In Distant Lands Part 3

Friday was our day of relaxation in the luxurious  Chateau Fairmont Lake Louise hotel right on the lakefront. It is certainly not a cheap option, but this is our first overseas trip (and first holiday of any length) since 2018 and we decided "why not"!

It was a gorgeous day with hardly a cloud in the sky all day. We started the day with a walk to the far end of the lake. The lake itself is not large - just 1800 meters long with a maximum width of 600 meters - but its small size is made up for by the stunning mountains and forests that surround it. The ice was clearly melting (one of the staff reckoned it would be gone on another five days) with more blue beginning to show. The workers at the boat shed were getting out the canoes, readying for summer activities and by day's end there was a row of red hulled canoes across rather deck of the boathouse waiting for free water and customers. Without me rambling on about it I'll let some of the pictures we took on the walk speak for themselves.

The ice is beginning to melt 

More evidence of the melt

Magnificent trees against the clear blue sky

The blue of the lake starting to show through the ice

The frozen waterfall

The head of the lake, where the blue is becoming more evident

The cliffs at the head of the lake

Looking back at the hotel

Late in the evening looking across to the boat shed

Saturday saw us on the road again to visit family in the upper Okanagan Valley. Enroute we stopped at the town of Golden and visited the Golden Skywalk, a pair of suspension bridges 425 feet above the Kicking Horse Canyon.  The first bridge is around 140 meters in length and passes directly above the chute where the water gushes through. Then you walk through some pretty forest areas, past the zip lines and roller coasters to the lower return bridge, which is a little shorter at around 90 meters.

The upper bridge

The chute under the upper bridge

The lower bridge

 

Looking down the gorge from the lower bridge

I didn't take many pictures from the bridge itself because I was petrified  that with the movement on the bridge I would drop the phone!

After about an hour we were back on the road to my cousin's home near Salmon Arm on a beautiful spot on the banks of the Shuswap River - very rural, very peaceful. The weather has turned and it is fine and hot - unusual for the time of year the relatives tell us. Sunday was a family day with 15 of the 19 relatives that live in the area able to attend. It was wonderful to catch up with them all after so long. There is another such event when we get back to Vancouver where the rest of the family live.

The next day they took us out to their cabin on the waterfront at Mara Lake and in the afternoon out in their boat for a gentle cruise through the southern end of the lake in gorgeous 30+ degree temperatures.

On Tuesday the heat was not as searing and we cruised the northern end of the Mara Lake, had lunch at a pub in Sicamous before heading through the gap into Shuswap Lake then back 'home'.