Island girl

Returning back from 2 days on the island in Victoria, I felt the tension and unease that I'd been carrying with me the past week in Vancouver slip away. I'd gone over to have a too-brief visit with Sara and Donal and to buy the van that will be my home-on-my-back for the summer. The van bought and tucked away in Sara's carport, I heading back on the ferry. The island is so much more home to me than Vancouver is. As an expat in Australia, I generally answer Vancouver to the questions of Where in Canada are you from? This has always been more out of convenience as few people have a clue where the Comox Valley is. This trip back has reinforced just how far off that statement really is. Vancouver isn't where I'm from. The Island really is. It's a different place with a different feel and energy to it. Victoria is a small city, by city standards, with only 400,000 or so people. It doesn't have the overwhelming feeling that Vancouver has, despite Vancouver being a very warm and welcoming city, as far as big cities go. I'm really looking forward to house-sitting for Sara and Donal in Victoria while they go on their honeymoon. I quite like the idea of slipping unnoticed into a local's life as I potter about for a week getting my newly purchased van kitted out for my coming adventures.

So I sat on deck on the ferry ride back to the mainland, watching the sometimes ramshackle, but increasingly beautiful cabins, balanced precariously on the coasts of fir-clad islands and peninsulas slip past. The evening sun was shining down and starting to dip low over craggy rocks and trees that came down steep hillsides to dip their toes in the pacific ocean. A few dolphins cut above the waterline and the tall dorsal fin of an orca whale broke the surface once along the way, much to the delight of those lucky enough to be looking in the right direction. Even the bob and sway of the big BC Ferry felt so familiar and comforting. I was calm, relaxed, happy and at peace as we docked in the Tssawassen harbour, the sun finally dropping below the shipping cranes that stood like giant blue herons along the shoreline. Oh I am very much an island girl.