Saturna Island: The Long Way There

This trip was very loosely planned. Our friends asked if we would like to bike to Saturna Island on the May long weekend and we happily agreed. We were there with them two years ago so we knew more or less what to expect.

What we did not expect was that the way there would take forever and be so stressful. We decided to make it into a car-free trip, but unfortunately the awesome TransLink Bike Bus only runs in the summer months. We strongly believe that this service should start on May long weekend at the latest.

To our surprise it was rainy and cool when we left home and started biking towards Richmond. We hoped it would keep most cyclists at home.

When we got to the station there were a few people with bikes already. So we had to wait almost an hour for the next buses. We needed two buses to accommodate our four bikes on the bike racks.

In Tsawwassen there was another ordeal with BC ferries staff which almost caused us to miss the ferry. But finally we were on the ferry, with our friends, on our way to Victoria… It was definitely the long way to Saturna.

In Victoria we changed ferries, and on the much smaller ferry things started to feel more relaxed. After a long journey we were finally on Saturna.

The campground wasn’t too far, but the island is hilly and we had to climb two hills. Gili took our friends’ five year old and Kai biked all the way.

At the campground, we concluded that it took us ten hours door to door. No wonder we were exhausted. We randomly met a family from the boys’ school, and they gave us some extra food which was appreciated. The location of that campground, just across from the ocean couldn’t be more perfect. We enjoyed the sunset before calling it a day.

The next day we biked to the end of the island at East Point. We explored the rock formations and the lovely beach. The kids found a few snakes which they were excited about. It seemed a bit cold for swimming, but a few of us still went in. Neil also flew his drone to get a bird’s eye view of this spectacular spot.

After two nights on beautiful Saturna, the way back seemed a lot smoother. We headed to the ferry terminal early and had a lot of time to spare. That meant freezies and a few Uno games. It also meant that we managed to get on the direct route to Vancouver, which felt like a big achievement. We still had to change ferries on Mayne Island, but it was still a lot shorter.

Even though lots of people were waiting for the bus we still managed to catch the first two buses with our bikes. We stopped at a small park on the Arbutus Greenway on our way home for some yummy Taiwanese take out. It also gave us a chance to check on the Canucks’ game – we had loosely followed the NHL playoffs and that was the evening that Vancouver was kicked out… At least we didn’t make any effort to try watching the game. We were back home around 8pm after a successful bike/bus/ferry trip!