Oak Bay carves its own identity from Victoria

...Continued

Some patrons have, Agate says, been known "to arrive in their nighties and slippers." Saturday nights the place rocks to the Wig and Thistle Show, when a professional Blackpool joke teller does justice to that particular brand of English humour.

Agate is correct. Oak Bay has and always has had more than its fair share of interesting characters.

For years, an aging local resident named Mr. Beck lived at the classic Oak Bay Beach Hotel down the road. As a lad, young Beck and a pal used to row out to Chatham Island just offshore in Baines Channel. Here the rum-runners used to allow the young boys to sit and watch them going about their business, with the proviso that the kids didn't get in the way, "otherwise they would have to shoot them."

Captain Beaumont, another Oak Bay resident, was very fond of a party, so he used to barge his friends across the channel for a spot of fun at his home on an acreage on Chatham's sister island, Discovery. When Beaumont died, he willed his property to the provincial government, which turned it into a provincial park, now still only accessible by boat.

Which is where we found ourselves on a mellow fall afternoon, listening to these and other tales told by Kevin Walker, owner of the Oak Bay Beach Hotel.

Walker runs hike and spa trips to Discovery, bringing guests over by boat. During the 25-minute crossing, we passed Fiddle Reef, the Chain Island cormorant nesting grounds and many plump harbour seals (known locally as "harbour sausages"), lazily basking on the rocks, awaiting a high tide to float them free. Overhead, turkey vultures spiralled in low thermals.

The night before our hike, we had watched the play Lighthouse Skies at a dinner theatre at the hotel, one of a series of plays commissioned by the Walkers. (The Rum-Runners debuts here in March.)

Lighthouse Skies recalls the poignant life of the Pike family, who once kept watch on Discovery. Our hike across the island led to the now-decommissioned lighthouse.

The 84 orcas of resident pods J, K and L occasionally blow off Discovery, and though we didn't see them on this trip we did enjoy the view of an extensive bull kelp forest, swaying offshore in the currents of Haro Strait.

Our guide Casey showed us how to cut and blow bull kelp trumpets and discussed bull-kelp chutney recipes, while Walker chopped up some more kelp, which he boiled in water for our foot spa soaks.

Our wilderness spa complete, we towelled off our feet, massaged Saltspring Island Dream cream between toes and felt ready for one of Captain Beaumont's parties.

In season, the Oak Bay Beach Hotel also offers a night kayak, crab feast and stargazing safari.

Guide and amateur astronomer David Lee leads the tours and had just the night before photographed the aurora borealis above Oak Bay.