We’ve left the coast, and are heading towards the Rockies. Today we completed the first part of the journey, from Squamish (right on the coast) to the village of Squilax, on Shuswap Lake.

We started off on Route 99, the Sea to Sky Highway, which winds up from Vancouver, through Squamish and Whistler following the river valley, surrounded by snow capped mountains. It’s an amazing drive, with beautiful vista’s on every turn.

From Pemberton, we turned true East, heading directly inland, and up across the first of the passes. As we climbed, the temperature, which had been rising from the coast, started to fall, and by the top of the drive we had clear air, and a pleasant temperature. We stopped to look at lakes, and saw a classic log jam at one.

Then we drove down, and the landscape turned from grass and trees, to dirt and desert. At Lilloet we met our match, as the heat soared to 36 degrees plus. By this time we’d confirmed that the air conditioning was definitely not working AT ALL! 🙁

After lunch in what seemed like the world’s most god-forsaken town (the greatest thing that I can say is that the A&W restaurant had air conditioning that chilled you to the bone), we went up higher again, and had a swim in a lake, before hitting the hottest part of Canada (39.5 degrees yesterday) at Cache Creek. Somehow I hadn’t imagined Canada would be like this – the pictures you see of snow covered peaks give you the impression that its temperate, but even in Jasper & Banff (near glaciers) its 32 degrees today.

So, we’re hot and travelling, but we’ve now got 3 days on lake side, with swimming a top priority!

More interesting news on the hostel tomorrow (before then, I’ll let you do your homework on what a caboose is).