A Wonderful Place

Hello Everyone,

I am sorry for the lack of posts. Due to my busy life I haven't been able to update as regular as I would like. I have been keeping busy by doing many studies and finished paintings, as well as taking photos. I also just recently took some time off and went on a lovely short vacation, to a wonderful place called Salt Spring Island. Let me tell you a little bit about my journey.

Day 1 - On the road

At approximately 10:30 pm my girlfriend and I arrived in Salt Spring Island. We started our journey by catching ourselves gazing into the stars. We then fell sound a sleep and woke up to gorgeous sun flickering on the trees out the window from us and glimmering into our eyes. "What a lovely way to wake up" In my world, as well as yours, I am sure. That morning we rouse from our beds, had a bite to eat, jumped on our bikes and rode off into the wind to start our journey. As we sped down the hill we enjoyed the feeling of speed and the air breezing across our faces. We rode through the island up and down hills enjoying the amazing scenery that surrounded us. Blooming flowers, stunning long grass, trees of all different colors, the soaring ocean beside us, the harmonious cerulean blue sky above us and the flickering of light and shadows in between each leaf and strand of grass. We continued cycling all the way until we reached a steep hill (after approximately four hours) which we then decided to turn around. We grabbed a late lunch at a nice cafe/restaurant, also enjoying the view of the ocean out the window. After lunch we rode over to the nearest peer. As we got to the end of the peer we took in some of the scenery. As we looked down into the water, We spent most of are time admiring all of the different sized fish, as well as the different colored starfish. We continued off into the wind. After enjoying some more cycling we got to a steep hill where we had to hike up for quite a while, the 3rd time that day. We eventually made it to the house, where we had a fire into the night. The night was a bit interesting. During our fire, I heard something walk up the road and stop in the bushes right beside us! I was wondering what it was because I kept hearing it, saying to my girlfriend did you hear that!? She said, what? I said, in the bush, there is something in there. She told me I was just imagining it, well maybe my imagination can be wild sometimes, but this time I was serious. A bit after we were sitting by the fire, we were both pretty nervous and scared of what could of been in the bush. My girlfriend looked at me, she said, I am not enjoying this, I said either am I. So, we both ran into the house, scared and laughing.

Day 2 - Around the Islands

Yet another day has come. The sun shining once again, warming our faces and glimmering into our eyes as we awoke. As we were half a sleep, we kept hearing another noise, this time it was louder, could it of been that crackling in the bushes we heard the night before? No, it was the telephone! Ring! Ring! Ring! We jumped up for it. Hello? It was my girlfriends mother. She was laughing on the phone. She said, you know that crackling in the bush you guys heard last night? Yes? It was a bear!! As she laughed away. Why was she laughing...well, because it turns out there is suppose to be no dangerous animals on the island, "at least that is what we have thought every time we have been there." The last bear that was on the island was 6 years ago! There was bear crap all down the road right by where we were having a fire, so it definitely was a bear. I guess we are lucky we ran inside!

After the phone call, we jumped on our bikes and road down the hill, past the bear shit and to a lake called St Mary's Lake. We rode past the lake to a very nice and happy ladies house. A friend of my girlfriends mother. She had two kayaks, which she taught us how to use and let us use them. After our training session another friend of my girlfriends mother stopped by the lake and saw us. A very fun English lady. She was over visiting with her sail boat. We never ended up going kayaking that day, because she asked us if we wanted to go sailing. So, we went sailing, and left kayaking for the day after. On the sail boat we had a great short journey around the islands. From what I remember, some of the islands we went around were named, Pender, Saturna, Mayne and Galiano Island. As we were out in the middle of the ocean we spotted a whale watching boat, speeding past us. We decided to follow it. Since we were in a sail boat it took us a very long time to catch up to it and we lost it. At least it guided us in the right direction, we continued on, hoping to see whales, but again, we missed the whales by 15 minutes. We ate a nice lunch and had some drinks, sailing and allowing the wind to carry us away. Eventually we went to dock. We decided to dock away from the actual dock at a crab pot. We docked and then jumped in a little two man row boat. I was the one who had to row one person in at a time, which was actually quite exciting. As my girlfriend and I rowed back we passed a old wrecked dock, and a huge fascinating blue heron stood tall among it. My girlfriend snapped some photos as I continued to row. After enjoying the ride, I docked and let my girlfriend off, and picked up the next person. Later that night we went for food at a Chinese restaurant. We then rented an inspiring movie called, "What Dreams May Come" a movie I remember from child hood. Then it was time for a nice nights rest.

