Seal Bay

We started off our day darting to a nearby Starbucks to get caught up with the world. Our WiFi connection at our AirBnB had been rather spotty and we thought an hour of high speed service would be useful. It felt like going from the third world to the first. All of a sudden, things were downloading quickly and websites uploading without hesitation. 

Both Heather and I have been flying through novels throughout this trip. When we run out of reading material we find a local bookshop and get something new. I discovered the Laughing Oyster Book Store in Courtenay yesterday and the novel Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. 

This is the Swedish writer who brought A Man Called Ove, Bear Town and Britt-Marie was here. Anxious People is also a limited series available on Netflix. As I was reading it, I kept thinking it would make a marvellous stage play. So funny. So well written. 

It seems that the owners of the AirBnB property bought a small patch of old growth forest and designed a roadway and series of cabins that integrated with the forest. In addition to the main cabin, where the owners live, there is the A-Frame that we are staying in, and a smaller yurt. As the old trees naturally fall due to age or storms, the owner cuts up the tree into firewood.  His wood pile is both aesthetically beautifully and abundant.

There are also dozens of interesting trees in the small patch of rain forest that makes this place feel like it’s in the middle of nowhere, even though it’s not. 

As we have cooking facilities in this place, we’re doing our best to eat in most of the time. Instead of a restaurant meal costing us $80 to $100, we end up having wonderful meals for under $20. Last night we enjoyed west coast prawns in garlic butter with a veggie stir fry. For lunch, we’ve been enjoyed a homestyle soup that we discovered at Thrifty Foods.

In the afternoon we ventured to Seal Bay Nature Park nearby. It is a beautiful preserve that provides wonderful walking trails and access to the waterfront. As we were walking along the beach of sand, rocks, and driftwood, we noticed a bunch of black dots out on the water. It took a few minutes to realize that they were seals bobbing in the water watching us. So cool. They were so far out that getting a decent picture was impossible. This is what we were seeing. 

Seal Bay Nature Park provided the Vancouver Island walk in the forest that we both were craving. There was no snow and it was absolutely lovely. We may come back to Seal Bay before our time here is done.