nelson to fernie

WE left Ainsworth after breakfast ( we missed another soak in the hot pools as they did not open early enough for us) and moved on to Nelson. I did send a note from the library there once it was open—they do not open until 11am—pretty civilized I’d say. We spent the time before it opened exploring the main street and had coffee at a wonderful place recommended by the info centre staff—oso negro (black bear). It was wonderful coffee (Heather Kay strength) and the Belgian chocolate cookies were delish. Nelson has so much to offer and to see so we did not begin to scratch the surface and ought to have stayed an extra few days and might have done so if the weather had been a little more spectacular—we have decided that we will definitely return. We needed to be on the 1pm ferry across Kootenay Lake so got ourselves lunch for the car and headed back north to Balfour and the ferry to Kootenay Bay.


The drive down along the lake was wonderful and another time we would definitely stop at the pub in Sirdar and spend some time in the General store—it looked interesting and from the reading I have now done I know that it is. Next time. Also I discovered a road across from Grey Creek to Kimberly and I think it might be an interesting path to follow. Kimberly is described as a Bavarian village. We did stop just outside Boswell and looked at the glass house that a funeral director created using empty embalming bottles—500,000 of them.

We continued on to Creston where the scenery changed dramatically--it was flat and very fertile looking with huge farms. Unfortunately it is not the season for fresh fruit yet but maybe on the way back.

We then moved on to Fernie so were back in the mountains--the Canadian Rockies this time. We were still in low clouds so did not see a lot of mountain but the snow was there and the rivers raging as that snow melts. Fernie is pretty quiet right now so we are sitting in the hostel living room pretty much all on our own.

Tomorrow we will move onto Swift Current and then on into Regina for the weekend.