Saratoga Sunrise

Sunrise on Saratoga Beach

There are few things in life I love more than spending time on a sandy shore with my dog, especially if that time is at sunrise or sunset.  A week at Breakers Resort on Saratoga Beach, Vancouver Island, is my idea of heaven - cottage right on the beach, sunrises viewed from the deck, sunrise walks along the shore, sunsets reflected in clouds and water. 

This was the fourth time I've stayed there, and even though I live within a few minutes walk of another beautiful beach, I hope to return to Saratoga Beach many more times.  Even Maggie, my anxiety-prone sheltie, is a different dog watching the ebb and flow of  the tide as the sun rises or sets.

Maggie's morning meditation

The best thing about sunrise walks is how every moment, every second, brings a new palette to the eye - from dark water and skies to red to yellow to blue. Second by second the image changes, and the variations of light and cloud reflect back from a pool of still water or a receding wave.

These two photos were taken just minutes apart  and from  just a few yards further along the beach, yet the colours and patterns are completely different:

And the clouds!  They billow and puff, they sweep and swish, and they turn salt water to a magical space where one feels they could just fall right in and be enveloped by soft cotton wool, dyed pink and blue, steel grey and orange and yellow:

As the sun rises and the clouds thin out, the water turns to a shiny platter of wonderfulness and even the rocks seem to float on its surface:

But that's not all I love about sunrise walks. Sunrise is the best time to view the birds that feed along the shore.  The kingfisher hovers and dives, and the gulls drop their clam shells on the rocks to crack them open;  the sandpipers race around in tight-knit groups that suddenly fly en masse to show their bellies as they curve through the air to another slice of sand just a few meters away.  I am mesmerized.

But it is the heron who draws the lens of my camera as he wades, stalks, darts down to grab his prey, and stands up again to swallow it, his mirror image so perfectly reflected in the water:

What more could one ask of a few days away ? Morning sunrises of beauty and tranquility, magic and amazement - and yet that is not all.  Come back tomorrow for the second post on our Saratoga vacation - from daylight to sunset.