Day 14-16 - Tofino

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I was up early again to get my lift from my new chums from Brighton, my text destination was to be Campbell River, however, on arrival the campsite was in the middle of an industrial site and there seemed to be nothing of interest amongst the sprawl of the city. I had initially decided on Campbell River as it was near some great hiking trails but from where the campsite was it would take me all day just to reach the start of the hike so I asked my new chums if they could take me wherever they were going as it had to be better than Campbell River.

As it turned out they were headed to the other side of the Island to Tofino, I had read about this place and was pondering whether to go there when I was planning my hols so it worked out perfectly. We arrived at Bella Pacifica campground that overlooked a bay with the Pacific ocean as the backdrop, we splashed out an extra 10 bucks a night to get an ocean view and it was certainly worth it, the views from my tent were incredible. I got an added bonus as my chums had a spare airbed that they lent me, my travel mattress was less than an inch thick and not very comfy!! They also treated me to breakfast, hot tea and most improtantly they had a cool box for my beer - result!! each night we made a camp fire and sang songs:-))

As we were in a car we were able to travel to the various walks that could be found across the Pacific Rim National park, according to the literature there are 8 trails to visit in the area and we managed to visit 5 of them. Most of the walks involved travelling through gigantic western redcedars and western hemlock trees that reached up into the sunblight, their branches enveloped with hanging moss and ferns and skunk cabbage carpeting the forest floor. I was very lucky to see all these amazing sights and if it wasn't for my new chums I wouldn't have been able to.

The next day my chums dropped me off at Nanaimo port from where I crossed over back to Vancouver for my last night of my hols which I spent with two russians, got very drunk and fell out of my top bunk in the middle of the night, crashing 6 feet to the floor below and giving my bunk mate a near heart-attack. He got up and laid a sheet over me, I guess he thought I was dead!! it would take more than that I tell you:-)

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