if you follow us on instagram you may be wondering how the heck we found ourselves in port renfrew [ winter popluation two hundred & forty ], how the heck we found ourselves working & what the heck we are thinking. well...
we left victoria & made our way up the west coast of the island. our intention was to vist mystic & sombrio beaches as suggested by my brother, but with all the unscheduled stops to trek down unmarked trails, by the time we got mystic beach it was getting late so we opted to make our way to the end of the road & into port renfrew where we would spend the night - & head back to mystic the next morning.
we passed the 'welcome to port renfrew' sign & saw a few houses. then the general store. then a marina. then a dump. then the coastal cafe. then a few more houses. then trailhead fishing resort. then the port renfrew hotel [ & pub ]. then a second marina. & that was it. that was the town.
by that time it was early evenng. time to find a spot to spend the night. time to have a beer. the first marina offered overnight parking for ten dollars, so that was an option, but after a conversation with the bartender at the pub, it was decided we would stay right there, in the parking lot, for free.
just before ten o'clock [ closing time. even on a friday night ] we made our way to the van to get cozy & get some sleep. our plan for morning was to go to trailhead for a fishing licence [ luke would finally get some fishing done ], go to botanical beach to explore the tidal pools, do the china beach to mystic beach hike, visit sombrio beach & head to lake cowichan.
well, our plans changed. drastically.
we woke at 8 o'clock [ the truck delivering beer to the pub was parked directly behind us & wasn't exactly quiet ], went to coastal kitchen for two [ five fucking dollar ] cappuccinos & went to trailhead for the licence. within two minutes of arriving we were offered jobs.
for some reason, as we were waiting for the licence to print, luke mentioned that he had worked part time as a fishmonger. when connie [ didn't know her name then ] heard this she immediately offered luke a job in the fish room - cutting, rinsing, packaging & labelling fish. huh?
our initional reaction was, what? work? here? but we're on vacation!? [ all in our heads, of course. what luke said out loud was 'is there work for my wife?' & the answer was 'yes, housekeeping'. whaaaat?! ]
for the next couple of minutes connie explained how things worked. it was an hourly rate + tips [ all members of staff split the tips ], three home cooked meals were provided daily & we could cozy up in a cabin on site. she also said that we could give it a go for a week & see how we like it & go from there. well, THAT was definitely worth considering. so we did.
we headed to botanial beach, chatting excitedly the whole way. it only took about ten minutes for us to decide that yes, we were interested. in fact, we were VERY interested. if we worked for a few weeks we could stay on the road longer. if we worked for a few weeks we could get to know this teeny tiny town on a personal level. if we worked for a few weeks we could learn new skills [ turns out you CAN teach an old dog new tricks ].
we spent a few hours roaming botanical beach at low tide, investigating the tide pools, climbing onto rocks, taking in the sights. & then we returned to trailhead to accept the job offers.
luke started that evening at 4 o'clock & i started the next morning at 9 o'clock. & we've been working ever since.
follow us on instagram: www.instagram.com/openheartsopenroad
No comments:
Post a Comment