Canada gulf islands day 3- Vancouver island day 1

Vancouver Island Day 1

Today is travel day for us to go to Vancouver Island. It's been a common misunderstanding that Vancouver is not on Vancouver Island. It's a big island with named towns like Victoria and Sidney

First stop is Embe Bakery to get some sausage rolls and coffee for the road (sorry no picture as we are driving and eating). 

We got a chance to check out Fulford Harbour area as we came in via Long Harbour side. 

We were the first car in the ferry and it's a smaller ferry that has an open front. So we were able to see the islands going by during the whole journey which is great. The weather is also prefect but we stayed in the van as it's higher and give us a better view

Fulford Harbor ferry with our front row view

We got in at Swartz bay on Vancouver Island and went to check out Sidney town

First row seat shows all the equipment at the ferry terminal

Sidney has some really cool shops that we enjoyed popping our heads into.

Sidney

The marina is popular with boaters as it's a big enough marina for supplies and provisioning

Sidney town from the Harbor

View from Harbor

Marina in Sidney

Nice park with chairs in the harbor

View of the marina

Haunted bookstore has a lot of old books that Bill could have easily spend another few more hours in there! We also went to Sidney museum to look at how old settlers live in Sidney. 

And chanced upon Rogers chocolate that turn out to be 150 years old brand. 

Sidney museum

Sidney Bakery has a 50% off flash sale so we stock up for desserts for next few nights

Sidney bakery flash sale - meat pies, short bread cookies and Nanaimo bars

Sidney statues

Went to Small Gods Brewery where Bill got a cider and I got a sour. 

Small Gods brewery

After that we went to Smonecten campground that's run by BC parks. 

Found our campsite for the next 3 nights

Our campsite

The campsite is very close to Sidney and in fact had a couple of yacht club near us. We didn't get a chance to check them out this trip. Bummer! It's more flat than the garden Faire. But it's also more nature (aka more dirt and vegetation) which makes it very challenging to keep the van clean.

We rigged up the privacy tent and solar showers.

We can't really get the showers to heat up as the campground are in shade most of the time with the trees. But the bucket toilet with the privacy tent is great for me. Dealing with the composting toilet on oasis made us used to pouring out liquid waste that is not an issue handing the bucket toilet

Bob came in with his campervan and joined us for dinner

We made some pork chops with green beans from the market and some salad. 

Bob joining us at the campground

We appreciate how quiet the campground are and realized how noisy we can be 😂

But it's great to see Bob!