In two weeks with Danger Dan you can expect more adventures than you would normally have in an entire year. Even in a single day so much can happen that by the evening you can hardly believe it was all one and the same day.
For instance, in one day Dan can catch a 10 kg king salmon, watch a grey whale surfacing and diving, and sail towards the sunset on a three-hour sailing trip.
A perfectly ordinary day with Dan - and for the past few days we had the good fortune to accompany him on his daily adventures, large and small.
So from Bogotá we flew to Canada, or more precisely to near Victoria on Vancouver Island. That is where Dan lives, whom we met on the Te Araroa . And living with him - at least for this summer - are his son Simon with his girlfriend Missy and their pug Luna, as well as his daughter Hannah.
Even on the approach to Canada we knew: this is the right place for us. Not a cloud spoiled the sky and we enjoyed the view of the snow-covered Mount Baker. Entry went astonishingly smoothly and we were let in without an onward ticket. A train, bus and ferry ride later, Dan greeted us in his Danger Van!
On our first day we got to know the big family: his mother Suzy and his sisters Tanya and Sonya came round for breakfast and again in the evening for games night. In between we forged various plans for one big joint adventure. Goal: see bears. And since Dan had been camping with a family of wolves only a few days earlier, he had no shortage of suggestions for where we could achieve that goal. Admittedly: if we were heading into the Canadian wilderness on our own, that goal would not be on our bucket list - but with Danger Dan at our side nothing can happen!
Before we set off on our big adventure, though, we went on a lot of small ones together.
For a year now Dan has owned the little sailing boat Mañana, on which we sailed out to Sidney Spit. Even though you might well credit him with it, this little sand island lies not off Australia but off Vancouver Island. We had a wonderfully sunny day - to our delight every single day on Vancouver Island had been sunny and warm so far, not a drop of rain fell during our time here! With that much sun you cannot resist a quick jump into the water - sadly the refreshment on this side of the Pacific Ocean turned out ten degrees colder than we had recently been used to, so it was a veeeery brief cool-down!
For some people a five-hour sailing trip ends sunburnt and wind-blown with a nap on the couch. Not with Dan! We got sushi and enjoyed it from a lovely viewpoint above Victoria. After that we drove along Victoria’s coast, fed greedy seals and watched the kitesurfers doing their jumps.
As we dozed into the next morning, Dan asked what we wanted to do with the day.
We could cycle around the area a bit!
To the lake?
Alright!
My interpretation of we are cycling to the lake is: we cycle for half an hour, stay at the lake for three hours, and cycle back - not, of course, without stopping for an ice cream.
On the ice cream at least our ideas matched. Otherwise his interpretation of we are cycling to the lake was: we ride 30 km, mostly uphill, cool off briefly in the lake and set off back again. Let me put it this way: just as well I had packed my e-reader…
Our highlight, though, was a fishing trip together with his friends Thomas and Carola and their two daughters. Their sailing boat Laps of Reason is a fair bit larger than the Mañana.
We had just sailed out onto the Juan de Fuca Strait between Vancouver Island and the USA and had not had the lines in the water for fifteen minutes when one of the rods gave a violent tug. Dan did not hesitate for a second and took up the fight with our quarry. And what a fight it was! From the stern around the port side the two of them battled bitterly over live and let live. Again and again the fish twisted so hard that the line gave way before we ever set eyes on our prize. When we finally caught sight of the fish, we could hardly believe our luck: a magnificent king salmon!
Nobody on our boat has ever landed a salmon that big. What a lucky catch!
We were still cruising along in disbelief at our fishing success when we saw a gathering of boats in the distance. That can really only mean one thing: whale watching! And sure enough, through the binoculars we spotted whales swimming constantly to the surface to breathe. Full speed ahead!
While the other boats, duty done, shot back to Victoria, we cruised calmly towards the whales. Not that we knew exactly where they would next come up for air after their five-minute dive. I positioned myself at the bow, binoculars in my left hand and camera in my right - when the grey whale suddenly surfaced 20 m in front of our boat! Incredible!
Happy, we cruised back. On land, under the admiring gaze of the other anglers, we weighed our king salmon: 10 kg the good fellow tipped the scales at!
