I’d been starting to feel some survivor guilt being up here in the beautiful, clean air while my friends and family suffer through terrible air quality in the Bay Area. But that changed as we woke up Saturday morning to find that the smoke from Oregon and Washington had arrived at Vancouver Island during the night and the clear air had turned hazy. We left Hornby Island a day early and are now back in Vernon where the air is equally dismal with smoke from WA and OR having arrived here Sunday resulting in air quality that’s worse (AQI right now is 318 and I’m not leaving the house) than the Bay Area’s. It’s now made it all the way to Alberta so two Canadian provinces are choking on the smoke. The Canadians may have kept their border closed to Americans, but the particulate matter just blows right on over.
I wrote the following blog Friday but didn’t get it posted ’til now due to technical difficulties.
We are now at the end of our two weeks “up island,” meaning further North on Vancouver Island. Last week, we stayed at a beach bungalow in Kye Beach, a small community near Comox (an Anglicized spelling of K’ómoks First Nation). While there, we took a hike to Ripple Rock, the site of one of the largest non-nuclear planned explosions back in 1958 when the Canadians placed 1,270 metric tons of explosive in tunnels in the rock below the water that had long been a hazard for boats going through the channel. 635,000 metric tons of rock and water were displaced by the explosion, spewing debris at least 300 meters in the air.
When we got to the destination, which was a cliff overlooking the channel where Ripple Rock used to be, there was a small crowd gazing down into the channel. They greeted us by commenting on our excellent timing because a pod of four killer whales had just showed up and was moving through the channel from North to South. We sat and watched them for 20 minutes until they were out of range. John was the only one of the 25 or so people there with binoculars, a habit from his African game watching days, so we had the best view.
An iPhone really isn’t adequate for something so spectacular but I no longer carry an SLR with telephoto lens. Too bad! This was my first-time seeing orcas and it was wonderful to just happen upon them and to have such an amazing view from above instead of being on a whale watching boat.
This week, we’ve been on Hornby Island, a place we really love off the East Coast of Vancouver Island in the Georgia Strait, part of the Salish Sea. We have to take two ferries to get here from Vancouver Island. Here I am on one of them.
It’s one of several destination islands in this area and is full of artists and aging hippies along with the seasonal tourists who flock here for the three beautiful beaches, including one that is clothing optional, the excellent hiking and mountain biking, and the beauty all around. There’s also a distillery, a meadery, a winery, and a cidery on the island, all of which allow visitors, though the hours are much curtailed now that high season is over.
We are renting a gorgeous home right on the water. Below, the house from the water side and the view from the deck.
Yesterday, we watched a minke whale not too far off the shore near our house go up and down, blowing out of his breathing hole each time he came up. It was beautiful to see. And just an hour ago, John saw a humpback whale breach twice and come all the way out of the water. I missed it as I am not able to keep my eyes on the water continuously as John seems able to do, again related to his many years of training in spotting game growing up in Africa. There is also a family of otters that has been hanging around and John saw one eat an entire fish, bones and all, yesterday while I was on a hike (note there is a pattern here). So, the wildlife has been quite wonderful this year, especially for John. 🙂
A few blogs ago, I wrote about how much I loved the painted telephone poles in Victoria. Here in Hornby, the Arts Council sponsored the painting of all the Fire Dept’s water tanks. John and I rode our bikes around the island and took photos of all those we could find with me doing a different yoga pose in front of each one. Please don’t judge my yoga form but I hope you enjoy the wonderful art on the water tanks. Again, it’s this kind of community spirit that really makes a place feel good.
On Sunday, we leave Hornby and head back to John’s house in Vernon for a several week stay. John plans to take Anders on a short trip while I hold down the fort in Vernon. My plan is to do some comparison of apple varieties that grow in the region. Yesterday, I bought some Gravenstein grown here on Hornby and they are delicious so my apple curiosity as been whetted.
I hope any of you in the Bay Area that don’t already own an air filter are looking into getting one. My friend Cecilia just wrote me that she got one a week after ordering it and it works incredibly well so that her old, leaky house (sounds like mine) is now filled with clean air and she’s feeling better. Sounds like it’s worth it to me if you don’t already have one! Let’s all try to stay healthy!
And just to finish this with a stunningly beautiful sunset that we saw on our first night on Hornby, before any smoke had arrived, and taken from Grassy Point just up the street from where we are. And, yes, these colors are accurate, not enhanced. The water really did look purple!
