08.-10.04. - Roberts Creek, BC

Finally bathing in the Pacific! ... But let's start from the beginning.

On Easter Saturday (April 8th) ... as it should be ... it was raining almost the whole day again. Therefore, we decided to take a short hike through the nearby forest/park (Cliff Gilker Park), as it provides good protection from the rain. The Cliff Gilker Park is basically a forest that remains largely untouched apart from the established trails (everything that falls remains where it is). The total length of all the established trails is just under 5 km, so we decided to connect them all and walked them all. We passed a sports field, which of course needs additional watering (it rains here every day). We also finished painting the floor in the adjacent room on that day. The room is supposed to be used again as a physiotherapy room for Daniela's patients at some point (although we can't imagine she'll ever work again...). The floor painting went as follows (according to Daniela's instructions): Move all the 'junk' in this room to one side (you can't take it outside because it's raining all the time), vacuum and mop the freed-up side, tape off the edges, and paint that side. After the paint has dried, simply move the junk to the already painted side, clean the other side, and paint it as well. Once that side has dried, you can distribute the junk equally on both sides of the room.

On Easter Sunday (April 9th), the weather decided to do something different: rain. So, we spent the morning and the beginning of the afternoon planning for our further travels. In the afternoon, we visited some nearby mountain bike trails during a short hike (4 km). We also passed by a sort of trailer park - living in a trailer at the edge of the forest seems to be quite popular here. In general, there are some people who live in trailers or converted vans (rumor has it that it has to do with the local real estate prices...). In the evening, we had pizza at the Italian restaurant in Gibsons, which was surprisingly very Italian (especially by North American standards): thin, hand-rolled dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and baked in the wood-fired oven. The pizza was really great but, of course, it had its price (a Margherita pizza costs $17, which is about €12).

On Easter Monday, it surprisingly didn't rain all day, so we had to work. We set up a pavilion, finished the zucchini bed, and mowed the lawn. Mowing the lawn was made difficult by 2 things: 1. the grass was still wet and 2. the lawnmower was (still) not functioning. The mower blade was sharpened in the meantime, but the engine of that thing is pretty much shot and it doesn't mow anymore. Luckily, we have a (battery-powered) grass trimmer, which is known to do a particularly good job. I got to work and finished after 10 minutes because the battery was empty. I must have managed about 20 m² - let's see what I can accomplish by Thursday when we leave.
Since it only rained a little today, the day had to be used for swimming. The Pacific here is about 8.5 °C, and with the air temperature of 9 °C, it's already over 17 °C. Overall, it's quite bearable and I imagined it to be colder beforehand (and I was able to get dressed afterwards without Caro's help, which is also a sign of tolerable temperatures). Besides many starfish, there are also oysters and other shells hanging on the rocks here, which makes them quite sharp-edged. Therefore, bathing shoes (or in my case, flip-flops) are definitely recommended.

We will leave here on Thursday and hope for better sanitary facilities. At least in the first few days in Jamaica, that should be the case, as we will initially be staying in an AirBnB accommodation. Then we'll go to work with Thomas, a Swiss guy who has been living in Jamaica for 30 years. We're not quite sure yet what exactly our task will be there - but we'll find out soon enough. Hopefully, he has at least a decent toilet (only cold water on Jamaica is apparently much less stressful than here).