Mayne Island Revisited

Will anyone else from Salt Spring be up for a 5:30am home departure in the dark to catch the 6:20am ferry from Long Harbour to Mayne Island?

We arrived at 7:35am and proceeded directly to the incredible Japanese Garden at Dinner Bay. The Japanese Memorial Garden was opened in May 2002 after an incredible effort by Don Herbert and many volunteers to create “a monument of remembrance and tribute to the Canadian-Japanese Families who were taken away from Mayne Island on April 21, 1942. At that time, they comprised 30% of the Island population. The Japanese heritage families in the 1930’s ran the glass tomato houses, with nearly 3.5 hectares under glass–the largest greenhouse operation in the British Empire at that time.

“Meanwhile, many Islanders secretly hid away the Japanese families’ household possessions — an offence punishable by jail time. And, Japanese internees managed to write Christmas letters to Mayne Islanders and stay in contact.” from The Chronicles, an article titled by Terry Glavin, “Mayne Island Garden Honours Japanese.”

“The Salt Spring Island tycoon Gavin Mouat got the “enemy aliens property” job and auctioned off every piece of Japanese property he could find. For some reason, the Dinner Bay Park property was never auctioned and became a park.

We admired the beauty of the place.

The Sunnyside Bakery was our first stop (opens at 8am) for a legendary Cronut. They’re open 8am to 2pm, Tues-Sat. Another great bakery is Shavasana Art Gallery & Cafe, but check its website for sporadic open hours.

Then we headed out to the lighthouse loop…

Then three visits, to Brian Dearden’s, through Glen Echo trail back down to Andrew Hope’s, and then the Library & Mayne Island Conservancy, before lunch at Farm Gate Store.

Stopped by the Ethnobotany Garden and museum and new Indigenous art… to the deli at Farmgate store (which opens at 10am). They have a great spot to plug in your ebike right by the entrance where the hose is.

We couldn’t drag ourselves away from the Fernhill Centre’s bookstore, art gallery, and the Farmgate deli lunch… so we lingered. Then, we stopped at the Ceramics place on the way to Bennett Bay to check out the Oja’s (652 Fernhill Rd, Mayne Island, BC V0N 2JI (House on the hill beside Home Hardware), https://www.mayneclay.ca/contact-5

Rode to Bennett Bay, stopping briefly to admire the views, and cut-through at the end of Arbutus to Horton Road, and onwards to meet Brian at the Old Dock for a ride home to Ganges.

Brian can accomodate up to four mid-sized ebikes and is an avid cyclist himself.

We had planned to return at 11:35am, arriving back at 12:50pm… a little less than four hours.

Big thanks to Brian Dearden for the ride home!

Alternatively, we set out at 3:35 and arrive at 4:50pm and just bicycle and have dinner and return on the night boat… giving us about four hours plus, before returning around 9pm and getting back to SSI at 10:30pm! … A few last stunning photos by Tubtim: