Okanagan Valley – the Canadian wine valley
We spent two nights in the Canada’s top wine valley, Okanagan Valley.
This valley has a patch of desert-like climate, hot and dry, and it helps to create good grapes for wines. We have never heard of “Canadian wines” but, let’s admit it, nobody heard of Swiss wines, either, right?
Haynes Point Campground
Our first campground was Haynes Point. This campground is really on the very narrow strip of the peninsula on the Osoyoos Lake. As the campground guardian claims that it is the most popular campground in British Colombia, it was fully occupied and we stayed on the “overflow site”.
As camping car novices, we had to learn new lingo: “overflow site” means that if all regular camp site lots are occupied, we can park and spend the night on the overflow site. We basically parked on the roadside of the peninsula (only 3-meter wide) and enjoyed the view of the lake on both sides of the RV. Spectacular! The water was rather cool but refreshing to swim.
Desert Center
The next day we visited the Desert Center and joined an one-hour walk to learn about plants, animals and climate. It was amazing to see the moss become alive with just a few drops of water. Wild rabbits hopping around everywhere.
Wine Valley
On our way to the next destination called Oliver, we made a short detour to visit one winery (out of many) and had nice lunch on the terrace of their restaurant, Burrowing Owl with a sweeping view of the neighboring vineyard. The fact that Canada has a zero tolerance on alcohol policy for drivers could not be entirely respected.
A bit later we arrived at Oliver. Nothing to write home about 😦
At the end we concluded that our Swiss wine region of Lavaux where we lived almost 10 years was even more beautiful than here, so it was time to move on to the Rockies. When we travel, we look for something we do not have back home, don´t we?
Fly, Hike & Travel. 