Vancouver Island – Part 2

After leaving Paul and Gini’s we headed over to Tofino and Ucluelet on the west coast of the Island for a few days.

On the way, we stopped at MacMillan Provincial Park. This park showed Old Growth trees and how the natural forest worked using fallen or dead trees as nursery trees for fertilizer for the next generation:

The weather was not the greatest and rained most days. We found a campsite at Bella Pacifica for 3 nights, we were camped next to Bob & Jenifer, after dinner we joined them around their campfire for a good chinwag and some laughs.
The following day Bob & Jenifer left and we walked into Tofino, had some lunch, pick up some items we needed and walked back to camp all in the rain. We also made a quick stop to the local ER as Stewart has taken on a rock in the dark the night before and we thought it would be prudent to have it looked at. First questions from the ER nurse, “is have you had your tetanus shot, and of course prior to leaving Edmonton we had had all the required inoculations for our planned travels. We encountered some very entertaining locals while waiting in ER to see the Dr. Luckily the injury was not too serious and Catherine had been successful in cleaning the wound well the night before. Had we visited the ER earlier, there may have been a few stitches. The wound is healing nicely.

The following day we walked the opposite direction (south), called at a local coffee shop where we had a couple of goodies with our coffee and chia tea. From here we continued to the south end of Chesterman Beach where we watched some surfers taking lessons and others in the water waiting to catch a wave. From here back to camp and had dinner and played a word game called Quiddler which we call Quibbler as we disagree on some of the words being used. The plan for the day had been to take a boat trip to do some whale watching and go to some hot pools. Best not go to the hot pools with an open wound.

Guess it doesn’t matter if you go surfing in the rain, as you’re getting wet regardless. There were what looked like the remains from something that give birth from the movie Alien:

We left Bella Pacifica on the third day and went into Tofino to do some laundry, have breakfast then headed towards Ucluelet for a couple of days.

On the way, we stopped in at Radar Hill to take in the views.

We then went to Shore Cove for a walk in some old growth forest. This walk was like walking in Mirkwood from Lord of the Rings, all that was missing were the Woodland Elves and the Spiders.

And you always spot the warning sign after you’ve taken the photo!!!!

But that’s ok as we found a Life Saver on the beach!

And there was sea-life in the rock pools:

While in the parking lot we ran into fellow Swiss Overlanders; Christa & Johann, who had been on the road for 5 years travelling through Asia, Far East and then shipped to South America from which they had driven north finally arriving in the western Canada. A much smaller unit than ours, what have we not figured out yet???? Clearly, we need to do some purging and lighten our load.

We then found a camp spot at Surf’s Junction, we booked in for two days where the weather continued with the liquid sunshine. Next day we drove into Ucluelet and walked some of the Wild Pacific Trail before going to Eagles Nest for some mid-afternoon food, before going back to camp for an evening fire pit and a nightcap. We had decided a couple years ago, regardless of the weather, where ever we are, we need to make the most of our time, as we might not be back again.

We went back into Ucluelet the following day, then headed for the Rain Forest walk before heading to Port Alberni for the night. It was amazing to see a humming bird in the rain forest, it moved too quickly to get a picture.

Next day we went back to Parksville and Qualicum Beach where we met up with Paul & Gini for dinner. We spent another night at French Creek, one of favorite dry camping spots, beer and birds.

Next: Vancouver Island Part 3