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Published: October 10th 2007
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Bear, Port Alberni
On Vancouver Island from a canoe which is why all my pictures turned out a bit blurred. I discovered the anti shake setting on my camera 5 mins after getting out the boat, but I suppose it makes the bear look speedy and menacing. Which it wasn't Well all my promises of regular updates due to my new digital camera have proved to be, as I suspected, a load of rubbish. But I only have one month and a bit to update, which is better than normal. From Vancouver I went to Vancouver Island, which proved to be pretty expensive to get around by bus, so I had to limit myself to a couple of places. I started off with Port Alberni, where I met a German woman Steffi as we got off the bus, and I spent the next 5 or so days travelling with her, doing walks and cycling around Port Alberni and Uclulet, and also working ourselves into a state of excitment about seeing bears. We got up early one morning in Port Alberni to go along by the river where the hostel owner had assured us that we were guaranteed to see bears, but no luck. We spotted out first one from a distance as the boat that we had got from PA arrived in Uclulet, and then walked around the Uclulet area for the next few days seeing signs for bears, bear poo (definitely blackberry season for bears) and hearing from other travellers
Boat Port Alberni - Uclulet
Setting off on a beautiful morning, the journey took about 5 hours about their close encounters with bears - but no bears for us. From Uclulet I went to Tofino and signed up for a bear watching trip which was cancelled as I was the only person signed up for it. So I had the brainwave of going back to Port Alberni where Wolf, the owner of the hostel had said he would take me out in the canoe in the morning if I came back. So we went out the next morning and saw about 4 bears really close up (I lost count because we saw the same ones going back the way!) So I was able to leave Canada content with my bear count.
I only had 3 full days in San Francisco, but managed to pack a lot in, going to a few museums and Chinatown the first day, went on a walking tour of the city the next day and on the last day hired a bike and cycled across the Golden Gate bridge and carried on to the Muir Woods, home of the giant redwood trees, the tallest trees in the world. It was meant to be a round trip of about 25 miles, but after
View from boat to Uclulet
Looking back to the Port Alberni direction. I had got lost a few times, I think it was more like 50! But I did manage to get lost in some very exclusive residential areas in the woods, so I got to see some amazing houses, although I was a bit worried about someone coming out of them and shooting me for being a smelly backpacker, you know what Americans are like.
So from San Francisco to Honolulu, which is really not that nice - just a concrete jungle, although I suppose it didn't help that it was dull and cloudy when I arrived. From there I went to Waikiki just a few miles away which is another concrete jungle, really horrible although the beach is nice. I had thought when I was in Hawaii I would be able to get somewhere remote and do lots of walking, but I think I would have needed to go to another island for that - Oahu is really built up, there are cars everywhere and it seemed as if you can't get away from main roads at all. So I headed for the North Shore where I spent 5 days or so on the beach - not the worst
First bear sighting
From the boat as it arrived in Uclulet fate, but it's a shame that there's not more backpacker accomodation and the buses are funny about letting you on with luggage, so it's difficult to travel around. I did meet a Hawaiian guy in the hostel, James, who now lives in the US but comes back to go surfing and visit family, who very kindly spent a day driving me round Oahu, taking me to lots of lookout points and Pearl Harbour. The island is really beautiful, or should that be was beautiful - there are amazing mountains and greenery, but almost everything looks like it was built in the last 10 years, and it's just that really generic American architecture (cheap), there was very little that was Hawaiian about it, and someone told me that there's 3 cars for every person, which seemed more than possible. But the beaches are really beautiful, not crowded once you get away from Waikiki and the water is crystal clear and warm.
I should maybe have appreciated the warmth more, because I missed it when I arrived in cold and wet Auckland! I've spent a few days in the Bay of Islands further north and am on my way to see
Wild Pacific trail
Me and Steffi went on a walk along the Pacific trail near Uclulet, in bright sunshine but with thick fog coming in from the sea accompanied by the sound of bells and foghorns, all very mysterious. cousin Tracey in Wellington to annoy her for a few days, so I'll do my NZ update in a oner. That's all for now!
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