Salt Spring Island 4 September 2019

We usually take about two days to remember how much we don't like cities; worked this time. Our little spot on Simcoe Street was in an old, quiet, settled section of Victoria, as was all our walking and visiting. This morning we had to go through the belly of the beast, and our trip was aggravated by false advertising on the part of the Victoria Public Market, what you'd expect to be, well, a market, but is really just a lame food court. Cost us some frustration to find this out ...but soon enough we were on our way to Swartz Bay, the ferrying spot for Salt Spring Island.

That's our escape boat pulling in now.

Overheard on the ferry: "I really needed to get away. I'm definitely going in the right direction." Amen, sister.

Our friend Brenda, who has some Salt Spring history, says her informants lament the crowding of SSI. I myself remember it from four years ago, when even then it was beginning to show signs of being a little too close to (as Sienna says) "what they call civilization" and a little too easy to get to and plunder. Our first run through Fulford (no place to park) and Ganges (difficult to park, mobbed grocery store) suggests they're right.

But an uncrowded pub, Moby's with a cheery, helpful young waitress, and a glass of delicious SSI cider, grass-fed burger and yam fries, and things are looking up. 

The primary goal of this trip, and our longest stay, is the Enchanted Cottage on the hillside above Fulford Bay. We stayed here for only two days in 2015, and I was determined to come back and take it really easy for a couple of days here at least.

We had rough directions and a very vague recollection of how to get up the back roads and along the windey 2-wheel track through temperate rainforest to get here. Memory and luck served, and, lo and behold, there's the Enchanted Cottage!