B.C’s Hidden Gem – The Sunshine Coast

Outside my Front Door is a series of posts by fellow travel bloggers who share what is … outside of their own front door

Gemma and Craig of Two Scots Broad

Gemma and Craig have downed tools as teacher and tradesman and are traveling The Americas on an 18 month career break. They are currently living it up on the Sunshine Coast of Canada after four months in North, South America and Cuba. Catch up on their stories of trekking to Machu Picchu; diving in Cuba and discovering that Colombia is safe, friendly and not full of druglords as the Western media would have you believe at Two Scots Abroad.

Niagara Falls, yup – cool, big waterfalls with cheesy arcades to play in. Canadian Rockies, oh yeah – stunning glaciers and spectacular turquoise waters. But there is an area of Canada that even Vancouverites often don’t know about. An untapped haven of natural beauty only forty minutes, by ferry, from The Big Smoke and that place is, the Sunshine Coast.

Craig and I were lucky enough to have spent two months of the summer on the Sunshine Coast in the bohemian (polite way of saying ‘hippy,’) town of Roberts Creek. We lived in a 70s caravan and woke up every morning to birds chirping and blue skies. After five months of fast paced travel, hitting six different countries, this stop was perfection.

Roberts Creek has one shop, one restaurant, one café, a yoga studio, several beaches and a park. If you walk down the hill you reach the beach, and up the hill is Cliff Gilker Park, which has easy hiking options for all abilities.

The beauty of staying in Roberts Creek was the places you could reach by bike, car and bus. Gibsons is the town, which you first meet when departing from the ferry. It has a beautiful marina, fish and chips shops, a brewery and a challenging hike up Soames Hill which worth it for the views.

If you love order cialis safely online watersports, then paddleboarding or kayaking at Sechelt (sea-shelt) Inlet would be winner.

Fishing at Davis Bay, a good catch for those handy with a rod. Watch our for the whale show, the beautiful beasts were the Coast’s special guests all summer!

I am big fan of lake life. The Sunshine Coast has ten (TEN!) lakes in the Pender Harbour and Egmont District. I’m not really keen on sand so lakes suit me perfectly as there is often a grassy bank to relax on as opposed to getting grains of sand attached to every body part! Katherine Lake was a favourite, I enjoyed jumping off the rocks into the water. Lake swimming makes you feel extremely zen!

The Sunshine Coast offers lots of hiking opportunities. One in which locals say is a must is Smugglers Cove and you can see why.

It is a simple hike, not strenuous and was the first sighting of nearly turquoise water I experienced in Canada (you’ll need to go to the Rockies for more, I highly recommend that trip too!)

Another rewarding aspect of slow paced travel, stopping in one place like the Sunshine Coast, for a longer period of time, is that you get to meet the locals! We became good friends with the man that sells gelato (a very important relationship in my eyes!) I volunteered at a yoga studio and in exchange for my cleaning skills, I went to drop in classes for ‘free.’ We appeared in the Coast Reporter, our five minutes of fame! Lots of Scots on the Coast emailed the blog to say hello (there are quite a few of them up there!)

We are now in living in Vancouver, and can’t complain at residing in ‘the best city in the world!’ However, the summer spent on the Sunshine Coast has proven why BC is ‘Super, Natural.’

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