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Thursday 2 Aug

Away from the mountains heading south to the warmer climes where they grow all the delicious summer fruits and to meet up with another dr down there.

Had an overnight stop in Kamloops to break the journey and went to the B.C. wildlife park which is a non profit that helps in rehabilitation and conservation of wildlife from British Columbia ( the state/province we are in).

Was better than we expected especially when you time your visits to the different animals with the unofficial feeding times. Got a great display from the Grizzly bears as the zookeeper was training the volunteers in how to feed them. We watched as they were let back in their pens to search for food that had been hidden under rocks and up trees.

They also have a ‘spirit bear’ – a black kermode bear from the the Great Bear Rainforest with a recessive gene that makes them white. The First Nations people revered them as spirits.

The coyotes put on a great display of howling for us too.

As Ron and I love to do in our travels where we can – we checked out the Kamloops Farmers market. There were lots of yummy goodies and fresh produce. We were surprised at how many people bring their dogs to a food market especially when one did a massive turd right in the middle of the walkway! Uggh!

Next day drove through to Keremeos where we will be staying.

It is beautiful rural countryside with old gold mines, very historic looking log cabin farms, fruit orchards and vineyards. Some distant rain also treated us to a triple rainbow over the valley.

The fruit and in particular the cherries here are amazing! I’ve eaten so many cherries my turds will look like a bear’s!

We have a rest day here and I will be catching up on some note taking so it’s great that it’s such a peaceful lovely place with a deck overlooking a creek. A great find on Airbnb. Although driving down the street we were a bit worried as it looked like something out of ‘Deliverance’! Bit worried for nothing as the host and his neighbours were lovely people.

Had a great chat with a dr involved in rural health policy and politics. Yet another inspiring interview and he hooked me up with several more!

We had to take a different way to his house due to a bushfire that had been developing in the mountains. Thankfully the forest isn’t too thick here and there was no wind so unlikely to be a big issue.  It was doused out by the helicopter water bombers by this evening.

Beautiful scenery and lots of summer holidaymakers out and about making the most of the cool lakes and rivers on this hot long weekend for British Colombia Day.   The Peach Festival was on today at Penticton as well but we didn’t have time to do more than drive through.

There are endless fruit stalls here so if you love your summer fruit (cherries and apricots are my fave!!) you will be in heaven here.

6 August

Left Keremeos driving through beautiful valleys full of orchards and vineyards with endless fruit stalls full of apricots, peaches and cherries and wineries everywhere. The cherries we got for breakfast were only beaten by the ones I ate yesterday as the best cherries I’ve ever eaten.

We’re driving almost along the border of US and Canada. The little desert and mountain towns along here are like something out of the movies with the old ’50s pickup trucks, log cabins and ranches that were built in the last hundred years or more.

Stopped in a cute little coffee shop that’s a 98 year old homestead in Rock Creek.

Drove through the mountains and through Grand Forks where there were quite a few deer in town enjoying the green grass. After a picnic lunch headed over into Nelson with a cute little deer crossing the road in front of us. Walked along the foreshore where flocks of Canadian geese were keeping the lawn mowed.

Nelson was on the beautiful Kootenay River. A pretty town but also had a bit of a wierd vibe to it. Lots of new agey hippy stuff and a ‘cannabis dispensary’ open on a public holiday. And lots of dodgy looking characters hanging out on the street looking intently at Ron as he walked past. Yes Ron has that look and has been pretty much offered or asked for drugs in every country we’ve been to. Hasn’t happened in Canada yet but thought it was going to happen here.

Had a lovely meal at the Library Lounge before driving off to find another nice car camping spot.

Found a beautiful little rest area by another clear creek with tables in the forest and clean toilets. Perfect! Ron said you know when I was young this was the kind of place I’d go to get up to no good. Don’t be silly I said, it’s a Monday night and we’re too far out of town.

