04.04.-07.04. - Roberts Creek, BC

On Tuesday, April 4th, we had work on the program again. The host mother Daniela has been in Vancouver for one night since Monday and we had enough time to handle some of our tasks. We passed the time by trimming hedges, digging compost, removing raspberry hedges (or bushes) and pruning trees. We also had various tools available, such as a cordless chainsaw. This thing cuts so poorly that you are faster with a handsaw.

As for the weather in this part of the Pacific coast, we often stand in the rain here at the current time. It practically rains every day, sometimes more and sometimes less. For example, it rained continuously from yesterday morning (April 6th) until today noon (April 7th). Therefore, we always try to use the 'dry' time windows to do some activities.

On Wednesday, April 5th, we explored the area and wanted to drive to Garden Bay with the Dodge Caravan (built in 2003, 3.8 liter engine). Daniela suggested checking the oil again. So we did and found that there is significantly (!) too little oil in the engine. Of course, Daniela did not know which oil is needed, there was no manual for the car and there was nothing to be found in the engine compartment. In the end, we found the right oil on the internet and bought it at the next gas station. We should buy two bottles and pour in one. The oil level is still significantly too low, but Daniela doesn't care, the car drives anyway ... So we drove to Garden Bay to climb Mt. Daniel (about 450 meters and 380 altitude meters). This is a nice hike that leads through Canadian forest all the time, but is rewarded with a beautiful view in the end. On the way back, we actually wanted to take the Homesite Creek Falls Trail, which leads to a beautiful waterfall. Unfortunately, we couldn't manage that because the signage on the road was wrong and the path shown on our phone led to a camper housing in the middle of the forest. Instead, we hiked on the Smugglers Cove Trail, which passes several moor and swamp areas to a bay that used to be used to smuggle Chinese refugees into the United States of America.

As mentioned above, April 6th was completely rainy. Since our compost toilet was not completely empty when we arrived and we also could not shut down our digestive tract during our time here, the toilet had to be emptied. I spare any details here and hope that this was the first and last time I had to do something like that. Otherwise, we used the day for further travel planning and didn't do much apart from a short rainy walk.

Good Friday (April 7th) was chosen by host mother Daniela as a work day. Maybe she doesn't know Easter or forgot that it is this weekend. However, we had already mentioned that we would like to go kayaking in the afternoon - weather permitting. Our task in the morning was to create a garden bed so that plants can be sown here later. Basically no problem, but there are so incredibly many small and large stones in the ground here that it is quite difficult. We almost finished the bed and then drove to Sechelt to go kayaking with Daniela's other car (a Honda with 275,000 km). Without waves and headwind, it's really great. Unfortunately, on the way back we had relatively high waves and a lot of headwind, so we got soaking wet. It was fun anyway (although the water is still pretty cold) and the view was definitely worth it!