Wednesday June 22, Parksville, BC



The amazing spell of weather continues, blue skies, light breezes and temps in the mid 20’s. Great for touring the coastline. We have been “town hopping” today, there are some really quaint little towns on the east coast.





First stop was Cowichan Bay, right on the water, with artsy shops built out of the water, and a real friendly atmosphere, and see that it is part of a worldwide group of “Slow Towns” which are trying to cultivate the atmosphere and community feeling. First stop was at the whole grains bread shop which had been recommended. They mill all their flours and make the bread onsite, so it was a cob loaf to take with us and coffee and a couple of delicacies to enjoy in the store. All good.

Stopped at Arthur Vickers Shipyard Gallery and were totally in awe of his work. Could easily have one on my wall, but the price was a bit beyond the budget. He was in the store and we spent some time talking with him, a real character. www.arthurvickers.com

The town also has a wooden boat museum housed on a pier, you can imagine Ian was in his element, and we chatted with some of the guys who were restoring wooden boats. We really have found that Vancouver Islanders are especially friendly. Ian mentioned that he wanted to go to the BC Forestry Museum in the next town of Duncan but the chap said that he had been there recently and it was not nearly as good as it had been, so we bypassed it and continued onto Chemainus.

 This town was a mill town but in the 80’s when the last mill closed and the town was close to dying as well, locals got together and reinvented it by painting murals on the walls depicting the regions history. There are over 40 of these, and we walked around and saw a large number of them. Our favourite is on the wall of the theatre, in a Trompe Lóeil style, just brilliant.

Onwards north on the highway and bypassed the large city of Nanaimo and arrived in Parksville about 5pm ready to stop for the night. After being able to freedom camp so much last year in the Yukon and Alaska, it is hard having to stay in campsites this year, but there seems to be no alternative.

The camp is close to the beach but no view for us tonight. Went for a walk along the boardwalk after tea, and everyone was out enjoying their warm evening, including a large number of teenagers playing beach volley ball on a large sand area beside the beach, great exercise…maybe I should have joined in!