Vancouver Island

Across Vancouver Island to the west coast today. We stopped in a small town called Chemainus, the town of “world famous murals”. Not famous enough for me to have heard of it before, but we stopped in anyway, had a coffee, made some plans, had a wander around and then hit the road again.

Crossing the island took about two hours along a twisty two lane road; more mountains, more trees, more lakes. All beautiful, as usual! Driving through towns is hardest – with hundreds of bill boards lining the side of the road there’s so much to read, so much to distract from actually driving.

We ended up at Green Point campground in the Pacific Rim National Park; a quiet spot a few hundred yards back from the beach, set a little higher than the sea in old-growth forest. Lots of old man’s beard hanging from the trees, quite a bit of birdsong and a ray of hot afternoon sun beating down through a gap in the forest. Time to head to the beach.

It’s great to be back by the sea. Both of us feel relaxed and comfortable. Happy wandering along Comber’s beach, exploring rock pools, finding shells and stones and soaking up the warmth and emptiness. Wandering along in the surf made me think about the winter coming up, where the plan is to head down to the warm waters of Mexico. For the past week I’ve been immersed in mountains, thinking about biking and climbing and how much fun it would be to spend the summer in a mountain town, staying long enough to get to know people and tuck a load of adventure under my belt. One day. This is a good exploratory trip.

Back in camp, Rose got down to some drawing and I tucked my nose back into the book I’m reading; Monsoon by Wilbur Smith. Tales of high-seas adventure from the 17th century (thanks for the load of books Shane, I’m going to have to work hard to get through them all)

Tonight was our first camp fire! We toasted a few marshmallows and just sat, enjoying being here.