I was alil freaked out about this trip as I did NOTHING to prep for it… not one tiny bit of training or toning… lol, yep, definitely no toning going on.
Working full time this year, while trying desperately to keep PC a float is killing me… I am dying, I tell ya!! The big red S has always been a no-brainer for me, literally. Great place to go socialize and never ever gave it a second thought while doing the job or afterhours, no brain or physical drain here at all but this year has been VERY DIFFERENT…uugghh
ok sorry; … nuff about my work ranting… back to my Sea Kayaking, but I don’t get stressed by work, so this is a new emotion, and needed to be shared. Thx for reading.

So as mentioned above, I was alil freaked out about this trip for all the reasons mentioned but then, to add to my misery, they gave me this sexy outfit … and again, nuff said 🙂 This was a whole new layer of stress and discomfort. I was hot, 4 feet wide and didn’t easily have access to my phone or cameras. UUgghh not fun.

The adventure started with an orientation meeting, where we met the guides and previous owner of the company. His name is Peter and he recently sold his company to ROW Adventures but every now and then, he comes on these excursions when in town, purely because of his love for the region…yay, BC – yes, you are beautiful!!
We were really lucky to have Peter join us, he had a millions stories and tales… and I loved everyone of them!
What a lovely (small) group of people…  the other guests were from the US.

We started day one by loading the kayaks into the ocean down at the pier that was super slippery and filled with jelly fish… or sea jelly as they are now known as. I spent most of my time rescuing each jelly by gently picking them up and placing them back in the water. (Yep, a couple people found this weird (ask me if I cared) but they were drying out and needed to get back in the water)

We then set out for ‘camp’. The paddling started out OK once I got alil instruction but after approx 1 hr, my carpal tunnel started to act up and both hands went numb… uugghh, I didn’t even think about the possibility of them bugging me prior to booking this type of trip. My bad and WOW what a wake up call.

But thank goodness, at about the same time, everyone else was starting to feel it and needed bathroom breaks so we pulled into a beautiful cove.
Here we discovered some very unusual star fish… again, known as Sea Stars now (pic to the left)… but this was also my first visit to the woodland ‘loo’… or more accurately , a pine box in the woods, yep, as bad as suspected… but not as bad as ‘the loo’ at camp, I soon discovered.
But to find the silver lining, this was the view on my way back to the beach… gorgeous!

We were lucky to also have Monica with us as a guide, she is studying to be a Marine Biologist with a ton of info to share and a pure love of nature and wildlife… we got along great …lol… actually she ended up being Peter’s girlfriend. They make a lovely sweet couple!

I borrowed my man’s underwater camera and got some fun shots of kelp. It was really interesting learning about it, its growths patterns etc from the guides. I just remember growing up in the West End and the only info I remember about kelp was how irritating it was while swimming down at English Bay but it was interesting learning the other side of it.
Also was hoping to get some unique shot that perhaps I could turn into artwork for the condo… still working on it 🙂

Then after much too much paddling, in my humble opinion, we finally made it to camp.
We had to pull the kayaks WAAAYYYYY up on shore so they wouldn’t float away but at this point, they still were loaded with all our gear, equipment and food and weighed a friggin ton. While carrying them up the shoreline, all I could think was ‘buy a friggin rope’. Actually if someone mentioned this part ahead of time, I would’ve bought you a friggin rope 🙂

…you know because it would achieve the same result; no floating away and then your clients that paid a couple thousand dollars EACH, don’t need to do this after they have been rowing all day.

Much of that hard work paddling and pulling the boats onto shore were forgotten the next morning when I woke up to this stunning view. Actually EVERY morning, this was my “Good morning” view. Just Beautiful.
The fog hung around alot, was chilly in the morning and was very cool to kayak through during the next day but then it was foggy and rained for 2 days straight but weird weather made for some interesting photo shots though.

So I found the silver-lining again.

Each morning we were also greeted with an amazing breakfast … we actually got Eggs Benny one day. How the heck do you make Eggs Benedict on an open camp fire… these guys are miracle workers with a fire. Plus they also went the extra mile by always making everything look beautiful in presentation.
Monica usually had a lovely fruit platter all cut and adorned with fresh greenery and/or florals. It was gorgeous… they made a butcher block and serving buffet from a beautiful beached log. Just all so appreciated.

When not kayaking thru the day, Peter would take us on nature hikes thru the woods. This is where I learned how to tell a Hemlock… limp top due to its below average sized pine cones vs a cedar or spruce, which I found hilarious.

We also made our way to other shoreline campsites to meet other kayakers… 2 others groups were from England… WOW imagine coming all this way just to go kayaking on our coast. VERY COOL! I felt very proud to be from this gorgeous part of the planet and sometimes I forget that BC really is a magical destination for everyone else on the planet.

I got some great shots in the woods but this is one of my favs… love it!! When taking pics anywhere… I try to remember on occasion to look up, and was so thankful I did here!!

As I mentioned earlier it rained a fair amount while on this excursion, so I really embraced the layered look.
I don’t usually do layers as I don’t like adding extra girth needlessly, since I do a great job on my own internally…lol…) but here I am showing off my layers and enjoying a few rare moments of sun.

Here are a couple shots of some of the whales we saw… sadly a few times they would come in closer but I never had my camera ready. It was raining so much off and on that I really didn’t have it out and handy (since I am such a ‘nervous nelly’ about it getting wet)

This was a sweet family pod of orcas that visited us a few times… it was great this last time as we put the hydro phone in the water and could hear them ‘chatting’ with each other. What an incredible experience to hear those magical underwater sounds.

(Don’t forget that you can click on any photo to make it bigger… very helpful with these whale shots)
This would’ve been an awesome day to have had my camera ready as the whales were close to us… and would’ve been super close if we were in the kayaks but as you can see from the water; it was super choppy so we didn’t leave the shore. Plus it had been raining, so my big camera was in my tent.

Here are some random shots of everyday life…

This was the kitchen/eating set- up with Monica’s fruit plate, yummy oatmeal breakfast cake (yes sadly, I didn’t get my pineapple upset down cake, but loved this one) and my steaming cup of tea. Without a Starbucks anywhere to be seen, I settled for a big cup of Tetley a couple times a day, which was fine but my boyfriend knows me so well, because when getting me a the airport he stopped at Starbucks first for my Chai… I know, he is pretty perfect.

Hahaha; is it weird that I have this many food shots??…but it is my favourite part of most days, if there weren’t any whale around.

But since I just spend a glorious few days in a stunning part of our region, let’s finish up with a sunset shot … this was the view from my tent as the sun set each night, just stunning!

We would start ‘Happy Hour’ at 5pm everyday and this is where I discovered the joy of boxed wine (shocking but true), brie warmed on the open fire, sea salted whole nuts, green grapes and crackers…so yummy and the perfect way to end every single amazing day!!

Thx for checking in once again and reading about another little adventure of mine,

Hugs,

Carole