How is it already a year later and parts of world is still on shut down? We spent the last 3 months squatting at my dad’s house in SW Calgary, while they were snowbirding in a way nicer climate than Alberta.
Last fall, Todd suggested to me that if Covid doesn’t go away, that we needed to make a plan to go somewhere to get a jumpstart on spring, since we are no longer cold weather people. We determined that the only option we may have, is to head to Canada’s hotspot of Osoyoos. So, fast forward 7 months later, we took Ruby out of storage, loaded her up and headed west…
Loading up the bus in front of Dad’s house.
First stop was Vernon, where we stayed for 2 nights at a lovely IOverlander spot on Swan Lake.
IOverlander spot at Swan lake
We drove around the area for a couple days checking out the scenery. Ventured to Mabel Lake for a canoe. Since it was only Mar 31, the water was cool, but there was no snow and lots of sunshine!
Two days later, we landed in Osoyoos with all the other Canadian snowbirds that were unable to go south, that have been here since October from AB, Sask, Man, Ont & Que just holding out until its ok / warm enough to go home.
Site C-13
Finding Ruby from the NkMip patio.
Anyway, here we are in Nk’Mip (pronounced Inkameep) which is an excellent RV park for the winter season. We thought it was pretty reasonable for only $550/month and it includes water, sewer, cable TV, indoor pool/hot tub, lake view, waste/garbage removal. Extra items include electric and laundry. We aren’t usually RV park people, but this place is pretty good. We’ve been perched in C-13 for almost a month. We have loved our view and scenery for quite some time, the worst thing about this campsite is the potential for wind off the lake. We might recommend if you are staying long term, to be in one of the upper sites and not down by the lake. Its been interesting to meet the long term snowbirds here, crash their outdoor happy hour event, have conversations about their full time rv life and we have even meet another Prevost owner from Ontario.
Our second week here, Todds mom drove out with Logan for a visit – unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best, but we made the most of it.
Eggs Bennie outdoors
Walking out by the Haynes Point spit.
Although I spend most of my weekdays working remotely, we have still managed to take in and tour the local area to check out all there is to offer.
Although we debated about bringing out ski gear and ski the local hills, by the time we got here, most of the hills were closed either due to end of season or covid. But we wanted to check them out anyway and drove to Mount Baldy Ski area:
Took us a couple tries to find the trail head for this one but we finally found the Gold Mile (waterfall) hike:
Both Todd and I had never wine tasted in our own country (Australia and Baja were the only places we had been for that). Assuming we weren’t going to like the majority of BC wines, we brought 2 cases with us from home. We have done a bit of wine tasting in Osoyoos, Oliver and Penticton and have been pleasantly surprised that we like it (except the prices!). So here we tasted outdoors, due to Covid rules. It was too bad we had to be under the tent cover because it was warm out as long as the sun was on you, but you add a tent cover and it was cold!
Wine tasting with Les & Wendy!
We have ridden our bikes all over Osoyoos, and part of the Kettle Valley Rail trails from OK Falls to Kaledon, this is a great bike trail – flat, on the water, what more could you ask for?!.
It was so hot the other day, we had to get in the lake. Sorry we are so white, make sure you are wearing sunglasses for viewing this picture from the glare of our pale skin!
So all in all, this was a good decision back in the fall to get a jumpstart on spring, since it snowed last week in Calgary area and we didn’t have to witness it.