Our
favourite town on this leg turned out to be Revelstoke. The weather
miraculously improved and we arrived there in brilliant afternoon
sunshine. The Coast Hillcrest hotel was delightful – very
welcoming with comfortable, spacious rooms. Their balconies had a
magnificent view across to the jagged profile of the Monashee
Mountains at sunset. The staff were very friendly, especially a
waitress who had moved there a few years ago from suburban Toronto
and loved it – even when the bears got into town and rooted up her
vegetable garden.
We went on several good walks in the area –
along the river banks where the Illecillewaet meets our old friend
the Columbia, with lots of wildlife to see on the way. It was here
that we saw a group of crows in a state of agitation and then in a
sudden explosion of motion and feathers, a golden
eagle burst out of the tree just yards ahead, to be mobbed
by the crows. It flew out over the river then around the trees
on the opposite bank for several minutes, perhaps looking for a nest
site. On another occasion Kathleen and I heard what sounded very
like the howling of wolves from the distant shore. It's possible:
wolves are nearby, in very low numbers, and through most of the province.
We also walked into
the Mount Revelstoke NP, which features the Meadows in the Sky
parkway – also closed! But we were able to do a good circuit of
woodland near the entrance, through moss laden trees and by fast
moving mountain streams - a little remnant of rainforest away from the
coast - managing to get a bit lost but somehow ending back where we
started.
Revelstoke seems like a real town, not dominated by
tourism, and we found yet another fantastic and extremely popular
coffee shop/bakery. The staff were efficient and there
was a vast and scrmptious range of baked goods and dishes and coffees. We also saw the weekly farmers and craft
market, a lively meeting place for locals, and bought a few things there (homemade jams and candles).
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