Camping on Salt Spring Island

Last Friday we shipped ourselves over to Salt Spring Island, for another weekend away camping.

Salt Spring Island is the largest of the Southern Gulf Islands, about twice the size of Waiheke island back in Auckland. It has a population of about 11,000, which is very similar to Waiheke (9,500 in 2017). The main township is Ganges, sitting at the end of Ganges Harbour. I'd say the majority of the Islanders live in Ganges, with the rest spread around the island on farms and in smaller communities near the many beaches.

The ferry to the island leaves from Tsawwassen (one of Victoria's two main ferry terminals), and arrives an hour and a half later in Long Harbour, which runs parallel to Ganges Harbour. We had to get to Tsawwassen an hour before the ferry departed, otherwise they wouldn't honour our reservation (then it's just first-come-first-served). While we were waiting in the terminal, another ferry to Vancouver Island departed. It was funny watching the people waiting for their Starbucks coffee frantically trying to gauge how long they had before they had to board, and whether they should abandon their not-yet-delivered coffees. We heard several calls over the PA system for drivers of cars who'd made the wrong decision.

We arrived in Ganges at about 4pm on Friday and spent the afternoon wandering around the town. We sampled some burgers and local craft beer and walked for a while along the waterfront. Ganges harbour has an interesting mix of pleasure yachts, fishing boats, and float planes, all kind of intermingled around the various piers and marinas. After a brief visit to the local supermarket (for water and marshmallows, two essential camping ingredients that we'd forgotten) we headed up into the hills towards Mowhinna Creek Campground.

Mowhinna Creek (that's Mow-he-na, not Mow-fi-na) is a private campground, unlike the previous BC Parks run campground that we stayed at last time. We'd read lots of reviews about the hosts being really strict and unfriendly, but we discovered the exact opposite. Lynn welcomed us heartily, and her husband Milton lead us to our site in one of his many solar-powered golf carts. The campsites were quite tightly packed, but still very private thanks to a thick wall of raspberry bushes, at least 2m high, encircling us.

As with all good North American campsites, this one came equipped with a wooden picnic table and a truck rim fire pit. Milton delivered us a box of firewood ($10, and you're not allowed to bring your own), and we settled ourselves in for the evening. Side note, our camp stove is fantastic! So much better than the electric hob at our house in Vancouver. It'll boil a pot of water in about 30 seconds!

The next morning (after another luxurious sleep in the rooftop tent, seriously this was the right decision) we walked back into town to find some coffee. We'd discovered that along with water and marshmallows we'd also forgotten to pack filters for the Aeropress, so no campsite coffees for us =[. We sat next to a local couple at TJ Beans, who told us lots about the island and what it was like living there. We'd already thought about how Ganges reminded us of Oneroa, and talking to these guys totally solidified that.

Ganges hosts a market every Saturday, where lots of local artists and artisans set up stalls to sell all sorts of interesting things. Handmade soap, leather bags, pickles, spirits, and watercolours. Lots of tourists come to these markets every week but aren't aware of their strict no-dogs-in-the-market policy. The couple we were talking to volunteer every week at the SPCA stall, where they have a big fenced section under a shady tree with lots of deck chairs. They provide a donation-funded service where they look after your dog for you while you peruse the market.

Later that afternoon we walked for an hour or so to Salt Spring Wild Cider. They're like a craft brewery, but for apples! We tasted 10 different ciders, accompanied by some local cheeses and charcuterie. The ciders ranged from standard dry and semi-dry apple to more exotic concoctions like hopped apricot, bitter orange rosemary, and burnt apple tequila. The cider house buys apples from lots of little orchards all around the island, which lets them make finely tuned blends of up to 30 different kinds of apple!

On Sunday morning we packed up our campsite, checked out, and headed off on a driving tour of the island. Our first stop was a cafe in Fernwood, on our way to the northern end of the island. We walked out onto the end of a very cold and windy jetty that stuck out into the Trincomali Channel. The beach underneath was all green and slimy, and the water was full of long wavy seaweed. Definitely not somewhere to go swimming on a sunny day.

Once refuelled, we continued around the coast until we got Southey Point. The road ended at a little sheltered inlet, with some houses perched on the hills surrounding it.

We enjoyed the view for a while and then headed back down the island to Ruckle Park on the eastern point. There's a campground here that we considered staying at, but as it's mostly first-come-first-served, we decided not to risk it. We had a walk through the park to a lookout point and saw some strange trees on the way. They have some peculiar thick bark, which makes it look just like a fake plastic tree you'd see in a mall display or something. On our way back from the point, we ran into a deer on the path! It stared at us for a few moments, just 10 meters away, and then hopped off the track down the hill to the beach where it had spotted some yummy looking leaves. I didn't quite catch it in front of us with my camera but got a good shot of it having a munch.

The next stop on our tour was the Salt Spring Island Cheese Company. Their primary product is soft, fresh chèvre cheese, which is made from goats milk (chèvre means goat in French). It has a consistency a bit like feta but has a much subtler flavour. They package the cheese with yummy toppings, like olive tapenade, chilli, and roast garlic. We bought a selection of them for snacks back at home. We walked down the long driveway to visit some of their goats, who were hanging out in the shade of their little house.

The final highlight was the Salt Spring Island Ales. Nestled in the forest, their slogan is fittingly "Drink beer with nature". As is tradition, we bought a tasting flight of some of their more interesting looking brews. Most of the beers were pretty standard IPA derivatives, but they had a limited release Creme Brulee Vanilla Stout which was more like a liqueur than a beer. I don't generally like stouts and porters, but this one was delicious.

With our island loop complete, we headed back to the ferry terminal to wait for our ride home. The sailing back to Tsawwassen took a bit longer than the way there, as we called in at Sturdies Bay on Galiano Island to drop off a truck. Unfortunately, the truck had a bit of a problem getting itself off the ferry, so the whole journey took closer to 3hrs. We arrived home after dark, exhausted but really happy!