Up the Inside Passage... (fnarr)

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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 the way). Up at 4.30am the next morning to catch the ferry to Prince Rupert, via the famous Inside Passage.

Following the heatwave temperatures of Vancouver, the drizzle makes an (almost) pleasant change, and the forested slopes slip past pleasantly enough. Except that after ten hours of nothing but forested slopes, it can get a bit boring. We do spot a few whales breaching around us, which breaks the monotony and the boredom a bit. But I was so bored at one point I ended up buying a massive slice of overpriced chocolate cake from the ferry cafe, which made me feel a bit sick.

Prince Rupert is a kind of low-rise sprawl of a town that has nothing much to recommend it, so I booked myself on the following night's ferry over to the Queen Charlotte Islands (or Haida Gwaii, to give it it's First Nation name). This was a night crossing, leaving at 9pm and arriving at 6am the following morning. Which meant a rubbish night's sleep laying on the floor between the rows of seats, with a blanket over me. As uncomfortable as it sounds.

Public transport doesn't really exist on the Queen Charlotte Islands, and most ferry passengers appear to have brought their cars with them, or organised a hire car to pick them up on arrival. Soon it is just me and a Polish couple left at the ferry terminal in Skidegate, looking a bit lost and foolish. We team up and hire a car for the day, travelling up to Masset where we meet some of the local First Nation Haida people. They are undergoing a sort of cultural renaissance in recent years, with much totem pole and argillite carving. It was disturbing to see the poverty of the Haida settlement, with many of the houses nothing more than delapidated shacks, complete with rotting sofa's in the yard, and kids roaming round in gangs. But we got chatting with the artists, who were all friendly and enthusiastic about their culture and art.

I stayed in Queen Charlotte City for the next couple of nights, did a hike round the Spirit Lakes, which had an eerie sort of atmosphere about them - silent lakes in the middle of the forest, ringed with dead pines whose white and weathered trunks looked like ghostly guardians. At least they did to someone hiking on their own in the forest with an overactive imagination and a bad case of 'Bear Fear'. I also went to the Haida Heritage Centre in Skidegate, which told the story of how the Haida First Nation people lived, and the impact of the western settlers (massive smallpox outbreak wiped out the majority of the locals) and their subsequent efforts to eradicate Haida culture by making the Haida language and traditional practices illegal, and taking all the children away to be 'educated'.

Also went for an 8k run, and buggered my knees up.

Went back to Prince Rupert again on the overnight ferry, and another night 'between the seats'.

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Photos

Inside Passage
Fantastic (but eventually monotonous) scenery

Here Bed Here
Overnight ferry crossing to Queen Charlotte Islands

Queen Charlotte City
See the shoes nailed to driftwood - the 'Lost Soul Tree'

Spirit Lake
Spot the eagle!