Farewell to Gabriola Island

We left Gabriola Island yesterday morning, I wonder if we will ever see it again?  A wonderful week meeting lots of interesting people and eating some pretty amazing food, all in all a really, really good week.

 Lovely colours on the beach.

 

New life spring from old.

 Not such a good pic. a little to far away, I think a Golden Eagle.

 

This young gull watching over all the wildlife around him.  At this bay we watched seals, otters and lots of birds far too many to list.  Gabriola Island is a very special place.

 Betcha I can stand on one leg longer than you.

 

Another beach scene and below Surf Scoters.

Bells Landing Beach, Gabriola.

Yesterday 28th. we drove round the Island about 14km long by 5km wide, didn't take long, we finished up at Bells Landing Beach which is at the northern end.

 

The beach and below looking west towards Entrance Island, the boat is a transport ferry on its way to Vancouver from Nanaimo.

 

Lots of wildlife on and around the beach, not sure what the birds on the rock below are, we think the larger bird is a Rock Sandpiper and the smaller birds, Sanderlings or Semipalmated Sandpipers.    We spent over an hour here, everywhere we looked there was something of interest.   The two Otters were playing in the water just in front of us.  The next photo is spot the bird.

 

 

 Our old friend a Kildear, we saw lots of these on our journey across Canada.

 

Seals swimming with Gulls.

 

A Sandpiper though not sure what type.

Seashore Scenes

One of the fascinating thinks about Gabriola Island are all the weird and wonderful shapes on the seashore, formed by action of wind and waves.

 

Donnie and Ruth wandering along the gallery, one of the many unusual formations formed by the waves.

 pools formed by the waves.

I took these photos yesterday, boxing day, and it was overcast and trying to rain, though it never did much to the dismay of our hosts as its been weeks since they have had any descent rainfall, it seams all the water used on the island has to be collected from rooftops and stored in tanks, so they are starting to get a bit worried.

 These two photos taken this morning in

bright sunshine.

  

 A couple of birdy pics. A Bald Eagle

 and a Song Sparrow.

 

Arbutus Tree growing out of the side of the cliff, thought this looked pretty impressive, so risked life and limb to take this pic. When I got near enough to take the shot it didn't look all that special up close but took the pic. anyway. The intrepid traveller lives another day.

Entrance Island, Gabriola.

 

Yesterday Kees and I escaped all the preparation work going on in the kitchen and went for a drive to the northern end of Gabriola.  The photo is of Entrance Island with its lighthouse between The Northumberland Channel which seperates Gabriola from Vancouver Island and the Georgia Strait With the Island on the west side and the mainland of British Columbia and Washington State on the east side.      We went to see the Sealions which hang about there through the winter months, we could hear them but not a sight of them I'm afraid, lots of other things to see though.

Surf Scoter Ducks, our first sighting.

 

A male Harlequin above and the female below I think this only the second time we have seen Harlequins.

 The shoreline on Gabriola has some very interesting shapes formed by the waves,  Kees tells me its not stone but shale, seems like the whole island is layers and layers of shale millions of years old.

 

 All in a line.

 

Another interesting shot of the shoreline.      We got rained off after a while and we had to retreat to the pub to recover, you know to dry out and warm up, with the help of pint or two, that put us in the dog house for a while until we discovered the girls had been at the sherry, heck its Christmas enjoy and be merry.

Victoria to Gabriola Island.

Monday morning, windy with a cloud cover but as the morning progressed the wind did its job and blew the clouds away, blue skies and sunshine, just perfect for our drive up the Island to Gabriola to our friends Donnie and Kees where we will be spending Christmas.

 

The harbour at Ladysmith were we stopped for our picnic lunch.

 

This cormorant stretching its wings on the dockside at Nanaimo whilst we waited for the ferry to take us across to Gabriola Island.

 

Looking back to Nanaimo,  the large ferry on its way to Vancouver and the little one on the right going back to Nanaimo.

 

Little tug boat pulling a huge log boom past the ferry terminal at Dukes Point.

Donnie's Christmas Tree, here she's known as Mother Christmas.

A very merry Christmas to everyone and all.  Colin and Ruth.

A snowy day, what are we going to do?

 

This morning we woke up to a couple of inches of snow, now 3pm its turned to rain and gone very yucky outside.

The days shot for going anywhere so I think we'll revisit a past trip.  In early spring of 2012 we went visiting to Southern Germany.  We went in our Hymer and drove across southern France entering Germany at Freiburg in The Black Forest. after a couple of days in that part of Germany we crossed back into France at Strasbourg again for a couple or three days. As well as admiring the scenery we were visiting friends of Ruth's at every stop. When Ruth left England she lived and worked in Strasbourg for almost thirty years, so lots of people to visit.

A typical old Black Forest house, in the open air museum near Wolfach. 

Black Forest villages, lovely houses, great cafes

After visiting The Alsace we went back into Germany with our friends Gill and François (the bird man of the Alsace) to Baden Baden for a frolic in the hot baths - wonderful. the photo of Baden Baden taken from a hill above the town.

 

You do a lot of this in Southern Germany, thats when you're not drinking beer.

Lake Constance in the early evening.

 Statue of Imperia at the lakeshore at Constance

 on the German side of the lake.  Imperia a lady of the oldest profession in the world with her two best customers the bishop and the king.

Time for another kaffee und Kuchen.

  

This town is on the Swiss side of Lake Constance, Stein an Rhein

 

After our stop at Lake Constance we went into Austria and Northern Italy and then back into France and home. A really good trip three weeks in all.

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