Friday, September 1, 2017
Sointula, Malcolm Island
I arrived in Sointula last night on the ferry from Port McNeill. I didn’t arrive until almost 20:00, and didn’t know where I was going to stay. Everything near the ferry terminal was already closed except for The Sointula Pie Co., which was just closing. The woman there suggested I drive down the road to Harmony Shores Campground. I have site #8, right on the beach.
Only one other site was taken last night. Being there by myself was so beautiful, drinking a cup of chamomile tea and looking out at the Queen Charlotte Strait before tucking into the hammock for the night.
Yesterday morning we paddled south from Spyhop Beach back toward the point we had paddled to the afternoon before. But before we reached it, we found ourselves in the midst of what Julian thought were 30-40 orcas and a pod of dolphins who were harassing or playing with them. We spent an hour or so among them, and followed them back north once they started traveling again. Eventually, they outpaced us. Amazing.
We lunched on a beach beside Blinkhorn Island and spent a lazy time there. Julian and the boys threw rocks. I napped on a long flat driftwood. Then we paddled peacefully back to Telegraph Cove, sorted our things, and said our good-byes.
I came to Sointula because the ferry to Alert Bay was full, and the woman at the ferry terminal said there was better camping here anyway. Harmony Shores has a small building with a microwave, toaster, coffee pot, kettle and kitchen sink, as well as two private bathrooms with showers. I was relieved to get cleaned up this morning. I even washed my pyjamas and all my underwear and hung them in the car to dry.
While I was showering, it rained. I set up tarps when I returned to camp, another shower passing as I did. Then I walked 3 kilometres into town, picking up scraps of garbage and a five-dollar bill, and passing a deer that seemed more wary of me than of the two cars that passed by.
I had lunch at the Upper Crust Bakery — a large bowl of African peanut yam soup and two slices of buttered rye bread. Delicious. A small Chilean man runs the place. Then I toured the Sointula Museum, which was full of my childhood memories and grandparents’ memorabilia, along with the story of the Finnish communistic utopians who settled here in 1901, creating the Kalevan Kansa Colonization Company.
After meandering through the Sointula Co-op Store, and visiting the tourist information centre, I ordered a Joyful pizza at the Sointula Pie Co. (curried onion, peppers, mushrooms, pineapple, and cheese), and ate it at a picnic table outside the Sointula Tourist Information Centre. It tasted so good, I’m thinking of going back there tomorrow night. Yum!
A pair of ravens are nested above my campsite. I love the sound of their flight as they come and go. Last night I thought I heard an eagle here, too. Mergansers, terns, sandpipers and gulls frequent the beach and bay.
A neighbouring camper is fly fishing a stone’s throw in front of me, waist deep in the water, while his son floats in a yellow inflatable dinghy further down the beach. It’s nearing sunset, and the clouds are breaking.
Copyright © 2017 Lynn Thorsell, All rights reserved.
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