Day 18 - The Okanagan Valley

Our plan today was to drop us right down to the bottom of British Columbia, almost to the border with the United States, head west, then cut back up through the fertile Okanagan (rhymes with "O'Flanagan") Valley to end up at Kelowna for the night. A wine-tasting visit at one of the many wine-producers in the region was going to be used to break the journey up, and also for enjoyment - this is a holiday, after all.

We had a complementary breakfast of muffin and coffee in the foyer of the Mountain Hound Inn in Nelson, then set off on what was to be the longest drive of this holiday, 250 miles in about four and a half hours.

The weather wasn't the best, but again I'd been expecting that, and I didn't mind cloudy weather for driving. We headed south-west to Castlegar and picked up Highway 3 which took us right down to the Canada-USA border. We stopped off after a couple of hours at Grand Forks in the Boundary Country to stretch our legs and use the washrooms. A very helpful lady at the Visitor Information Centre supplied us with booklets of the Okanagan Valley wine-growing region, and using these we located the Red Rooster winery recommended in my guide book.

We set off again, the mountains left behind, replaced with rolling, wooded hills (pine trees again, I'm afraid). It was a little like driving in the highlands of Scotland, until we breasted a hill and saw the Okanagan Valley stretched out below us, with the Okanagan Mountains reaching from skyline to skyline beyond the valley. We found a convenient spot and ate lunch while a tiny chipmunk ran up and down outside the car (we didn't feed him though - feeding the wildlife is illegal).

After lunch we headed down into the lush valley itself. The first town we encountered was Osoyoos (think of the Russian Soyuz space programme and put an "O" in front of it), sitting on Osoyoos Lake. They're very sparing with names in this part of British Columbia. The contrast between the green valley floor and the dry brown hills either side is very marked. The Canadian Rockies and the Columbia Mountains block this valley off from most of the severe weather experienced by the rest of BC in winter, resulting in a semi-arid and almost desert environment. Settlers arriving here after travelling for weeks and months through boreal forest must have thought they'd arrived in the Promised Land.

The region is becoming famous for its wine production, but fruit and vegetables are produced in great numbers here (sin of the day went to "The Tomatoe [sic] Patch"). In contrast to the vast majority of British Columbia, this is farming land. We saw horses, cattle, sheep, and even a field of rapeseed, its distinctive yellow a welcome relief after two and a half weeks of pine-green.

Unfortunately we weren't seeing the valley at its best, as by now it was raining a little, and it continued to spit as we drove through Penticton and on to the Red Rooster winery. The choice of the Red Rooster was purely because it happens to be mentioned in my guide book; there are almost a hundred such wineries around Osoyoos, Penticton and Kelowna, all producing - from what we've experienced so far on this trip - very good wine indeed. What sold me on the Red Rooster was the sentence, "enjoy a tasting of the winery's acclaimed [wines], then soak up the lake views over a cheese platter". Indeed there is an outdoor seating area to enjoy such views and such cheeses. It's open Thursday to Monday. Not Tuesday.

Still, we had a tasting of five of their wines, and bought two bottles that we liked. Sandra got all excited and bought a new "forspecial" wine glass - it'll be interesting to see if she can get that home without breaking it. [Update - the wine glass made it home without breaking.]

It was about 4pm now, and still an hour's drive to Kelowna. The scenery was again spectacular, Highway 97 hugging Okanagan Lake as we headed north. Coming this way, the road whips you into Kelowna over the lake on a huge and steep bridge, slips you past the interesting and touristy parts of the city before you know what's happened, and plunges you onto a six-lane highway past the most ridiculous number of hotels, motels, vehicle dealerships, and fast food emporiums (emporia?) either side of you. Also, by now it was rush hour, and the road was clogged with trucks, lorries and buses, all around me, and all knowing where they were going - unlike me.

As if that wasn't enough, His Majesty chose this moment to make a new noise, this one to tell me that he was running out of fuel. I knew this was coming, I'd had my eye on the gauge for a while, but I could have done without the added reminder. We've done almost 700 miles since I filled him up in Revelstoke.

Just at that moment our Days Inn hotel appeared, and I wearily pulled HM onto the carpark. These chain hotels are never going to win prizes for luxury, but for £70 we've got a large and clean room with a bath and shower, two queen-sized beds (in case we argue), free internet (come on UK, get with the free internet in hotels for crying out loud), free parking, and a complementary breakfast. And free ice. I've never mentioned the free ice on these blogs, have I? Every hotel we get to, one of the first things we do is go on a hunt for the free ice machine. Can't drink bacardi and coke or a Mott's caesar without ice, dude.

Tomorrow we intend to (a) fill HM's tank up with fuel, (b) get ourselves back into Kelowna town centre and do the touristy stuff (have to find Ogopogo), then (c) have a leisurely two hour drive to Kamloops and our penultimate hotel. And the weather forecast for the next three days looks absolutely top notch - maybe Sandra will get me up that Vancouver Tower on Friday after all.