow biker informed us that there have been 300 murders in Tijuana every month for the past two years, that the police had been lined up and shot, and that a corrupt army were now running the place! As per the last post, we're also pretty worried about totally melting in the heat around the Las Vegas area where the temperatures are expected to reach 45C. So our new plan is to cross the border South of Tucson, missing out LA and Las Vegas. This buys us a bit of extra time to explore more of the canyon country which we've heard great things about (and much of which is at a higher and thus cooler elevation).

So after a wonderfully relaxing few days we'll be hitting the road once more in the morning; first East back into the Rockies and then South into the USA at America's Glacier National Park, down to Yellowstone and onward.