today we are heading over to Malcolm Island to visit Sointula yeah the

Finnish community of Sointula and what does that mean Audrey it means place

of harmony place of harmony in Finnish that's nice but today instead of walking

we are driving the car into the ferry because the island is a little bit

bigger than the one that we visited yesterday yeah we're gonna be driving on

the island and there is a point where apparently you can see the Orcas yes

maybe we'll get lucky and we'll be able to see some waves

we're definitely going to go there and also there's some really good hiking

trails as well so there's quite a bit to do on the island and because it it's

considerably bigger than alert Bay we've decided to take the car so that we can

we can cover everywhere there's nowhere where we can we could do all this on

foot no impossible and it's the same fee as the passengers like that we're still

being charged ten dollars per person but the only difference is we're paying $20

for the to take the car on so really it's only $15 more because we

had to pay a $5 parking fee yesterday so we have just 15 extra dollars and we get

to have the vehicle on the island well worth it on top of that today's kind of

a rainy day wasn't typical Vancouver Island weather and if it starts pouring

then at least we have the car to go around and we don't have to you know

like I mean lose a day you know now we are waiting to board weigh-in the board

that's it

the crossing from Port McNeill to Sointula was just 25 minutes so an even

shorter journey than the previous day's trip to alert Bay we already mentioned

this on our last ferry ride but as a reminder you'll want to check the BC

ferry schedule since ceilings are in very frequent and you don't want to lose

a few hours waiting for the next boat plan ahead so you can really make the

most of your day trip

well we've arrived on the island and we're going down some dirt roads we've

already seen a little baby deer a little Bambi on the side of the road waiting

for us so that was pretty cool and our first stop of the day we are planning to

go to bear Point Regional Park we've got a little map of the island and

apparently there's a trail we can walk it's called

beautiful Bay Trail and they have a lookout point with a whale watching

platform so maybe we'll get lucky since we're not actually doing any whale

watching tours maybe we'll just be there right place right time and we might be

able to see something off in the water so that is where we're headed next yeah

still raining but I mean we've got our umbrellas it's nice that we have the

car today so we can stay kind of dry yeah back with an update

another reason we stopped at bere point is because we had been told by fellow

hikers that you can sometimes see orcas rubbing on the pebbly beach so we sat on

a log and waited and waited and waited with umbrellas in hand but the orcas

eluded us once more I'm not gonna lie guys it was a cold and wet day and my

morale was pretty low but that's just travel for you sometimes the weather

cooperates and other times you have to go out there and try to enjoy the

destination whatever the weather

well guys welcome to the forest it almost feels like an enchanted forest

here what do you think welcome to the fort welcome to the

wilderness you know this is a forest but it's also a wild place we were we were

driving by and we wanted to stop to show you what it looks like from the inside

right because so far we've been driving and filming the forest and the woods

from outside all you see it's a curtain of green and you don't really have idea

what goes on inside once you get into this places it's like you step into

another world it's surreal you know I don't know if the camera can really do

justice to what you see here but you walk in there and you feel like you're

walking on top of a sponge yeah everything is kind of goes down you know

from the years of decay of rotten logs and branches and leaves and what have

you you know maybe centuries and centuries of stuff that has been piling

on the on the floor also they the magnitude the Majestic of this place you

know like I mean it's something that it leaves you speechless is a WOW factor

you know every time so it almost has a bit of a magical element with like all

the trees covered in moss and old man's beard like it feels like something out

of Narnia like you've walked into the Wardrobe and you're in this magical land

no that's not in this go up this little feel a little bit following here yeah

it's fantastic you really on Malcolm Island you really feel the ruggedness as

you take the logging roads out into the bush it's green like even the tree

trunks is amazingly wild you know like I mean pure nature is pure nature again

you know it's like the cycle of the forest it's amazing here you can see it

look at the bottom these rotten trees and branches and trees that have been

you know that they fell and what can I say Wow no one who ever have the chance

of visiting this part of the world please do so because you will not be

disappointed and also there is

beautiful camping ground over there with all the services I was just telling my

daughter that this country that the best way to see Canada is to have like a

Motorhome some sort of like a trailer where you can sleep and you can stay a

couple of days here a couple of days there you know it's so vast and there is

so much to see it we rented a car but then you need to stop in houses and

hotels motel or whatever you want to do but if you have your own in a motorized

home that's all you need look Wow

our next stop on malcolm island was Pulteney point lighthouse over on the

west end of the island built in 1943 this is both a lighthouse and a fog

alarm building that provides navigational aid to boats traveling

between the Queen Charlotte's Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound the lighthouse

