Beauty and Disappointment in the Gulf Islands

Although we’ve been bouncing around southwestern British Columbia for a fair bit now, Galiano Island was our first of the Gulf Islands.  The Gulf Islands are to Canada as the San Juan Islands are to the United States, except Galiano Island has Tommy Transit, which none of the San Juans can match.

The only note of interest from the trip over from Ladysmith relates to radio chatter from what sounded like an even more chaotic day at Dodd Narrows.  Stuff like “You moron, you don’t have the right of way.”  We figure that boat was American—because Canadians are Canadian—but not from Miami—because in Miami the moron would’ve been sexually active with a capital F.  Dodd Narrows is behind us and the water we plowed was protected by bunches of those same Gulf Islands, however, so none of the angst bothered us.

Doug flew the drone.  In a surprise twist, he wasn’t asked by the Canadian Women’s National Soccer Team to video upcoming opponents.

Montague Harbour Marina has just the correct mix of activity and seclusion.  And a cool store with delicious ice cream.  The dude who owns the marina, cool store with ice cream, restaurant, and related stuff, has the entire thing listed for $3 million.  Even without the favorable exchange rate, that’s cheaper than the marina we contemplated buying in Marathon but more than the one with the Victorian B&B in Reedville.

Now about Tommy Transit.  Tommy is a legend in these parts.  A self-described cross between “a Zen master, a stand-up comedian, and Mary Poppins,” he’s a city bus driver who for years summered on Galiano Island, entertaining people on the shuttle up to the Hummingbird Pub.  Everyone said we must ride the bus with Tommy.

Wait what?  They fired Tommy Transit?  $#@&!  The new shuttle driver doesn’t pass out instruments and tell jokes?  Well then screw the Hummingbird Pub, which everyone says sucks anyway.  We’ll just take a photo of what might have been and move on.

Move on by way of scooters, that is.  Dana fashionably grabbed the one that matched her shirt.

Our hop around the island took us to what TripAdvisor says is a top attraction:  the famous Kunamokst Mural, created for the 2010 Olympics.  One hundred and ninety Canadian artists were given squares and a general guideline of shapes and color palettes and then left to paint an independent scene depicting British Columbia.  Then someone put them all together.  It’s quite stunning, but one of us couldn’t get over the fact that those squares are 12” by 12”.  Apparently the metric system is voluntary.

Then up to The Bluffs, where the hike led through an old growth cedar forest—one of a very few that survived the heavy logging that stripped much of the island—and out to an awesome view.

On the way back we stopped at the pottery place.  Based on the little sign, we assume it mostly caters to customers with poor hearing: “Ring the bell for service loudly,” it says.

Speaking of trees, Galiano Island is loaded with the only broad-leaf evergreen native to Canada.  The Arbutus—called Madrone or Madrona in the US—are a protected species in the Gulf Islands because migratory Rufous hummingbirds rely on their nectar.  This isn’t necessarily the prettiest example of an Arbutus tree we saw, but we didn’t discover the above-noted factoids until our only option was to get a photo from the boat.

Remember all the people in Powell River who ran out for the epic moonrise?  We think they followed us to Montague Harbour, which is a good thing because we were wrapped up in an episode of Lessons in Chemistry when they all zipped by with their cameras.  So we grabbed ours and the big lens.  Crazy sunset it was.  This isn’t photoshopped.  It was just that awesome.

Next stop, Ganges.  We’re not Hindu, but figured we’d take a quick dip in the holy river just in case.  Nope.  Turns out the Ganges River is in India, not in Ganges, British Columbia.  Disappointed, we made do with a late lunch at Moby’s Pub, hosed off some salt, briefly checked out the town, and retired to the marina.

It seems odd to us, but the first non-native settlers on Salt Spring Island arrived in 1859.  The natives called them Hwunitum, meaning “people who came from nowhere.”  Also in 1859, perhaps as a nod to those soon-to-be-displaced tribes, Canada’s Parliament declared lacrosse to be the national sport.  Not hockey.

A couple of interesting boats near us.  Longtime followers know that our affinity for “Pearl” names even predates Misty Pearl.  We’ve documented a bunch of them.  Salish Pearl, however, is a first.  We like it.

Second, we found one of Tumbleweed’s sister NPY49s.  Dave and Meredith are taking Sea Harmony up to Alaska next year, so maybe we’ll see them again.

The famous Saturday Salt Spring Farmers Market was the major draw.  Dana loves a good market, so we timed it perfectly.

Meh.  We judge the quality of markets by the number of booths Dana patronizes.  Three was the number this morning.  Three does not speak well of the Salt Spring market.  The best we can say is that if we needed to see a fortune teller there were several from which to choose, and we passed pretty flowers on our way back to the boat.

Because of a dumb CDC rule about dogs that came out when it was too late for us to comply and then was rescinded after we’d already locked in stuff back in the U.S., we’re leaving Canada on July 31.  The Butchart Gardens might deserve a separate post, so we’re teeing this short one up now.