28.05.2012 – 28.05.2012  11 °C

We’re going to Bonnie Doon!! Well at least the Canadian version of Bonnie Doon!! We had an awesome day today heading out of Kamloops and up north to Peter and Janet’s family weekender by Bridge Lake.. My morning started early, with M and I joining Janet and her friend Tania for their weekly walk along the banks of the Thompson River.

Although the weather was ordinary (it rained for most of the walk) I had a great time predominantly chatting about Canadian History with Tania. From what Tania has told me, we are on our way to the heart of Canada’s history over in Montreal and Quebec City. I can’t wait to learn more about how the British ousted the French back in the late 1700s.. it sounds like a very well executed plan of attack…. (You’re all gonna have to wait til we get to that part of the world to hear about the Battle of Abraham!!)

The other highlight of the morning was seeing some really cute little Marmots!! We’d heard a lot about Marmot’s but hadn’t actually seen any until today! The park has its resident few Marmots and they remind me greatly of Beavers, or at least smaller versions.. The ones that live here are quite tame so I was able to get quite close to take some shots on my iPhone (I didn’t take my big camera walking… damn!)

Just after 9am we left Kamloops and headed up to Bridge Lake (or as we dubbed it, Bonnie Doon). (Peter and Janet have been to Oz and have seen the Castle so they understood where we were coming from!!). The drive up winds thru the hills surrounding Kamloops and ends 90min NW of the town. Peter took us via Sun Peaks (the Kamloops ski resort) where we have promised P&J that we would come back and go for a ski.. The road is incredibly twisted so unfortunately M got a bit car sick (for once it wasn’t me!!) but before we knew it we had arrived at P&Js lake side hide-away!

We had brought some food up with us with a plan of having a late lunch early tea which we would cook for our guests on their outdoor bbq! P&J had both commented that they had, had really poor lamb whilst they were in Oz and we were determined to cook them some great lamb and couple this with fresh bread and salad!! (Mmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it!!)

Before we ate lunch P&J took us for a wander around their lakeside retreat. Firstly, down the lake towards the original cottage (no power etc, just a log cabin) and then up to their neighbours house to see a full sized log cottage. On our walk P pointed out some fresh bear poop to us!! Aagh!! Every noise from then on made me think that the bear was following us!!! I like seeing my bears but I prefer to see them from the safety of a car!!

When we got back to the main house, M stoked up the fire (real bbqing) and P brought this huge pile of wood! The three of us were stunned! There is no way we would need this much wood just to cook a couple of lamb chops!! As it turns out, we needed a fair bit! The pine wood (or whatever type it was that we were using) burns REALLY quickly as compared to our hard woods.. No wonder you see such large wood piles around here.. the stuff burns so quick that you would be hauling and chopping wood like it was going out of fashion!! I guess the saving grace is that the wood is really light compared to ours so although you are hauling a heap of wood it’s at least half the weight of our home grown eucalypts J.

Our day finished off with us tidying up whilst D and P braved the weather to go for a kayak.. no beavers but apparently nice to be out in the sun! Before we knew it the sun had started to sink and it was time for us to douse M’s inferno and begin the drive back to Kamloops. Our gorgeous day at Bonnie Doon was at an end. To close today’s blog; “Tell him he’s dreaming!”

Huge thanks to Peter and Janet for their wonderful hospitality and for taking us out to their weekend retreat! We loved every minute of our stay in Kamloops and at Bridge Lake (aka Bonnie Doon) J

Song of the Day– Katrina and the Waves, Walking on Sunshine!