Roadtrek Zion Campervan at Osoyoos Lake, BC

It's a rainy, kind of rainy, cloudy Saturday in mid-September and Gordon and I are traveling over to Osoyuz for another short overnight trip. I'm hoping that there'll be some sun over there. So we're going to be taking Highway 3 East this time, the Crow's Nest Highway. We're just stopping here near Hope just at a rest stop for Precious to get out and eat a little bit of food. Oh yes, hi. She always wants to get out and have a bite and something to drink. And when she's ready to go, she'll let us know by going into her little carrier. The mountainside outside of Karamiyes is where they had the fire and it was quite badly burned, you can see that. Okay, we're at the Hinge Point Campground. It's kind of like on a piece of land. Peninsula. Peninsula, yeah, that sticks out into the water, into the lake. But it looks like the lots are full. We arrived a little late, about quarter past four. But we'll just swing around and have a look and see what the campground's like. It's supposed to be very popular in the summertime. I can see why. Yeah. This is the RV overflow camping area, which is actually quite nice, you're just right on the water. You can just put your raft out right here. Here is the start of the regular sites. In order to get one of these sites, if you don't have a reservation, you have to be here right before people leave. All along here, on the side of the road, you can just camp. But there's a lot of little bugs flying all over. Well, you can camp if you have an RV. Yeah, if you have an RV. No tenting. One night only. And you pay the same fee as somebody with the proper campsite. Which is kind of a bummer, but on the other hand, you have waterfront property. With a lot of little bugs. So, this is the start of the overflow parking. So we're right at the edge here. So we have to decide if we want to stay or move up a little bit. And this is the day use area. Parking. Yeah, so even the day use area has flush toilets. We're at Haynes Point. And even though we're in the overflow parking, you've seen some other pictures of that, it's kind of nice. It's very nice. Look at the view. You can hear in the background, there's a cannon that goes off to scare the birds out of the vineyards. And it goes off every few minutes and you can just hear it. It's not overtly loud, but it is noticeable and they will turn it off at night. Anyway, very nice spot and we've just had a simple dinner. And looking forward to a nice evening right on the lake. There's a lovely view from our window first thing in the morning. Good morning little girl. Looks like there was a deer that passed by here last night. Gordon's off for his paddle. That's fun. Here comes Gordon back from his paddle. We have to go all the way back to the end of the lake. Just to the edges. It was nice. And I went down a little, there's like a little creek farther down. I went in and filmed some ducks that were dancing. It was nice. Dancing? The next day Gordon noticed that the alarm on the lithium battery was going off. It was just a really light bee sound. And we're trying to figure out what the problem was. I think it might have been because we had the inverter on with the batteries off. Because Gordon had turned the batteries off but left the inverter on. So when he turned the inverter on and off, off and on, it seemed to have stopped the alarm. So anyway, that's a good thing for us to note is probably not a good idea to turn off the batteries without the inverter off. Actually, we usually have the batteries on when we're driving because it's charging at the same time. And we had Precious's electric blanket plugged in. So I think that's why he forgot to turn the inverter off. But anyway, it's all resolved. A little bit of a panic, but we're good now. We're just leaving Haynes Point Campground at Vostelius Lake. And yeah, we had a really nice time. Very relaxing. Gordon had a good paddle this morning. We really enjoyed it. You know, perhaps a little disappointed we were in the quote overflow. But actually, I'm not sure if we came back if we wouldn't want to stay in the same place because you're right on the water. There are some campsites that do have water access as well. But you're just right on the point exposed to the lake. So it was very nice. Really enjoyed it, as Mickey said. We got a nice paddle this morning. The sun gods have smiled on us, which is nice. I know back home for us, it's pouring rain. And here it's really sunny, at least for now. I think it's going to get cloudy again a little bit later in the day. But yeah, we couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Sunny, warm, and quiet. And it didn't get that cold in the evening, so it was great. If you don't mind a long walk, you could even go for dinner in Vostelius if you wanted to do that. It's actually about four kilometers from downtown. So it's about an hour walk if you want to walk into town. A little less. So since Vostelius is a big wine region in B.C. Actually, a couple of interesting other facts about Vostelius. It is Canada's only desert area. And Vostelius has the warmest lake in Canada as well. The desert in Vostelius, and actually the other side section in Karameos, is the most northern part of the Sonoran Desert, which you'd see in California. So it literally comes up this far, and it's dry and arid. And you will see some cacti in some of the areas. Most of the area here now is sagebrush, and of course, as Mickey said, has been cultivated for vineyards. Temperatures in the summer are often in the high 30s and sometimes in the low 40s here in the Vostelius area of the Okanagan. Beautiful area. There's one winery that we particularly like, Growing Owl. We're just going to pop by. I was saying to Gordon that it's a little early for me to be doing wine tasting right now in the morning. So what we'll do is we'll just pop in and get a couple of bottles of wine, and we'll show you what it looks like because it's a beautiful winery. So just turning right on Road 22. There should be quite a few wineries along here. They have a number of beautiful rooms that overlook the valley. And they're here in their guest house. And we're going to head over to the winery. They have a nice restaurant here. With a great patio. Beautiful. And for the benefit of the guests, a nice swimming pool. So Mickey couldn't resist, even though it's about 11 o'clock in the morning. She's going to sample some of the wines. Merlot. Meritage, probably one of our favorites. So there went my resolution not to do any tasting. At Brewing Owl, I couldn't resist. So I ended up tasting a couple of whites. A Sauvignon Blanc and a Pinot Gris. And three reds. A Merlot, Pinot Noir, and a Meritage. And we ended up getting a bottle each of the reds. And yeah, great visit to Brewing Owl. Very nice winery. Unfortunately, it looks like we've lost our late summer weather. We're heading back to the coast. I'm still in sandals, shorts, and a t-shirt. All I did was add a vest. And it's 13 degrees. Not the most pleasant looking weather ahead of us. Ah, it's really stormy.