Day 19 - Nelson, BC to near Oliver, BC

Wednesday 22nd June.

This morning we left Nelson and headed out again. The weather was cloudy but at least it wasn't raining.
We were heading for the Okanagan valley. A change a scenery and. hopefully, a change of weather.
Our first stop was a place called Grand Forks. It is a community in the Kettle River valley. We had spotted an old rail line along one side of the valley that had a string of geocaches along it. It gave  us beautiful views of the farm land and we walked through wildflowers and hundreds of grasshoppers.
Next we stopped in Greenwood to find a few more. A strange little settlement with an unusual Power Corporation building!
Curiosity took us off the highway at Midway when we saw signs to the US border.
We stopped in a little park to collect a cache and some locals pulled up next to us. They had seen our Nova Scotia licence plate and were excited to tell us that they came from Cape Breton. We drove up to the border to have a quick peek at America!
As we approached Okanagan we were back in real mountains again and faced a very steep drive down into the valley. 
The change in scenery and climate was amazing, it felt as if we had just arrived in southern Spain!
Osoyoos is the main town and sprawls across the lake like a huge holiday destination. Outside the town the land is semi-desert and full of orchards and vineyards.
We are staying at the Burrowing Owl vineyard tonight and we arrived just in time to meet a guest burrowing owl from the program that is trying to protect this rare bird.
Unlike Nova Scotia they seem to have  mostly red wine here but they are planning on producing Sauvignon Blanc soon - what a shame they don't already have it!
Of course we were very polite and did a wine tasting!

After dinner last night we went for a stroll around town.
This is the local fire station - with a geocache under the huge bell!

The old masonic lodge - a very pretty building.

The old library in our hotel was quiet ornate!

Every view is beautiful - it's impossible to stop taking photos.

Gary cannot stop putting his head in random holes!

A view over Grand Forks.

Caching through the wild flowers.

I think these are saskatoon berries.

What a great morning hike.

Farms in the valley.

Gary 'loves' climbing up and down to get the trickier finds!

A really unusual wild flower.

Greenwood Power Corporation.

The village store in Midway.

A sneaky peek into America.

Between Brideswell and Rock Creek we did a bit of a geocaching power trail.
We are so near to 2000 caches!

Some big mountains in the distance.

 

As we drove down into the Okanagan Valley we saw a lot of houses with these strange white domes on the top.

Look down over Osoyoos.

Right down in the valley it is quite flat with mountains all around.

Old ranch houses

Arriving at Burrowing Owl winery

A real burrowing owl - not burrowing!

The view from our balcony - not too shabby!
It's so nice to be sitting outside and feeling nice and warm too.
I think it is 29 degrees but a gentle breeze stops it from feeling too hot.