A watery old week... but the sun is out

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After a couple of grey, wet & windy days the sun has returned again today. Now in Campbell River (about 2/3rds of the way up Vancouver Island).

When we left Nanaimo last Friday we headed west again, towards the Pacific Coast. Quick stops for sightseeing on the way at Little Qualicum Falls (great place) and Cathedral Grove (lots of big trees - it was about as exciting as it sounds) before arriving in Port Alberni.

Port Alberni is a sea port, but is about 30 miles inland as it sits at the head of a long narrow inlet. It's a nice, if somewhat functional, little town: and yet another one with a great big industrial plant in the middle of it. But the snow-capped mountains surrounding the town made up for its shortcomings.

Saturday, we headed west again, and into the Pacific Rim National Park. We spent a grey Saturday at the south-end of the park, wandering along the Nuu-Chah-Nulth trail. On the way to our overnight stop-over in the town of Ucluelet (small, artsy) we saw a group of three black bears by the side of the road. And later in the evening as we were tucking into our tea, sat in the van over looking over the harbour, a couple of young elk casually sauntered past.

Sunday we drove to the northern end of the Pacific Rim. Lots of stops to walk on the beach, through the rain forest, take photos, etc. We did originally plan to overnight in Torfino (surf-tastic, tourist mecca) but as all the RV sites were quite pricey (and we do like a bargain), we went back to the only campsite in the park itself (Green Point).

After the Pacific Rim, we drove back towards Port Alberni, stopping off briefly at Kennedy Lake (which - according to the signs at the lake, if not our guidebook! - is the largest lake on Vancouver Island). The lake is fed by the Kennedy River, which runs through a stunning canyon right next to the road, but frustratingly there are no places to stop to take photos. Brief detour to Stamp River to see the falls (and have a spot of lunch), before finding a place to park the van at Sproat Lake.

Tuesday we made a quick visits to Englishman River Falls and Rathtrevor Beach (where the sea goes out over a kilometre at low-tide), and then spent the afternoon & evening in Parksville.

Wednesday we headed north again, towards the Comox Valley. We stopped at Spider Lake, with the intention of visiting the Horne Lake Caves, but 3km down the 12km long gravel logging road we took pity on the van and decided against it (the fact that we weren't 100%!c(MISSING)onvinced that the caves are even open in May was also part of the decision). Instead we carried on to Comox Lake near the town of Cumberland for a quick walk through the forest and the briefest of strolls around the town, before retiring to a campsite just outside the town of Courtney.

Thursday we braved the gale force winds and ventured out on the bikes again, cycling to Comox for the morning and back to Courtney for the afternoon, about 20km all told. (And strangely the wind seem to change direction at lunchtime - and oddly enough, not in the good way!).

Today we again headed north, to Campbell River. We tried (and failed) to visit a couple of sites on the way (perhaps the less said about that the better), but third time lucky we arrived at Miracle Beach, where the clouds finally lifted. After a long stroll along the beach we got back in the van and drove to our overnight resting place. We've just wandered the two km into town, and what felt like 20 km back along the beach! We've done a bit of shopping (Mark & Isla - we FINALLY managed to get Craig his "Canada" top!), watched the fishermen on the pier, and now we're about to go for a swim in the pool.

Tomorrow we're heading back into the wilds - to Strathcona Provincial Park: and given that its the big Bank Holiday weekend here we're expecting it to be busy...

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Photos

Port Alberni
Looking out to sea!

Sproat Lake
With fire-fighting plane in the background

Pier, Comox
Comox Glacier is somewhere beneath the clouds... we didn't see it for the two days we were there.

Comments

[Isla]

Butterfly, flutterby
Lovely photos - but we want some of the bears!! Otherwise you know we're only gonna have to come back and see them for ourselves :-)

[Craig n Mark]

Bear photos
...but we want you to come back and see them for yourselves! Yesterday and today we have been in prime bear-watching territory. And how many did we see? Not-a-one!