Snow Driving and Beaches

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Hello All!

Decided it was time to get out of Vancouver and check out a little Island near by (actually a huge Island!!!)

We booked a place to stay and hired a car and then took off early Sat morning!

Our first hurdle would be working out how exactly to drive the car onto the ferry - after driving around in circles looking for the ramp (getting increasingly worried we wouldn't make it in time) we finally found it after being directed to drive away from the ferry for 3kms before joining the on ramp. As we neered the ramp we noticed that the Ferry was slowly pulling away from the shore without us so... being in a gutsy American car, we decided to floor it and take our chances. We hit the ramp and sailed across the stretch of open water, landed on the ferry, pulled the hand brake and slid to a screeching halt in our assigned parking space..."like a glove!" (actually we made the ferry with about 15 minutes to spare).

Our second hurdle was negotiating steep mountains and heavy snow whilst mastering the art of driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. It was a very stressful 40 kms before we decended and the snow turned to the now very familar rain!

Finally we arrived at Tofino a beautiful place on the West Coast of Vancouver Is and popular surfing beach in winter (although the hotel we stayed at cautioned that hypothermia could set in after 20mins in the water). I think it is the first time i've wandered along a beach in a snow jacket and winter boots!!... but it was beautiful!!!

Vancouver Is was a lot more interesting than we expected with everything from old growth forests, ski fields to surf beaches. It was a great little weekend away.

Cheers
Mark & Mel

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Photos

Ferry to Vancouver Is
We loaded the car on the ferry for our 1 1/2 hour trip to Vancouver Is - bye bye Vancouver.... shit, Mark did you put the hand break on the car????? (I had visions of a budget rental car floating past us as we sailed away!)

Vancouver Is
Beautiful lake on Vancouver Is.

Cathederal Grove
Amazing Western Red Cedar old growth forest! everything was covered in moss!!!

Snow Driving
AHHHH

Tofino
After an eventful day we arrived in beautiful Tofino on the West Coast of Vancouver Is

Comments

[Carly]

good to see you guys are enjoying BC and pulling off some quality vehicle manouvers to dazzle the locals! keep up the good work!

[Heather]

wow!
Wow - the pics look amazing - such stunning country. Send more please!

[Kat]

ohh mel
Ohh Mel...you make me laugh! Such a you thing to say "the hand break!). LOL These pics are the most beautiful yet! Its s good to hear you are enjoying yourselves and making the most of the views and wonderful places to visit! But Mark...not that dont mind seeing you all the time but where are Mels photo's?!

[Fleur Gibson]

Hi Mel and Mark, it looks as though you are having a great time. The pictures are truly amazing!