Cowichan River Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada
Cowichan River PP /
Gordon Bay PP – July 21-25, 2019
We go camping a day
early
With Gine working so
many nights, she got off nights on Sunday morning… so why wait until Monday –
especially if they say today will be the warmest and sunniest day? After a
quick nap at 11 am we are ready and on the road. Since we haven’t booked
anything and it is July… it’s let’s see where we end up.
Cowichan River PP
And we found a campsite…
ok not right on the river, but then none of them is. We set up and yes here is
some hand pumping of water: as well as boil water advisory!! And we still can make
fires!! I guess having a cloudy and bit rainy July has one advantage. We even
got free firewood…
We also had to
check out the river: but we weren’t convinced it had the best spot to spend the
rest of the afternoon.
Biking to Marie Canyon
What should we do? We
brought the bicycles – let’s bike to the Marie Canyon. What Gine didn’t really
planned was that the first 2 km were only uphill!!! Great for an electric
bicycle. A Glance down and we
liked it!! Down we went to explore it: round washed out holes, cool rock
formation, nice rapids, clear water – we loved to climb around – sit down and
enjoy..
Up the hill and time
to bike back – after a bit uphill we had the nice long downhill to the
campsite. And we are definitely here in the rainforest: there is so much moss:
on the tree stumps – on the trees and then the ferns between.
Sunset at the river
We had to go back
to the river to check out the sunset before having a nice fire and BBQ our
hotdogs over the fire – that’s how they taste the best!!
The forgotten Army
Before leaving we
decided to check out the day use area and the river – and there is a memorial
for the forgotten Army – in case you wonder why it’s here:
- Little is known about the Burma war and there are few memorials remembering the thousands giving their life: the veterans call themselves the forgotten Army – by the way 40.000 died in the Burma war
- Many Canadian fought in the 14th Army – at it’s peak it was the largest Army of WWII and they never lost a battle, they destroyed the Japanese forces
- You can see the half size Replica of the Kohima Memorial: here 1500 British and Indian Soldiers blocked the advance of the Japanese division of 15.000, at one time only a tennis court apart with grenades going back and forth – this was the turning point in the Burma war.
- And it is here because Charles Ferguson Hoey lost his life in the Arakan battle in Feb 1944, he is buried in Rangoon – but he was from Duncan
Now it's time for the lake!!
2025-05-22