Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dreamscapes.ca/i/679293
DREAMSCAPES SPRING/SUMMER 2016 14 haunted with the ghosts of miners who passed through long ago en route to gold- fields on the mainland. We wandered to the nearby Georgina Point with the Active Pass Lighthouse, built in 1884, and, surrounded by attractively sculpted sandstone, one of the most pictur- esque on the west coast. Later, a short drive took us to the elegant Japanese Gardens where Allyson and I sat in the meditation pavilion, reflecting on the sad time during World War II when the island's Japanese were removed to internment camps, their farms and possessions confiscated and never returned. PENDER ISLAND At Poets Cove Resort on South Pender Island we saw first-hand that these islands offer superb boating. We spent hours watching the coming and going of gleaming yachts and sailboats with tall masts from as far away as California and Alaska. At the bar we listened to yarns about distant places, fish that had been caught (or not) and the orcas, dolphins and sea lions that the sailors had sighted. SATURNA ISLAND Saturna, the smallest and most isolated of the main Gulf Islands, seems lost in a time warp. We drove leisurely along narrow winding roads and when, occasionally, we passed another car, the driver always waved. Sheep grazed in tiny meadows and feral goats scampered on hillsides. At East Point Park we lazed among sandstone rocks sculpted by the wind and rain into delicate lacework whorls of beige and yellow. Seals frolicked in the kelp beds. Just off shore the tidal currents eddied and swirled around the point called Boiling Reef. Farther out, enormous merchant steamers lumbered along. We found an ancient Native midden at a small cove and studied the layers of broken white clamshells deposited here by the Coastal Salish Natives over a period of 6,000 years. As the sun sank low, we drove to the summit of Mount Warburton Pike and watched the sun paint the horizon shades of vermilion and flaming orange. A lone sailboat headed for harbour, a long shim- mering vee trailing behind. Allyson and I raised our glasses and toasted this delightful feast of islands. RIGHT: Seals watch nervously on Java Islet. BELOW: Looking south from Mount Galiano, we spot a ferry manoeuvring its way through the islands. BOTTOM: The Active Pass Lighthouse stands at Georgina Point on the northern tip of Mayne Island. T R A V E L P L A N N E R For more information visit: Destination BC: hellobc.com Gulf Islands National Park Reserve: pc.gc.ca/gulf BC Ferries: bcferries.com DS