Newcastle Island and the Dinghy Dock Pub

I sure appreciated our friends showing us around their island.  We saw so many things that we wouldn't have seen if they hadn't showed us.   They took us to Nanaimo, pronounced Na-ni-mo, to go to Newcastle Island Provincial Marine Park.

Since the park is on a different island, we had to take this ferry to get there.  Newcastle Island is the one on the upper right and Protection Island is on the upper left.

Looks like you will have to click to enlarge this photo of the island park.

 

We laughed when we saw this plaque on the boat.  After all, we were in Canada.  I can't imagine 75 people on this boat!  We might have had 30 on it and that was enough.

The next few photos are of boats we saw on our short trip to the island.  The island we are going to is the one on the right side of this photo.

 

Once on the island we started off on the trail that goes completely around it.  If you follow the complete outer trail, it is 7.5 km or 4.5 miles.  We skipped a short section but we still walked over 4 miles.  The house across the way is on Protection Island.  Yes there are a lot of islands in a small area.

Looking back towards Nanaimo.

Our friends called the red tree on the right an Arbutus tree.  We called it a Madrona tree.  When we got back home I looked it up and here's what Wikipedia says:  Arbutus menziesii (Pacific madrona, madrone or Arbutus) is a species of tree in the family Ericaceae, native to the western coastal areas of North America, from British Columbia to California.  It is also known as the madroño, madroña, bearberry, or refrigerator tree. In the United States, the name "madrone" is used south of the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon and Northern California and the name "madrona" is used north of the Siskiyou Mountains, according to the "Sunset Western Garden Book". In British Columbia it is simply referred to as arbutus.  We were told on another tour that these trees are also found in Mexico where the locals call them "tourist" trees due to the fact that they have peeling, red skin.  LOL

 

Whoo, someone wasn't prepared for the tide to go out!  Actually it looked like they purposely beached the boat.  Logs were placed under it to keep it level.

 

Doesn't this tree look like a bird?  Notice the beak and eye on the left.  Interesting.

After out walk we were hungry so we took the ferry to The Dinghy Dock Bar.  Yes it's a floating restaurant on the shores of Protection Island.  Protection Island got it's name because it protects the harbor of Nanaimo.  

 

We had great fish and chips then posed for this photo before taking a smaller ferry back to Nanaimo.