We popped down the road to Swell and got some breakfast to go. The vibe was independent, recycled, reclaimed and surfer. Very chilled. We got a breakfast muffin each, a wrap to eat later on the trails, two oatmeal cookies and some banana loaf, oh, and a berry smoothie.
We ate the breakfast muffins on the road and they were seriously good. Full of bacon and eggs. Mmmm. The smoothie was delicious too.
We parked up at Schooner Cove trail head and started the trek down to the cove through lush old growth cedar forest. The trail undulates along boardwalks and has 336 steps (thanks tofinohiking.com) The variety of plants and trees was surprising. Some of the trees were huge. There were lots of nurse logs and trees at precarious angles.
It was low tide and an island was accessible in front of us so we clambered around the rocks, looking in the rock pools and trying not to fall into the surf. We managed to climb around the whole island (yay!) and made it back to the safety of the beach. We saw lots of anemones in the shallow pools.
After admiring the view for a while, we wandered back along the trail and up and down lots more steps.
We drove down the road and stopped in a car park by the sea to walk the South Beach trail. This one hugged the coastline and eventually plopped us out onto a remote beach with big grey sand and rugged rocks.
We found a tree that was wedged against a huge rock on the sand and decided it was a perfect place to eat our lunch as the waves crashed onto the beach in front of us.
After eating lunch we went back up the trail a bit and found the start of the Nuu Chah Nulth Trail which crosses through old growth Sitka spruce forest, bog and eventually arrives at Florencia Bay. There was a sign warning us that a bear had been spotted on the trail a few weeks ago so we kept our eyes and ears on the undergrowth, just in case.
We didn't see the bear but Laura did spot a snake! It was black with a green/yellow stipe all the way down its length.
The trail was very pretty and crossed through lots of different types of forest. At the end we arrived at Florencia Beach.
We then headed back to the car. We decided to make the walk circular by following the road back rather than the trail and even though it was about the same distance (and an easier walk in theory) it seemed to take forever. We were both very happy when we finally made it back to the car.
On the way back to Casita Tofino I hopped out of the car at Incinerator Rock and had a quick nosey around Long Beach. It was lovely and the surfers were out in force.
We had showers and got changed and then headed out for dinner at The Schooner. The food was gorgeous. Laura had the Admiral's Plate (steak + seafood) and I had Pacific Rim Hot Pot (seafood in red Thai sauce).
Our waitress was lovely and we learned that she'd been out surfing today, albeit a bit later than the 6.30am time that she'd planned to meet her friend because she decided to stay in bed. And with that, we finished our salted caramel ice cream, went home and went to bed too.
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