Almost home…

As we are almost at the end of our trip, I am getting more lazy to post updates.. I really should because I have the LTE network connection here at McDonald Camp in Saanich and it would be uploaded in seconds.. So, I procrastinate no more and present the summary of what we’ve been up..

After leaving Port McNeill, our trip has taken a more relaxed pace. We are at Miracle Beach Provincial Park which is about 30km south of Campbell River.

I love crabs

Since seafood is plentiful here, we bought crabs for dinner again.. We went to a place called Crabby Bob’s at Fisherman’s Wharf in Campbell River. It was $12/lb and we got the lady to clean it for us. All I needed to do was lug the water jug down the beach for sea water – a good 20 min task, but well worth it.

The next day we visited Courtenay. It was the Car Show in downtown Courtenay and we spent a good couple hours there.

Getting into the rear of a Ford classic car

In the afternoon, the kids and I went beach-combing by the campground. We saw many crabs and a sea-star. You may have noticed that sea-stars are not seen as often as before. There is a disease that is killing off the sea-stars, I don’t recall the name of the disease.

Dying sea-star.

At Miracle Beach

Before we caught the ferry in Nanimo for Gabriola, we stopped by the Sand Scuplture exhibition in Parksville

We visited Gabriola Island to visit a friend. She took us around the island – having a local show us around is such a treat as she knows the good places to visit. We enjoyed the visit and learning more about the island and the people that live there.

One of the beaches on Gabriola

Malaspina Galleries

Malaspina Galleries

Orlebar Point

We moved from Miracle Beach Provincial Park to McDonald Campground which is part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. The campground is less than 10mins away from Swartz Bay.

We visited Salt Springs Island on Wednesday. The lady at the Visitor Info Centre recommended that we hike up to Mt Erskine and check out the fairy doors on the trail. Fairy doors? Only on an island…

Fairy door

View from Mt Erskine

Lavender farm. This is where they extract the oil. 50lbs of lavender produces 1 cup of oil

Lavender field

Chevre cheese

We also visited a cheese and a lavender farm. The last stop was Ruckle Provincial Park before we caught the ferry back to Swartz Bay from Fulford Harbour.

Ruckle Provincial Park

We catch the 11am ferry tomorrow which we already have reservations. Then it’s back to the city with the crazy traffic. Wait, no, what am I saying?! The traffic on the island is crazy, just like the lower mainland…