Thursday, June 23, 2005
an afternoon getaway
i couldn't get enough of salt spring island after the first time i visit the hippie paradise. it's only natural that when a friend noted that he might want to go there for the weekend, i jumped at the chance right away. After having a BBQ party—which was a blast—at my place on saturday, we managed to convinced another friend to go with us the day after. and that's exactly what we did.
the plan was seamlessly rigorous, of course, but a plan is a plan and the reality was about as far as what we'd hoped for. instead of taking the ferry that left victoria at 11 am, for example, we took the 3 pm one. yes, you did the math right. good thing the weather turned out to be super nice, with lots of sunshine and mild wind—just about perfect. the ferry ride was as enjoyable as any other good day: breathtaking view that pleasures the eyes and soothes the mind, half an hour well worth spent.
well, sorta. the trip was driven purely by impulse, naturally, but without a thorough preparation, also naturally. as soon as we step on the island, the plan was to hitchhike to ganges village, the island's unofficial downtown (if you can call it so). so we pulled our right thumbs out standing at the side of the street, relying completely on luck, hoping to get a free ride. but luck would only get you so far, so we shouldn't that surprised, really, when our thumbs were still wiggling out by the time the last vehicle drove away from the ferry. the ripoff shuttle bus was our last resort then, knowing we didn't have that much of choices in the first place anyway.
ganges was still as fun as i remembered, only better this time with more visitors and awesome weather. the centennial park still stinked with weed, the hippies were still everywhere, but now more galleries and stores were actually open. after sightseeing for a bit, we immediately tried to find a restaurant for late lunch and decided to sit outside enjoying the sunshine. sure, the view was great, but by the time we finished our meals and paid the bills, the clock was ticking to number five. and that means we only had about 3 and a half hours before we should catch the last ferry ride back home. there goes our plan for hiking.
the next best thing was to go to the beach and do nothing. the best beaches, very unfortunately for us, are located on the other sides of the island. there are two beaches near ganges, walkable distances, only that one of them takes half an hour walk one way. we thought we don't want to waste an hour just walking with such a limited time that we have left, so we decided to go to the other smaller beach. it turned out to be a joke at the end, because the beach could barely be called a beach and my room is probably bigger than it. no kidding.
but finding out about that beach was actually a good thing because it forced us to go to the other beach. prettier, longer, better. the best part: it's pretty much hidden and there were lots of big rocks to lie ourselves on top. the water, although was full of seaweeds, looked quite clear and made us feel like jump into it right away. few reasons why we were hesitant to do it: a) although the sun was so hot, the sea water was of course still ice cold! b) we didn't bring any swimming gear, let alone second underwears.
despite those two reasons, everything was just perfect, p-e-r-f-e-c-t, so awesome that we didn't care anymore and jumped right into the water with our boxers. at least two out of three of us anyway. and whoa, the water was freezing alright! we gave up swimming pretty much after 5 minutes, but i should say that was my best 5 minute worth of time i've spent since a pretty long time. i lay on one of the big flat rocks drying myself and exposed to the evening sun for a good 40 minutes or so; had the best nap i've taken also since a long time.
at the end of the day, when we had to rush back to ganges and catched a cab just right in time for the ferry, waited for the bus that goes downtown victoria and on it for over an hour and catched another bus to go back home, all the hassle that we had didn't seem to matter anymore. it was a perfect afternoon getaway for me, even if the point of the whole trip was just to get that 45 minutes that we spent on the beach.
and that only means one thing: i should go to the island again sometime this summer, at least once more. definitely.
i couldn't get enough of salt spring island after the first time i visit the hippie paradise. it's only natural that when a friend noted that he might want to go there for the weekend, i jumped at the chance right away. After having a BBQ party—which was a blast—at my place on saturday, we managed to convinced another friend to go with us the day after. and that's exactly what we did.
the plan was seamlessly rigorous, of course, but a plan is a plan and the reality was about as far as what we'd hoped for. instead of taking the ferry that left victoria at 11 am, for example, we took the 3 pm one. yes, you did the math right. good thing the weather turned out to be super nice, with lots of sunshine and mild wind—just about perfect. the ferry ride was as enjoyable as any other good day: breathtaking view that pleasures the eyes and soothes the mind, half an hour well worth spent.
well, sorta. the trip was driven purely by impulse, naturally, but without a thorough preparation, also naturally. as soon as we step on the island, the plan was to hitchhike to ganges village, the island's unofficial downtown (if you can call it so). so we pulled our right thumbs out standing at the side of the street, relying completely on luck, hoping to get a free ride. but luck would only get you so far, so we shouldn't that surprised, really, when our thumbs were still wiggling out by the time the last vehicle drove away from the ferry. the ripoff shuttle bus was our last resort then, knowing we didn't have that much of choices in the first place anyway.
ganges was still as fun as i remembered, only better this time with more visitors and awesome weather. the centennial park still stinked with weed, the hippies were still everywhere, but now more galleries and stores were actually open. after sightseeing for a bit, we immediately tried to find a restaurant for late lunch and decided to sit outside enjoying the sunshine. sure, the view was great, but by the time we finished our meals and paid the bills, the clock was ticking to number five. and that means we only had about 3 and a half hours before we should catch the last ferry ride back home. there goes our plan for hiking.
the next best thing was to go to the beach and do nothing. the best beaches, very unfortunately for us, are located on the other sides of the island. there are two beaches near ganges, walkable distances, only that one of them takes half an hour walk one way. we thought we don't want to waste an hour just walking with such a limited time that we have left, so we decided to go to the other smaller beach. it turned out to be a joke at the end, because the beach could barely be called a beach and my room is probably bigger than it. no kidding.
but finding out about that beach was actually a good thing because it forced us to go to the other beach. prettier, longer, better. the best part: it's pretty much hidden and there were lots of big rocks to lie ourselves on top. the water, although was full of seaweeds, looked quite clear and made us feel like jump into it right away. few reasons why we were hesitant to do it: a) although the sun was so hot, the sea water was of course still ice cold! b) we didn't bring any swimming gear, let alone second underwears.
despite those two reasons, everything was just perfect, p-e-r-f-e-c-t, so awesome that we didn't care anymore and jumped right into the water with our boxers. at least two out of three of us anyway. and whoa, the water was freezing alright! we gave up swimming pretty much after 5 minutes, but i should say that was my best 5 minute worth of time i've spent since a pretty long time. i lay on one of the big flat rocks drying myself and exposed to the evening sun for a good 40 minutes or so; had the best nap i've taken also since a long time.
at the end of the day, when we had to rush back to ganges and catched a cab just right in time for the ferry, waited for the bus that goes downtown victoria and on it for over an hour and catched another bus to go back home, all the hassle that we had didn't seem to matter anymore. it was a perfect afternoon getaway for me, even if the point of the whole trip was just to get that 45 minutes that we spent on the beach.
and that only means one thing: i should go to the island again sometime this summer, at least once more. definitely.
