Tuesday 6th September: Time To Read Up On Evacuation Procedures ?

Back onto Highway 1 and another blue sky and hot day as we move on from Revelstoke to Kelowna.
Our first stop is Craigellachie.........
Craigellachie was named after the village of Craigellachie on the River Spey in Moray, Scotland, the ancestral home of Sir George Stephen, the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)

A ribbon of steel united Canada when the railway line from the east to the Pacific coast in the west was completed with the driving of the 'Last Spike' at Craigellachie, British Columbia, on November 7, 1885. This historical event is commemorated at the small settlement of Craigellachie in Eagle Pass, located alongside the Trans-Canada Highway between Sicamous and Revelstoke in the BC Kootenays.

Onto Highway 97A...........Mara Lake.
Again this has been a very beautiful drive through Three Valley on Highway 1 and then down Highway 97A
Charmin' Garmin keeps trying to get us to turn north and head toward Kamloops but we disagree and call into the Visitors Centre at Vernon. Lucky for us we did as there is a big forest fire only a few kilometres from our next hotel The road to it from Kelowna is closed. The very helpful Barbara phoned the hotel to check they are open and the situation. All ok but we do need to go the way Charmin' told us !! She actually isn't that clever it was an alternative route we now discover but although it is a one lane narrowish road it is a very pleasant drive rather than a highway and large town.  

Lunch stop at Fintry Provincial Park on Lake Okanagan

This view shows the haze of smoke coming down the valley from the fire. For most of the drive down Westside Road there are signs of previous fires, we discover there have been many really bad ones. They actually class this area as semi-desert

View from road of Lake and fire haze.
We arrive safely at the resort, it look as though the firefighters have the blaze contained to 39 hectares but the road to Kelowna is closed until tomorrow earliest. Depending on any wind changes we should be ok here
We will have to drive back around and through Vernon if we want to get to Kelowna but folk have had to be evacuated from their homes so we can't complain
Very odd resort, very little renovation over the past few years (we did reject the first room offered !!)  but they have a swimming pool.........so if all else fails !!!!