4/5th Day (Omak - Kelowna)

My retro motel let me sleep well. The night ends at 5.50, but I'm relatively well-rested. The breakfast is American underground, and posting a picture on Facebook causes sheer horror. There are scrambled eggs, biscuits with gravy, and vegetarian sausages. It doesn't taste as horrible as it looks, and it's Independence Day, so sacrifices must be made. Before breakfast, I have a short conversation with my roommates, Dave from Scotland and Susie from Liverpool. They wish me a Happy Independence Day, and I tell them they'll have to wait until October 3rd to celebrate with me. Both of them, like me, are on a round trip, but they're coming from Canada and are very enthusiastic. I'm very excited that I still have that experience ahead of me.

The drive to the border continues through desert-like hilly landscapes, and without a river, there are no orchards, only sparse vegetation in the valleys. Crossing into Canada turns out to be a 90-second process, and I only have 1 car ahead of me. An incredibly relaxed customs officer only asks me where I live, how long I'm staying in Canada, what I have with me, and if I have any alcohol. He seems to believe my short and concise answers because after those 90 seconds, he lets me pass and wishes me a nice time.

The Highway 97 then passes by 4 lakes, the large Osoyoos Lake, the small Vaseux Lake (3.8 km), the larger Skaha Lake (11.8 km), and then the enormous Okanagan Lake, which has an incredible length of 138 km. No wonder the latter is attributed to a lake monster called Ogopogo, which is said to live in its depths. About in the middle, on the west bank, is my destination, Kelowna. The city has about 130,000 inhabitants and is considered the booming place in Canada, and the location is really great, in the middle of this unique natural landscape. They are desperately still looking for qualified immigrants here, but they should have the appropriate qualification and not be too old. I'm a little late.

A trip from here takes me to Peachland, a small town about 30 minutes from Kelowna. Of particular interest here is the 'Gasthaus on the Lake,' a German restaurant that opened in 2000. There, a typical teutonic seafood schnitzel and Schwarzwald-Spatzle invite German-interested guests. According to the information I have, it was recently bought by a Pakistani, which promises further culinary peculiarities. But the walk along the lakeshore is truly Canadian-authentic, and the dimensions of this water are incredible. And this is only one of 20,000 lakes in British Columbia, which cover a total of 750,000 km. And that's just one of 10 provinces and 3 territories, and there are a total of about 2 million (!) lakes in this huge country. It's a concept that's hard to grasp, and I realize how tiny the glimpse into the second-largest country on Earth will be that I will have in the next few days.

In the evening, I enjoy some oysters that we buy at the 'Codfather of Seafood' in Kelowna. Here it becomes very clear how rich the selection of seafood is in this country. There are 8 different varieties, all from local areas, and at 16 CAD per dozen, one costs less than 1 Euro. Sigh.