Oceans and lakes

Nelson, BC, Canada

We are on the move - travelling inland to British Columbia's lake country.

After a couple of days of gut-wrenching nostalgia in Nanaimo (seeing a strange boat in our old slip at Stones Marina was surprisingly bittersweet), we took the ferry from Departure bay back to the mainland, then drove to the town of Princeton, close to the US border, in central British Columbia.



Nanaimo Harbour

The next day, we took a leisurely drive along highway 3 as far as Osoyoos before turning north and making our way to Westbank (Western Kelowna), passing through tourist central BC along the way.  In Westbank, we spent the evening with my sister and some of her family.  Good times and good food were had by all.

Interesting observation on the drive along the Okanagan lake - from some perspectives, the scenery could be mistaken for the Baja penninsula (just substitute ocean for lake and increase the temperature by about 10 degrees).  Of course I don't think the Baja could possibly compete in the billboards per mile challange.

Today, we drove a route that we had not used in many many years, going further north to the town of Vernon before turning back SE and makng our way down the smaller winding highway 6, all the way to the town of Nelson, nestled in the mountains along the west arm of Kootenay lake.

Along the way, we were treated to a ride on one of the small ferrys that are used to get across the long narrow lakes that fill these valleys.  The log booms on the lake and even some forest clearing going on on the highway itself give testiment to the primary industry in these parts.

The town of Nelson is something special.  Looking at the lake from our hotel, you could again be fooled into thinking you are on the coast somewhere, particularily when you note all of the sailboats at anchor.  Nelson looks so much more like our kind of place that we have decided to spend two nights here and let it really sink in.

{GMST}49|29.8416|N|117|17.5926|W|Nelson, BC, Canada|Nelson, BC{GEND}
{GMST}49|49.6596|N|119|38.1648|W|West Kelowna, BC, Canada|Westbank, BC{GEND}
{GMST}49|27.3576|N|120|30.636|W|Princeton, BC, Canada|Princeton, BC{GEND}