03: After giving our house sitters a tour, and finishing off some errands around the house, I drove to where my wife works. I ordered a mocha, with oat milk, in a coffee shop and sat down to work on my travel notes.
Close to 5pm, I got the message. Picking up my wife's mug I procured a tall blonde latte, with oat milk. Soon she was ready to go. Next stop...Parksville!
It took about two and a half hours to arrive at tonight's accommodations and, after a quick unpacking of essentials, we drove to Tigh-Na-Mara resort to have supper at Cedar's Lounge. Tonight's meal for me was the seafood linguine with jumbo prawns, bay scallops, sockeye salmon, white wine cream, roasted garlic, fire roasted peppers, cherry tomatoes, pickled shallots, and lemon. Delicious! My wife had the cedar plank sockeye salmon with mango salsa, white basmati, and seasonal vegetables. I snuck in a dessert of Peanut Butter Pie. Yum.
After driving back we got ready for bed, read a bit, then drifted off to slumberland. 11.2km walked and 26 flights climbed.
04: Woke early-ish and drove back to Tigh-Na-Mara for breakfast. On the way, behind the motel, there was an army of bunnies! Dozens and dozens were chewing on the rogue clumps of grass without a care in the world. Nice to see. I wonder if there were wild bunnies or "rewilded" bunnies who were descendants of pets.
Delicious breakfast consumed, we repacked the car. Before getting some groceries, we stopped at Coyote Coffee Roastery and Loaf Bakery, the latter was new to us. Both were great places to fuel up, and get snacks, for the next leg of our camping trip.
Shopping done in Parksville, we drove the short distance North to Buckley Bay to take the ferry to Denman Island. While waiting for the ferry to come back from the Denman side, we bought some smoked salmon and smoked scallops at Fanny Bay Oysters Shop. After browsing next door, at Weinberg's Good Food, I saw a scary sight when I left the business...our ferry was here! I called out to Natalie and ran to the car. Fortunately, we got there before our lane got moving, but it was close. Whew! Pulse rates decreasing, I continued to read the Jack Reacher book I was currently on.
On the other side, we drove to Gravelly Bay ferry terminal. There were no sailing delays and we got on the next ferry to Hornby Island.
We were too late to check out the Free Store, at the recycling/garbage place, and we were too early to check into the coop campground. Time to relax and eat, but there was a problem. Our favourite place, Vorizo Café, was not just closed but had fire damage. Reading the sheet of paper on the door there was a fire and they were waiting for the insurance to wheedle its way through bureaucracy. They were also soliciting funds to set themselves back up quicker. We got takeout lunch from the Coop instead. (It has since reopened). Fuelled up, we had fun visiting our favourite stores in the area and checking out the funny ads. We also admired a quilt that was being raffled off.
Now we were off to our campground. After a conversation with one of the folks who manage the campground, who have done it for the last 25 years, we drove to our camp site. Once the car was unloaded, and driven to its parking spot, we set up camp and enjoyed the view. And what a view.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing, walking around, having supper, and enjoying the colours of the sunset. That and a cunning game of Crib. 5.3km walked and 2 flights climbed.
