We now head north in the Okanagan and find that our old friends from the multicultural days way back in the 90’s are free and we are able to have a great catch up. Kathy and Harold have made a beautiful nest in the gorgeous community of Sun Peaks, the second largest ski resort in Canada after Whistler and a beautiful hiking and mountain biking destination in summer.
As it has been such an incredibly dry summer not much looks green and the only patches are small parks in the towns and any fields that are being irrigated. This brings some of the wildlife into town and we get to enjoy a couple of deer having a munch.
We are very lucky to get rain overnight and we wake up to clear blue skies and a lovely low 20’s C temperature.
We head out with Kathy , who just manages to put on a birthday for us and a good reason to explore. Wells Gray is a large and varied park that is hoping to get World heritage listing north of Kamloops. It is famous for its many waterfalls that are the result of geological events starting with a lot of volcanic activity, floods and fires that have sculpted an amazing terrain.
There are 39 waterfalls in total in this park all with different features. We get to see Spahats, Helmken and Dawson falls and get to enjoy a few hikes to get to them.
Kathy enjoys the Birthday celebrations and Harold joins in for the evenings, when we can catch up on the 12 years of not seeing each other.
On another clear morning we head south via Vernon back to Lake Okanagan. Completely fluking it , but with credit to TripAdvisor ( give me restaurants close to me) we find “The Fresh Lemongrass” Vietnamese restaurant and get served a deliscious feast. AndrĂ© takes the vegetarian Pho soup and I go for the tofu stir fry which blends some subtle spices and tickles our taste buds đŸ™‚
Our destination is Kelowna where we have a weekend puppy sit. We just could not resist the opportunity to mind a Labby as we go through. Meet Max, 12 year old chocolate Lab. Here in Canada they make them tall and large , probably 40kg we think. We don’t even have to bend down to give him a pat.
Max shows the typical Labrador traits that we know from raising a guide dog puppy and Holly our beautiful golden Lab. His nose is acutely attuned to food opportunities as we go for a walk and he manages to sneak in a chicken bone, a half loaf of bread a few lollies discarded by children in the park and on the lakeside. Now we remember what it’s like, so we are a bit more vigilant. He is also a fruitarian which I guess living in the Okanagan Valley is a good thing and he watches closely when we are ready to serve him some new season MacIntosh apples. Being as tall as he is the Labby wag delivers quite the punch!
We head off for a hike out of town after stocking up at the local markets with amazing fresh fruit including strawberries, raspberries, peaches and apples. We get rewarded on the trail with a nice long Moose siting . She is not bothered by us and initially is licking some left over winter salt on the road and then moves over to the edge to get a shot vegetation.
