Young World Travellers: Day One - Vancouver to Kelowna

We both thought we were feeling okay when we landed in Vancouver but by the time we had reached the hotel we were struggling to keep our eyes open. After check-in we popped to the shop over the road for a few drinks and snacks before climbing into bed; we were asleep by 6.30pm. An early night meant an early morning, 4am to be exact - our bodies still adjusting to being eight hours behind what we are used to. We were heading off before breakfast was served in the hotel so a bunch of strawberries and a pack of oreos had to do while we were preparing for our first day of our five day Coho Tour with Moose Travel.

With plenty of time to prepare, we were at our pick up point 15 minutes early - Cambie Hostel. The minutes passed and passed....and passed. It was now 15 minutes after our pick up time when I decided to call and see what was going on. Long story short, there happens to be two Cambie Hostel's within a few miles of eachother and naturally we were at the wrong one. Another taxi was called to take us to yet another location with the journey made all the more interesting by our exuberant driver and we finally met up with everyone else.

The first stage of the journey was spent chatting to everyone and asking about eachother's travel stories and what we'd done/had planned. After about an hour or so we arrived at our first stop, Bridal Falls. A short but steep hike took us to the foot of the falls which were really impressive. (Pictures below) Despite the warning signs, we were encouraged to climb up a bit further than we ought to have to get some really good shots and after patiently waiting for half of the Chinese population to take their photos (we saw one woman smiling, holding a leaf next to her face and taking a selfie like she'd never seen one before) we got a few shots that we were happy with before we just stood for a few minutes admiring nature's beauty. A much easier descent down the forest tracks led us back to our minibus.

Our next stop was called the Tunnels Trail, a network of disbanded railway lines that ran under massive mountains, of which the tunnels had been created with dynamite in 1915 to carve a way through the valley. They were interesting and we got some nice photos of not only the tunnels themselves but also the river and various small waterfalls running alongsides. After a very hot and sweaty hour or so back on the bus (not the best air-con) we arrived in a nice town called Hope where we stopped for a picnic.

The later part of the day was spent driving, mostly through quite thick smoke at times. There have been some vast and mostly uncontrollable bush fires all over Canada in the past few weeks - we actually saw the smoke when we were flying into Vancouver. It leaves a dense smog in certain areas which means the sky is a faded blue and you can't see quite as far as you might like to sometimes. We arrived at Lake Okanagan around 5pm for a Jetboat ride which was great fun. The speed, the serenity of the lake itself, the impressive manouveres that the boat/driver could perform and the surrounding landscape made it quite an experience.

Tonight we are staying in a hostel in Kelowna organised by the tour group but luckily we have our own room/bathroom instead of having to share which is a bonus. We had a pleasant dinner before getting into bed around 8pm ahead of an early start tomorrow where we will be covering over 300 miles on the road, driving through the Rockies before kayaking on Lake Revelstoke and finishing the day in Banff. Everyone is very friendly, especially the natives who are reknowned for being so welcoming and we have a good mix of nationalities on the tour itself. Most of us are from the UK actually but we have Germans, Australians, a Swede, an Italian and a girl from Thailand with us too so there's a nice diversity of cultures to hear and learn about.

Day One Highlight - Jetboat ride on Lake Okanagan