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Published: October 26th 2012
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So, its our last full day in the camper, we're up at Campbell River on Vancouver Island and its been raining solid for 12 hours.
we left Whistler on the 17th in much the same conditions as we've got today, we were looking forward to the stunning drive on the Sea to Sky Highway but all we got was drizzle and cloud. We ended up driving straight to the ferry terminal and before we could say wrong turn we were in a one way queue to get on the ferry, decision made!! It was a 1 hr 40 min crossing to Vancouver Island and we arrived in darkness so for the first time this trip found a Walmart and camped in the carpark ten minutes from the ferry in Nanaimo. Friday morning i woke to find my back was even worse from my rock shifting episode so spent the morning finding a Chiropractor who relocated my Sacro-illiac and sent me on my way. Some anti inflamatories and a frozen bag of peas later and we were on our way to tofino on the west coast. We found a great campsite on the beach and booked a Whale watching tour the
next day. Tofino was quiet small but had a nice feel, nestled in the craggy shores of the west coast with an abundance of Bald Eagles and forrests fight down to the waters edge! Apparently alot of hippy/surfer types stay here in summer, understandable when you see the miles of rugged beaches with huge breaks!
The Whale watching was slightly dissapointing, We saw a Grey whale feeding from over a 100 metres away, well just its back actually so no hair raising encounter that we'd hoped for but with the Steller Sea lions and the Sea Otters it was a great day. As we've still not seen a bear we tried to book on a bear watching tour but it had been cancelled so we decided to set off for Ucluelet. (pissing it down again). Aparently Ucluelet is shut on rainy Sundays, we saw about 3 people and even less cars. After stopping near the habour for a bite to eat we decided to head back across East on the same and only road to the west. We got as far as Duncan, 50k north of Victoria and ditched in a walmart carpark again! (great for a coffee and
toilet needs first thing in the morning!) We rose early and headed into Victoria, a very British city, very colonial with a huge habour and lots of geriatrics, apparently because of the weather rarely dipping below freezing. We enquired again about a whale watching trip and found one leaving within the hour with 4 places left. Result. This time we were on a Zodiac, 400 HP R.I.B. that did 35 knots!(thats more like it). We headed out into the channel and within half an hour had spotted a young humpback feeding and heading south. We trailed for half an hour and then the encounter we'd been hoping for. He surfaced right next to the boat and had a good look at us, i'm sure he winked at Shelly! We then headed for Race Rocks that had a lighthouse with a resident mass of californian Sealions lounging on the slipway, followed by Steller sealions and elephant seals on rocky outcrops all around. We then got a shout from another boat who'd spotted Orcas!!!!! We took off heading 2 miles south and managed to follow a pod of Transient Orcas just visiting, looking for seals or should i say found! There were
hangover food
Pancakes and bacon for a rough Shelly after a good night out in Smugglers Cove Pub in Vancouver on the 6.5% IPA!! hoards of Gulls circling and dropping onto what we guessed where bit of seal meat floating up from a very recent kill that they were chomping on! We saw about 6-7 Orcas in total with a couple of females and a huge Male, his dorsal was 6-7 feet!!! Very impressive! What a trip! We had a few too many celebratory drinks that night and didn't do alot the next day apart from have a couple of 'hair o the dogs'! We visited the Royal BC museum and Imax which was impressive with a huge collection of Tribal, Native artefacts.
On Thursday we left Victoria to head back up north to Campbell River, the home of salmon fishing with 4 of the 8 or so species entering the Campbell river, in the hope of a glimpse of a bear feeding on the last of the spawning fish!!! We headed into Strathcona Provincial Park and did a couple of short trails before it started to get dark. There were no obvois free spots to camp so we headed back to campbell River and walmarted again, still without spotting what Canada is surely the most famous for!! So here we are on
a rainy Friday morn, just getting ready to drive back to nanaimo for the 3 pm ferry to Vancouver and the end of the Canada leg of our trip. 2 left on tinterweb so will sign off, next stop the U S of A,,....
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anonymous
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Weather sounds more like uk, second Whale watch sounded great thats what you want get up close,fast boat you can get to sightings before they disappear.Coming cold in uk now, you might find it warmer as you head South.Good photo's,best of luck in the U S of A, every one finding your blog great. Love Dad xxx