Day 3 - Water World

Before we woke up, we were both dreaming of kayaking and hoping for a hot sunny day. We opened our eyes to a cloudy day, disappointed because we were hoping for hot weather. We kept a positive attitude telling ourselves it will be a sunny day, just like the others. "And it was." We arrived at the nice ladies house, had a small chat and grabbed our gear. Paddles and life jackets in hand, we walked down to the lake. We quickly remembered our training from the day before and sat down in our kayaks and pushed our way off the ground into the water. Now a new journey has began, a journey into a Water World. A world of fresh water, fresh fish, seaweed, rocks, gorgeous mountains and trees and cottages, eagles, and deer and other little creatures. We started our distant voyage across the wide lake. Continuing on we past a small island made out of seaweed, rock and a bit of ground. We tried to avoid it as much as we could so we didn't get stuck. Eventually we made it across to the other side of the lake, after about 2hrs of paddling. The lake was quite large, and we were paddling the long way. At the end of the lake we came up to a bunch of long lake grass, seaweed underneath the water, some boats docked, mountains, some lovely trees and bushes and a fascinating picture perfect white church, peaking through all of the vegetation. Looking over to the left was a gap in between all of the trees, attracting our attention was sun shining, lighting up the field in the distance. As we continued our viewing, two horses appeared, also being lit up by the sun beams, they continued to walk by slowly as they were grazing in the field. They were now blocked by the trees so we turned our kayaks around. As we turned around my girlfriend yelled at me, (as I was a bit in front of her) she said, look! I quickly turned my head to the side, and a huge bald eagle swept down approximately ten feet or less in front of me and grabbed a fish right out of the lake! After our excitement, we piddled our way back and sun tanned in our kayaks, taking in the scenery. Half way across the lake we sped up, went back across the lake, docked, put our gear away and jumped on our bikes. We continued down the road, all the way to the same cafe/restaurant we ate at a couple days before.

After lunch, we went back to the house, sat there for about ten minutes and decided to go kayaking again! We already went for four hours previous to this and again for another four. We got back down to the lake and in our kayaks onto the water. We didn't go as far out into the lake this time, we stuck closer to the edge this time. Admiring some men fishing, catching and losing them, laughing and having great times. We paddled past them to go around an edge, to get to a different section of the lake, following and continuing into the sunset. Look there, up ahead! My girlfriend said again, another eagle, it flew right over top of two mens heads in there boat, swooped down past them and caught another fish! We could hear them in the distance, laughing pretty hard after this. The eagle flew up into a tall tree. We decided to follow it and watch it, hoping it would swoop down near us. We kept watching, and all of the sudden a crazy crow started dive bombing the eagle, continuing for about one hour, the eagle hardly flinched. After about an hour of waiting we had no luck of the eagle flying down. Right when we turned our back, of course, the intelligent eagle flew away. We think it was getting mad with us being in its fishing area, it kept on staring at us. We moved on, in the same area, we looked over into the fields on someones property. Again, the sun was beaming through the trees and onto the grass and trees, as well as two deer grazing in the field, eating clovers. All of the sudden a baby deer walked down to the edge of the lake to get a drink. We moved in closer, again, about ten feet away, getting an amazing view of the lovely creature. The closer we got, the more we got stuck in tall lake weeds, but, it was worth it. The baby deer got curious and started to sniff the sand, and then hoped back, it must of sniffed something bad, or got sand up its nose. It pondered around a bit then slowly walked back up to eat some more clovers. By this time, the sun was starting to set and created an amazing orange and yellow and red glow along the top of the lake. We enjoyed the sunset for a while then decided to head back. I turned around to get one last look at the gorgeous mountains, lake and sunset, then kept on and headed back to the house for a nights rest.

Day 4 - The Journey Back

We slept in that morning, woke up to a wonderful day, every muscle in our bodies soar. We opened our eyes and then headed out for breakfast. We had a nice breakfast, eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns and a cup of delicious orange pekoe tea. We then headed for the ferry. We had to be two hours early, due to the last time being so crazy, people panicking and the ferries being full. As we waited, we went up to a trail on one side of the ocean, through it we came up to a cliff, with rocks and reef and waves crashing against the reef. Following, there was an amazing view. We went to another spot and rode our bikes up a steep trail. At the top was a very nice view of the ocean and islands. We went up the trail even higher, we didn't have much time so we biked down really fast. Which was a blast. We grabbed our tickets for the ferry and started our trip back home.

The Island

This is only one of my many journeys to Salt Spring Island. It is a "wonderful place." There is a ton of things to do on the island. If you want to get away on a short vacation this is the place to be. Every time I get to the island, for some reason, I am automatically relieved of stress and I feel great! The nature and scenery is amazing. There is lots in town to do too, its a small community, not just secluded lands. Two places I recommend seeing when you are there are, Mount Maxwell and Ruckle Park. Everyone there is so happy too! If you want a short vacation, or a long one, go check it out, you can hitch hike pretty safely there too, everyone does it. If you enjoyed my little story, let me know and maybe I will write about another one.

~JB