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Published: September 8th 2016
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Interesting sediments turning into pinnacles
Just out of Penticton on the way up into the mountains are these sediments almost eroded to pinnacles Well, what can I say about our B&B at Osoyoos. It was a case of Mr Grumpy (French) and Basil from Fawlty Towers rolled into one. The TV wouldn't go so he did his nut about it being caused by the previous people in the room. He was difficult to get a smile or polite answer from and it all seemed to be just so much bother!! Needless to say TripAdvisor will get a writeup from me. The B&B is out of Osoyoos on a Vineyard which could have been quite nice except that there wasn't anything to do or see. There certainly wasn't bottle of wine to be seen or a glass to have a wine. There wasn't even the offer of a cup of tea. Weird.
After what was a very good breakfast we left to go and visit the Desert Museum which was just up the hill. We could have walked to it had we been told. An area has been put aside to preserve the natural desert landscape and all the plants, animals and insects within it. There was a boardwalk for over a kilometre to preserve the ground area and hopefully to preserve us from
A wonderful road but where are the cars?
Very few cars on a four lane highway. Amazing. This is the superb road running from Penticton to Kamloops snakes and scorpions. There is supposed to be lots of animals in the area but we never saw any, only holes and footprints. It's cooling down so maybe they get into holes to keep warm. There were several information boards to keep us informed at various locations. Desert plants are certainly not attractive and I doubt I would want them in my garden but they certainly thrive in the dry arid area around this part of BC.
It seems odd to me that over the 100s of kilometres we've travelled from Leavenworth at the foot of the mountains in WA through to Kamloops in the north we've virtually seen no wild life. The only thing with legs has been a couple of squirrels and grazing beasts today at about one animal to 50ha or more. It would be more truthful to say there were beasts only in one location. There has been some ravens about and the occasional little bird but in general there is silence and animal-less hills. It is so different from NZ with our many birds and animals no matter where we go.
It was a really nice drive today and the road was fantastic.
Kamloops
Kamloops was a trading and supply area for the Indians and trappers. It is at the meeting of two rivers which often floods during the snow melt. From Penticton we turned towards the mountains on highway 97 to Merritt. It was a dual lane motorway with a 120km/hr speed limit the whole way with hardly any traffic. We climbed forever up to nearly 2000m with signs for snow and chains and brake tests, then across a plateau and finally steeply down. It was unbelievable that such a lovely road had been built for so little traffic. Imagine that over the Whangamoas to Picton! We'd be there in 30 minutes. Dream on.
The scenery went from the stoney desert of yesterday to lakes and trees in the mountains, to open prairie grassland, more lakes and back to low scrub again near Kamloops. Of course, there were great rocks too like red layered rocks such as up the Aniseed and typical upturned sedimentary strata seen everywhere.
I expected Kamloops to be in a broad open basin but it's not. It's a large city of 85,000 spread along a river with bare hills in behind where cougars and bears are supposed to live. Somehow I think we won't see them. We are in a nice hotel in the downtown area which will make a change from the past few days. We walked along the riverside path through a lovely park full of beautiful deciduous trees, lawns, gardens and picnic tables. The town is modern, clean, with an excellent sports stadium and conference centre along the river. We were just in time to see the CPR train pull in which runs from Vancouver to Calgary. Our day was completed by having dinner at the Plaza Hotel where we are staying. Excellent.
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