This morning (well almost afternoon) we went with Nikki on our eco trip - left around 11:30, got back around 5:00. We were in an 18' runabout the whole day. It was foggy when we left but you could definitely see where we were going. The water was absolutely flat almost the whole day.
Our first two stops were at large rocks where sea gulls were nesting. We climbed up the second one (bird poop everywhere!) so we could see tiny birds in nests hidden in the rocks & also nests with large eggs, unhatched. We saw some seals around the rocks, one was very small.
Next we travelled to Village Island, an old abandoned Indian village. Rod remembered going there in the 80's when there were still a lot of totems, although mostly fallen ones. Now there is only remnants of one left. We saw several houses & an old school or infirmary which were falling apart. A First Nations person who runs a water taxi service is a friend of Nikki's & his grandfather was the chief of the village. He had recently gone in and hacked a very narrow path through the island that we walked on after the boat was beached & we got off. (Then Nikki throws out an anchor, ties a line around a rock on the beach & pushes the boat out so it doesn't get beached while we are gone). We walked the path from one side of the island to the other. Nikki picked all kinds of plants & berries along the way that she used to make our lunch. She explained what each thing was as she picked them & put them in a basket she had made from cedar. It was quite amazing.
After that we were headed for a beach she liked to have lunch & she saw a whale spouting. So, off we went into Johnstone Strait chasing whales. She thought there were at least 5 whales, including a mom & baby. It was quite thrilling although we didn't get very close. It wasn't until we got back to Echo Bay & started visiting with some new people who were docked across from us that we learned that she had taken some friends of their's out & a whale had actually gotten underneath Nikki's boat & lifted it out of the water - omg!!!
After the whales disappeared we went to the beach for lunch. OK - this was also amazing. Nikki made a fire, after gathering some twigs from the island. We stripped bark from cedar planks she had, mashed them into balls & she used them to help spark the fire after she started a fire with a bow & a spindle with pitch on it. While she was working on getting the fire started, another small boat tried to come into the beach (eventually gave up) but yelled over to us to ask if we were part of The Amazing Race program since they saw the fire making in process - seriously??? Lunch was delicious - a lot of greens, berries, seaweed, some dried salmon & rice that she brought - she caught the salmon & dried it herself. Then we had tea that she made from mint leaves she picked on the path we walked.
So, Nikki - several years ago she decided to try survival living in nature. She had taken classes on survival & living off the land, eating plants, berries & whatever you can catch from the sea. This was a life long dream of hers since she read a book when she was 8 yrs. old about a runaway boy who did the same. She met a guy in one of her classes who wanted to do the same - so they did this together for 2 years & actually lived on Village Island for about a year. Her stories were amazing - especially about how they learned to find food that would keep them nourished enough, make their own tools, baskets, make their dwellings, etc. They managed to kill 2 bears (learning how to do that as they killed them). She is an amazing lady!!! She now lives on Billy Proctor's land & has just finished building a log cabin for herself - this included finding the trees to cut down to accumulate enough logs to build her home. (Caveat - apologies to Nikki if we got some of this wrong)!
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