Penticton and the Lake of Skaha

---

---

Hi guys,

I was waiting to get all of our awesome pics from this trip before i posted, but G & G & M are slackers and haven't passed 'em on yet... keep an eye out.

Not entirely sure what is wrong with people in this country but they actually get excited about the prospect of driving 700+ Kms across the country to sleep in a tent beside a lake! Grant, Giovanna, Matt, Maria and I set out on a rainy & cold 6deg Thursday morning in Cow-Town headed West for Penticton, a "small" town (of about 70,000) around 400kms inland of Vancouver and 50kms North of the US border with Washington. All was well until around 30minutes into the journey when 2 cars tried to put us into the snow ditch seperating the dual lanes within about 2mins of each other, this was a sneak preview of things to come driving home on the Monday of a national holiday...

Anyhow, we stopped in Lake Louise for a spot of lunch at a little bakery with the promise of the best meat pie in all Alberta. Imagine if you can an overcooked custard tart filled with gooey brown muck rather than custard, & at my last check a meat pie contained more meat than peas?!?!? God I need a decent pie... We kicked on through the Rockies, which were awesome to see in the day time (cause our trip to kelowna had been mostly in the dark), & on through the towns of Golden and Revelstroke. A quick visit to a fab little icecream shop in Sicamus was a highlight (mmmm, blueberry/raspberry cheesecake icecream is heaven!) along with a phot op with the resident camel and lama.

Lake Okanagon is a stunning body of water that runs from the town of Vernon to Penticton (about 120kms long) where a small canal tips it into the much smaller Skaha lake, our final destination. In all it took 9hrs of driving, 3 pee stops, 13 cds, & 2 near death experiences! but it was worth it. The landscape in BC is very similar to home, very dry, undulating hills, with around 60 wineries dotting the landscape on the banks of the Okanagan in close proximity to each other. Tents up we retreated to the shore for a beer, just me, a nurse, and 7 enigineers!

We awoke to a beautiful BC morning of about 20deg and it was straight onto the Sea-Doo for some wake-boarding lessons after a big brekkie of eggs and bacon! Tyson, who's campsite (and enormous RV) we were staying at was pretty patient as one after the other we attempted to get upright only to succeed in some hilarious "face-plants". I managed to get up briefly before having my forearms all but severed when I bit it! (the ability to make a fist has only just returned...) Anyway, a few hours of tubing followed with the competition being to see who could knock the other person into the drink, gold.

That evening after a huge meal we headed off into town to hire some pedal trikes, which we proceeded to tear around on along the waterfront, down the main street in convoy, and finally through Tim Hourton's coffee house drive through for a box of timbits (donut holes).
12 tourists riding tricycles with orange flags and shiny red and silver helmets through downtown Penticton at 10 o'clock must have been something to behold, but it was damn good fun!!!

Saturday Morning we were up at 6.30am to make our 9-hole tee-off time at a local golf course nestled in the mountains called 'St Andrew's by the Lake'. By the end of the round the beautiful lake had eaten 4 of my balls, and cost me 56 shots, not helped by the fact that I still couldn't feel my forearms from wake-boarding (probably would've played better with the clubs taped to my arms :) We followed up the golf with an afternoon at the wineries, sampling everything from pinot's to the local ice wines which are amazing. To make Ice Wine the grapes must be left on the vine for exactly 3 days of temperatures below -5deg before they can be picked (before sunrise) by hand. Because the grapes are frozen the sweetness gets "locked in" and produces an amazingly sweet wine. Apparently it takes 10 times the amount of grapes to make Ice Wine than regular! Other highlights were the fruit wines at the Elephant winery (including Blackcurrent) and the maple syrup wines and Pinot Gris at Lang's winery. Back into the water for some more tubing, a nice run around lake Skaha, and a few quiet beers around the camp fire finished a crazy full day.

Sunday was a day of rest just lazing on the pier which we commandeered with deck-chairs and towls, before we headed into Penticton Marina to hire some more jet skis for the arvo, which was spent cruising Lake Skaha. A few observations about engineers, they can build bridges, design drilling equipment, but be damned if they can actually ever turn up anywhere on time. Also, how many engineers does it take to put down a fold out table? more than 4 apparently HA! hopeless....

The drive home. Oh My. We left the campsite at Penticton at 10am (11am Calgary time) and we pulled into Calway Park just west of Calgary for a meal at 9pm that night. it took a touch over 10hrs to navigate the 700+ kms along with thousands of other cars. About 3 hrs into the drive we hit traffic (2 lanes bumper to bumper) which I was informed was from Golden, hang on though, Golden was 180kms up the road? correct. Everyone travels at about 80-90km/h until they hit the uphill overtaking lanes when everyone floors it and does aboot 140km/h before attempting to slot back in the line 2 car lengths ahead of where they were and resume cruising speed. For 5 hrs. Trucks, boats, RV's, madness.

Suffice to say that I will never again complain about driving anywhere in Tassie, i mean if you had to travel 10hrs to get somewhere you'd probably fly, but would you fly from Melb to Adelaide to pitch a tent? I think not... Crazy Canucks!

Anyway, that is pretty much the end of my adventures here, I've got to edu-macate some some-to-be PE teachers in the art of cricket in the next couple of weeks, do some more school clinics, play my last 2 games for Cavaliers, and high tale it to LAX in time to connect with my flight home on the 25th. Its amazing how quickly everything has changed here, it is still consistantly mid 20's everyday but the trees are changing colour and the leaves falling in preparation for snow that is not far around the corner. So folks, I will be arriving in Melbourne on the 27th, and can't wait to watch West Coast lose the big one to WB/Melb/St Kilda by 2 points! I am so bloody jealous that I can't watch the finals this week!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEATHER UPDATE: As of Wednesday 12th it is still a lovely 25 deg, but dropping to a slightly less comfortable HIGH of 0 deg on Sat (when we're meant to be playing cricket?!?!?) with an overnight low of -8. That's nearly a 35deg shift in just over 5 days. Get me outta here!!!

Keep a look out for my next blog posting in which I will be building igloo's in the backyard...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking forward to seeing everyone, enjoying a cold aussie beer and meat pie, and catching up!!!

See you soon

Abe

---