One of our stops on the way from Cochrane to Kamloops.

We left Ralston on Wednesday afternoon, trailer in tow, and headed to Cochrane, the first stop on what will be around a 3000km trip.  Feel free to make a guess as to our total kilometres travelled in the comments section and we’ll post our final distance at the end.  There are no prizes for winning, just the kudos of coming closest.

Cochrane is home to the Rook family, friends from BATUS who are now living the Canadian dream in their own home.  They kindly fed us and gave us all a bed for the night.

We knew it was going to be a long slog, but Thursday was definitely a long slog.  Leaving Cochrane at nine in the morning, we made it to Kamloops just after five in the afternoon having gained an hour changing from Mountain to Pacific time.  All in all it was a nine hour journey.  Fresh air and a leg stretch for all was required – the Kenna Cartwright park in Kamloops provided us with both.  It has a network of over 40km of trails meandering over the Mount Dufferin area to the North West of the city.  Our bed for the night was at the Maverick Motor Inn and Waterslide.  It was the one thing that you hope a hotel off the highway will be – clean!  Plus the pool and waterslide gave us an opportunity in the morning to burn off some energy before jumping into the car.  Jack’s gaining confidence in the water and had a great time shouting whoooooo hooooooooooooooooooooo while coming down the slide by himself.

Us with Johanna & Joyce

So here we are now, it’s just after lunch on Friday – taken at a place called ‘Rumors’ (sounds like a nightclub, but no it’s a Mom & Pop restaurant in the middle of nowhere just east of Shaw Springs) and we’ve got a couple of hours more driving to do before we hit Langley.  Our route this year is all along the Trans Canada Highway (Highway One) through the beautiful Fraser Valley.  In previous years we’ve taken what has been suggested as the scenic rounte, the 97 or the 5, but to be honest now we’ve seen it, the One is just as impressive.  The landscape is all mountains, lakes and rivers with the mountains very California’esque – dry and rocky.

Langley is a suburb south east of Vancouver and home to the lovely Hanna Jacobs.  Hanna is Jonathan’s Mum’s cousin’s widow – back in 2005, on our first ever Canadian road trip we stayed with Hannah and her late husband Peter for a few days and enjoyed their great hospitality.  It’s going to be lovely to return and introduce Hanna to our son.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.