isn't open to visitors however we still enjoy the beach walk it takes to get

there so we'd recommend it for anyone looking for a short hike

well we just finished visiting the lighthouse what not to keep in mind you

have to follow a trail through the woods and that leads to the beach then you

turn left but I've read online that it's not accessible during high tide so we

just got here without checking the schedule we looked at we were extremely

lucky basically yeah otherwise you won't be

able to make it like no it's a beautiful rugged lookout point though I mean my

gosh right now it's one o'clock in the afternoon so water is still far away

enough that you can still walk the beach it's just so nice to walk along the

coastline there really to be the only people we just saw another couple very

briefly the beach is all full of logs you know all those logs that you see at

the beach there are the logs are either they fall because here the forest

reaches practically the water it does what is edge so when that tree falls is

goes in the water and then who knows which Beach is gonna show up in you know

in my opinion definitely worth the effort the drive over here is fantastic

- it's like a logging road and yeah it's very rugged you really feel like you're

exploring the frontier area of the island Malcolm Island

but now let's go back to the reason why we came all the way to Sointula to

learn about its Finnish past the most logical place to start would be the

Sointula Museum Sointula's history started when a group of Finnish settlers

rode up from Nanaimo looking to escape the brutal working conditions in the

coal mines and create a self-sustaining place of their own the group got in

contact with Matti karika a finished journalist and utopian socialist to see

if he would be interested in providing leadership and he accepted that's how in

1901 the new utopia of Sointula meaning place of harmony was established

on the island their guiding principles included ideas like communal ownership

decision-making by consensus equal pay for women and a separate children's home

the communes a grow and for a short time it appeared to have a bright future but

then a series of unfortunate events brought things to a halt first a fire

that killed several people and devastated the community supplies and

then there was the issue of mounting financial debt and poor decisions on

Matty's part by late 1904 the colony had deteriorated with many people choosing

to leave but those who remained carved a new life for themselves and today that

whole history is recounted in the Museum

this place is got it all from telecommunications to old forestry

equipment and you notice something that I had never seen before well that's for

me which I'm from then in 1954 this is a trip back in time when I saw this one

immediately remember this is the machine we used to use in Argentina to kill

flies and mosquitoes they used to sell a bottle of liquid that you put in this

container here you filled it up and then the mother used to tell the kids okay go

go kill the flies you know and they used to give at one each and we'll go on it

will dispense through here okay we used to call it flea the product that we used

to put in here but in Spanish flea it was mispronounced because it probably

meant fly and it was an imported product from the United States who knows work

and nobody knows till today what kind of poisonous liquid were put in here we

were strain in the air and then we were breathing this thing so we're actually

killing the flight by killing ourselves too and in those days nobody knew about

these pesticides and all these things you know that so funny so we were

visiting a Finnish Museum and you found things that you can relate to from look

that's another one that one that's for their welders when you had to weld all

day back home when I was a kid all the piping of the houses were made out of

lead yeah we did not know that lead was toxic yeah okay and when they had to

join the pipes and stuff like that this was a welder you know it was like a

kerosene pressure with these they used to work okay so many things here we

should go take a look at the fridge the fridge is really interesting

I in here man be a man don't come here drunk and you have all the vintage

bottles wow that's the old lucky lager I'm wearing a lucky longer cap that's

the old old bottles there look at that or orange Krush I don't want to touch

those they've been making that beer for a while here on the island and I guess

over here would be the finish the same thing that finished yeah so yeah yeah

this is just an incredible collection like normally I'm not a big museum

person but this is as if this is well worth it guys this is from my

Westinghouse look at that refrigerator yeah from the late forties maybe early

fifties please amazing and to come here it's by donation they have a suggested

donation of $5 and we reach paid that and well worth it as you guys already

know if you've been following our Vancouver Island series that we use the

trover app to geo tie cool places we came across during this trip this museum

is one of the many places we added to the app so if you have plans to visit

the island and are looking for some travel inspo you can browse arch over

lists for ideas after our museum visit Sam couldn't resist going into the co-op

to see if they had some finished products in stock namely his favorite

salmiakki my dad and I played with dogs while Sam tore the market so now you

know where I get it from

on the cutest Sam has found a finished product

salmiakki hey hey hey hey the find of the day my favorite liquorice in the

whole world from Finland it's not just any kind of licorice its salmiaki

which is the best the saltiest the most what do you what would you call the most

potent by far and you know what I'm gonna enjoy this right now but I'm also

gonna let you guys try it oh gosh oh yeah oh yeah this guy will eat boy son

I'll just I'll tell y'all strong there oh yeah the one from Finland hey Donna

look it is song yeah how does a finished blackbird

alright you enjoy back

I think it's fair to say that my dad did not enjoy the salmiakki but no worries

Sam finished the whole box all by himself on the drive back it was then

time to get on the ferry and head back to Port McNeil this was her final

destination on the north of the island but we still have a few more Vancouver

Island videos in store for you so stay tuned for that

all right so we have returned back from our day trip to malcolm island in the

finnish community it was great it was a beautiful day beautiful day we

did a little bit of everything and the only thing we didn't see was the orca

whale the whale point yeah nothing but on the way back we saw a bear a little

one landing on the middle of the road yeah too bad that our photographer was

dreaming you know we caught a picture no I was having a salmiakki coma I had too

many Finnish licorice yangtze I was yawning in the back say he ate a box of

a licorice on his own so he was there like I know in and out of consciousness