I had just arrived back from several months in Guatemala. I had
stopped over in Ontario for a short trip to visit family and suddenly found
myself on Protection Island, in British Columbia. Talk about culture shock.
Protection Island sits just off the shores of the city of
Nanaimo, 1.5 kilometers north east to be exact. Originally known as Douglas
Island after James Douglas the first governor of Vancouver Island, it was
renamed Protection Island in 1960.
Protection Island is tranquil, calm, and friendly and not
one person that I ever met or passed me, as I walked about, ever passed by me without saying hello.
Protection Island is laced with roads with names like
Captain Morgan’s Boulevard, Pirates Lane, and Captain Kidd’s Terrace. There is
a park with a small lake in the middle of it called Smugglers Lake. There is of
course Long John Silver Bay, Billy Bones Bay and Smugglers Beach. I wondered if
pirates plied these waters and if their treasure was buried somewhere.
Getting about Protection Island involves walking, unless you
have a bicycle. Many of the people that live on the island permanently use
electric golf carts. The golf carts incidentally all have to be licensed and
insured. There are also an assortment of older pick-up trucks, vans and ancient
cars on the island. Some of the permanent residents also have their own small
power boats, so that they do not have to use the Dingy Dock ferry that plies
between Nanaimo Harbour and Protection Island.
Speaking of the Dingy Dock ferry, it also carries people
over to the Dingy Dock pub, which I am told is the only permanent floating pub
and restaurant in all of Canada. It has a commanding view of the lights of Nanaimo
at night and of Nanaimo Harbour as it moves up and down with the tides.
Living
on the island involves planning, as there are no convenience shops at all and
that ferry stops running at about 10:00 pm. One can arrange to have large
orders of groceries shipped over on a barge for a cost.
Protection Island also has a history of coal mining. With an
interest in local history I took a self-guided tour to check to all of that out
and found it very fascinating.
Another interesting point is neighbouring Newcastle Island (a provincial park) can be reached by walking over to it when the tides are very low.
Protection Island is home to just over 300 people most
living on the island full time. For others it is their cottage country. A map
supplied by local real estate people is handy if you don’t want to keep going
in circles forever. Then there are the several parks, interconnecting pathways, all those gravel roads, the zig-zagging stairway that can keep
you busy for ages. If you are into birding a variety of birds make Protection
Island their home including a large Heron population.
But if you are used to city life it could give you cabin
fever pretty fast. To offset any feelings of isolation I would sometimes walk over to the gravel beach near the pubic dock, where I could sit for ages doing practically
nothing and feeling quite satisfied. But if I needed a more exciting break well
the Dingy Dock ferry boat was always there to take me to the city lights of Nanaimo.
Oh that treasure I mentioned earlier, well I actually did find that treasure....
The treasure is Protection Island itself.
