Parksville has sponsored a sand sculpting contest for 35 years. Contestants have 30 hours to complete their sculptures using only water and the pile of super fine sand supplied to them. Nothing is allowed to be added during the construction but when the sculptures are finished they’re sprayed with diluted white glue so that they’ll last for five weeks. The sculptures are amazing!
Soft sand that is very hard to push through covers the sculpture viewing area. A loner wheelchair with larger tires is available.
The contest is held in the Parksville Community Park which has tennis courts, ball parks, a lacrosse box, skate board park, covered picnic area, and playground. A walkway - part pavement, part boardwalk – follows the beach. The walkway is about 1/2 mile one way.
Signs directing visitors to the RV parking area are confusing. If you miss the correct lot you’re on a one way road out of the park. Look for the curling club building on the right and turn into the lot on the left. RV parking is in the gravel section of the lot. To get to the contest area and beach walkway cross the street to the tennis courts and follow the paved trails towards the water. The trails and curb cuts are in good condition. Park Contest 49.32191, -124.30833
Jimmy and I would love to see these sand sculptures. Bet it was fun looking at them. You're still in BC. How far north are you going?
ReplyDeleteWe usually come upon sand sculptures after they've started to crumble so it was nice to see these ones in such good condition. :-)
DeleteWe went all the way north to the end of Hwy 19. Gravel roads continue from there but we have to get back to the states so we're on our way south now. I'm so far behind on posts that I'll be writing about BC way after we're off the island!
I understand your last sentence completely. :-)
DeleteDid you enjoy being on the island?
Yes, we've enjoyed exploring the island. We could spend at least three more weeks here because we haven't really seen much of the west coast or traveled along the many gravel roads that branch off of Hwy 19.
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