I had good intentions on Friday evening. Get to bed early, rise before the sun and explore Newcastle Island. Unfortunately this wasn't to be, due to the worst roomie I have had to date. Darwin, from Canada decided that his bladder was so close to bursting that he would use the bin in our room as his toilet. Who does that??? I gave him an earful and dozed off again. I was woken up again because the room stunk heavily of tobacco (mind you, it was already fairly stinky due the smokers presence). The dude was smoking by the window, in our NO SMOKING hostel. I threw a few swear words at him and tried to get back asleep.
I very wearily rolled out of bed at 8:30am. I packed my bag and set out to find Newcastle Island. After catching a little ferry, I found myself alone on a little island, sounds pretty cool right?
The big sign was all the welcome I got, but that was okay, I was here to explore! It was slightly scary and intimidating at first, I had no map and had told the ferry dude to pick me up at 2:30pm (4 hours to explore would be enough). So I simply started walking and felt totally relaxed and at ease. There wasn't a single person around and I soon accepted that my best friend that day was going to be the rocks, forrest, beaches and distant mountains.
I set off into the woods and instantly got lost. Have no fear though, I reminded that in order to find yourself, you MUST get lost. There is something special about having unfamiliar surroundings and no one else to talk to or ask for directions. Despite the initial fear I carried on and found myself to quite enjoy my own company!
I put a few more photos in the Vancouver Island photo album, but I am not the worlds best photographer, nor do I understand half the settings on the camera. You can see the distant mountains in this photo, not only was it physically pleasing for the eyes, but they really do provide a sense of tranquility.
I don't feel as if I can describe the enormity of being alone on this provincial park, but I would highly encourage everybody to go out and discover nature.
Three hours had passed quickly and after hugging many trees (and also peeing on them!) I had to make my way back to the dock to catch the 2:30pm ferry. I used the rest of the arvo to explore Nanaimo and search for a Starbucks to plan what I would do today. I finally found one, opened my bag to pull out my laptop and charger and realised I had put my charger in my other bag, what a catastrophe! In the end, I settled for using the hostels wifi. I think that I am the youngest here by at least 10 years, but that's okay, mature people provide interesting enough conversation...
I baked a yam and some tofu for dinner, put together a quick salad and made a reservation for a hostel in Victoria. I've heard a few nasty stories about the Greyhound buses over here (apparently it's all the newly released prisoners and homeless people???) - I'll let you know how it goes when I arrive in Victoria.
To infinity... and beyond!
