As soon as breakfast was finished yesterday, the girls raced off to the beach to climb over the rocks and see what sea creatures had been deposited in the rock pools overnight. There were fewer hermit crabs but instead there was something much more exciting – lots of tiny jellyfish. They were tricky to see as they were completely transparent, apart from 2 lines of black dots, running up from one edge and over to the other side, forming a cross in the middle. I tried to take a picture of some but they really don’t show up on the camera on the phone.
When we looked in the sea we could see thousands and thousands of the tiny, transparent jellyfish, floating around. We climbed up to the gantry that took us down to the hotel’s dock and from up there we could see really big red jellyfish, called a Lion’s Mane jellyfish.
Big red jellyfish in the sea
It doesn’t look very big in the picture but we found a dead one on the beach a bit later and it’s body was bigger than a large dinner plate:
Big dead jellyfish
Our adventure for the day was catching the bus across to Montague Harbour and then hiring a canoe for the afternoon. The island doesn’t have any public transport but a new bus service has just started up. As mobile phone signal isn’t good here, to organise a trip on the bus you have to ring and leave a message on a land line number and then the driver will call back if he can pick you up. Luckily we managed to get hold of him and arranged to meet him.
Galiano Bus Company
We had lunch at the harbour then boarded our canoe, my Lovely Husband and me paddling, with the girls in the middle of the boat. The sun was out and the water was beautifully clear, allowing us to see crabs, sea stars (red, purple, white and stripy ones) and lots of fish. We also paddled over eel grass, which is where the baby salmon live.
We paddled around the headland and then found a small, quiet beach for a snack. The girls also had their first paddling lesson, with my Lovely Husband wading alongside them as they learnt how to control the paddles and the canoe.
The girls enjoying their first canoe lesson
We met a nice couple on the beach who were spending 6 weeks sailing around the Gulf Islands. We saw them again as we paddled back to the harbour and they invited us to visit us on their boat. The girls were delighted to find that not only did they have their dog on board, but also their cat, as well as a large net for fishing the cat out of the sea when she falls in! After a cold beer and a quick chat, we rushed back to catch the bus back to the hotel for a home-cooked meal (well, actually, pasta and sauce but at least we cooked some vegetables too!) and another quick explore on the beach before bed.
