Kelowna to Reve!stoke

---

Our B&B in Kelowna is very luxurious, with a huge bedroom with large patio doors, it's own sitting room and a kitchenette. Our host has provided us with everything we need to make ourselves breakfast, which we thoroughly enjoy, then it's time to leave Kelowna and start our 200km journey to Revelstoke.

We have read that if you have the time, the route along the West shore of the lake is very scenic, so that is our route and it is a lovely drive. There are a few sheer drops on the navigator's side, but the views are excellent. Then we had a heart stopping moment. Suddenly one deer appeared from the trees on our left-hand side and bounded across the road straight in front of us. Rapid braking ensued and then immediately another two deer followed the same trajectory. Of course they had all disappeared into the trees before any photographs could be taken, but we now believe the road signs.

It took us about an hour to complete our drive along the western shore, which shows how big Okanagan lake is. We did spy some grape vines on the far shore hillside and, after leaving the shoreline,there were many more along the roadside. Lunch time was approaching so we decided to stop in the next town to buy a sandwich. This proved to be a town called Enderby, which was an excellent choice as we soon located a Subway and a picnic table alongside the Shuswap river, with a view of Enderby Cliffs. Suitably fortified we continued our journey and were soon driving along the shoreline of yet another lake, Shuswap Lake. This is again a very large lake with a surface area of 120 square miles, although it has four arms so does not appear as large as Okanagan Lake. This area is definitely our Lake District on steroids.



We called in to the information centre in Sicamous to pick up various leaflets on attractions in the area and decided to visit the heritage ghost town at 3 Valley Gap. This again proved to be a good choice,as although the admission price was only 12 CAD, we could have spent hours there, as there was so much to see. This museum was founded by Gordon Bell, who was determined that historic building and artefacts should be saved for future generations to enjoy and learn from the past. So he purchased a range of buildings from old school houses, to log cabins, to an old trappers cabin and even an hotel and a church. These buildings were all dismantled, transported and then re-built here. They were all filled with artefacts relevant to their heritage and were fascinating, but in addition to this ghost town, there was also an Antique Auto Museum and a Railway Roundhouse. The cars were mainly Fords from 1902 - 1929, whilst the roundhouse was home to more than 12 pieces of 'rolling stock'. Some of the old carriages were amazing showing the sleeping and travelling conditions from their time and there was even a ghost train complete with skeletons etc. Just like the old fairground ghost-trains of my childhood.

We eventually had to leave, but had thoroughly enjoyed our visit. We were soon in Revelstoke and checking in to our next B&B. Yet another 'wow' place with the most amazing bathroom. We are really enjoying the variety of rooms - not missing a RV at all!!

---