Salt Spring Island

We packed the car full of camping gear and headed for one of my all time favourite Gulf Islands - Salt Spring. We hit it just in time for the amazing Saturday Market in Ganges- full of fresh local organic food, flowers, clothes, and an endless supply of incredible wares from the local artists: paintings, pottery, photography, carvings, jewellery, hookah pipes - you name it, they smoke sell it.
We perched ourselves in the park and lazed in the sun with all the locals.
We camped at Mowhinna Creek Campground, only 1 km south of Ganges  - complete with flush toilets and hot showers. Hello!
If we weren't travelling with Molly, I would have taken part in the Salt Spring Island Studio Tour - you can visit any of the 34 working studios and meet the local artists. But because we were with our pup, we hit a lot of amazing local parks instead: Ruckle Park (rugged trails along the bluffs where you can hike in your camp gear and get amazing waterfront sites), Southey Point (located at the Northern tip of the island - we found a great trail that winds its way through the woods to a private beach), Reginald Hill (the ironic thing is that we set out on an easy beach trail and picked the wrong trailhead which led us to climb straight up, but the payoff at the top was worth it - spectacular views of Fulford Harbour. Duck Creek park was dreamy - fields full of wild daisies and golden tall grasses - Molly was blissed out.
Word to the wise - reserve your ferries. We thought coming home on a Monday would be no problem - but the sailings were all booked up. Luckily, we got a spot on the last sailing. I didn't mind at all that we got to spend extra time on the island - we ended up going for an amazing dinner at the Tree House Cafe (grilled yam quesadillas) and sat outside in the sun so that Molly could catch our crumbs.
People would continuously walk by our outdoor table and Molly didn't care. Then suddenly she started barking and raising her hackles at a man passing by. Of course, this set off all the other dogs dining al fresco - and suddenly they were all barking. The waitress came out and said that our dog had good instincts. The man she was barking at considered himself to be a local Warlock and would threaten to cast evil spells on people. So there you go. Now we can add Warlock detector to Molly's lengthy list of talents.

Funniest line of the weekend - Locals came into the Tree House Cafe and said they were looking for "somebody" but not "joe somebody". At first we didn't get it, and then we saw the local electrician drive by - you guessed it, his name was "Joe Somebody".

I love island living.

For our little getaway slideshow - click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50481252@N06/sets/72157624314810537/