On the road again (intermission #1)

While it was my intent to write sequentially - that is to talk about the events of my trip in the order that they occurred - I need/want to talk about yesterday.

It was a glorious day in terms of weather -the best we have had since I hit the coast ( which admittedly does say much). My daughter (in law), my son, my grandson and I went to Cherry Point Beach for a walk. The kid loved it! The tide was out and there were 1,000s of shells and small crabs and and other assorted denizens of the deep (and not so deep) resting on the shore. It was fun to pick up shells and look at them. It is perhaps a touristy thing to do, but it is an endless fascinating thing to do especially with my son who knows and understands so much of the world around him. Next year my grandson will be walking and I am sure that when we go to the beach, he will want to start his own collection of shells and special stones.

It was a nice drive there and equally as nice on the way back. I find the roads a bit confusing on the island. There seem to be so many ways of getting to any one point. But the scenery is beautiful. No gentle soft sandy beaches here. This may be a resort area, a place were city folks visit, but is is also a place where people work and live. There are parts that are less than beautiful - parts of the seashore that are not accessible because of the ruggedness but it has a gentle grandeur that is seductive.

As we were winding our way home my daughter in law's father passed us on his motorcycle....he did a u turn and followed us to a parking lot. He came back for supper and we had a great visit.

After supper we had a bit of a nap and then decided that we would go to a outside dance/camping/reggae party get-together. We left the dishes on the counter, assembled the assorted paraphernalia that such an expedition requires and headed out. Again I don't have a clue where we went. It was somewhere on the Cowichan river, or at least so they said, but it could have been the Amazon for all I knew. After getting out of the car we walked and walked.The first part of the path was overgrown and more dangerously, had man traps dug. These were 3-4 large holes in the ground specifically dug to prevent me from trespassing. Navigating the stroller over these holes was, to say the least, an interesting experience.

But it got worse. The last 200- 300 hundred meters of the path would have made a Rocky Mountain Goat hesitant.  To call it a path demeans the many fine paths tat I have followed. It was steep, uneven, narrow and on occasion it almost disappeared. The path was not made for a stroller and we abandoned the fine vehicle at the top of the last descent. But we got to the bottom safely, set up our chairs and prepared for the party to start. Other than the 3 guys who were setting up the speakers, generator and the computer, no one else came for 2 plus hours. Which was a disappointment. But a fire was lit and it was strangely pleasant if paradoxical by the river. There we were in a semi-pristine, largely untouched wilderness listening to a digitized and amplified Bob Marley powered by a portable generator.It was quite remarkable. I am not too sure if I would do it again - but I am glad that I went.

My grandson again was great. He loved the music - insisting on staying awake and dancing for much of the time that we were there. It was a beautiful sight to see his mom and him snuggling together as he dozed off for a nap.The trip back was.......... I don't know what the word is. Interesting is far too mild; crazy may be slightly too much of an exaggeration.Climbing up the less than accessible goat path, wandering through the forest, and scrambling across the man traps was done with humour and by cooperation. I think it was one of those iconic bonding moments between friends that we will talk about in the future when my grandson is older. He may not believe us. Which would be a pity because most parents would never had the courage or the energy to try to get him to the river. He deserves to know they did.

A really interesting day

p.s. I am told that I have to tell the whole story - I left something out so that the guilty would not be named or blamed. (LOL) However if they insist......... on the way back I fell into one of the man traps. At the time I was carrying three (yes three) folding chairs, my small knapsack that had amongst other things someone else's water jug and of course my tiny little flashlight. My son was carry his son in the heavy baby seat and assisting with the stroller as well as carrying the large lantern that lit up everything within 10 feet. ( I, of course, was 12 feet behind them) I am not sure what the third person was carrying - perhaps almost nothing

As I  jumped across the hole, I foolishly assumed that the person in front of me who was carrying so little would keep on moving. They didn't. I had no where to go but backwards. And backwards I went into the four foot hole. My hip was slightly bruised, but I being as graceful as always avoided major injury.

There I have told the whole story.