Along the Sunshine Coast

Let's travel along the Sunshine Coast - we can take the Water Taxi if you like!

The Sunshine Coast - somehow sunshine is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of British Columbia. In some areas, though, they have more sunshine than in others, and the Sunshine Coast is one of those areas. Since it is on the mainland it is rather protected from all the bad weather by the many islands that you find in the straits, especially Vancouver Island that separates this part of British Columbia from the open ocean.

We took the ferry from Horseshoe Bay (West Vancouver) to Gibsons which is the first small town you get into when you have left the ferry. They greet you really nicely here:

It's mainly a fisher town with its own marina (more on that in a later post). I especially loved the signs in this town - signs of direction and the name of one of their fish and chips places.

The view over the strait from here is beautiful. It's pretty quiet as well, just add the sound of the ever hungry seagulls.

We spent the night in a campground nearby and went to the beach the next morning. It's a rocky beach here and rather "rustic".

Driving up the Sunshine Coast, you pass several inlets, all of them beautiful with a big sense of calm - quite what I like.

And watch out for those turtles!!!

When you're half way up the Sunshine Coast, the road ends in Earl Cove and you have to take the next ferry for a 75 minutes ride to Saltery Bay. While waiting for the ferry, you can take in the fabulous view - I would have liked to take the canoe and paddle out onto the water.

Instead, we boarded the ferry and enjoyed one of these peaceful, quiet boat rides that you get up here. It's a little bit like being in a different world - it smells of salty water and old forests.

We passed several smaller islands where people live in wonderful solitude while we listened to some violin music.

We arrived in Saltery Bay in the evening and immediately went to the campground nearby. It was a beautiful campground right in the woods. Unfortunately it was also infested with annoying mosquitoes, so we took our cooking stuff down to the strait's water to cook dinner. We had the place almost to ourselves.

This place was called Mermaid Cove. From here we could see the fisher boats come home and enjoy a beautiful sunset.

There were signs warning us that recently a bear was seen here, but on this evening the bear didn't "lust" for the mermaids.

The Road to Cape Scott

During our trip to British Columbia we also visited beautiful Vancouver Island, the very north in particular. We had read about Cape Scott Provincial Park and had planned to hike out to San Josef Bay (that will be another post). But first you actually have to get close to Cape Scott which is only possible via a 63 km long gravel road from Port Hardy. It is a road through complete wilderness - a lumber road in the first place.

The shoe tree is what we first saw after we had started out.

It's right at the side of the road and marks all the hikers through Cape Scott. There is a trail through the park, mainly along its coast on the north side, that takes several days to hike.

The next we saw was this - it set the tone for the drive!

Yellow signs warned us of the dangers of the road - with an optimistic "Good luck" which I appreciated.

Friendly signs reminded us to share the road with whoever was out there - unfortunately we didn't meet any dwarfs or elves or fairies.

But we came upon this "little" guy whom you have already seen in an earlier post.

That was quite exciting. However, the bear wasn't too impressed with our presence and jumped quickly into the bushes and disappeared.

At the end of the road we arrived in the Cape Scott parking lot where all the other cars were just as dirty as ours. From here, it is another 2.5 km hike through the rain forest - but as I mentioned above, that will be a post for another time.