Good Bye, Hornby Island

	Today is my last day on Hornby Island. We took a walk around the stunning Helliwell Park. Helliwell is a large park on the southern tip of Hornby. It contains several unique ecological zones. There are the dry southern bluffs that have actual cactus growing. Its one of the only spots in Canada that have cactus.
The bluffs give way to gentle, protected coastline with gravel beaches. This is the area where the first nations people had a summer village. You can imagine this cove filled with dugout canoes and longhouses up near the forest.
	Only a 10 minute walk from the cactus grove took us to the old growth rain forest with some of the largest trees that you'll ever see. The forest floor is covered with huge ferns, salmon berries, and other green shrubs.

I've really enjoyed my trip to Hornby Island and I'd love to come back some day. Maybe there could be some sort of exchange with the school here. You can talk to Doug if you'd like help to set something up.

Thank you to Doug and Rachelle for taking me around their community. I hope you all had fun following my adventures.

Bye for now...
Flat Paige.

Cool Rocks on Hornby

Hornby Island is made of mainly sandstone and conglomerate rock. A lot of the sandstone had bubbles trapped in it when it formed millions of years ago. Now that it is starting to erode at the hands of the wind and ocean, these bubbles are coming to the surface. When they do surface they make these incredible patterns.  These rocks are all over the island. You can go to almost any spot on the shoreline and find some of these swiss-cheese rocks.

Sometimes the sandstone is smooth...

Sometimes it has a crown on top...

And sometimes it forms dinosaur eggs.

The seashore around here is endlessly fascinating. You can walk around the whole island on the shore and see amazing rocks, fossils, beaches, animals, houses, sea life, and ship wrecks.

Doug says that he'll take me to see some old growth rain forest before I go home. Stay tuned.

Your friend,
Flat Paige

Big Storm on Hornby

Sorry for not reporting over the last day or two. I hope you weren't worried. There was a huge wind storm here and the power was knocked out for a day. A tree blew down on top of the hydro lines. They say this happens a few times a year so everyone is quite prepared for it. The wood stove kept the house nice and warm and their stove is powered by propane so they are able to cook.

	There was a really high tide at the same time that the wind was at it's strongest and we took a walk down to the beach near Doug and Rachelle's house. Here I am with Doug while the waves pile into the logs at the bottom of the bank.
The tide and storm surge was so high that it took some people by surprise and washed their boats away. You can see the little aluminum boat bashed up in the logs.
	Here I am holding on for dear life to a fence post with the waves rolling into the reefs on the south side of the island behind me.
Today the storm broke and we went for a walk on Hornby's big, sandy beach. All of logs have been pushed up to the head of the beach and stacked on top of each other.

My time here is coming to an end. I've only got a few days left. I'll try to post another few diary entries before I go, though.

Flat Paige

Animals of Hornby

Hornby Island is so rich with animal life that many people come here just to see the animals. Being an island, most of the larger animals revolve around the ocean. They either live in the water or the eat from the water. Here is a slideshow of photos that Doug and Rachelle have taken while on Hornby.

Community Radio

	Today Doug took me to the community radio station. Most cities have several radio stations, but Hornby only has one. Everyone who has a show on the station is a volunteer. There are all kinds of music and news that is broadcast on CHFR and no commercials! This is David doing a show where he mixes all kinds of strange music with other kinds of strange music. You can see me standing beside the mixing board.
	On the way to the station Doug and I stopped at Grassy Point to look at the scenery. This is Doug with his handsome, new fire department duty officer jacket.
The other photo is me sitting in the wild rose bushes looking across to the mountains on the BC mainland. We're lucky to be able to see them because there is not many clear days in the winter months. They get a lot of rain here.
	Hornby Island doesn't have a municipal water supply like most places. Everyone on Hornby gets their water from a well or, like Doug and Rachelle, by collecting rain off of their roof. This is their house. If you look that the far left side you can see the tanks that hold their water.

Transportation on Hornby

	Because Hornby is an island, boats are a big part of the transportation structure around here. We went to have a look at the Ford Cove Marina today. Here I am sitting on the railing with the boats of the marina in the background. A few of the people who live here have jobs as fishermen. You can see their boats on the right.
Another boat in the marina belong to my new friend Rob who runs a SCUBA diving business. People come from all over the world to go diving with Rob because of the incredible sea life. This time of year there are thousands of sea lions that like to visit with the divers when they are under water. The divers also come to see the huge "sixgill" sharks that come by sometimes. Don't worry, though. The sharks are vegetarians.	Doug and Rob on Rob's dive boat
	The only way to get on and off Hornby is by boat. If you don't have your own boat, or you need to take a car, you need to take the ferry. The ferry runs every hour and takes people and cars back and forth from Hornby Island to Denman Island. This is the ferry coming into the Hornby dock.
Here I am with Paula. She is on the fire department but also works on the ferry.

Check back tomorrow for more photos.

Shopping on Hornby

Most communities have some sort of mall or shopping center. Not Hornby. Here on Hornby they have a general store with a hardware department downstairs and a grocery department upstairs. In front of this store is a collection of small buildings that house a clothing shop, a pottery store, a book shop, a coffee shop, and a small restaurant.

The people who live on Hornby take two ferries to get to Vancouver Island in order to go to a larger shopping center. This might seem like a hardship but the community is happy to be away from the hustle and bustle of the larger centers. They store up all of the things that they need and do a big trip to town every month or so.

 If you look really closely, you can see me sitting in the tree in the middle of the ring of small shops.