Day 6 - Parksville to Tofino

We both woke up with headaches this morning, which I put down to a bit of sunstroke. Despite putting on P20 yesterday, we both caught the sun a little bit out on the water and probably didn't drink enough of our water rations (especially when you consider the effort we were putting into the kayaking).

The view from the room apartment enormous suite was lovely, overlooking the water. The resort has outdoor hot tubs, pools and saunas, but we didn't have time to use them. If we'd left Telegraph Cove as soon as we got back from the kayking we probably could have, but we were enjoying the company too much and so had no regrets about getting to Parksville late.

We were both hungry, so we grabbed our stuff and went down the elevator to the car and then checked out.

We found somewhere for breakfast using the trusty google maps search terms "cafe" and "breakfast" and chose the Little Mountain Cafe based on the reviews of the all day breakfast.

Sometime looks can be deceiving and from the outside the cafe seemed okay (certainly it's the kind of place you would miss if you just drove by) but as soon as we stepped in and were greeted by the waitress we realised it was lovely. We got a table by the wall, Laura eyed up the food on other people's plates and I made the silly mistake of trying to order a latte - this isn't the big city Natalie! So two diet cokes it was, a regular breakfast for me (eggs: scrambled) and a mountain breakfast for Laura (eggs: over easy).

The breakfast was delicious, especially the toast which was made from bread baked fresh that day in the cafe. After breakfast we got on the road and started the 170km drive to Tofino.

Our first stop was Cathedral Grove where some of the oldest trees on Vancouver Island are located. The oldest is a Douglas Fir that's over 800 years old and 9m around. The parking lot was full, but we managed to find our own space and wander the trails amongst the trees. Away from the road, the trails were very quiet (why do some tourists just stay by the side of the road?) and we marvelled at the huge tress, nurse logs and "normal trees" that are bigger than anything I've seen in the UK!

As we wandered one trail we suddenly heard a voice in front of us say "Ah! My beautiful English girls!" as Shjulie from our kayaking trip walked towards us! We stopped and chatted for a few minutes and thought it was a shame that our paths wouldn't cross again.

The smoke was present in the air and got thicker as we approached Alberni and according to the local radio this was due to some controlled burns that had been set that day to prevent wildfires. The local radio presenter was amusing us as she read the weather like "today: smoky, tonight: smoky, tomorrow, smokkkeeey".

At a gas station we filled up on drinks and sweets. I made the mistake of handing the cashier a small bag of pick 'n' mix and expecting him to weigh them, only for him to ask me "how many candies?" er.... oops.

The road followed the Kennedy River through a steep valley and at one particularly picturesque point Laura mentioned that she'd "driven" this bit on google maps. The river was quite wide here with lots of exposed, worn rocks and we stopped the car to have a wander and take some photos.

Down at the river I took my shoes off and paddled in the water - it was so refreshing, especially as the temperature was in the high twenties. Above us, near the car, a tree that had been washed down stream was lodged between rocks. It seemed incredible that the water could ever be high enough to float trees to that level.

At a pool above a waterfall, some kids and their dad were jumping off a big rock into the river. Well, they say that when you reach the end of your life, you regret the things you didn't do, not the things you did... so I joined them.

Leaping from the lower rock was simple. Three... two... one... jump! The water was so refreshing.To climb out I used an old tree stump wedged between two massive rocks.

Jumping from the high rock was a bit scary. I knew the water was plenty deep enough... but what if it wasn't? What if I slipped? Well, I just did it. Awesome fun!

I jumped in off the smaller rock a few more times, had a bit of a swim and then swam up river and got out in a shallow bit. Back in the car I sat on a towel in just my shorts and bra. Hopefully none of the cars coming the other way noticed!

After a short while we arrived at a junction and turned right towards Tofino. We passed through the Pacific Rim National Reserve (where we've got lots of exploring to do) and passed signs warning that this is a Tsunami Evacuation Zone. Hmmm!

After a bit of confusion over exactly where our Airbnb rental was, we eventually discovered it at the end of an unpaved gravel road. Phew! Set right in the middle of some old growth rain forest it's incredible. Casita Tofino has one bedroom, an open plan living / kitchen area and a bathroom. The ceiling must be almost 4m high in the centre. Outside the huge living room window is the rain forest, right there. It's fab. I think Laura's favourite bit is the polished concrete floor. (Laura: I do very much like the polished concrete floor but actually my favourite bit is the excellent wooden ceiling, lovely angles.)

