Steph's friend Sarah and her little girl Hazel have been staying with us for a few weeks. Sarah is renting a car for a whole month to do some travelling, and we decided to take a trip to Tofino on Vancouver Island last weekend.
We took a ferry over on the Friday evening and stayed the night in Nanaimo in a very nice B&B called The Painted Turtle. Highly recommended!
On the Saturday we drove across the island to Tofino, arriving late afternoon. We drove via Port Alberni, and then tried to take the back roads around Sproat Lake but ended up going in a circle and ended up back where we started. So we stopped messing about and got on with the driving at that point.
Sunday was a day of exploring, and we took a trip to Wickanninish Beach. We were going to take a scenic walk from there, but apparently there was a female bear with a cub in the area so we shelved that idea :) Instead we went to to Ucluelet which is a lovely little town at the opposite end of the peninsula to Tofino and did some walking there. It was only when we finished that walk that we saw another sign, this time about a young bear in the area. Oops. On the way back to Tofino we had another crack at some back road driving, but the back roads turned out to be rough logging trails so we quit that, and went to Grice Bay instead where there way a beautiful lake view. Final stop of the day was Radar Hill, and a viewpoint over Clayoquot Sound which was cool.
We took the day off on Monday to have more time, and we got up early that morning to check out of our hostel in Tofino and to catch an early whale-watching trip. It was lousy weather that morning and raining, so visibility was crap when we started out. Fortunately the weather cleared up after an hour or so. We were also lucky with the whales. We ran into several gray whales at our first stop, some of which passed our boat so close that we could almost touch them. It was amazing! Later on we saw a humpback too, but only from the distance - it proved elusive. We also saw some bald eagles and sea lions on the way back. All in all, a fantastic trip and well worth it. In the afternoon we drove back to Nanaimo and caught the 7pm ferry back to Vancouver, and along the way spotted our first bear in the wild - a little cub at the roadside. Sadly I couldn't stop at that point to take some pictures - probably for the best as I am sure mummy bear would have been around somewhere!
Vancouver Island is beautiful, and we hope to go back when we can. Stay tuned for some photos :)
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