It's all in the writing

It's been said that travel broadens the mind - and our recent journey around the Gulf Islands certainly highlighted the very different atmosphere of the various island communities that we visited. Although not by any means the definitive guide, the initial impression created as you land by ferry offers just a hint of what to expect. 

As a benchmark, take the approach to Saltery Bay, the northern terminal on the Sunshine Coast's ferry link from Earls Cove. Simple, business-like and informative. Just in case you've forgotten that you are, in fact, aboard one of BC Ferries' fleet, the sign is there to remind you.

The same corporate image announces your arrival at Sturdies Bay. For the well infomed, it will be evident that you are about to land on Galiano Island. For the uninitiated, however, you could be just about anywhere. It is rumoured that the local businesses maintain this anonymity as a way of convincing the rookie ferry passenger from the mainland that he has actually arrived on Vancouver Island.

Within sight of Galiano Island is Mayne Island - a community so proud of its twin ferry docks that the nation's flag flies high above dock #1 to welcome travellers from the mainland. Since our visit, one BC Ferry made a 'hard landing' at (read: crashed into) the dock and for a couple of weeks this proud island community was down to just one landing.

Just yards away under the Provincial flag is dock #2, offering a more informal (or is that informative?) welcome to fellow islanders arriving from the other Southern Gulf Islands, possibly tempting them to rest awhile at Village Bay while they summon up the energy to travel onward to the mainland. Or does it say something more significant about a community with a split personality?

Further north, the same formality - minus the corporate image - welcomes visitors to Denman Island, conveying the atmosphere of a fiercely independent community that likes to present a well ordered and respectable face to the traveller. No surprise, therefore, that so many would-be explorers continue straight on across Denman to sample the less formal, if ever-so-slightly disorganised atmosphere of Hornby Island.

 

    

This welcome sign says it all!