Blogs from Port Hardy, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, North America

Mielőtt felszállnánk a kompra, h megkezdjük a 18 órás komp utunkat, felraktunk a Picasara még pár képet. Vigyázat, mert a képek alapján Kanada fő látványossága eddig Dávid!... read more

Today is our last day on the island. At 7:30 tomorrow we will be driving onto the Northern Expedition and setting off on our 15-hour voyage to Northern BC. After we left Campbell River last Saturday, we headed west into the Strathcona Provincial Park. The park is centred around a 14 mile-long lake, called Buttle Lake. Lots of snow covered mountains, and more than a few waterfalls. On the drive to the park we saw another bear. This one just sitting in a carefree-type way in the middle of the road. He ran off as soon as I tried to get my camera out (although, Craig did suggest that he was going to die of old age before I was ready to take his photo). We stayed the first night at a campsite called Ralph River, ... read more

I get a series of buses out of Vancouver to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal (so far Canada's bus drivers are the most helpful and friendly bus drivers I've ever encountered), and head over to Vancouver Island. I arrive in Nanaimo, and get the first inkling that I have spectacularly underestimated the size of the country. I had planned to have a proper look round the island, visit Victoria and Tofino and all the other interesting towns. But I've booked a ferry leaving from Port Hardy (up in the north of the island) that leaves the day after tomorrow. Apparently it will take this long just to get from Nanaimo to Port Hardy. So I spend the whole of the next day on a Greyhound Bus up to Port Hardy (see my first Canadian bear on ... read more

Port Hardy is the take-off point for the day ferry up the Inner Passage to Prince Rupert. The drive here was very scenic, with many snow capped mountains along the way. It was tempting to stop and take photos though I suspect even better is to come in the Rockies. We stopped at Campbell River to check out the local museum, which had an excellent display on indian history, arguably even better than the Royal BC Museum we saw two days ago. The coast is littered with small communities that have floating timber in their wharves, but there's also plenty of trucks carrying timber along the way. We stopped for lunch at the Cable House Cafe at Sayward. The cafe is made out of 2" steel cables. ... read more

The morning of our last full day dawned; inevitably after the long journey the day before it was a late start. After breakfast I went off with Jen, sound-mapping the bay. As I had ensured I was with Kristi, so that we could do a spot of bird-watching, that was what we did, after we had done the required science bit. We started off with the kingfishers, who seemed to reside constantly in the same tree. The only problem for them was that there were two of them who wanted the same perch all day. This resulted in a constant battle between the two birds, as they took it in turns to knock each other off. Its hard to imagine how annoying that must be after a while. Especially as there were hundreds of other trees ... read more

The floathouse was much bigger than I expected. There was Crystal's family home, and several small chalets for paying guests. The one we stayed in had room to sleep 6 as well as a kitchen, living room and bathroom. The nearby fishing lodges are also floathouses,and when they are closed in the winter they are brought down to Dawson's Landing to be looked after by Crystal's family. The surrounding area is no longer logged. Until recently some patches were logged and the logs were flown out by helicopter. The morning sunrise at Dawson's Landing was other wordly, as you can see from the photographs. I woke up proclaiming that I had been speaking american in my dreams, and didn't understand why my US colleagues found this funny. According to them I still sounded the same when ... read more