Gabriola Island: Discovering Another Gulf Island
On the last week of June we headed to Gabriola Island. We woke up on Saturday morning and what a surprise – rain! We started cycling from home and it was pouring all the way to Horseshoe Bay. Once there we caught the ferry to Nanaimo and then cycled to another ferry terminal where we caught a small ferry to Gabriola Island. There is something so calm in the Gulf Islands that even once off the ferry I felt so relaxed. There is a nice campground less than a kilometer from the ferry. It is just on the beach and it wasn’t crowded at all. We had lunch by the water, set up the tent, had a short nap and off we were again. We cycled to Malaspina Galleries, which are very neat sandstone formations right by the ocean.
We hiked along the water and even went in to swim. Now the sun was shining and the rain that morning seemed so far away. It still wasn’t warm or anything and the water was quite cold, but refreshing nonetheless. Back in the campground we had dinner by the water again and watched the sunset at 10:00pm. The days are long now and the nights are short.
The next day we made a loop around the island and stopped at a few nice beaches along the way. In one beach we found many star fish and ducks. There was very little traffic so the cycling was lots of fun. Once back at the campground we had some time before the ferry so we went in for another swim. There were a few people on the beach and one of them had a dog named Maya! This dog was quite a trouble maker so they kept on calling her name, which made me turn around every time.
We caught the ferry back to Nanaimo, then back to Horseshoe Bay and we cycled back home. We passed through the Latin Festival downtown, but it was very close to the end so there was nothing much there. We had Shawarma at Babylon cafe and off we were to make our way back up the hill to UBC.
