Day 66 - BC still

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Day 66 – July. 26
Winlaw, BC (Near Nelson)

Today is Tuesday, July 26. We had a change of plans and ended up going straight to Victoria before going to a farm in Winlaw BC where I’m writing this now. Tofino apparently has a bad reputation in the summer because of expensive food and $50 camping, and since we’ve been hearing this since Saskatchewan we went straight into Victoria and stayed a couple of nights.

We actually played tourist for an afternoon and got lost in the city centre. Made it back to the car 20 minutes late but didn’t get a ticket. We actually spent a lot of time just looking at the city from the marina because you can see massive ships and sea planes taking off simultaneously. The busker festival was going on at the time which made for an intense atmosphere, especially with the sun shining down on a huge park in front of a government-type building. We also ate food that challenges all of our sustainable food industry hopes (Taco Time mainly).

I’d say we left Victoria around noon and had no idea which farm we could even call to stay at asap. That happens often. It’s really sad but interesting that we’ve failed to learn from that mistake. The rush of camping is pretty much over and the difficulties have been worked out, so we’ve tried the new approach of setting up at the absolute last minute so that the sun has been down for more than an hour. That way we get a full day of procrastinating in. Oh man I love this attitude. As ridiculous as it sounds to set up late after exploring the region for the day I can’t stress enough that spontaneity and facing difficult tasks is one of the most character building habits you can form.

Highlight of the trip to Rock Creek, where we camped, was a town called Osoyoos which is right on the US border. I had absolutely no idea this type of place existed in Canada, but the whole atmosphere 15 minutes down the road is desert-like with rolling hills. You start to see massive grapevines in rows which jet out of the scenery because of their lush green colour. Osoyoos is surrounded with them but has a lake in the very middle where campgrounds have congregated followed by thousands of tourists. The dry heat made it probably 30°C so after realizing we’d either need to find a rare vacant camp site or continue down the road we jumped in the water off of one of the many public beaches along the shore. For what it was I need to say I was very impressed. Justin and I took the car through THE RV park of RV parks. A large portion of them were directly on the water so the big spenders could have a portable dock and sometimes boats. We have a lot of photos and video of patios and full kitchens for some of these sites. The whole town reminded me of Arizona or something.

Around 5:30 we jumped in the water to cool off then looked for a site before realizing the whole town was booked which made sense for a Saturday in July. After acknowledging this we took off for Rock Creek.

Rock Creek was 45 minutes down the road but had a drastically different climate that included more trees and vegetation in general. We set up at a provincial park and bought cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms and onions for shish kabobs and some breakfast sausages for both supper and the next day. It’s unreal how much that combination tastes like pizza. Will definitely cook that again in the coming weeks.

We’ve been working and staying at a farm in Winlaw BC since Sunday the 24th. Things are great and have enjoyed rooming in a small cabin away from the house. Will likely be heading more east on Saturday morning. Finishing this blog post abruptly because I’ve been writing it for too long and am pretty tired of it (so I don’t blame you if you feel the same way). Next one will be better!

Ryan

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