Duncan - Canada
On my way to my time in Duncan I had the luck to whitness a pack of orcas passing by the fary. Sadly they were quick and a littler further away and we drowe the other way. I couldn’t catch my camera quick enough but at least I got some pictures in where you can see them from afar with the skyline of Vancouver in the background.
Life on a small farm
My view every morning when waking up.
I spend three weeks in Duncan on Vancouver Island at the End of August 2020. It was still mid Covid and I had lost my job end of March due to the Covid shutdown. My working holiday visa had just run out before I had the chance to find a new job who might have been able to sponsor me to stay longer. I was on a tourist visa by then for maximum half a year and it was clear that my time in Canada was ending, which was a hard pill to swallow.
At the same time my 3 month lease ended, so I was technically job and homeless. Well not the later of course, I had a stay secured for the last few weeks in Canada after my return from Vancouver Island. So when my working holiday visa ended and the shot of finding a sponsor was gone and we had to move out we first did a Vancouver Island road trip and stored our stuff somewhere. There the idea came up to try a WorkAway stay on a farm on Vancouver Island. They mostly don’t pay you but you get food and a place to stay but that was more than enough for me. As you can imagine it was a challenging time for me. Some time away with a physical job where I had my head free and a bed and food secured sounded like a good place to start. I applied to multiple on Vancouver Island and even got the choice between two. I decided for a small farm with ponies, a dog, cats and chickens which was privately owned by a sweet older lady called Lynda. She needed help with her little farm as she was getting older. The time with her was great. I actually didn’t spend much time in Duncan to explore as I had to take care of the animals every day. I only did two trips away from the farm while there. One was for a hike at the Kinsol Trestle and another one for a whale watching tour. You’ll find the pictures of those trips below. Also, Lynda took me to see her family and friends sometimes. Still, it was a great time. The quiet life with the animals and the good talks with Lynda helped me to come to peace with the realization that there was no future for me in Canada, even though I loved this country and especially Vancouver so much. It’s not that I was excited about it, but I accepted that staying longer and eating up all my savings was not a good plan either as there was no job that could sponsor me in sight. Sometimes you just have to accept what you can’t change.
Just after my time with Lynda we had a last road trip up the Sea to Sky Highway, spend some last weeks in Vancouver and then off we went, but more on that in future blogs.
I’m really thankful for the time I had on the island! Below you find some Impressions of my time in Duncan and it’s surroundings.
Squiggy to me was the most handsome of the ponies and we became quite close. He was pretty suspicious and brushed off quick as soon as I tried to touch but super curious at the same time so he would come back soon. It took me some patience to convince him that he could trust me but at some time I was even able to brush and clean him and he followed me over the paddock when I cleaned. What an honor if an animal starts to trust you. Lynda told me that normaly it takes him much longer to trust a human if he trusts at all. She said that she had the feeling that I had a calming effect on the ponies and said that she wishes for me that in the future I will have the chance to work with ponies or horses again. To me it felt like the other way around. Each time I’m around horses I feel calm in their presence. Their gentle way while being such a strong and powerful animal faszinates me. I acutally did not ride any of Lyndas Ponies as they were trained for carriages but to me that was fine. I don’t need to ride those stunning creatures, being with them, gives me a calm feeling and I don’t need the exciting feeling of a ride.
Calli is a shy ponie. It took her some time to trust me. She was diabetic so we had to soak her hay everyday before feeding so it would contain less carbohydrates.
Mira is the tallest of the three ponies almost a horse I guess. She was well trained and used to people around her. She was the only who would allow me to brush her from the start.
Rosy a dog full of energy and if ADHD was a dog, that would be her. We had so much fun but she also used the last bit of my engery some days when she didn’t want to stop playing 😄
Farm life was not always easy. Imagine packing every one of those hay bales and putting them into a barn… By hand of course. I was not alone, it was two more helping but we had two of those trucks to unload… First of all, I had hay all over and it really stuck to my clothing and second of all I had sore muscles for days, especially in my hands as the hay was wrapped with a thin rope by which we had to lift it. I was so glad when we were over. Luckily that was a one-time job and apart from that I cleaned the horse paddock, got rid of unwanted weeds, collected apples, gave food to the animals and further more.
Kinsol Trestle
I acutally visited the Kinsol Trestle twice. Once in my time in Duncan and a second time on the last Vancouver Island roadtrip we did. It is impressing and the nature around it is also nice for a walk.
Whale Watching Tour
I did a whale watching Tour from Cowichan Bay with a small air boat. We saw one whale on the tour, he only came up a few times and then was gone. It was still impressive, as it was huge. Sadly no more orcas, which would have been my dream. But the tour was loads of fun anyways as the boot is quite speedy and it was fun to ride the waves. Without a full cover water proof outfit it would have been hard though.
Waiting for the whale to resurface. What a huge ocean world 🩵
Not only the water life was beautiful to witness. This was already at full zoom, he was gorgeous.
An otter having a snack by the pier.
Since the blog is called Duncan at least one picture from the acutal town of Dunkan 😉