Sunshine Coast Adventure - Part 4

As usual, be sure to click on the images to enlarge and see the detail.

On the way back to the main highway after stopping at Skookumchuck Narrows, we passed a birch tree that had a sign tacked to it. Again, it was a "Cathy, stop the car! There's a shot!" moment. The sign read "Moccassin Valley and I hopped out to take a couple of shots. I looked around and noticed it was a beautiful location with thick moss growing on a lot of the tree branches and a little river flowing along through the forest. It was very overgrown, but I did manage to make my way through the fallen leaves and bits of bark and logs to take a few more pictures. A bit further on was a small waterfall and I'm sure it was natural, not man-made. It's amazing to me what you can see when you stop at the side of a road and take a few steps into the woods. Here are a few of the shots I got that day.

We got back on the highway and decided that we'd follow the signs to one of the next villages along the way. We ended up in a place called Madeira Park. Winding our way through the village, we ended up at the marina. What an incredible place! It was sunny and warm so we wandered around, me taking photos of everything! There's a carved wooden statue there of Portuguese Joe Silvey - a saloon keeper, whaler and pioneer of seine fishing. He was quite the character and many of his descendants still live in the area.

Madeira Park is the main shopping centre for the Pender Harbour region, with banks, a large supermarket, Government liquor store, pharmacy, hardware, and several smaller shops. I found this little tidbit quite amusing - directly across the water, off Beaver Island, is Whiskey Slough, once a favourite anchorage for bachelor fishermen of Scottish extraction! Hmm....should I check it out? lol

After wandering around the marina, we ended up back in the village where we found a great little cafe with home-baked goodies. We each chose a muffin and something to drink and sat in the adjacent area that had art all over the walls. I really loved one particular artist's works and I should have written his name down, but of course now I've forgotten it. Duh! We looked at the art and other crafts, including jewellry but didn't buy anything.

School was just getting out when we left Madeira Park and back on the highway, we thought we'd check out Halfmoon Bay. With my navigating, we found the sign that led off the highway to this residential area and drove along Redroofs Road. This is a beautiful community where gentle bays and coves provide protected harbours for marine traffic and pristine wooded shores encourage people to explore. We ended up finally at Smuggler's Cove and I'll tell you about it next time in Part 5. I'll leave you today with images of Madeira Park's marina.