Hey! I’m 10 days on Galiano Island now, and Iloveit! It’s my last Workaway address, and I’m staying for almost four weeks.

After Christian picked me up from the ferry, he told me there was another Workawayer in the first week; Julia. She was 20 y.o. and came from Germany. We had so much fun together!! When we arrived at their house, we watched the sunset with Snoopy, their cute chocolate lab. After that, we made popcorn and played Loot, a card game. I felt so happy when I went to bed that night: it felt like home immediately.

It’s so relaxed here! The ‘work’ I need to do is mostly taking care of Snoopy. Sometimes I do other things like the dishes, or some work in the garden, but it doesn’t feel like work at all! I just do the tasks I would do at home too. The family has a vegetable garden next to their house, but they also have a bigger one at a community garden, a ten-minute drive away; this one looks like the garden we have at home. I went here a few times with Martine, my host, and one time by myself.

I really feel like I’m part of the family: we play games like Catan or cards together, make music, etc. Christian gave me some really helpful guitar lessons, so I’m picking that up again. I’m really happy to play the guitar again and to understand things I didn’t get at home. One night we jammed all together, with the guitars, drums and keyboard, while Martine and Christian were singing. It was awesome!

Galiano Island has approximately the same surface as Gabriola Island, but it’s the shape that makes it a bit harder to get to all the Provincial Parks, especially the north end: where the southeast part is really broad, with a lot of roads, stores, and the most people, is the north-west side really narrow and long. The island is on the farthest points 28 kilometres long, and the narrowest point about 1.5 kilometres. We live in a cute wooden house on the north side of the broad part, with a two-minute walk to the beach. For me, with my ‘sunset addiction’, I couldn’t have hoped for a better place on the island ;)

There are a few provincial parks with beautiful hiking trails, but in between the parks, there is just the road to walk on. So if I walk every morning for two hours with Snoop, I mostly go to the beach or to the closest park, which is first a thirty-minute walk on the road (although I barely see any cars). But that’s worth it: because of the big amount of rain last weeks, everything is super green and there are yellow flowers everywhere. Some places here feel like a rainforest, with massive trees, ferns, and hummingbirds. There is a lot of height difference in the park, so on top of the hill is a beautiful viewpoint where you see the ocean, the mountains, and even Vancouver on a clear day.

Of course, there are still quite a few rainy days, but the weather has been a lot better and warmer: last week was mostly around 15 degrees, but we’ve had some days that it was even 20 degrees! Also, this week I felt only sick for one day, so that’s a big improvement too :)

The first night I slept in my tiny bedroom in the house, but after that Julia and I slept two nights on the ‘Into The Mystic’: their sailboat (it’s a cool name :). I’ll post another blog about that tomorrow, otherwise this one is getting too long.Christian and Martine have two kayaks, a paddle board and two sailboats (the smallest one is from Lili, their daughter.) They lived for a while on the biggest one.

On Thursday, Julia was invited for lunch by a lady who gave her a lift while she walked back from the boat to the house. (I went with all our stuff on the speed-pedelec). I could come too, which was really nice. I’m so glad we went! The lady, Heidi, treaded us to lunch and coffee and delicious cakes while telling us amazing stories about her travels and adventures in Alaska and the Yukon. She was awesome!! I’m so happy I met her :)

After this, we went to an art gallery of an artiste from Galiano. She made beautiful paintings of places on the island. It looked like the air, the trees, and the ground were all connected because of her technique and use of colour; it was pretty!

Julia and I could use the speed-pedelec: the electric bike. It was so much fun to go on the bike together! I drove and Julia sat on the back. It went 30-40 kilometres per hour, so it almost felt like riding a scooter: Because Galiano has so many hills, we went so fast when we got downhill! With the bike, we went to “Peace Park”. We hiked up on a really steep path (first we took the wrong path, but the whole area was collapsed so we couldn’t go further). When we came to the ‘top’, we had a beautiful view over the islands. There was also a statue of ‘Sri Chinmoy’ “dreamer of world peace”, and there was a meditation area.

One time, we went supping in the rain: Julia wanted to do it before she left. If I would see other people do it, I would say they’re crazy, but it was actually pretty funny! Everything was grey and cloudy, so from the paddle board it was quite an experience to be on the sea with the rain, and the shore looked way different than normal.

On Julia’s last day, we went to a beautiful sand beach: I hadn’t seen many of those in Canada before! It was really pretty.

The temperature was not that high, but the weather was nice and the sun was super bright. Because of that, it was really hot on the beach, and we jumped into the water! It was great (and cold…), and we had a lot of fun. We dried up on the beach and went back to the garden where we helped Martine for a while.

When we came home, we ate some of Martine’s salad and bread. She is an amazing chef!! It’s crazy to look at her cutting techniques: she’s so fast with the knife!I learn a lot from her.

That afternoon, we went to “Dionisio Point”, a provincial park at the far north end of the island. We were already pretty late, and they needed the car back at some point, so Christian helped us to knot the electric bike at the back of the car. We needed to remember how he did it, for when we had to drive back, but it worked out pretty well. From the parking lot, we cycled through the forest and puddles. We went so fast!

Dionisio was definitely worth it: the sandstone looked like the galleries on Gabriola, and there were some pretty beaches. It was a marine park, so it was the best to reach it by boat.

When we came home, Julia and I made some popcorn and played cards. The next day, (really early,) she, unfortunately, left for Tofino… It’s a pity she had to leave; we were kinda close, although we only saw each other for one week. I think this week was one of the best weeks I’ve had in Canada!

After Julia left, I moved into ‘The Palace’, a small cabin that serves as a bedroom. It’s really cute, with a big window that overlooks the trees in the garden.

The last few days, there were quite a few switches of people coming in and out: Julia left on Monday morning. In the evening, Maurice, an earlier Workawayer, came to pick up his stuff. The next day, Maurice left and Lili arrived. Lili was in France for two months so everyone (especially Snoopy,) was excited for her to come. Now everything is ‘back to normal’ so we’re here with four people in total. I’ve only spent two days with Lili, but she’s awesome and she’s close to my age (18yo).

Last few days, I just stayed at the house. On Gabriola or in Sidney, I really had the urge to check out everything in the area, but now I enjoy it to take it easy. I kinda missed the time for myself; to catch up with my diary, write blogs, read books or play the guitar. I have lots of time for that now! But I’m staying here for a few weeks more, so of course, I hope to have some more fun adventures :)

Tomorrow, I’ll also post some pictures about this place.

Good night ;)

~Sophie