Saltspring Island, Day 1 | 24 July 2009

As first time campers, the weekend getaway to Saltspring Island was a good one. The beautiful island made for a good transition from urban life to life in the great outdoors.

Granted, Eli and I did not do much organizing for this trip. The only planning we really did was to time our ferry and draw up the list of personal items to pack.

We caught the mid-afternoon sailing on a small vessel with one food stall serving nothing too appetizing. Eli and I shared a hot dog and that was about it.

Heading up to the deck, with the wind blowing in our faces, Eli and I soaked in the gift of nature and of each other. It is always fun to be out in open waters.

One stopover at Galiano Island and we were quickly arriving at Saltspring. Eli made acquaintance with a resident of Saltspring Island who promptly shared with us the demographics of the island. In a matter of fact manner, he told us that his friends have had to “import” their wives to Saltspring because it is hard to find a woman on the said island. Apparently because shopping is quite available on the island, ladies are far and few between on this Southern Gulf Island.

I didn’t really get a chance to checkout the shopping scene on the island and frankly, I wasn’t too interested. The only retail store I stepped into was Thrifty Foods to pick up mineral water upon arrival on the island.

We were then whisked to our accommodation for the weekend. Two three-persons tents, which my sister and her man, P, had kindly setup when they arrived on the island a couple of hours ahead of us.

Hungry! Hungry! Hungry! Without proper dining outlets onboard the ferry, Eli and I were famished and we had to get the barbecue going. That evening we had a candlelight dinner of some very ‘juicy’ sausages with salad under twinkling stars.

Belly up, Eli and I promptly fell asleep after a nice warm shower (five-star camping!) while my sister and P took a walk by St Mary’s Lake.