Monday, April 16, 2018

Beachcombing for Treasure


One of our favourite activities when near the ocean is beachcombing, and the west coast of Vancouver Island is supposed of have some of the finest beachcombing beaches in the world.

Over the past couple of days, we've had some rain. So when the weather forecast included some sun, we headed for the closest beach. Then we continued up the coast to the next beach and then the one after that. The tide happened to be quite high and it left poor footing on large loose stones above the high watermark. We'll need to check the tide tables before heading out next time.

The west coast of the Island is the windward side, so there's wood debris, logs and seaweed washed ashore everywhere. With every high tide and storm, the waves of the Pacific deliver nature's bounty onto the beach. Much of the driftwood was enormous in size and had signs of being gouged out and worn smooth by the wind and waves grinding the logs on rocks and sand.


Also of interest were a couple of starfish.  Even though washed ashore, they appeared to be still alive so we helped them back into the sea.

Lastly, we came across a couple of small beach huts. My entrepreneurial side thought we should advertise them for rent on the Vacation Property R Us rental site. Everything is quite expensive here, and they would be perfect accommodation for minimalists like me. I'm thinking it would be BYOT, Bring Your Own Tarp. Let us know if you're interested.



On a more serious note, it was nice to see that there was very little garbage on the beaches. I think it speaks more to keeping garbage out of the water as opposed to cleaning the beaches.

We're still in search of a memorable Vancouver Island treasure, maybe a rusted relic from a shipwreck, an ornate seashell, or funky piece of driftwood. We know it's out there, so we're already planning for our next beachcombing adventure further up the coast.

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