A Beary Strange Adventure!

 Hullo!!! Mama was packing a big suitcase AND a duffle bag and I thought I would stowaway! She hadn't mentioned anything about taking me on this mystery trip and I thought... I will just bring myself! She was pretty surprised to see me!

The first part of the trip was a ferry ride... which is nothing new...

But... where are we going???? She won't tell me but she was frowning and muttering that I would not be a happy bear... beary strange.

Anyhow... a ferry ride is always fun...

But where are we going AFTER the ferry ride???

We are almost in Horseshoe Bay... and no sense of where we are going. Sigh. I will have to be patient...

We then hunkered down in the newly renovated Starbucks in Horseshoe Bay! Look at all of that luggage... surely we are going on a big trip! But why are we in Starbucks? Are we waiting for a ride?

While Mama blogged away, I wandered along the shore... at least the weather is clearing up!

This is a pretty busy ferry terminal with a lot of ferries coming and going and...

Wait... are we getting a different ferry???

Are we??

Yes we are...

I've never been on this one!!! Cool... now I'm really curious... 

Where are we going??? I hate it when humans are closed-mouthed!

Oooh... ooohh... we are leaving!!!

The weather has seriously improved!! But it is windy!

We went to the front and the wind was so bad I could not stand up... seriously... I tried!

Face into the wind? Nope...

Back to the wind? Nope!!

Anyhow... that's where we are going... a place called Langdale! On the Sunshine Coast (which is code-speak for the Rainy Coast).

Langdale doesn't even have a passenger gangway so we have to walk off on the main vehicle deck. Exciting!

Almost there!

The adventure begins! Let me get back into Mama's backpack... and see where we end up...

Er. What? A dorm room?

Sure looks like a dorm room...

Are we going back to school?

This is NOT what I had in mind!!!

Ugh... shared showers down the hall??? What has Mama done now???

Ohhhh... I see... we are in a camp... made out of portables... yay.... not.

This is definitely NOT what I had in mind when I stowed away... Mama is just muttering that little bears should not stowaway but... that's what little bears do!

Sigh... alright... let me have it... where are we, what are we doing here... what are the sights and for how long...

***editor's note***

After hearing the news, Sandy retreated under the blankets and refused to come out for the 2 weeks we were here. No sights to see. No pool. No Starbucks (gasp). No hiking. No geocaching...

Although there were some views...

But a lot of sketchy views...

Although the baby seagulls were cute... they looked like little spotted leopards!

Clam-Digging with a Bearbnb Host

 Hullo!!! Sandy Bear here... as a Bearbnb host, we get a lot of guests who come to Nanoose Bay to go clam digging and oyster hunting! I'd never, ever been here, so I thought I would check it out, the better to interact with my guests!

We know the spot along the highway, where people park in the spring and summer. Sometimes there are tonnes of cars lined up here! But today is not bad!!

Then we had to find a little trail down the embankment to the old railroad tracks.

No fear of getting hit by a train along here! This section of the line hasn't been used in decades!

Then we scrambled down another trail to the beach.

We are on the right track! Discarded empty shells line the trail!

And pretty Nootka Rose flowers!

Here's the beach! The best time to come is at super low tide... not just any low tide... super low tide... like 2 ft or less.

As we walked out towards the water, we started seeing little clams. We think this one might be a Butter Clam.

There's a clam airhole!! Some people start digging at these spots! You might find a Butter Clam down there!

And a little dead crab too!

That big, open one is definitely a butter clam.

When you dig here, you have to be careful not to disturb the sea grass... it's part of the habitat you know.

Lots of empty shells and then... we say it... a very weird thing sticking out of the sand...

You you see it??? It kind of looks like a clam but...

When we touched it and gave a tug... it was kind of rough and soft and it pulled back... It's a Geoduck! There's a clam at the end of this siphon, a very big clam.. with a very long siphon. I am not going to post a picture of the gooeyduck (that's how it's pronounced)... but look it up. They are quite the delicacy... we would have needed shovels and fast digging to dig this puppy out!

There are some people over there digging clams... let's go check it out...

They have small rakes and are picking these from the top 6 inches of the rocky sandy here... They are Manila clams...

Farther along, the sand gets even more rocky and there are tonnes of oysters.

We found a Dad and two kids picking oysters!

There sure are a lot here!

Do you like oysters and clams? Well then, this is the place. So many places along the coast suffer from "Red Tide" (algal blooms of dinoflagellates that accumulate in shellfish in the summer months and lead to Paralytic shellfish poisoning). But Nanoose Bay is "usually" toxin free!