The boardwalk and the spit

Sunday, July 20, 2008

SOOKE — A gentler breeze greeted us this morning when we poked our noses out the door of our little home on wheels. I had scouted out the map of Sooke and the local guidebook to guide us to Trinity Anglican Church on Murray Street. The service was very nice, and the people friendly as Anglicans are wont to be.
In the meantime, Val stopped at a shopping centre nearby where some young fastball players were holding a car wash to raise funds for a team trip to Brantford, Ontario to play in a tournament at the national level. Val gave them a very generous donation in exchange for soaping down our rig and restoring its original sparkling beauty.
We connected again and headed around the bay for a look at East Sooke. The road was steep and winding, and we passed many gracious homes that were positioned to take in a beautiful view over the water. At no point, however, did we find a place for visiting folks like us to enjoy the same view! So, we turned around and came back.
We stopped back at our campground for lunch and a rest, and then set out again to check out the town’s boardwalk. It was at the foot of the same street as the church that I had visited in the morning. We thought it would be similar to the boardwalk at New Liskeard, that skirts the shoreline of Lake Temiskaming. Instead, this one was built on columns anchored in the water, well out from the shore. There was a type of pier at one end from which we could see people fishing, so we went to have a look. It was a dad, mother and kids, fishing for crabs!
They told us they bought a licence and were entitled to four crabs each, as long as they were "keepers". That meant they had to be six inches across, not counting the legs. They had already caught several and the dad showed us one from his cooler. It was a hefty creature, and he described how they cooked it up. It was obviously a fun activity for him and his family. He came originally from Newfoundland, but was stationed here with the military.
We covered the length of the boardwalk, and found that it led us nowhere! It was supposed to join up with a municipal park at the other end, but the construction wasn’t yet complete, so we turned around and went back the way we came. Val said someone told him the boardwalk cost a million dollars to build. Quite a chunk of money for something that takes you nowhere! But the view of the harbour was quite lovely.
Our next stop was to take in another harbour view: the Whiffin Spit. This long finger of land separates Sooke Harbour from the Juan de Fuca Strait and acts as a breakwater. It attracted quite a few Sunday strollers today, although there was a fairly brisk wind blowing across it — enough to flip off my Tilley hat and glasses, even though I had used the chin strap and the back strap to hold it on! There were some nice views of the coastline from the bench we chose to sit on at the end of the spit. It felt good to get in another healthy walk today.
For dinner tonight, we went to a seafood restaurant called Fuse. We sat at a large window overlooking the water, and Val enjoyed BC salmon while I munched on Sooke trout. For dessert he had the lemon-lime tart and I savoured a warm chocolate pudding cake with whipped cream melting on top, and a sprig of mint. Yum.