On the road again.

We set off south into the Kootenay National Park area in a great loop that will eventually take us to Jasper. Our target for the first stop was Cranbrook. We travelled in blistering heat, stopping at Radium Springs for a picnic lunch overlooking the Columbia Valley. We had to seek shade at our coffee stop in Invermere as it was just too hot to sit in the sun. Fortunately, our B&B for the night had a hot tub where we soaked away the aches from our 300km drive.

Cranbrook is home to a Heritage Museum, among whose treasures is the complete set of coaches from the 1928 season "1st class Hotel on Wheels" Canadian Pacific train which ran for only one season before the Wall St crash robbed it of customers. The coaches are in the process of being lovingly restored and the results are very impressive.

We pressed on to Nelson via Creston which is at the centre of the fruit growing region. We stopped at a roadside farm shop and selected some fabulous peaches and some strawberries for our lunch. The lady who helped us select the fruit refused to take our money. There is such a thing as a free lunch. We very touched by her kindness to strangers.

We decided to take a longer route to Nelson along the shores of Lake Kootenay to Crawford Bay (where they made the broomsticks for the Harry Potter movies) and across the Lake on the free ferry. The countryside here is less dramatic than around Banff and, if it wasn't for the heat, you could easily imagine that you are sailing across a West Coast loch.

Nelson really is a quirky sort of town. It was adopted as home by the young American draft dodgers who refused to fight in the Vietnam war. Now old men, most of them still remain in the town adopting a style of dress that the rest of the world gave up long since. Part hippie, part "Easy Rider". Baker St, the main shopping street, still has a frontier feel about if. Cowboy style, wooden fronted buildings still remain between more substantial 1900's stone built shops and banks and you could imagine a cowboy riding up the street and tying up his horse outside the saloon.

A great day out.

At the insistence of our landlady we booked a Zip Line trip. See www.zipkokanee.com. It was on our "bucket list" so it seemed like the ideal opportunity. We booked it on line and then checked our their website to see what it was all about. Backwards and forwards across a creek 350 ft above the stream. Some of the lines 700m long. 100km/hr. I didn't realise it would be high. I don't like heights. I didn't sleep a wink that night.

With more than a little trepidation I put on the harness and hardhat. The first run was easy. Not very high, not very long, not very steep. The second run is higher, faster, longer. When you arrive on the platform you find that you are 50 ft up a tree with no way down.

The next run of about 400m departs from the same platform - out over a 350ft shear drop. There is no way down, there is no way back. Suddenly you understand the true meaning of commitment. Susan takes to it like a duck to water. Look - no hands. I am terrified. This is the most frightening situation that I have ever been in. I have to go on - there is no other way out of this. Our two teenage guides are bouncing about like a couple of exited puppies. The girl goes first to prepare the breaking system for us novices. She hangs upside down all the way across. Susan goes next - big smile, no hands, wheeeee! Palms sweating, heart pounding out of my chest, I go out backwards to avoid seeing the drop. There is a man out there hanging from a wire pointing a camera at me. I take one hand off and manage a wave. I pick up speed and start to spin. Now I can see down. Now I'm travelling backwards at enormous speed. I know that there is a hard stop coming up but, because I'm going backwards, I can't see it. The tree tops are rushing up towards my feet again. Bang! I hit the brake and start swinging wildly about. Puppy No. 1 grabs my harness and hauls me onto the platform. "That was fun!", I said and then my legs turned to jelly. Only three more to go!