One other car with some travellers turned up to sleep as well but I drifted off to sleep soon after. Woke up and looked out and said to Ron- whoa everyone else decided to camp here too! “You don’t know the half of it!” Apparently there was drinking and fire juggling and all kinds of things going on last night and I slept through it all! Poor old Ron was right and it was a right ‘ole circus last night!

7 Aug

Lovely spot by yet another pretty pine-ringed lake was our breakfast and coffee stop. The columbian ground squirrels were very cheeky and clearly waiting for us to drop food.

Some wierd stuff was going on across the lake at the pullup there. If I didn’t know better I’d swear there were drug deals going on with the trucks and cars pulled up there. Not impossible given how close we were to the US border where apparently a lot of drug smuggling goes on?

Lovely to see the young people getting involved in the rural life- saw a teen riding her horse but as we went past we realised she was riding no hands looking at her smartphone!

Outside a tiny rural town called Yahk we saw a log house with a sign advertising gemstones and being a bit of a rock collector from way back thought we’d check it out as seemed a bit in the middle of nowhere so maybe this was some fantastic little collection hidden out here in the forest. Wasn’t that kind of rock collection but as we came to the door an old guy came out shuffling across to unlock the cabin. He did have an incredible collection of gemstones and minerals made into jewellery and carvings. We were feeling bad knowing we’d be unlikely to buy – especially when he said he was a widower on his own for 7 yrs after 57 years of marriage and his pacemaker had given him a shock two days ago and he was sore all over from it and could barely walk. But he said it was all his hobby, he didn’t care if we bought stuff he just liked talking to new people and he didn’t need money anyway cos he reckoned he was going to die before he spent it anyway..):

As it turns out we did end up buying a gift for someone from there anyway. If you go past Yahk you should stop in and check it out.

Had a lovely picnic lunch at Moyie Lake and had a couple of swims on the way in random rivers. At this one I didn’t have my swimmers on hand and jumped in in my shirt and jocks as they needed a wash anyway and I figured they looked decent enough. No one was around anyway. But of course when I came back to the car – every tourist and their dog ( literally -in Canada!) had rocked up to use the toilet so I had to swallow my pride and play it cool -briskly walking past in my knickers acting like everything was normal.

Passing through Canal Flats we saw a sign for Ktunaxa nation interpretative centre and decided to check it out. It wasn’t terribly exciting but the log building was impressive and they had a great video that explained some of the First Nations history of the area and brought that all a bit to life.

The hoodoos that we saw later were part of their creation story.

We swam near the icy source of what becomes the mighty Columbia River . Feels so good afterwards!!

We have to head to Saskatchewan for next round of meetings so we’ve got a fair distance ahead of us. Decided to go via a couple of slightly more out of the way Parks known for their wildlife sightings- still goals for Ron and I with grizzly still high on our list. Kananaskis country is known for its grizzly sightings on the road.

Got turned back at the Kootenay mountains as road had just closed due to fires. That added an hour to our drive which we’d timed for dusk viewing of wildlife so that was a bit of a spew.

But we still made it in to Spray Valley for dusk.

Along the way we saw an impressive example of beaver dams blocking the flow of water. Ron still really wants to see a beaver not just the nests or the dam.

Saw a beautiful turquoise green spring coming out of the mountain at Spray valley but no wildlife.

Slept in the forest being very ‘bear aware’! Strangely enough I had a dream about bears stalking us and eating Ron but it was polar bears! ( I had just watched the doco on the American lawyer who was stalked by a hungry polar bear and pulled out of his tent in the Torngat mountains.)

Drove out and through Peter Lockheed Park before dawn. This time we saw four elk, two mule deer, two moose ( or is that meece?) , a bighorn sheep and a snow shoed hare but NO grizzly bears!): We did however see two fresh big bear scats. But where o where were the owners!?

Ron was pretty tired and had a big drive ahead so pulled over at another beautiful lake for him to have a sleep while I walked around and took photos of the early morning mountain reflections in Wedge lake.