Camping Trip to Sombrio Beach

My time in Victoria is getting towards its end, but I am always ready to accept spontaneous invitations to cool places. This time it was to a with a few of the mechanics from Recyclistas, who wanted to camp on the beach. Originally it was Camas and her boyfriend Richard who were planning to go, and invited Jordan and myself. Steve, who lives in nearby Sooke, recommended a beautiful beach where he likes to surf, and offered to meet us there.

We set out on Monday afternoon, after the bike-shop closed, and drove out on the Southern shore of Vancouver Island, along the Straight of Juan de Fuca. The highly regarded Sombrio beach lies a good 60 km (37 miles) outside of Victoria. It would have been a cool bike trip (with lots of hills to cross) had we had the whole day for it. This way, it was a quick drive, and we reached the campsite just as it was getting dark.

Check out the location on Steemit Worldmaps:

[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 48.499107 lat -124.299305 long d3scr)

Walking down the trail we ran into Steve and his friend Rachel, carrying their surf boards. As a passionate surfer, Steve would not miss a chance to ride the waves, even small ones, as he described Sombrio’s current conditions. We set up camp, then started looking for wood to make a campfire. Not an easy task, given the numerous campers who had small fires burning, even on a Monday night. But the sea is always generous in supplying driftwood, some of it in form of gigantic logs, so before soon we were also gathered around a fire. It was time for dinner.

The Tradition of the Bacon-Stick

I was excited to introduce the guys to the Hungarian practice of szalonnasütés, that is roasting bacon over the fire. Whenever they have a fire going, be it out in the woods, or just in their back yard, Hungarians love holding thick slices of bacon into the fire, skewered on wooden sticks. The practice is a lot like the North American version of marshmallows… but so much better tasting! Once the grease starts flowing, we let it drip on bread. By the way, for those who recognize the similarity to shashlik / shish kebab, you are not entirely wrong. The neighboring cultures also love putting meat on skewers. Hungarians prefer bacon, though.) Normally, the skewer would also hold peppers, onions, and other veggies, whose juices would mix with the bacon grease, making it even tastier on the bread, but our in our given circumstances, the bacon was enough of a challenge to keep falling off from the stick.

Morning on the Beach

After dinner, we enjoyed great company over drinks and smokes, as we let the fire burn down. Sleeping on the sand was super comfortable, and though it got a bit chilly at night, I was nice and toasty in my sleeping bag. The next day we were treated to an amazing sight: The fog moving slowly over the water and through the woods, as rays of sunlight illuminated the scenery. Now we could even see the immensity of the nearby trees. Surely, we were on the Northern Pacific coast. The massive logs around us had been yet more of this over-sized vegetation, nothing out of the ordinary. Soon the fog lifted, and we could even look across the straight to the Olympic Peninsula on the other side.

Exploring the Waterfall

Relighting the campfire for coffee and breakfast was easy enough, as the ashes were still warm enough. We took it slow and easy, but before packing up our stuff we decided to take a walk on the beach. There was supposedly a waterfall nearby, which we wanted to find. On the way we marveled at the sea veggies (bull kelp and sea weed) and the beach pebbles, each one pretty in its own style. Following up a small creek, we soon reached the waterfall. It was inside of a tall but narrow cave. The creek didn’t have much volume, but it was splashing down from a good height, covering the cave walls with thick moss. The water was ice cold. On a hot day, this would be a perfectly refreshing shower, but for us it was enough to get our feet wet. We headed back to the beach.

Being Safe From Bears

On the way back to the parking-lot I took a picture of this bear box. It was made for temporary food storage, to keep bears from having access to campers’ food, and the previous night we also took advantage of it. Made out of strong steel, the box is “locked” with a simple carbine. Anyone without opposable thumbs will be out of luck. I’m happy to see such a box for two reasons: First, it shows that there are actual bears in these woods. (This I keep hearing from many people all the time, and can’t wait to see one myself.) Second, it means that the park is providing a way for campers to be safe from unwanted encounters, as it is the smell and access of food that attracts this giant animal. So, by making use of it, the bears are protected from having to be killed because they’ve gotten used to eating human food.