Day 1 - Surrey,BC to Mill Bay
69 km
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| Bikes loaded and ready to start the tour! |
Do you believe in omens? I suppose I believe in good omens and if I am honest with myself I dismiss bad omens as silly superstitions. Today started with a series of good, if not great omens. We decided to get a really early start in order to beat the heat and were on the road by 5:34am - yes 5:34 exactly - I checked my watch. We were feeling strong, excited and ready to spin! The sun was rising as the full moon was setting, the air was calm, mist was coming off the fields and we could hear owls hooting. I know it sounds like I am making this up....but, truly conditions were PERFECT! At exactly 5:51 am - yes exactly 5:51 - I checked my watch, we got our first AWESOME. A cyclist on his morning commute to work rode up beside us and gave us a thumbs up. He said he could never cycle with that much weight and gave us a hearty "safe travels".
Buoyed by our first awesome, we continued on and soon bumped in to a couple out on their morning walk. We stopped to chat and learned that the lady had lived in Haida Gwaii. She wished us well and enthusiastically told us how much we would love the islands. Our luck continued as we arrived at the ferry terminal and literally rode on to boat..and secured the coveted first in line position at the cafeteria. Waiting to disembark, we chatted with another couple who were on their way to cycle on Salt Spring Island. They were avid cyclists, and as luck would have it they had visited Haida Gwaii years ago and stayed with some of the Morseby Explorers folk. Small world!
Our route took us from the Swartz Bay ferry terminal along the coast through North Saanich. It was a pretty ride and before we knew it we were in Brentwood Bay. As we began our trip down the hill to the ferry, our good luck continued. We arrived just in time to load! We looked at each other in disbelief. We have a past history of "just missing" ferries, so to be consistently arriving in time seemed surreal.
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| Scenic Brentwood Bay |
We enjoyed a quick and scenic sailing to Mill Bay and then hopped on our bikes to begin the climb to our campsite in Bamberton Provincial Park. We arrived by lunch - unbelievable. We treated ourselves to a swim in the ocean and a very decadent, but well deserved nap.
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| Bamberton Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, BC |
Good omens? I don't know....maybe, it is simply how you interpret things that come your way....what i do know for sure is that we are off to a great start....only a few hundred more kilometres to go and we will be in Haida Gwaii.
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| Just another day on the beach! |
Giggle of the day:
As we were on the ferry heading towards Swartz Bay, Rob heard the distant sound of bagpipes. I didn't hear anything and thought he was losing his mind. He was convinced, and went off in search of the Piper. Sure enough, on the lower outside deck, a gentleman was playing the pipes. Seriously - you can not invent this stuff! It brought a tear to my eye, as I listened to the sounds of Amazing Grace. We stood transfixed for the rest of the sailing. Yes - I believe in omens!
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| Live entertainment on BC Ferries |
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