We woke up a little earlier than usual, though were it the September we’d still be late for school, had our breakfast and packed. Marian helped us get our things to to the top of the hill since her Kia has 4 wheel drive. We were not sure how many people would be trying to get on the ferry, so we followed the standard advice to be there at least half an hour early. As it turned out, we were the second in the line and we had plenty of time to walk around and explore the Lyall Harbour dock. The dogs do not like gangways, but they like sitting in the car even less so they gamely walked around with us.
We had to take two ferries today. First, we had to go to Mayne Island. At Mayne, we needed to transfer ships and take another ferry to Salt Spring Island. The fare for all of this, car and passengers, was only 20 dollars. It must be seriously subsidized! The first ship was called the Queen of Cumberland. All BC Ferries seem to have “Queen” as part of their title. This nod to the Royal Family seems a particularly odd in British Columbia where so few people seem to be English. The Queen of Cumberland was a clean, quiet, and virtually empty. John and I wandered around the deck and sat in the lounge. It seemed like we were on a cruise ship as we passed through the gorgeous archipelago.
At Mayne we disembarked and moved the car to the transfer line. Again, there was only one car ahead of us, and there was nobody behind us. We talked to a women from BC Ferries who told us that the second ship was not scheduled to come for about an hour, and would no doubt be later than than because it was running late from its previous port. A man at the snack shop there told us that there was a beach right next to the pier. We walked down, and found a lovely little cove which we had all to ourselves. The dogs played around, and Eli had his usual fun chasing his tennis ball.
Since it was close to noon, we broke out the food and I made sandwiches for both of us. I read John a chapter from Tent of Blue. This is the novel I mentioned before that the waitress at the Pub had written. So far, I like it.
We saw a family of river otter swimming just off the beach. The young ones were chasing each other. You can vaguely seem them just above the rocks in the middle of the picture. Oh, to have a telephoto lens handy!
Our second ship definitely had more people on it and somehow did not seem quite as posh. We spent most of our time on deck since it was a warm, sunny day, and as we came in to Salt Spring we saw dozens of sail boats.
Thanks to Daniel, our GPS, we made it to our new place. Salt Spring seemed huge after Saturna. We actually had some traffic and maybe even a red light. We drove through Ganges, the main town, and found our way to the Happinest Cottage. The young couple who run this place would also be right at home in Arcata or Bolinas. He is a rolfer, she a massage therapist. They’re quite sweet, and since Salt Spring is famous as a bit of an old hippy hangout, the Happinest Cottage is the perfect place to stay here, particularly if you have dogs. It is not a fancy place, but it has a bed, a nice bath, a full kitchen, and a porch. You can kind of hear the road in the distance, but mostly it feels deep in the woods.
Forgive the silly expression, but I think both the dogs and I were tired of getting pictures snapped by this point. The photo, however, gives a sense of the interior.
The wireless was not working at first so Bruce, our host, came up to fix it. His three year old daughter Juniper came with him. She was fascinated by the dogs, particularly Edie. Edie was tired, but she was gracious about the nonstop attention.
We decided to explore the island a little further while Bruce talked to the cable company to figure out what needed to be plugged in where. We went down to the tourist information office in Ganges. The people there were really friendly and helpful. They recommended Duck Creek Park as a good place where people let the dogs roam off-leash. I don’t know if it is really an old-growth area or not, but it had the feel of serious rainforest. There was not that much water in the creek as we are in a drought now in BC. Still, you can tell that it does rain a little here!
In the evening, I did some laundry. After wi-fi, a washing machine is my favorite vacation amenity! I also cooked some lamb sausage and gnocchi with goat cheese for our dinner.
Tomorrow, we go to the famous Salt Spring Saturday Market.
