Tuesday 20th August 2013, day 40 - Vancouver to Kelowna

Moose Tour part 2 - The Rockies

Day 5: Vancouver to Kelowna

After heading east out of Vancouver at about 8am, our second stop (after grocery shop) was at Bridal Veil Falls near Chilliwack in the Fraser Valley, about an hour and a half away. Apparently the total height is 122m, but only the bottom 60-75m can be seen because the viewing point is at the base of a very steep mountainside. It was really nice, and we climbed the slope next to it to get closer. We had lunch on a park lawn in the town of Hope and made a toilet/snack stop in Merritt before arriving in Kelowna mid-afternoon.

Kelowna is located about halfway down the 135km/84mile-long Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, which actually extends down into Washington State. It's known as Canada's California, with a dry warm and sunny climate, lakeshore communities and dry landscapes that have lots of wineries and fruit-growing farms. It was odd to think that I was still in Canada there. We arrived at the hostel but didn't check in straight away, instead making the five-minute walk to the shore for the included houseboat party. We had a ride on a jet boat beforehand, which was so much fun! It went up to 80km/h and did a lot of maneuvers including 360-degree spins. Sat in the back corner I got a bit wet when it did those, but dried off quickly enough in the sunshine after it dropped us off on the houseboat. The 'party' was quite boring, but it was nice to be out on the lake.

Five dinners were included as part of the fifteen-day trip, and this was the second (the first was when the guide cooked in Tofino). We had salmon with potatoes, veg and salad. It was so tasty! The potato chunks were baked and seasoned with herbs, and the salad dressing was sweet with cranberries and pecans and I really wish I knew the ingredients! A while after dinner we walked down to the beach for a swim; the water was lovely and I stayed in for about ten minutes :)

I enjoyed seeing how the landscape changed, from hills and mountains in the Metro Vancouver area, to great flat floodplains in the Fraser Valley with farms everywhere and mountains in the distance either side (very pretty), then getting hillier again but drier and a bit desert-like nearer Merritt and Kelowna. It was interesting, and only a tiny distance in comparison to the whole country.