Arrival at the ranch

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I was collected at Wiilliams Lake by Stefan, for the hour drive to Hills Ranch. Stefan and his lovely wife Regula hail from Switzerland and came to learn English but have now stayed for 30 years. Regula looks after the Wellness side of things-everything from nutrition to coping with the menopause.

My first impression was that the buildings themselves were very rustic and charming. The ranch appears to consist of the main building which houses reception, dining room, gym, beauty salons and indoor pool as far as I can tell. A second not so large building called 1871(named after the year of the second wave gold rush-The Cassiar Gold Rush), has another restaurant which has spectacular views across the forests and mountains. No snow around here now although Stefan tells me there has still been light showers early mornings but not sticking. This building also has a tea-room and a little shop-no edibles though! By the way, all the addresses around here such as 108 mile ranch-all relate to the distance from where the gold rush happened.

Adjacent to this is a two floored building called the Manor House. It has 4 rooms back and front and on each floor. The back has the same view as 1871. I was shown to a room on the second floor at the back accessed via a middle corridor. As I enter the room there is a picture window ahead looking out over the mountains-it really has the WOW factor. Next to the window is a second door leading onto a terrace which runs the length of this floor, so four rooms lead onto it. The room itself is clean and fresh if the decor is somewhat dated, but it has all I need with an en-suite bathroom and 2 huge beds-so plenty of room to dump my clothes and anyway with a view like this the room is secondary.

I was given a light lunch - yuk- frozen veggie burger with a bit of lettuce which I couldn't eat-got very worried at this point but gave the benefit of the doubt as I had arrived late.

The rest of the day was mine, dinner between 5 and 6-30 pm for us on the 'programme', obviously to avoid us seeing what delights the others were eating! I had a wander around the ranch and then back to my room for a lovely bath, was feeling very displaced and needed to unpack and get my things around.

I sat out on balcony for a while and absorbed the surroundings. The first thing I felt was peace. All you can hear are birds and the occasional whinny of a ranch horse. And there is the smell of woodsmoke. It felt wonderful. And the view, really beautiful, different coloured trees on different coloured mountains as far as the eye can see.

Well time for sleep, my assessment was due at 9am the next day-was not looking forward to that at all!

I was awake very early next morning (as I was for several with the jetlag) and took these photos about 4-30 am.

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Photos

The Ranch Views
Sunrise over the mountains

Comments

[anonymous]

Hi Sue it sounds fab, hope all is going well make the most of it see you soon luv paula xxx