We spent the next day on board Ian’s boat, exploring the waters around Lund. First we were taken to the Copeland Islands, or Ragged Island Group, where we were given a bit of an education on starfish, oysters and clams. I have decided that clams are pretty cool - they bury themselves in the sand, suck the surface water down, take what nutrients that they need then spit the water out a few feet into the air. There were tonnes of ochre starfish too, which are pretty.

On the way there we stopped for a local eagle and watched it catch some fish and take it up to the nest to feed its young.

We then headed over to Mitlenatch Island, home to the largest sea bird colony in the Strait of Georgia. It is actually very close to Campbell River on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Among the many birds there (gulls, cormorants, guillemots) we found a seal colony and an eagle chomping on a dead seal pup - nice!

We disembarked around the headland and went for a walk. The island seemed very dry, but it had a good feeling to it - there were lots of wild berries and flowers. We went to an observation blind to observe about a thousand noisy seagulls with their fluffy chicks and spoke to one of the volunteers who camp out there for 2 weeks at a time to protect the island and its ecosystem.

After Mitlenatch we had lunch on the long cruise over to Desolation Sound. On the way, everybody but me caught a glimpse of some Pacific White-Sided dolphins - we killed the engine and floated for a while hoping that we would see them properly, but it appeared they were long gone. Heading into Desolation Sound was pretty awesome, with its towering mountains - just the sort of scenery that I wanted to see.

We disembarked the boat and took a short walk, via a nice little stream and waterfall, up to Unwin Lake where we scrambled over the logs that act as a beach and went for a swim.

It was a beautiful setting, and the first lake that I had ever swum in in Canada. It was also pretty warm so I was very reticent to leave, especially as the mosquitos seemed to be leaving me alone. It was one of the highlights of my trip.

On the way back to the resort we stopped by Ian’s prawn traps to haul them up and take the bounty. It was the end of prawning season so there weren’t as many as I thought there would be, but since a prawning/fishing license only costs about $150 for the season and they had prawns to last them the year already in their freezer, I think they do very well!