Cranbrook to Nelson, Nelson to Nakusp

The hotel in Cranbrook had a free cooked breakfast included in the price, so first thing in the morning we headed down and ate lots, and had what would have to be the best coffee we have had since we arrived in Canada.
We left Cranbrook and headed for Nelson, we decided to go over the kicking horse pass as we had all day, we headed down and drive almost to the US border and then headed back up north.
The weather was not the best and it actually rained today.
There was not much to look at, but every now and again you could see old mines on the hills.
We arrived in Nelson and looked around and brought a book on 100 things to do in Canada, and then walked through town and got a coffee and discovered that it pays not to get a big coffee sometime. But it was a nice coffee so was all good.
We stayed at the Dancing Bear Inn which was a hostel, was very nice place to stay. We got the front room on the corner, the window in the picture.

In the morning we walked down the road and got a coffee to go and walked back to the hostel before checking out.

From nelson we headed north along the lake to Kaslo where we stopped and looked at the old steam ship that used to work on the lake. The lake was hugh 115km long.
We got talking to the guy in the info centre about Canada and other things and he said a NZ firefighter who was working in Edmonton was there two weeks ago, small world.
The Ship was interesting to look though, the town brought it from the railways in 1957 for $1 and pulled it out of the water and restored it to how it used to look, which is amazing.
We then headed away from the lake and turned off the main road to a small(very small) town called Sandon, It was once a mining town, now is just a couple of building and old machines. the history of the area dates back to 1890s when silver was discovered. there was 26 hotel, and 28 saloons in the town at its peak, then they had a big fire and the town never recovered. the museum was interesting with all the old pictures of the town. There is still a working power generator that makes power for the valley.


There was also a hugh stream train that is like the one that use to move through this area back to Kaslo.
The area is still mined for silver, and the mine way just down the road.
We then carried on to Nakusp, a small town on the edge of Arrow lakes, walked around the shops and along the water front of the lake, before finding a small place to have dinner and then head back to our motel for the night.

Today was a nice easy day, the areas we are traveling through are not as exiting as the Icefield parkway but is good to be seeing different areas of Canada before we head to Ottawa and the other side of the country.