Veronika and windmill, Osoyoos, Okanagan Valley

Thursday July 1st - Monday July 5th 1999

From Trail, we made our way to Penticton during the day. Our friendly bus driver moved a local from the front seat so as to allow us a better view of the scenery as we drove over the Monashee mountains, with the Cascade mountains in the background. As we approached the Okanagan valley, the landscape changed dramatically to a scene more reminiscent of Mexico than Canada. The reason for this lay in the fact that the Okanagan is semi-arid, with some parts of it having so little rainfall as to be categorised as desert. The hillsides change suddenly from lush pine forests to sparse sagebrush. Then, as you descend the slopes, beautiful lakes come into view. The first of these is Osoyoos lake, Canada's warmest fresh-water lake.

Osoyoos lake

The next lake is Skaha lake. The roadside is one of the few in Canada with large numbers of billboards. Apparently, advertising is prohibited on federally owned land, but much of the land around the lakes belongs to the Osoyoos people and so advertising is allowed. At the northern tip of Skaha lake, and occupying all the land between Skaha and the larger Okanagan lake, lies the town of Penticton. Penticton, is a popular tourist destination for people from Vancouver. Apparently it is also a common place for retirement; perhaps some people take its name, which means "place to stay forever" in the language of the Salish nomads, too literally! In any event, it is home to numerous retirement homes and an inordinate number of dentists.

Down at the beach in Penticton, with the giant peach in the background

Penticton's nickname is peach city, as the whole Okanagan valley is one of the main fruit-growing areas in Canada, thanks largely to its mild climate and plentiful sunshine, which unfortunately was not much in evidence when we were there. As a result, there is a tacky giant peach on the beach, which serves as an outlet for cold drinks during the summer. Supposedly MC Hammer played a concert in Penticton which sparked a minor riot, and the disaffected youth in attendance expressed their rebellion by rolling the giant peach into the lake. I was unable to verify this story, so it may be an urban myth.

170 kilometre-long Lake Okanagan

Lake Okanagan is also allegedly home to Ogopogo, Canada's answer to the Loch Ness Monster. When white settlers first arrived in the area, the locals informed them that the lake was home to N'ha-a-tik, "the devil of the lake", which supposedly lived in a deep part of the lake near modern-day Kelowna. Whenever the natives passed that particular spot, they would throw an animal overboard as sacrifice. Thousands of sightings have been claimed since 1942, when the creature was first referred to as Ogopogo, and local entrepreneurs have been quick to pick up on the opportunities thus presented; everywhere you go you can find souvenir shops selling Ogopogo t-shirts, models and badges. At the Penticton Highland Games, there was even a stall selling Ogopogos specially tartanised for the occasion!

The Okanagan valley is also home to the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO), where Chris "Wal" Brunt, an old friend from university, works. We were given a brief tour of the facilities, although it has to be admitted that there wasn't a great deal to see, save for an impressive-looking radio telescope which at 26 metres in diameter is apparently fairly small on an international scale.

The radio telescope at DRAO. The indistinct black line at the base is Wal

Wal and his wife Carol live in Kaleden, a small (ca. 1,000 people) town outside Penticton on the shore of Lake Skaha. They have a very pleasant house with a slightly twee garden (not their fault - they've only just moved in) which can be lit at night by several strings of fairy lights, quite a common sight in Canada but, to my European eyes, slightly out of place except at Christmas time.

The Brunt family ...

... and their neighbours.

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