Day 20 - A Day of Shellfish
On our second day on the island we went out to explore the surroundings and enjoy the local culture
The dried-out Ammonite falls
After another relaxing morning, we set out to find the nearby waterfall that Ryan told us about, Ammonite Falls. Arriving at the parking lot just a few minutes away from our home base, we started the 2.3km hike in the heat. As we were looking at the GPS to see how far we were from the falls, we turned the corner and were faced with a construction gate with multiple signs marking the falls as off-limits and under construction, as well as danger signs. As you could expect, we ignored those signs and went ahead down to the falls. To our great surprise, they where almost dried out! It’s been over 45 days since the last rainfall. Only a thin sheet of water was falling down. We took advantage of this to go climb behind it and take a nice shower and skip stones on the calm pond at the bottom of the falls.
Going Crab Fishing
After hiking our way back down to the car we went back to Ryan’s for lunch. On our way back we decided that it would be fun to try our hand at crab fishing for the afternoon. After seeing the locals fish for crab the previous day at the pier Ryan had told us we could borrow his trap and try our luck! We bought some chicken legs as bait then made our way to the pier, we also picked up some more Nanaimo bars on the way, as we HAD to try different Nanaimo bars (after all, they couldn’t all be as good as the ones we had eaten yesterday!). On the pier we met up with some locals and threw our traps in the water. As it turn’s out we were right, Nanaimo bars could be even better than yesterday’s bars!
Luck of the Catch
After a few hours of fishing, we learned that we were either a bit early or a bit late for the optimal time to set up our trap. It was only towards the end when we started catching shellfish. Unfortunately we couldn’t keep what we caught because they were either too small, female or simply a starfish!
Another great meal
Tonight our great host and BBQ wizard Ryan prepared some great sausages and burgers, with a side of salad and fries for dinner. Before arriving in Nanaimo, our “luxury” dinners were usually a pack of sidekick noodles with some beef jerky or pepperettes as a protein source. No need to say that we are feeling incredibly lucky to be treated as we are by Ryan ! (sorry for the lack of good pictures of the food, we were too busy enjoying it to think of taking good pictures)
