Yesterday started peacefully and ended with 13 fires raging in the area and the humming of water bombers overhead as they fought the fires.
Back to the beginning.
The owner of our house provided an interesting self-guided tour of Naramata. We decided to visit some of the spots that she had identified.
The first was Creek Park. This park is basically a hiking trail that follows Camp Creek through a gully that leads to a more canyon-like area covered in beautiful waterfalls. It was a great trail to follow in the summer - you would never know it was 34 + degrees out under the shade of the trees.
I didn't have proper hiking shoes so we didn't go all the way along the trail . . . something for the next visit I guess. I my defense, one of the last conversations that Paul and I had before we left home was 'should I bring hiking shoes' and he replied 'no, we won't be going on any hikes, save room in your suitcase'. My fault for listening to him!
The next stop on the tour was Elephant Island Winery. Elephant Island is one of the original five wineries on the Naramata Bench and this was something a little different on our wine trail: a family run winery specializing in fruit wines. Situated in the heart of region's idyllic wine country, their orchards bear all kinds of fruit, from apricots to cherries, pears, and blackcurrants.
Normally I am not a fan of fruit wines, however I had read such rave reviews about this place that I had to try some. The reviews were right!
The tour continued along the old main street into Naramata. It was a picturesque road with orchards heading down to the shore on one side and towering wind-carved clay cliffs on the other side. In Naramata we parked and wandered the town - it is small so our wandering didn't take too long. Long enough, however that we were hungry.
The woman in the lavender shop told us that we needed to stop at Legends Distillery for lunch . . . so we did.
Urtica Eatery is 100% Naramata owned and operated. They either grow everything themselves or source from neighbouring farms as many of the vegetables, fruits and herbs as possible. As well, they serve only sustainably farmed meats, seafood, dairy and eggs. We ate out on the patio with spectacular views of Okanagan Lake.
Of course we had to start off with a cocktail featuring their own liquor.
For our lunch we started off with the sticky pork belly bites made sticky with local dandelion honey and served with apple salata. I had a buttermilk brined chicken breast sandwich and Paul the cheeseburger. Everything was delicious. Between the stunning view, amazing food, and great drinks you definitely want to stop in here if you are ever in the area.
We decided to take a break from the heat for a bit and relax back in the house. Hot summer vacation days are wonderful for lounging in the shade with a good book!
Before we knew it it was dinner time . . .
We started cocktail hour with a bottle of the prosecco style bubbly wine from Liquidity. This was AMAZING and the bottle went down so quickly.
It was a simple dinner - salad made by Paul and a sandwich made by Jerry.
As we were getting ready for dinner the clouds that were blanketing the sky decided that they were more than clouds - we were treated to a bit of a thunder and lightening show!
This pic shows how localized the rain was though . . .
We only received drops here and there but other areas had a downpour.
Soon the clouds and storm show and moved on and we sat outside and relaxed.
I LOVE vacation. :-)
As we sat there we both thought that we smelt smoke. I got up and looked around and sure enough we saw a huge plume of smoke rising across the lake.
It wasn't long before the smoke was billowing, you could hear the sirens from emergency vehicles, and there was a hum of water bombers in the air. At one point we saw 15 aircraft in the air dousing the fire with water and fire retardant.
I realize that for those folks who live in the area fires and summer go hand and hand. For us though we were mesmerized by the action.
We later read that there were 13 fires started by lightning strikes including two on our side of the lake (which was likely the cause of the smoke that we smelt).
I didn't take this picture (it was on twitter), but this is the lightning strike that caused the large fire.
The combination of residual clouds and the smoke meant we were in for an amazing sunset . . .
Just another amazing day in the south Okanagan . . .
Glad you made it to Legendary Distilling. One of my favourite spots. The cocktails at Naramata Heritage Inn are excellent too. Did you see the Natamata resident peacock😜
Posted by: Val Harrison | July 18, 2018 at 05:28 PM
It is official - you are killing me here! We only have two more days in the area and there is just so much to do. I guess we'll just have to come back.
Posted by: JDeQ | July 18, 2018 at 10:02 PM