Gabriola Island I

Why coming here?
We decided it would be nice to do something for our wedding anniversary… guess what the campgrounds on Vancouver Island are all booked out…. So what to do, we checked around and then we found Gabriola Island. Paul called the Regional Park they had spots available, then we called Page's Resort and they have spots with electricity hookup available…  We nearly wondered: what is wrong with this island?

 An early start
If you leave an hour early from work and have a husband who makes everything ready: coffee is made, the motorhome is out – and then you get an earlier start for you anniversary weekend… already 15 Min after 2 and we are on the way south. Blue sky is on the way… we came by an accident – and find right away the ferry station in downtown Nanaimo.

 Just in time
The lady there, please hurry, I want you to get on that ship it is waiting for you… I mean how much better it can be. We pay, are the last to drive on the boat, barely went out of the Motorhome and the boat is already on the way…. Gabriola Island here we come.
After a quick stop at the Village town center – driving down the North Road until we reach:

 Page’s Resort & Marina
And we found a nice spot on the grass – and then we go down and sit on the Marina and enjoy the sunshine…. Until it is time for supper and guess what we did afterwards: we went down to sit at the Marina to enjoy the sunshine… walk around and check out the boats.
 A walk before breakfast
When you are camping on a little island and you are totally excited to be here: then you can’t sit around with a cup of coffee and only enjoy the warm weather. So Gine went to check out the way over to the next Marina… and there some sunrays started to peak out… the sky got bluer… time for a nice Canadian breakfast….

 We get the perfect camping spot
So we discovered there is one perfect camping spot right at the end: close to the Marina and the bathrooms and we would have loved to be there… the people in the spot nearby left, so we already decided that we move there… but even better we saw that the family on this super cool spot started to packing too… and so we waited relaxed and guess what for the next 3 days we have the best spot available…

 Old rusty cars
Are cool – especially if you find one in the middle of the forest… overgrown with moss or if you drive down the road and you see one sitting in front of a house even with food traffic lights there… it would be so cool to have one of those, but nevertheless we enjoy the once we find here.
And when you are that excited it can be you turn at the wrong road, but with GPS Gine realized it right away and we could back out and go on the right road

 The Petroglyph Trail
Let’s discover the history of this island: and so we drive to the United Church parking lot and they were right that is where the petroglyph trail starts… I’m not sure we found them all, but we for sure found some of them – it’s kind of exciting and you wonder why they made them

The history of the Gabriola Island Petroglyphs:

• They are carved in stone on the grounds
• They say they represent spirits and historical facts
• Here you may find the serpent petroglyph "Haietlik" the lightning Strike of the Clayoquot people
• You also may see seals, salmon and crabs
• They don’t know how old they are, but likely up to 5000 years old

Turning around at the wharf
The next stop was on this cute Bay… ok I don’t think it was made for Motorhomes… there is also no parking anywhere… lucky for us at the very end is the government wharf and there we could drive on the wharf to turn around. And since there was not really a parking spot along the road anywhere… we couldn’t really explore this today….

 Drumbeg PP
Let’s relax – and when we turned down toward the PP, the road got gravel and narrow – let’s hope there is some parking down there so we can turn around… and there is – lucky for us.
I think we were assuming there is a sandy beach… what we did found were a picnic area – some rocks and sandstones and a path… so we walked around the corner and found a nice bench with viewpoint in the breeze – so Paul relaxed during Gine started exploring and the Paul catches up… until it was time for a coffee break and back we were towards the beach.

 Walking on Sandstone
What I loved the most is all the sandstone on this island: you walk on it, it is smooth and also there is always something to see: carved into the stone – carved out of the stone – boulders, formations – maybe that’s why this is the island of the Arts… because of the Art in the Sandstone…

 The Sandstone Art

• Erosions of sandstone by salt is very common
• If you look closely you can see the hexagon pattern: 6 surrounding one – and some with only 5
• Some are honeycomb holes in the sand: when you first look at them they look like they are random – but they are not: there are no holes on top of the rock – which shows us that surfaces in nature are far more complicated than we think they are
• The holes provide an exit for the water trapped inside the rock when it is hot in the sun
• The evaporating water leaves salt behind which erodes the stone
• Rock water is water that soaked into the rock through crevices which comes from the rain and sea spray
• And on the top of the galleries is iron oxide which does not erode
• Case hardening helps preserve the sandstone boulders – but not forever

 A Cold Shower for free
They do have showers here… but why pay, when you can have a cold shower for free… we are taught and so for the next 3 days we ended each day with a cold shower… how refreshing after a hot day

 Supper at the Silva restaurant with Marina view
Let’s go out – we have another wedding anniversary, and we can walk over to the Silva Bay Marina and enjoy the super Marina view at sunshine sitting on the patio and having a wonderful supper. Even better – we can walk there and come by one of the old cars stuck in the forest….

 An evening on the dock
And the best way to end a day: is take your chairs or use the chairs provided here and sit at the dock: watch the boats coming in, the Dinghy’s crossing the waters, admire the big yachts and see the sparkle of the sun going slowly down – until you get cold and then we go back into our camper.