The enchanted island

Sometimes you have to just trust life and let it guide you wherever it wants to take you. I had not had that thought in a while when I woke up on Friday morning.
With only easy training planned for the week-end (actually for all of last week), I just felt like... having an adventure. I just felt like taking my back pack (okay...and also the Blue and my sweet Avia kicks) and leave. Soon enough, I was on a ferry on the way to the enchanted Island of Salt Springs.

I believe life has a way of guiding us if we keep an open eye. I believe there are often signs to guide us on our path. To me, the enchanted adventure started with sign one: As I sat in my car feeling heavy with a smile that was slightly upside down, I noticed a funny man, starting a 40 minute tanning session on the roof of his car. Freedom, there it was, I was going to join the party for sure and one thing was going to be my mission on this trip, relax and find myself again. I gave the door of the car a big swing and headed ON DECK where I could breathe for real and stare at the horizon line! I noticed there were a few people walking around just looking onto the ocean like I was and enjoying a beautiful day. I finally took a deep breath. I started noticing all the mysterious people that really got my imagination going...one girl was sitting on a .... a -ship stem-?...let's call it a ship totem. Anyways, she was meditating with her legs all tangled together like a pretzel. I wondered why it was that I hadn't taken yoga! No one was taking in more oxygen from that sweet ocean breeze than she was, loved it.
As i moved to the front of the ship, I noticed three men dressed in a very particular way (Now I don't want to call them hippies! But it is the best word I find to reflect their fashion statement to you, it is hard to explain, bright colours, natural looking clothes, specially considering one of them was dressed in bouda clothes but also had huge ear phones on.)
Ah! It was going to be so refreshing on the Island! I just knew it.
Well, let's try to ignore that the first person that I heard when I got off the ship (sorry...I mean the ferry) was a person from Quebec...I love the people from my province but this was not a very exotic start. Oh well.
Then, the cell phone connection went dead for a bit.
I was now alone, on an Island I did not really know much about except I found the people that traveled to it quite original and entertaining. There was something quite delicious about that feeling.
There seemed to be one road to follow....and so I followed it...up and over, over and around! Just driving was pretty cool so far. I saw so many little chapels on the road, signs of different artists exposing, vineyards, farms and then started thinking I should find a place to stay so I drove until I found an indication for an info center....14k away. That is how I made it to Ganges ,the main town on Salt Spring Island, and soon enough, found a place to stay and FOOOD. Very important.

Well...it is too bad the picture came out this way. I actualy wanted to show you a reunion of little wood and metal giants. The biggest piece of art I saw on the island. You can barely see them on this picture... :(

Then I realized there was just one thing I wanted to do: Get on my bike and explore the north- west side of the island.
It is at 5 minutes into the ride, that I saw sign two: That sign was much more obvious. See?

...and my mind went on and on with miracle ideas. On the way back, I also noticed that on the other side, this sign said: Too Blessed 2 Be stressed. I liked that alot.

The legs kept on turning calmly over the hills, I was taking it easy and just happy to feel alive, suspended in time with my heart pumping and the most perfect scenery flowing before my eyes.
It turns out salt spring Island has ALOT of steep hill so my easy ride challenged me more than I thought and I think that was a good thing, I needed to feel alive.

Encounter with a deer...if you look REALLY closely, you just MIGHT see him.

Cute little coffee shop.

And right beside it, the weirdest tree I had ever seen. I'm telling you...that Island has something special...

Later that day, I sat down for dinner with more time to think and had a feast and of course, with a delicious glass of red wine and sumptuous dessert. Okay...I was spoiling myself. But that was exactly what I needed to do.
When i woke up on sunday, I felt like discovering the mystery, the people, the Island's secret life. Visiting the artists, going into the little farms and just finding out a little more of what the island was about. But to my dismay, everything was closed. And no....I hadn't thought of that...

I found a coffee shop and enjoyed one of my favourite things (well COFFEE of course). From talking to the people at the coffee shop, I found out that to Salts Springs artists, my name sounded African! HA! I liked it. I guess I didn't mind everything being closed after all, that was not the purpose of my trip, the purpose of my trip was just to be alone, relax, think and get inspired. I decided to tour the north-east part of the island instead. I followed a beautiful road that wen t along the coast.

(uh...what's the english word for this???)

Felt like swimming to that other Island...

The horizontal tree

My secret beach

At one point I just felt like running, so I stopped the car and went. I had fun as I didn't know where I was going and turned whenever a street seemed like it held an adventure. I don't know how long I ran, but I ran until I felt I didn't want to run anymore. No watch on that one. That was against the rules of the island.

A discovery on the run course:

human??

WHew...maybe not!

By the time I drove back to the ferry, it was time to head home.

So I waved goodbye to the funny Lamas...

I still had half an hour so I made my way into another coffee-lunch place that was so cool! I wish I had taken a picture. The music and the decor made you feel like the second hand hippy smoke might just be powerful enough to finally have gotten to you.

Something on that Island had surely gotten to me, I thought, as we cruised back home, and I was sure to come back one day and discover more of the mystery of the enchanted Island.

I am now refreshed and ready to go. Less that FOUR WEEKS TO GO BEFORE THE FUNNEST RACE OF THE YEAR !!!