Day 5

We embarked on a guided tour of Cowichan Valley (south Vancouver island) with our host, Lorne, as our guide. He and his ancestors have lived here for 4 generations. First stop was a beautiful nature preserve called Goldstream Provincial Park. We walked among very, very tall and incredibly straight Douglas firs to the river estuary. We were quite impressed with the beauty and maintenance of the place. The visitor center was the best we have ever seen. From there we drove to Merridale Cidery. We got an education of alcoholic apple cider. We had a nice lunch in the cidery’s restaurant and tried a sampling of various ciders they produce. From there we went to the Cherry Point Estate winery, one of many wineries in the valley. The countryside here is quite nice – rolling hills surrounded by higher mountains. From there we went to Cowichan Bay, a very picturesque shipping village where Lorne met many friends. Salmon comes to spawn in this area in the fall and there’s thousands of them in the water. We stopped at an art gallery owned by Lorne’s friend, a very well know indigenous artist Arthur Vickers. We admired his wooden bentwood boxes and his gold leaf paintings.