Pender Bender
We were invited to Darrens birthday weekend event on the Island of Pender, which is one of the Gulf islands between Vancouver island and the mainland. Darren is married to Kim and they are friends of Sara and Craig. We had an absolutely fabulous time and yet again Canada gets better and better.
The ferry from Vancouver island took 40 or 50 mins and was similar in size to the isle of White ferry. The difference is the price ! we paid £9 approx for this journey with the motorhome, and that was a return ticket !
Darren had booked 2 cabins at The Timbers resort for the 12 to 16 people that dropped in over the weekend. The ‘cabins’ were in the 70 acre seafront grounds of a large house which was the home of a millionaire from Vancouver and every luxury and facility was available. We stayed in the motorhome but used the facilities of the cabins.
Over the weekend I was introduced to 2 new sports which are just flippin fantastic. I am hooked.
First was Bocce which is very similar to boule/petanque and crown green bowls. the big difference from boule is that the balls are much bigger – approx 4 1/2 inches diameter, and instead of playing back and forth on a piste or green you can play anywhere. In fact we played up and down dale, through trees and over tree stumps. The heavy balls roll over any small bumps and have great momentum so when they reach a slope they go for ever. Needless to say that in the grand final tournament of 8 teams of pairs, Wendy only went and won showing me up again. Just like the crazy golf !!
The second sport we played was a revelation to me, disc golf. I had no idea how much fun it was, and easy to quickly become competitive. Barney and Sam were not too bad either. Some people had a vareity of weighted frisbees for driving and putting but what I hadnt expected was the terrain. Each of the 27 holes was situated in beautiful forest, and players needed to scramble up, over and around boulders, brambles, cliffs and big trees to get to the hole, which was a post with a metal sheath that clanged if it was hit. If any player did a tee shot that was appallingly bad they had to complete the hole with their trousers around their ankles. The other players determined which was a ‘pants down’ shot or not. All of this is free to use, the only fee is that on each hole their is a bucket to collect the empty beer cans consumed which are cashed in for their deposit. Over the 2 days they got lots of empties from us. I took 24 cans on the island and thought that would be loads – Craig took over 60! he is like the Merv Hughes of disc golf.
Pender Bender We were invited to Darrens birthday weekend event on the Island of Pender, which is one of the Gulf islands between Vancouver island and the mainland. Darren is married to Kim and they are friends of Sara and Craig. We had an absolutely fabulous time and yet again Canada gets better and better.The…