Denman Island & Hornby Island, BC

We were to stay with Ricia on Denman Island for two weeks. After a few hours on the bus from Nanaimo we jumped on the ferry over to Denman Island. The sun was out and we were very much looking forward to our stay with Ricia. After a beer, way too much ice cream and a long wait, Ricia pulled up and we set off a few miles north to her house. The land used to be a co-op and there are three other households on a large piece of land. The house was amazing, one big room with a beautiful stove in the middle and a really eclectic design. Ricia informed us there was another wwoofer from Scotland staying, a man called Liam who was in his mid/late fourties. Liam would rile myself and Maddie up on a number of occasions during our stay. He was nice enough, but a bit of a know it all and the type of person that could sit down with a brain surgeon and tell them them they were doing everything wrong! We would retire on more than one occasion to an early bed. Anyway, this didn't effect our stay. The chores were small and we never quite knew how we could help Ricia out with her small homestead. She would give us a few five minute jobs which I guess she expected us to take fours hours to do! Most of the day we would just be sitting about or going out for a cycle. When Ricia did have time she regularly encouraged us to go off round the island and she often took us around the island to show us things.
On one day me and Maddie got up early and cycled the 7 miles to the ferry so we could go to the next island over, Hornby Island. We managed to catch the early ferry and spent the day cycling round the island it was a beautiful sunny day and we stopped at Fords cove before hitting the tiny downtown of the island. We cycled down to Tribune Bay and Andy jumped in for a swim in the beautiful crystal clear waters. Back on the bikes we then headed to Helliwell Provincial Park and did a walk along the volcanic cliff top to the point and watched the sea lions. On the way back up the east side of the island we stopped off again in a harbour for another swim in the beautiful crystal clear bay. Eventually we got back to Ricia's after cycling around 25 miles.
We had our own room in Ricia's out house above the garage which was comfortable enough. We ate good food had a lot of drunken darts nights with Ricia. We went to a couple of concerts on the island which were very hippy type events. On some nights we visited a pot luck at Ricia's friends farm. Everyone had to bring food and we all sat round and chatted and drank beer. On another occasion we visited the beach to watch the full moon, it became quite a boozy messy affair and Maddie became designated driver. Ricia liked her tincture which was an alcohol based marijuana. Cracked me up in the back of the car when she said to me about Maddie's driving. 'I could do better'; she was completely mashed! I was like, nah, Maddie's doing great! Eventually our time came to leave the island and head north. Ricia got up late and like a bat out of hell, drove us to the ferry which we caught with seconds to spare. Farewell to two beautiful islands!Read more