Osoyoos: 24C, Sunshine and a Special Fall Day!

Scorpions, Snakes and Stomping (happily)!

We are visiting the primary wine region in British Columbia, some might say in Canada...except of course those on the Niagra Peninsula, but what do they know? More specifically, the southern Okanagan region just above the border with America...the only official desert in Canada. Beautiful country with lakes and of course dry spots...the desert part. Pretty cool how you can have the two together in one environment. There are rattle snake crossing signs too...I should have taken a picture.

You will just have to trust me on that one. When I was a kid I actually saw a rattler on a trail just north of here.

Anyway, today was spent sampling wines this afternoon at the Festival of Grapes called the 'FOG' for short. We arrived early for the festival as they were expecting about 4,000 souls during the afternoon. To kill the wait we decided to walk 8kms of the northern back end of a 35km route that we plan to tackle tomorrow from the south...probably 20kms. So we headed off along the Okanagan River only to discover large number of spawning salmon...lots of them.

The salmon were jumping too!

The walk was pretty scenic with lots to see and Annemarie even spotted a scorpion! I saw a non-venomous snake...all good training for our upcoming trip to Oz where I understand there is all manner of crawling, slithering things...oh boy. Another thought though, we will be in Oz for their fall which means that we can go to wine festivals and tastings all over again!! Nice.

Fall colors are beginning to show up all over the interior, more so at higher elevations, but it won't be long now before the snow flies...at least up here. Not so much at the coast on our island. 

As we were returning we began to hear the music from the FOG site and as we arrived the activities were just getting underway. There were over 50 wineries represented today, plus lots of food. A very merry afternoon! The large tents were decorated with scarecrows too!

I was the voluntary DD today so I guided my partner to the car...

...and we went touring from there in search of fruit stands which we found...a very nice older couple on a side road who had been orchard farming for over 50 years. The old gent gave me some sound advice about tending my peach and apple trees and his wife brought out the better produce from their cold room for us to select from. It was great.

Oh, and the stomping...there was a grape crushing team competition that was fun to watch.

Yesterday we walked along the lake and out into an area where the Province and First Narions are cooperating on an early burial ground excavation...they have even closed the main camp site where we had hoped to stay until further notice. A fairly exciting undertaking. This forced us into a lake side resort...oh well:-)

We then enjoyed the annual garlic festival that was held at one of the local wine estates and I was given very good advice about looking after my Russian Red garlic that Caitlin and I have planted the past two years. So when I return home this week I will put into effect the new techniques I've learned as its time to plant next years crop.

A good walk planned tomorrow and if of any interest I'll post again, probably the last until we return home Tuesday or Wednesday. Thankfully there have been walks of various lengths most days, not always long walks, but enough to sneak in to this Camino blog.