Tuesday, April 8, 2008

QUADRA ISLAND

The Quadra Island Fun Knits retreat was, as always, wonderful! This was my third time there, and I met some new people, got lots of knitting done, and ate great food. Bev and I drove up on Friday, and there was at least one other Victoria Guild member there. I also met a couple of fellow Vancouver Island Ravelry members, so that was nice.

Here's the scenery at the Cape Mudge Resort, where we were (and remember that you can click on any image to see it bigger) ...

Lots of eagles (and a few deer here and there...)

Cape Mudge on Quadra Island is known to have some of the most treacherous water in the world... north and south tides meet here with a vengeance sometimes, and create serious currents year-round. In addition to that, the start of Discovery Channel right here is at the top end of many, many miles of wide open Strait of Georgia (all the way from Seattle, pretty much)and through the winter months the south-easters are relentless.

So ... we watched this tug bucking the tides for what seemed like forever...

And here's what it was hauling...

That's the city of Campbell River in the background, which we took a 10-minute ferry ride away from ... and here's what it looks like at twilight...

On Saturday afternoon before dinner, and again on Sunday before we left the Island, we did a bit of exploring... here's a few pics from the Cape Mudge First Nations village...





Then we went to Heriot Bay, Rebecca Spit and the Lighthouse ...





And remember a few weeks ago, when I went up-Island for the herring run, and saw this old restaurant?

(You can read more about that toward the bottom of this post...

Well, when we drove through Fanny Bay this time, the sea lions were gone, the beached sailboat was gone... and here's what's left of the old Brico restaurant...

I spoke with one of the workers on the clean-up project, and he said that the place had become a 'public hazard' and transients had taken up residence there. What a crying shame -- that boat was over 100 years old, and has been a fixture here on Vancouver Island for at least 35 of them!

Tomorrow... the fibre pics. Today I'm picking Sivia Harding up at the ferry -- she's doing a River Rock Scarf workshop at our Guild tomorrow -- and we're going out for dinner tonight to talk about her guest appearance at the FibreFest in June!

2 comments:

Kate said...

That scenery looks awfully familiar :) Glad you enjoyed your time up this end.

As a little girl I ate in that restaurant with my family, on the trek to Hornby Island every summer. I'm sad to hear it is gone, although not surprised.

Grace said...

sounds like a wonderful trip and picking up Sivia, wow aren't you something!!!!I am truly impressed!