MINI BREAK

Our MINI Adventure

Since our trip to Vancouver Island, we have been working hard, saving some money and making bigger plans for the summer. In the mean time we’ve had a few smaller trips and one MINI adventure. In November, we went to a Bingo night at a local gay bar. I thought it would be terrible, and it was amazing! The evening ended with me winning the top prize of a MINI goody bag, which included the rental of a mini cooper for one weekend. We finally got a chance to use it when we were invited to stay at our friend Emily’s cabin at Pender Harbour on the Sunshine Coast in BC. 

On the map above, Vancouver is just below the bottom right corner, the cabin was roughly at number 7, and the Skookumchuck rapids we visited were at 27.

 I had to drive the car through Downtown Vancouver to pick up Emily and Danielle, and the fun began as we (and passers-by) soon realised that 4 humans, all with luggage and booze, was just waiting for a bad punchline (I'm yet to think up one that does it justice).

In addition, the car itself had been branded with a Canucks (Vancouver’s Ice Hockey team) logo for the Stanley Cup tournament. However, the Canucks had been knocked out of the cup. So off we went, not caring about ice hockey (sorry Canada), in the most British of cars, to test my driving capabilities in the smallest vehicle on the road. Our first stop was Horseshoe Bay village, from here we took the ferry to Langdale. We took many pictures of the surrounding snow topped mountains, passing islands, and 3 eagles that were flying overhead. 

Danielle, Emily and me

Only half an hour from downtown and everything was suddenly very wild. Once at Langdale we drove along the coast stopping at Gibson’s Landing and Sechelt to catch the views (and buy beer). We arrived after dark to Pender Harbour and the treacherous road that lead down to the house, the road was then following by a woodland path that brought us to the cabin. I thought 'cabin' was just a cute way of saying house, but this was actually a cabin. The original structure of it had been floated down the coast on logs years ago when Emily’s ancestors decided they wanted to move house! Since then I guess it hadn’t changed much, as there was no heating, and the decor was adorably dated. Although we couldn’t really tell in the dark, the cabin was just metres from the water with a private pebbly beach and a jetty shared with the neighbours, most of whom were relatives of Emily. 

We had arrived late and naturally were worried about the logistics of getting to the pub. Going by boat was mentioned, but when we called ahead to the Garden Bay pub, they were about to close (at 9.30) but said they would keep the kitchen open for us! So we drove around the harbour to the local pub, which defies description. It was mostly like a social club, but with tv (naturally), local beers and AMAZING pub food.  We headed back after a good feed, and shivered in the cabin until we’d had enough cans to forget that we were cold. 

The following day we drove to Madeira Park, and watched a boat race in which local schools raced homemade boats around the harbour. It all felt very local and it was pretty remarkable that even one or two boats made it to the finish line. We walked around the harbour, and went to the Copper Sky Gallery/cafe for delicious salmon chowder to set us up for our walk to the Skookumchuck rapids. The walk was through beautiful woodland with lakes on both sides. I was scared about bears the whole time, but all we saw was a notice that politely asked us to call the ‘turtle hotline’ if we spied one in distress. 

Stella at Skookumchuck Narrows

We went to two viewing points at which we could see the rapids, but they weren’t at their full potential as the tide was going out. The Skookumchuck narrows is an ocean inlet where some of the fastest tidal rapids in the world occur. You can see on the maps, how the Sechelt, Narrows and Salmon inlet are all filled from water that rushes through the Skookumchuck. Unfortunately it didn’t look too impressive when we saw it, but it made for a famous destination of our afternoon walk. 

Just looks like your average Dicker family walk, only bigger!

 We also stopped by one of the many local art galleries on the coast, which can be identified by flags that people fly outside their homes, so passer’s by know an artist is resident there.

Our last evening mainly involved ginger beers, and getting to know our new wonderful friends. Emily and Danielle did an amazing job of representing, Danielle's entrance on Saturday morning in her Canadian Olympics attire brandishing a bottle of Maple syrup was definitely a highlight. And I was really glad that kayaking to the pub was just a cruel joke in the end, meant to scare us unadventurous Brits.

The following day we drove back to Langdale via Robert’s Creek, to see more inspiring coastline and some even more impressive holiday homes of the rich. We stopped by another very artsy cafe for soups and smoothies, before taking the ferry back to West Vancouver. 

It was such a change of pace to get out of the city, unfortunately without a car of our own, it is nearly impossible to see these bits of real British Columbia, so it was a great experience, short as it was.