Camp Thunderbird, Vancouver Island

Yesterday we stayed at Camp Thunderbird, a YMCA camp on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The beautiful jetty and lake on the left are a part of Camp Thunderbird. Our host was Luke 'Chinook' Ferris and his crew - and great hosts they were.

I loved the advice Luke gave us about bears and cougars during his safety briefing - if you encounter a bear (or cougar) you should huddle together to make yourself look bigger (apparently bears aren't too smart) wave your arms gently in the air and walk slowly backwards - never turning your back on the bear (clearly because bears like to munch on your back - see my blog of 11 Sept - and turning your back on a bear is like inviting it to a smorgasbord).

As you are slowly backing away you should sing Jingle Bells - yes that is right. This is either because bears hate it as much as we do when the Christmas decorations and songs come out in September or because hearing Jingle Bells alerts all the camp staff that there is a problem - I'm not sure which one it is?

Badger, Sasquatch, Stratus & the other one (sorry other one) put on a very entertaining camp fire for us, which was a great way to end the evening.

I did pick up a couple of other quirky bits of information compliments of the 'Island Buy Sell & Trade, Victoria, British Columbia.

An advert for "Life jacket for dog. Great if you are going boating (fair enough) or teaching your dog to swim" - now would that be butterfly or freestyle? And only $25 to boot!

Or for $160 you can have a "multilevel large 6' cat tree, sage green and beige, great condition, hardly used, has small cat house on top."

Then there was the "Multipoo Puppies, ready to go to a good home." - insert own punchline here...

Finally, in a study on brevity "Wanted: Barn cats, lots to eat." -sounds like a self catered arrangement.

More soon - bye for now.