Leaving Jasper (A) and the Canadian Rockies behind, we are heading north west toward the 180 km long Okanagan Valley, home to 84% of the provinces vineyard acreage and is British Columbia’s premier grape growing region. In actual fact, its where I’m heading to meet up with my old buddy Peggy, who I flatted with back in 1979… yes.. thats right… 40 years ago!!
We stop a few nights at Clearwater (B) to ‘recharge the batteries’- so to speak. Amongst a bit of rain, we manage to grill salmon burgers; watch over some local fly fishing; and generally just catch up on laundry and recharge our helmets and devices.
We arrive in Kelowna (C) and set up camp at Willow Creek campsite which is pretty much central so as you can imagine, its a pretty busy place but the facilities are clean, and we are just a 2 minute walk from the beach. Peggy arrives while I’m out getting supplies – well beer mainly, and she arrives stocked up as well. Great minds think alike! Its great that we can go years without seeing each other and pick up like we saw each other yesterday. Peggy takes us on a bit of a ‘ticky-tour’ and we head south down the lake to do some wine tasting; visit a couple of the smaller Okanagan towns; walk the Kelowna waterfront; swim in the lake and generally just chill out for a few days. Hey Miss P, see you in NZ very soon👍
From Kelowna we follow the westside road (E) north heading toward Revelstoke. Its a great ride along the west side with just the lake views to distract us.
In Revelstoke we meet up with our friend Steve, a New Zealander who has settled in there. Revelstoke started out as a mining town once the Canadian Pacific Railway was built through the area and then once the Trans-Canada highway was built in 1962, Revelstoke became a tourist destination with skiing emerging as the most prominent attraction. More recently, its become a prime destination for snowmobiling and in summer, a mecca of outdoor adventure sports. We can see why Steve loves this area so much!
Steve acts as our chauffeur and tour guide for the evening showing us around town and we enjoy a few beers at the Mt Begbie Brewery, voted Canadian Craft Brewery of the year for 2017; followed by dinner and drinks in town. Thanks again Steve… you know there’s always a ‘pew’ for you at Whanga😎
About 30 minutes into our ride out of Revelstoke, we take the free 20 minute ferry at Shelter Bay (G) which takes us across Arrow lake, to continue our ride through Nakusp and then onto the 31A toward Kaslo- our next stop located on the west shore of the Kootenay lake in the Kootenay Rockies. We’re told there is good riding through here and we’re not disappointed! The riding between Nakusp and Kaslo does finally remind me of some of the New Zealand roads, nice curves and corners. Along the way, we stop in New Denver, formerly known as Eldorado due to the nearby silver reserves but was renamed New Denver when it seemed that the area would become richer than its namesake in Colorado, USA but alas it didn’t.
Onto Kaslo (H) where we enjoy the small town and its historic sites including the SS Moyie, the worlds oldest intact passenger sternwheeler; Victorian era buildings including the Langham hotel which was selected in 1942 as one of the sites chosen for the forced internment of Japanese Canadians who were evacuated and interned in the name of ‘national security’ following the bombing of Pearl Harbour and Canada’s entry into WWII.
And the ‘piece de resistance’, we hit the trifecta of wildlife… the elusive moose!!