Porpoise Bay: Car Camping by Bike

This camping trip was organized months in advance. Well, two months, to be exact, so that everyone would be able to book a campsite at the ever popular Porpoise Bay Campground near Sechelt, on the Sunshine Coast. The families who were part of this trip are all from the outdoor preschool Kai was going to start in September. Since we’re good friends with a few of them we were invited as well. We liked the idea of spending a few days by the beach with friendly campers. After thinking about it we realized that biking to the campground shouldn’t be too complicated, and would make the trip more interesting. It also saved us the hassle of getting a car, and paying to take the car on the ferry. Most important of all, we didn’t need to book any of the ferries in advance and could just play it by ear according to what works out for us. Not only that, since this was a car camping trip, everyone else drove to the campground and even offered to take most of our stuff!

Riding downtown in order to catch the bus to Horseshoe Bay on a Thursday morning already felt like being on vacation. When we arrived to the bus stop the driver warned us immediately that he couldn’t take three bikes. Luckily our plan was for Gili to bike to Horseshoe Bay and for the boys and I to take the bus. It worked out beautifully and the boys got a lot of time to play at the nice playground in Horseshoe Bay and I even managed to enjoy a cappuccino while they were playing. Gili was faster than I expected and soon enough he arrived and we managed to catch the ferry we intended. 

The ride to the campground was actually really nice. We avoided long sections of the highway by going on small roads to Roberts Creek, and the part we rode on the highway had good shoulders. The only “accident” we had on the way was with a metal duck. We stopped at a small playground on the side of the road for a play and snack, and one of the attractions there was a duck to swing on. Neil went really fast on it and somehow managed to fly off the duck and hit the ground with his face and knees. He was quite bruised up and shocked, so it took us a while to calm him down. 

When we arrived at the campground he was so excited to see his friends he had forgotten all about his injury. His bruises were quite prominent and at first a few people were worried we had had an accident on the road. When they realized it was “just” a playground accident they were quite relieved. 

The time at the campground was really nice and a lot of it was spent eating, and actually we were quite pampered. On the first night one of the families organized a taco dinner which was incredible, the second night was a BBQ, and on the third it was “build your own pizza” (on the BBQ). We spent a lot of time at the beach, we caught up with old and new friends, and the kids got to try some kayaking and went on a boat ride with a bunch of other kids. There was also a birthday party and a piñata, so really there wasn’t a dull moment. Neil was so busy playing with his friends we hardly saw him and Kai mingled well with everyone. 

On Sunday we packed up, gave most of our stuff to one of the families and headed out. I really wanted us to catch the 2pm ferry, but it was borderline for us to make it. In the end we made it even with a lunch stop for fish n’ chips at Sharky’s, a stop we didn’t want to miss out on. We treated the boys for ice cream on the ferry which we enjoyed on the upper deck. On the way back Gili rode with Kai while Neil and I took the bus. We were first in line to get our bikes on the bus and then rode back home from downtown.