Sunday September 7, Kokanee Creek Provincial Park, BC

Woke to drizzly rain this morning, so quite slow getting going. Got talking to some other campers who were sitting around a campfire, warming up. I think we should be paid as Ambassadors for New Zealand as people are always fascinated by our country, so many have it on their wish list for travel.

Stopped in the little town of New Denver….a very little town but it had a good café so sat over a coffee and watched the rain!

The drive through to Kaslo was just fabulous, a very windy road and not much traffic, and it climbed up into the mountains through heavy forest with lots of fast running clear streams. Somehow the misty rain enhanced the drive giving it a magical feel.

We stopped at the old mining town of Sandon, 5 kms up a gravel road. When a great discovery of silver was made in the 1880’s it quickly grew into a really sizeable town. It had a few ups and downs firstly with a major fire that burnt most of the town, then the river flooded and wiped out a lot of the buildings. It was all rebuilt, but by the 1920’s the boom had gone and the town died. During WW2, the buildings were restored to house Japanese-Canadians who were relocated from the West Coast. All in all it has quite a history, but now there is not much left, but interesting to look around.

Kaslo on Kootenay Lake had a similar history with the Japanese during the war, but it has survived and has a really artsy atmosphere.

The park tonight is on the shores of the lake, a very nice spot, thanks again Peter!