First full day of the group trip and we started with a final drive through the main sights of Vancouver before heading north on the Sea to Sky Highway, which took us on the stunningly beautiful drive between Vancouver and Whistler. We stopped off at a couple of spots on the way – Shannon Falls, lunch in Squamish and a short hike just outside of Whistler called the Train Wreck hike, where a number of train carriages were dragged into the woods after a train crash in the 1950s. They’ve all subsequently been covered in graffiti. It’s a fun, short hike and good to stretch the legs.

We arrived in Whistler in the mid afternoon and I enjoyed a wander around the town. With its wooden lodges, wide array of restaurants, cafes and drinking venues and bustling streets, it did remind me of several other ski resort towns I’ve been to over time, though I’ve yet to actually go to one during ski season!

A delicious dinner at The Brickworks (slow cooked bison) with some Canadian wine, which was a noticeable feature on wine lists on my trip. I’m not sure I’ve ever really clocked Canadian wine in the UK but I’ll certainly be looking out for it in the future.

Everyone had different plans the next day. A couple of us started with a visit to the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Center where there was a video and guided tour informing us about the indigenous populations of this region, the Squamish and the Lil’wat. We learnt about how they live off the land and what the mountains and forests in this region mean to these peoples. There were also exhibits depicting the traditional ways of life which were really interesting, I’d definitely recommend a visit if you’re in Whistler.

Afterwards I took the gondola up Blackcomb mountain to get to the Peak2Peak gondola, which crosses the valley between Blackcomb and Whistler mountains. Some spectacular views on this gondola, which is the longest unsupported cable span in the world. It takes 11 minutes to cross between the 2 mountains. After taking some photos, I went for a short wander before taking the chair lift up to the top of Whistler mountain. On the way I bumped into some of my fellow group travellers who were on their way back down and off to do some zip lining which is very popular activity here.

I’d never been on a chair lift before, and was clinging onto my rucksack as though my life depended on it! But I negotiated it safely and was deposited at the top of Whistler mountain, where you can then make your way across the Cloudraker Skybridge which was really quite wobbly in the middle! There are a bunch of hiking routes up here, and whilst some other group members opted to do some longer hikes, I stuck to a short one which did give good 360 views from the mountain. It was quite hazy due to wildfires in the region, so I don’t have the sharpest photos but I will never tire of looking at mountains.

I made my way back down the Whistler mountain gondola and back to Whistler village in the mid afternoon where I found a cafe for a cuppa and a cookie. I filled the rest of the afternoon with a bit of retail therapy before relaxing by the pool at the hotel. In the evening, our guide drove us a short distance to Creekside where we got takeaway Japanese/Korean food and sat watching the sunset over the water – so serene. I really liked Whistler, definitely somewhere I could go back to and spend a few more days exploring.

The next day was a relatively long driving day (though nothing compared to those in Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania!!) as we left Whistler and drove to Kelowna. It was such a beautiful drive, with pockets of snow hanging on to the tops of the mountains and milky blue rivers cutting through the landscape. We stopped for a picnic lunch at Seton Lake which was a simply stunning backdrop to enjoy my cheese and crackers!!

There have been lots of wildfires in this region, and as we continued after lunch, it steadily got more smoky and hazy. The landscape also changed, it looked a lot drier, more arid, and more rolling than mountainous, with brush a bit more like you’d find in desert regions. A type of landscape I don’t think I’d ever considered I’d find in Canada.

We had a brief coffee stop in Kamloops (my second visit after the very brief fresh air break on the train) before continuing on and arriving in Kelowna in the late afternoon. Kelowna has a very beautiful setting, on a lake and surrounded by more mountains. It was quite hazy with the smoke which made for a moody sunset which we watched from the open air top floor of a local restaurant.

A leisurely morning in Kelowna where I had a wander around the town and lakefront before we headed off to a local winery in the late morning for a spot of wine tasting. We had a glass of fizz, 2 whites and a red. As usual, I much preferred the whites! After a reasonable amount of wine, it was back to the lakefront in Kelowna for a picnic lunch arranged by our guide before we hit the road for the drive to Revelstoke which was basically an overnight stop before we continued east into Alberta – more on that next time!