| « Day 11 |
Road Trip
West 2003
|
Day 13 » |
Date:
Monday, August 11, 2003
Route:
» BC-17 North to Shwartz Bay, BC
» BC Ferries to Fulford Harbour, Salt Spring Island
» Various mostly unnamed roads on Salt Spring Island
» BC Ferries from Long Harbour to Tsawwassen, BC
» BC-17 North to River Road East to BC-91 North
» Exit 10th Ave. East to Columbia St. East to BC-7A East to Port MoodyDistance: 57 miles
Excursions: 38 miles
Trip Total: 3478 miles
Log:
We got up bright and early to head up to the BC Ferries Terminal at Swartz Bay about half an hour north of Victoria. We were headed to Salt Spring Island to go sea kayaking on a tour with Andale Kayaking and owner Alan Mather (found them on the web). There were four others in the group, the rare locals who were playing tourists in their own backyard.
Salt Spring Island has no road signs (at least none which were useful to us). Fulford Harbour is on the southern end, and the kayaking was on the northern end, maybe a thirty-minute drive. We had no map, so we stopped and looked at one in the window of the Visitor's Center in Ganges in the central part of the island. Unfortunately, the Center wasn't open yet and we couldn't get a map to take. We took what we thought were the correct roads, but it seemed as if we were driving around in circles. We were very pleased, then, to see a crew of firefighters helping clear a downed tree. We stopped and asked one how to get to Fernwood, which Andale Kayaking was 2 kilometers north of. He told us it was simple, just take the next left. Well, that was Fernwood Road, and we ended up doing a loop of the entire north end of the island before finding the Fernwood Dock -- it turned out that we were about 500 feet from the Dock when we turned on to the road and did our little loop. We were late and thinking quite unpleasant thoughts about the entire place when we drove directly onto the beach, clear of water with the tide out, and grumpily said hello to the group.
But, the kayaking did its trick. (We moved the car to higher ground first.) The views were incredible, the starfish were purple, and, after 3 hours of rowing, we were too exhausted to be (too) grumpy with the island. We went back to Ganges for lunch at the Oystercatcher and some souvenir shopping ("here you go -- this is from the island we detest") before heading to the Long Harbour Terminal to catch the ferry to Tsawwassen and Vancouver. We had to wait about an hour, and used that time to catch a quick catnap (kayaking is tough work, dochaknow?).
After about an hour and a half ferry ride to Tsawwassen, we drove straight to Steve and Lisa's place in Port Moody, a suburb east of Vancouver. Jenn met Steve in Bratislava, Slovakia when she did a semester abroad in the spring of 1995. Her undergraduate college, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, had an exchange program with Univerzita Komenského in Bratislava. Steve and Jenn had kept in touch, but hadn't seen each other in eight years, so it was fun meeting respective partners and catching up and meeting Holly, Steve and Lisa's one-year old daughter (her birthday was the day before, on August 10, hence the reason for the baby afghan which Jenn had just barely finished before arriving in Vancouver). It was also fortuitous that we visited when we did, because Steve and Lisa were moving to Calgary in two weeks, well outside the reach of our trip.
After our visit, we found the first motel we could and slept soundly.
» Day 13
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