We’ve just got back from our holiday-from-a-holiday, if that’s possible, to the Sunshine Coast and it lived up to its name with 5 days of sun and sea.
We hired a car for the midweek road trip and packed our gear to get the ferry over to Gibsons, the first town on the coast.
Whilst the Sunshine Coast is actually on mainland Canada the sheer number of sounds and fjords mean you have to get ferries at various points up the coast. Check out the crazy coastline on the map… We were going from Gibsons to Lund.
The Sunshine Coast is known for its vibrant artist culture and our first stop in Gibsons was full of colourful little houses and artisan potters and painters. It has a very cutesy holiday feel and the whole coast really reminded me of Cornwall and Devon so it felt like a home from home. We stopped for coffee before picking up supplies and heading to our hostel up the road in Roberts Creek.
The owner was a British guy (moved out for a woman and never made it back home!) who gave us lots of tips for places to stop on our drive up. We spent the evening on the beach on the lookout for whales – Eli’s endless optimism at every open stretch of water wasn’t totally unfounded as Orcas and Humpbacks do play off these shores – before we had a barbecue and a game of giant jenga well into the night.
Next day we treated ourselves to a slap up Mexican breakfast at a local restaurant (to a soundtrack of everyone’s favourite wedding disco tunes, nothing like a bit of Wham to wake you up in the morning) and headed up the coast aiming for Powell River in the north section of the Sunshine Coast. We had a few places to stop at on the way, the first of these was Hotel Lake which was supposed to be a nice warm place for swimming with the added incentive of a big rope swing!
After Will and I had got our kicks from the swing we continued up the coast to Skookumchuck Narrows Marine Provincial Park. This is a place where there is a narrow join between two tidal inlets creating rapids and whirlpools as the tide reaches its strongest ebb. Having had a bit too much fun at the rope swing we were in a rush to reach the Narrows at their best time. We just made it but they weren’t quite as impressive as we were all expecting. I think maybe you need to catch them at a full spring tide.
We left for our second ferry up to the north section, it was another beautiful one so get ready for more mountains and sea…
Our second hostel was another nice one complete with sunset facing deck over to Vancouver Island… After enjoying it with some cold beers, we spent the evening getting prepared for the main reason for our trip, a 2 day kayak out into Desolation Sound.
With enough food and water stowed we headed over to the Okeover Arm inlet, where we picked up the hire kayaks for our adventure to the backcountry. Desolation Sound is supposed to be one of the best places for beginner sea kayakers with calm, warm waters protected by all the islands and inlets in the area. So the plan was to head out to Feather Cove on the edge of the Okeover where we would get a good view out across the sound and hopefully see some whales! Unfortunately we managed to pick the one windy day they’d had in weeks with a breezy north-westerly blowing straight into our faces as we battled our way up the inlet… Eventually it became too hard and we had to give up near the end coming to a stop at a campsite on the east side. It was still a beautiful day though and we saw countless seals peeping out the water around us, bald eagles, jellyfish and crabs as well all the amazing scenery, our hunt for whales alas continues.
The site was one of the designated marine campgrounds only accessible by water, where they set up wooden platforms to camp on to protect the vegetation. They have an outhouse and that’s it, no ranger, no lights, no water or anything, but it’s not a bad place to pitch up a tent at all, just take a look at that view!
There were other things to make up for it too. Being so far from civilisation we were treated to an amazing display of stars! Eli found the best of the viewing by sticking only her head out the tent to keep her body warm inside – away from any hungry bears but still be able to see out to the fantastic sights above…
We managed to tear ourselves away for a bit of a fitful nights sleep on the hard wooden planks but thankfully our tired limbs got just about enough rest for the next day’s kayaking back down the inlet. This time with the wind mercifully behind us! Whilst much harder work than we had been hoping, our first overnight stay in the true wilds of Canada was an amazing experience and we’ve already got another little one planned for next week.
With the camping behind us we headed back to civilisation for another night in Powell River and some well deserved seafood out at a local restaurant. Friday saw us take the drive, and multiple ferries back down to Vancouver, finding time to stop along the way at Smuggler Cove, a small marine park with a rocky inlet, teaming with oysters and seabirds…
Apart from our little holiday everyday Vancouver life has been much of the same. Lots of sunshine and trips to the beach of course although Eli and I have been pretty busy trying to get our little online fashion help project going. We’ve got a subscriber list now who we have to get newsletters out to every Friday which is given us some structure and keeping us honest. We’ve also been looking more in depth at getting up to the mountains come winter and have applied for some jobs up there too so fingers crossed.
A few other highlights have been going to our first CFL game (American Football but the slightly different Canadian version) at the BC Lions which was really fun. The Lions have been doing pretty poorly but they managed to beat top of the league in one of the last plays of the game so a great one to see. Will and I also set ourselves the challenge of getting up the Grouse Grind in less than an hour which we just about made so I’m thankful I don’t have to go and do that again to tick off the sub-hour time. We also went to a yoga and music festival in Stanley Park. Will and I had somehow managed to win tickets dancing at another yoga thing (don’t ask) so thought we might as well go along and listen to some new Canadian music. As Will said to the lady when we won them, “we’re unemployed and have nothing better to do!”
So while we’ve gone back to work of sorts, it’s still been a really fun time and set to continue with Hinks and Dom coming next week and Eli’s parents straight after for our trip to Vancouver Island…
This post was originally published on The Loud Way Round.