BVKA WESTERN CANADA TRIP

 continued from last month...

Penticton

We barely stopped for 48 hours here. Penticton means 'Place to Stay Forever'. It has a population of 33,000 and sits astride two lakes: the north end of Lake Skaha and the south end of the Okanagan. Lake Okanagan boasts a friendly Loch Ness style monster called Ogopogo, since 1942. Visitors have claimed numerous sightings. The native name was N'ha-a-tik meaning Devil of the Lake. At the entrance to the town is the SS Sicamous, the last Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) sternwheeler to work the Lake from 1914-1951.

The Legion welcomed us for Saturday lunch time. We enjoyed a Baron of Beef served up in bread rolls with delicious gravy offered in a cup. The library housed a delightful locally orientated Museum. One learnt about the Community's WW1 and WW2 heroes, viewed stuffed animals (taxidermy) and shown the lakeside ecology. There were sections on daily living of the early settlers, the lead taken in 1886 by Thomas Ellis, who built up a cattle station, a schoolroom and memorabilia from the days of the CPR. A Penticton born engineer was responsible for building the 1915-1989 Kettle Valley Railway extension, a remarkable feat of engineering. Part of the library facility offered free Internet access, which I used to advantage to receive and send e-mails.

On Saturday night, our first in Canada, a party of us enjoyed the delights of a Chinese buffet, not so incongruous as one might think, since early Chinese settlers had played their part in the development of the community. We set off on Sunday at 9.am, partly enforced since we had a specific booking on the ferry to take us to Vancouver Island and our next destination, Nanaimo. Here we said farewell to our Calgary based bus drivers.

Nanaimo

Once a former coal mining community, the need for which largely disappeared in 1949 as oil burning ships became the norm. Nanaimo with a population of 75,000 was able to rely on forestry for its economic wealth, which, in turn, has been badly hit by USA lumber trade barriers. It now looks to tourism. Sadly, the Bastion, an 1853 Hudson Bay Company fort built to protect its employees was closed. The District Museum featuring coal mining was not nearly so well presented as Penticton. However, the delightful coastal walk and the coming and goings of Floatplanes with business people making a 10-minute trip to Vancouver soon put our disappointment aside. There were attractive apartments in 25 storey high tower blocks with stunning views out to sea.

The Legion were very supportive, organising an afternoon outing to a local shopping mall, one of the features of which was a well presented Regimental Museum manned by knowledgeable volunteers. We then went on to the Legion, with its bar, meeting rooms and pleasant outside patio area to which we eventually adjourned to sing in order the Canadian, the National and Korean Anthems at the end of the day. Without trying to label events, this was the most friendly with plenty of opportunity to move around and mix; there was also scope to help, since a cake had been baked and proudly cut in our honour. Some of our ladies offered to cut it up and to hand it round, which was warmly accepted by our hosts. Those of us, who were into it, were even offered Internet access for collecting mail.

There was a regret - one of the days, to help other members from our party, my wife and I retraced our steps; the preferred option would have been, had we known it, to take another trail, which would have led us to a park with interesting animals, etc., whereas ours was a rather suburban walk in not very favourable weather, relieved, though, with some pleasant afternoon refreshments. One has to remember we were a party of 100, so one often quizzed people what they had seen that day and in this way we learned of our 'error' as it were.

Andrew Clark

 series continues next month.