On Friday we went on another camping trip this time over on Vancouver Island. It was the first time I'd been back to Vancouver Island in over 25 years (and I couldn't remember it then as I was so young) it was also Lou's first ever time visiting. We caught the 9am ferry over from Tsawwassen and arrived at Swartz bay in Victoria about 90 minutes later. The ferry ride over was nice, we got to see some beautiful scenery on the way. Knowing it might be the last time we would eat properly for a couple of days we decided to have a cooked breakfast during the crossing.
After we arrived on the Island it then took us about another 2 hours to get to where we were camping, at Sombrio Beach on the South-West of the Island. The roads were very different to what we've become accustomed to in Vancouver where it is like a grid system. On the Island the roads (once you're off the main routes) are very windy and narrow, it was similar to driving in Wales or in the more rural parts of England. The Island itself is quite different too, it is more sparse and it also looks a little bit old fashioned too but I mean this in a quaint way. It was a good ride for the most part, there were some one-way bridges that we had to cross and some encounters with road-hog logging trucks but we took our time and enjoyed the ride over. This was until we hit the dirt track for the final part which was full of pot holes and big rocks that we had to avoid, we were warned about this by my mate Dave (who organized the trip) but we didn't expect it to be so dodgy. I was just glad when we parked up and the car was undamaged.
The beach was about a 10 minute walk from the car park and was mostly downhill. We were warned to pack light which we tried to do but it still took 3 trips to get the stuff down there, it was even worse bringing it all back! Once we got to the beach we found our friends who then helped us put up our new tent which we were thankful for. We'd brought a bigger one during the week and after sensing we didn't know what we were doing they stepped in to help us out and had it up within minutes. Although it is deemed an official camp site it was one without any real facilities, no warm showers, no picnic tables and no flushing toilets. There were outhouses which to be honest freaked me out a little bit (and smelt awful) but sometimes you just got to do what you got to do and get on with it! I will spare you the details of anything else regarding that aspect of the trip but it did create it's own funny moments!
More of our other friends arrived during the day and for the remainder of Friday we just chilled in the sun around the camp fire with a few beers. The scenery was amazing, the place so peaceful and listening to the sea was super relaxing. My mate CJ said it only took a couple of hours before he felt chilled out, I think the rest of us all felt the same too. In the evening we started to cook our dinner on a little stove that we'd took along with us but it was taking a long time to heat anything. Thankfully our friend Erik had an awesome propane stove which he let us use and that was far better for cooking on. Sand was a constant battle to keep out of the tent and our shoes but after a while we just realized the best solution is to just embrace it and let sand get everywhere because you can't really fight it! We had a really good fire going in the evening and it kept us warm whilst we had a beer (or two…maybe three…or four…five etc!). One of our friends Sokha arrived with some more people at midnight. Somehow they managed to pitch up their tents in the dark which I thought was a pretty good achievement! By this point I'd had a few drinks so wasn't the most useful. I was relegated to lantern duty, a task which even then I didn't do to well at! Lou headed to sleep shortly after 11 on the first night after a very busy day, I managed to stay awake until 1am before heading to bed. The first night's sleep was ok but I woke up every few hours so and felt a little worse for wear when I woke up the next day.
On Saturday morning there was a thick mist across the shore of the beach, on the photos it looks like the weather was rough but it wasn't too bad and was actually quite warm. Our friend Dave took us on a cool walk to a waterfall and we also had a look around a cave and some rock pools. The waterfall by all accounts was freezing, several people braved it and ducked underneath it but I wasn't brave enough and neither was Lou! On the way back to the camp site Lou spotted a small black bear in the woods but I missed it as I was attempting to collect firewood with CJ and Erik. We found out from the rangers later on in the evening that it was on his own as they'd had to remove it's mother last year as it was becoming dangerous. We were told the younger bear wasn't aggressive but we should be sensible with storing our food as it has no fear of humans and will try and get whatever it's interested in. Towards the end of the day the mist cleared and then the sun came out again and we had a really warm evening. We set up another camp fire, this time mostly made up of wood we'd gathered during the day. The 2nd night I slept a lot better and woke up on Sunday feeling refreshed which I wasn't expecting after significantly indulging in the good times the night before. We packed up our stuff around Mid day and made our way back home in the afternoon. We got back to Vancouver around 5pm and quickly jumped into the shower, never before has one felt so great!
It was easy to loose track of time whilst we we there. We had no cell coverage, no distractions, no noise and no stress - it was great. We were there for two nights and three days but it definitely seemed a lot longer than that. We all had a great time, there were some really good laughs and it's definitely the best camping trip I've ever had. I've tried to put some of it in words in this blog post but I really can't do it justice, hopefully the photos will help with that! It sounds kind of corny but it was really one of those special trips with it's own uniqueness, you really had to be there to understand how cool it was. All I can say is it was simply awesome and I'm thankful to my friend Dave for organizing it all for us. I have to admit I did enjoy getting back to a warm shower and flushing toilet though!
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