Ferry travellers at Saltery Bay Ferry Terminal

Day Five, Raymond and Corinne Return Home
Following an exciting Friday night gallivanting around Powell River, by 7:40 a.m. Saturday morning Corinne and I were well rested, and ready for the final leg of our CirclePac Tour.
After breakfasting at MacDonald’s (there just aren’t that many options in Powell River, and nobody ever said that we follow a macrobiotic diet — we don’t — so the fact that we went to MacDonald’s for breakfast shouldn’t come as too much of a shock … then again, that did sound a bit defensive), we were on our way. The journey from Powell River to the Saltery Bay terminal is a scant 34 kilometres, so we were ready and waiting in line for the 11:15 a.m. “inside passage” ferry by 10:20 a.m. The waiting period was spent walking around the Saltery Bay arrival and departure compound (you can see for yourself, from the picture above, that the surrounding waters and mountains are nothing short of breathtaking), and reading the day’s newspapers, which we picked up along the way at a 7-11.

The 40-minute ride ferry ride from Saltery Bay to Earls Cove …

The 2nd to last leg of the CirclePac
tour, approaching Earls Cove

is my favourite leg of the CirclePac tour. The journey through British Columbia’s pristine “inside passage” — surrounded by alpine meadows and snow-capped mountains — is as close as one can get to communing with nature, fully surrounded by the beauty of Mother Nature, as is possible for many of us, short of chartering a boat (not in my budget), or paying several thousands of dollars to book passage on one of the Alaska cruise lines, which take passengers up the “inside passage”.
We arrived in Earls Cove around 12:20 p.m. and proceeded along British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast (and Sechelt Peninsula), along the two-lane highway surrounded by old-growth forest, through Pender Harbour (opposite Texada Island), Halfmoon Bay, Sechelt and Roberts Creek, before arriving in Gibsons to catch the Langdale ferry back to Vancouver’s Lower Mainland.
The 40-minute ride on the Langdale ferry was anti-climactic, as neither Corinne nor I were all that anxious to return to the “big city“. The teenagers onboard the vessel, talking to friends on their cell phones bemoaned the fact of their having to return to school on Monday. “Me, too,” I wanted to yell, “Me too! I don’t want to go back to work. Let this vacation last forever”. But, alas, the clarion call of the employer awaits, and as must be the case, it seems, all good things must come to an end.
But not too soon.
To draw out the vacation time, rather than taking oh-so-speedy Highway 1 into Vancouver, we opted instead to take the “low road”, the Marine Drive route which winds its way to Vancouver, the road that hugs the coastline.

Vancouver, as seen from the view along West Vancouver’s Marine Drive

We drove through Lion’s Bay, past Lighthouse Park, through Dundarave, West Vancouver’s business district, Park Royal, and onto the Lion’s Gate Bridge, through Stanley Park, along Pacific Avenue, over the Burrard Street Bridge, and we were home.
What a wonderful (if all-too-brief) vacation. Imagine, only five short hours from Vancouver (including the hour and three quarters ferry to Nanaimo), one can find oneself transported into the realm of the primeval forest, to miles of beach which hug the pristine Pacific ocean, reaching across to Japan and beyond, not just away from the daily grind of life in the big city, but to one’s historical roots, to the very heart of Mother Earth.
We’ll both be returning soon to Vancouver Island’s pristine West Coast.

Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

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