11.-12.04 - Roberts Creek, BC

There is news! We have had a functioning shower for a few days now. It is still outside and more improvised than anything else, but it provides somewhat warm water. Every now and then it smells quite strongly of gas (the water is heated by a gas bottle) and burnt hair (no idea why), but at least we can wash ourselves (although it is still quite cold before and after showering, but at least).

On 11.04. we hiked a part of the Hidden Grove Trail near Sechelt. It was pretty cool because all sections of the trail were indicated on a map with the exact walking time (which was mostly overestimated). We walked all the viewpoints of the trail and also looked at all the 'Giant Trees'. These are not giant sequoias, but they still reach an impressive height and trunk diameter of 2-3 m. All in all, a beautiful trail with beautiful trees. We spent the rest of the day on the beach in front of our doorstep and at our accommodation.

On 12.04. we had no rain all day for the first time! And even sunshine until the afternoon! We drove pretty far north (Egmont) to the Skookmchuk Narrows. The Skookmchuk Narrows are a tidal rapids and the only connection between Sechelt Inlet (fjord) and the Pacific Ocean. Here, an 8 km long hiking trail has been created, which leads from the parking lot to the rapids and back. Basically, you hike - as often - permanently through monotonous Canadian forest to finally get to something 'worth seeing'. Nevertheless, very interesting and a beautiful hike.

Tomorrow evening we will continue to Kingston (Jamaica). We will be staying in various AirBnBs for the first 1.5 weeks here and we are quite happy to have decent sanitary facilities again (hopefully). Our flight departs at 11:30 PM local time from Vancouver to Toronto and then continues on Friday at 09:50 AM (local time Toronto) to Kingston. We only have a vague idea of how to get from the airport in Kingston to our accommodation about 19 km away. Public transportation on Jamaica is organized differently than we are used to. There are tourist taxis (which only accept US dollars and are therefore quite expensive) and so-called route taxis (which are also regular cars, but are filled up to the roof, but cost only a fraction). If that works with our big backpacks, we'll take the route taxi. We are definitely very excited about what awaits us and will keep you updated.