by driftwood on Chesterman
Still on the westcoast of Vancouver Island, Chesterman Beach is the next one over from sheltered McKenzie Beach and is much wider and open to the wild sea storms that occur from time to time. Naturally it’s very popular with surfers – perhaps later I’ll post some images of them that my husband captured. I love this beach for the driftwood lining the shore next to the trees and private cottages. As always I’m particularly intrigued by close up details.
March 27, 2015 in Canada and BC, Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena
I can understand completely why you love this beach of driftwoods. I am intrigued by the upright forms in the left background of your last photo – are they wood too? What magical lands you have in your larger vicinity. I all feels rather oppressively cultivated here sometimes, and I long for some wilder vistas.
Yes, the uprights are wood too. Some people like to make ‘gardens’ of them. Along this beach, some of the residents pile them up along their frontages for looks as well as some protection from the waves during extra high tides. Nice spots to sit too. I think a lot of visitors to BC love how much wilderness there is here.
I lived in a beach town south of San Francisco that was at that time, in the 50s, covered in driftwood. We would collect it and burn it in our fireplace. The salts in it made the flames turn different colors.
The textures and shadows in these photos are wonderful.
Thanks, Hattie! I want my own cottage with a fireplace by the ocean! I grew up going to a summer cottage by a river in Manitoba, and loved roaming around there… a bit different from the ocean but I have wonderful memories.
I feel rather like a silent onlooker, observing and listening in on the conversation that is going back and forth between you and the people commenting here. In feeling this way, it reminds me of how much I enjoy observing in this way, a practice that has slipped away from me of late.
Tom, I love these conversations, isn’t that the great thing about blogging?! I’m happy to have you drop by and comment when you feel like it without any pressure to do so! Hope you are feeling well and will take up your own blog again when you feel so inspired.
These naturally eroded sculptures are wonderful. I loved their changing haphazardness after a storm. when I lived on Vancouver Island (in Duncan) but never got further north than Ucluelet. In 1971, I drove across the island with friends in a Ford Anglia, from Nanaimo, as far as I can remember, and wild-camped somewhere on the way. I vividly remember the extraordinary quiet and peace of the spot. In those days it was a dirt road from Port Alberni and Ucluelet felt very wild and remote … such memories you are evoking for me … and, yes, one day soon we will return.!
It sounds like you had a magestic trip and you should do it again some day!
That section of the road from Port Alberni to the highway between Ucluelet and Tofino is now paved but still a challenge in some parts that are very windy and steep and those logging trucks do go too fast! It so magestic in scenery. We first visited the area in 1989, I think it was, though we’ve lived in Vancouver since 1973.
I’m reminded of a beautiful oceanside farm just outside of Sooke – it had cows as well as driftwood. Back then the road ended at Sooke and beyond it were only trails.
That must have been many decades ago! In i973, we were down from the north for a holiday and took a trip from Victoria to Port Renfrew, passing Sooke on the way. Roads near Port Renfrew were rough then but the sea coast was fantastic. We still haven’t been back – so many places to see!