June 17-24 2006: Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast

June 19: Hornby Island

Change of plans! Due to popular request, we have changed our plan for tomorrow. It is so nice here we decided to stay a full day here today before moving on. After a leisurely start, we headed up to the northern tip of the island and hiked around the trail at Helliwell park. There are wonderful cliff formations up there and this strange rock formation – looks like some kind of weird asphalt with large round rocks embedded in it. We need dad here to tell us what they were!

A beautfiul deserted beach!

Cheryl with a bee on her arm

The path is obviously very well used. So well used, in fact, that the park officers are concerned about erosion along the cliffs and have put little ropes down to keep people to a certain path while the area regrows. However, we spotted a couple of people who figured that the clearly marked “Stay on path – restoration in progress” signs did not apply to them and had to stroll right up to the cliff. Grrr! Some people. But it was a stunning view of Georgia straight, with Vancouver island on one side and the mainland on the other.

Cool cliffs on our hike

Next we headed to the “far side” of the island at Ford's Cove. Talk about remote. It was a cool little place though, hippy type fishermen. Everyone was pretty friendly.

Big trees, full of chirping birds

Then it was back over to the other provincial park, Tribune Bay. Wow, I have to say that this was probably one of the best beaches I've been to in this province. Beautiful sand, and due to the flatness of the land and the protection of the bay, the water was actually quite warm! It was easily warm enough to swim in, in fact several people were. Lots of jellyfish floating around in the water too, it must have been some kind of jelly convention. I cannot believe that this beautiful beach is so close to us. This no doubt explains why it gets so busy on this island during July & August. Also why the campground near the beach is referred to as a “party pit.”

Scruffy man in chicken shirt on the beach at Tribune Bay

Selves-portrait

We saw a group of older ladies all dressed in purple and with red hats. They were really hooting it up on the beach! I had just heard about this from Cheryl, apparently there is a “thing” with older ladies getting into groups and wearing (normally) ugly clothes because they just don't care anymore – good for them! Looked like a lot of fun.

The water was warm!

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging around our campsite, again being impressed with the wildlife. Bald eagles, kingfishers, hummingbirds, seals, a very interesting ant highway on the rope fence beside our campsite, and we are also pretty sure we saw whales out in the channel. They were a ways off, but there were definitely some large critters out there who kept surfacing and moving along. Maybe smaller whales? Couldn't tell for sure, but it was fun to follow for a half hour or so!

Jellyfish were in season

Still felt a little under the weather today, though not too bad. There is not really a good place to ride on this island anyway, it is quite small. Probably if you knew your way around there would be some good trails or something, but it is not really inspiring me to get on the bike anyway. So another rest day.