Canada

In March of 2020, my friends and I went on a day trip to Hornby Island, located near Vancouver Islands’ Comox Valley, on a medium sized ferry boat. We departed from Courtney, British Columbia at 7 a.m. and docked at 9 a.m. On the way there, one of my friends realized that he had forgotten the memory adaptor for his drone camera. He was very upset, so we asked a shop owner on the island where we could buy one. He told us that there was a shop on Central Road that sold them, so we headed there. However, the store was still closed when we arrived. To kill time, I decided to grab a cup of coffee. However, the cafe only accepted cash, which I did not have. I was wondering what to do when a woman standing next to me offered to pay, which was very generous of her. I had heard many people say Canadians are kind, friendly and generous. I was able to witness this on that day. By the time I finished my coffee, the general store had opened, so my friend was able to buy a memory adapter. From there we boarded a lovely tour boat, which was originally a classic fishing boat, at Ford’s Cove Marina. The captain of the boat took us on a tour around Hornby Island. While we were sailing along the rocky shoreline, we saw a huge number of sea lions, seals, birds and eagles. I was very surprised to see these large and impressive birds so close to the sea lions. In fact, some of them were resting on the backs of the sleeping sea lions. After the boat tour, my friends and I headed to the beach at Whaling Station Bay, where we ate lunch and enjoyed the sunshine and blue sky. We ended our perfect day taking videos and photographs of the scenery and of each other.

Interesting facts:

Every year at the beginning of March, the adult herring fish return to spawn in the part of the ocean from where they originated (their life cycle). The males release sperm and the females release eggs (roe). Because of all the creamy coloured sperm, the water colour changes to green. At the same time, sea lions, seals and eagles come to eat the herring and their eggs. At this time of the year as well, some people come to fish commercially and some come, as we did, to enjoy this natural event.