MONDAY 1ST – HEADING SOUTH

Driving day today. We are now at the Othello Tunnels Campground just outside Hope, about 150 klms from Vancouver. Five tunnels were built through solid granite cliffs between 1911 and 1916 to complete the Kettle Valley Railway which closed in 1959 because of constant washouts, snow and rockslides. They are now a tourist attraction. We will be checking them out in the morning.

Today’s point of interest was Hells Gate. It is where the Fraser River, the main watercourse draining much of British Columbia, passes through a very narrow gorge which caused great challenges to the explorer Simon Fraser after which the river and the Fraser Canyon along which the river flows north of Hope is named. The gorge through which the water flows is 30 metres wide, the water depth is estimated to be 30 metres and the amount of water flowing is twice the volume of Niagara Falls at spring run off.

There is a cable car which takes you from the highway 800 feet above to the river level below. To assist the salmon which are generally not otherwise able to get through the raging current, a system of sophisticated fishways exists.

Our general plan is to head over to Vancouver Island but we are not sure when.