Saturday 10 September 2005

Galiano Island, in the Gulf Islands, Canada

The Gulf Islands.....

We drove from Victoria to board the BC Ferry at Swartz Bay, headed towards Sturdies Bay, on Galiano Island, the ‘Gem of the Gulf Islands’. The Gulf Islands are an island chain located between Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

Another exciting and beautiful ferry ride for us and the Beast (our live-in van), we disembarked and drove to Montague Provincial Marine Park to set up camp. The pic below is the view towards our campsite from Montague Bay.
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We set up our camp while watching a beautiful sunset from a white shell beach across the island studded Pacific.

This is one of the most remote places we have camped - there are only a few dozen peole living on Galliano Island and only a handful of shops which are only open Friday, Saturday and Sundays.

Claudia in the sunset...

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The Beast (complete with moutain bikes!) admires the setting sun.... Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Galliano Island has amazing hiking, so today we drove the Beast to the base of Mount Galiano and decided to hike to the summit. It wasn't too steep and we hiked it in under an hour, 1,100 feet up, to a sensational view over the Gulf and San Juan Islands (USA) and Vancouver Island (Canada). At the top, we sat in the sun watching the BC Ferries and even a wild sea eagle circling overhead.

A panoramic view of the Gulf Islands.
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We watched a BC Ferry coming into the island.
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More from the top.
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Tired from the climb, we returned on dusk to our Montague Bay home
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The Beast, fully loaded!
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A final Galiano Island sunset.
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After three nights on Galliano Island we pointed our van west headed for Tofino and Frank Island....

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