Phew!

It's Hot!

Fri Jun 25th and 

Sat Jun 26th

The predicted heatwave has arrived and Friday's late twenties has become Saturday's early thirties. 

Most of Friday was spent around the cabin packing, cleaning, trips down to the lake to cool off swimming and generally lazing around. Occasionally there were a couple of other people around, it was getting quite crowded!

I discovered a new walk Thursday morning, a trail that runs along the north side of the lake.  Slightly disappointing that we'd not found it before as it would have been a good one to explore.

The tree on the right at the beginning of the trail seems to have been popular with the resident woodpeckers.  The volume of chippings at the base of the trunk looked as though they'd taken a chain-saw to it.   

The full trail will have to wait until we return to the cabin, which we know we will do at some point.  

We have come to appreciate the remoteness and sparse population of this end of the Sunshine Coast; the easy access to water and the scenery, the late afternoon beers at John Henry's overlooking Pender Harbour with all its islands and inlets.  We will miss it.  Still not sure about it in mid-winter!

Mixal Lake in morning light

Saturday morning we arose after a somewhat warm sleepless night to the temperature already at 20c with predictions of 32c.  Great day for driving in a car.  Thank heavens for air-conditioning.

After a quick and final swim for Jack in Mixal Lake it was back to pack and head off.   Rubbish dropped off at the landfill and recycling centre, the three dimensional Chinese puzzle of packing the car commenced.  Every time we move accommodation there is more to pack!  'No there isn't' cries Fred.  

She is not the one doing the packing!

The owner, who we were due to meet at midday as she was coming across to the Coast for the Strata (Estate Co-operative) AGM dropped us a text to say she was running late.  We decided to head off and take Jack for a swim at the Homesite Creek  Falls.  He was out of the car at at the water's edge in an instant.  He always seems to remember where he has been before and knows the way! 

We detoured back via our new rental from next weekend to drop some luggage and other gear off, to make more room in the car.

It was another chance to have a quick look at where we will be living for the near future and also pick up some post that had already been delivered.  

It was another chance to check out the sea and mountain views.

We decided to head off to the ferry terminal at Langdale (2 minutes away) to see if we could get an earlier ferry.  We'd booked for the 1535, but wanted to get the bulk of the journey out of the way before it got too hot.  That said, certain stretches of the road back along the Coast had peaked 36c - 37c.

The crossings between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale allow only circa 40% of the space to be pre-booked, the balance is filled on a first come first served basis, which is what the bulk of Coast residents and ferry users want.  A recent attempt by BC Ferries to up the pre-booked level was met with fierce resistance and the plan was dropped.

We got in the queue (the 'line') for the earlier 1315 ferry which by the time we boarded was going to be pretty fully.  It was odd standing on the dockside in 31c of heat, looking at the mountains opposite with snow still on the top.   

Jack, who was nervous on his first ferry crossing, is now much more relaxed and was happy to stand at the front of the car deck, being buffeted by the cooling breeze, as were we!  He really is becoming a bit of a seadog.

The view from the front of the ferry deck of the islands, ocean and mountains is captivating and for us is what makes BC so inviting.

The views rarely disappoint.

The crossing is only forty minutes and we disembarked quickly and were reunited just half an hour later with the first accommodation that made us feel so welcome for our first month in Canada, in North Vancouver.

The accommodation that we found slightly chilly in April was now delightfully cool.  Thank goodness!

Jack is asleep on the floor as I finish the blog.  We may head out for a walk up in the forest, if it starts to cool down at about 8pm.  I'm not optimistic, it may be an early walk tomorrow!