There's a chicken coop behind us and if we want eggs we can help ourselves. There are also surfboards and bikes with surfboard holders, should we want to use them.

Once we'd settled in we got changed and headed five minutes down the main road into Tofino for a wander and some dinner.  It's not a very big place, but it has a really chilled out, laid back vibe. Tofino is at the end of Highway 4, so any traffic is either heading here or leaving.

Nice benches

Nice benches

We checked out the restaurants and made a reservation for tomorrow at The Schooner. We then got a table at SoBo, which started out as a purple food truck. It was a funny restaurant, almost like eating in an art gallery (again, polished concrete floors) and the food was AMAZING. Laura had some salmon thing with veg and I had BBQ beef brisket. Wow. We finished off with some key lime pie and wandered back to the car.

Back at Casita Tofino we planned what we would do tomorrow and went to bed.

Day 5 - Kayaking, part 2

I woke up at 2am, desperate for a wee but hoping I could get back to sleep without going as there were many things to be worried about - too far to the left and I could fall into the sea, the walk to the toilet was down some steps which were basically made from tree roots so that was quite dangerous, but more than that, I didn’t want to have an encounter with a bear or cougar by myself. Thankfully, while I was trying to get up the guts to go, Natalie woke up and asked if I was going so we went together! We saw a mouse. Not quite as dangerous as expected, but still it would have been scary by yourself. It was also quite eerie knowing that we were the only people for miles around… and that we were on an island.

Bladders emptied, we went back to the tent and had a surprisingly good night’s sleep, even I woke up feeling pretty refreshed. It seems six hours of kayaking will knock you right out. I was expecting to have the post-camping tiredness I usually have and I wasn’t looking forward to another day of kayaking if I felt like that, so I was pretty happy to be feeling better. 

Breakfast was served at 7:30, another delicious treat by Ashleigh; this time we had wraps,  scrambled eggs, cooked peppers and pan fried potatoes - the perfect start to the day. Over breakfast we discussed how well we’d all slept and who had needed the loo in the night - it seems me and Nat were the only one’s who’d bothered to trek all the way to the toilet, everyone else had been happy to find a spot outside their tents. 

After breakfast we packed up, cleaned out our tents and got back back onto the water. We were really sad to leave the camp, knowing we were heading back to the mainland where we’d have to say goodbye to everyone. 

The fog was even worse than yesterday, with thick low cloud meaning we could only see a couple of hundred metres in front of us, we wouldn’t be able to cross the Strait until it cleared so we stuck to the coast until it cleared, which it did and we were treated to another day of spectacular views. 

We made our way along Hanson Island towards the smaller Weynton Island, which was apparently better for wildlife sightings. This area had some strong currents that were quite difficult to paddle in, especially after all yesterday but we made it to an area where we spotted a bunch of Sea Lions, some who were sunbathing on a nearby rock and a few that were swimming around. They kept disappearing and popping back up, playing in the thick kelp seaweed, which was also very useful to help anchor our kayaks in place while we watched them. We sat there for a good thirty minutes, hoping that they would come a little bit closer but they were being pretty shy. Eventually we set off to find today’s lunch spot, as soon as we started to paddle away a couple of seals followed us but when we stopped they swam off again, little sods!

We found another lovely area, this time directly opposite Telegraph Cove where we would be heading to, the lunch was similar to yesterday’s but a vegetable cous cous replaced the Greek salad and we had big cookies instead of Oreos. Yummy. We spent another lovely hour or so chatting away and then got into our kayaks one last time. 

There was another long slog across Johnston Strait, just like yesterday we had to stick together and keep paddling until we got to the other side. It took us an hour of non-stop hard paddling to get across, I’d learnt my lesson from yesterday and had removed my jacket so this time I was a bit less sweaty by the end but no less tired, it was bloody hard work. Just as we got to the other side a dolphin swam right in front of us, it was so cool. 

We paddled our way back to the dock, just before we got back Ashleigh stopped us to instruct us on what to do when we got back and thanked us for a really good trip, she’d really enjoyed it and we’d been a really lovely group to go out with because we’d all got on so well. I’m sure she would say something like that anyway, but I really did get the feeling that she had enjoyed the trip as much as we had, she seemed genuinely surprised and grateful whenever we’d offered to help which makes me wonder if we weren’t a typical group. I like to think we are the best group she’s ever had. We took a couple of last photos, landed at the dock, unloaded the kayaks and helped take everything up to the hut. When we said our goodbyes to Ashleigh she thanked us all again saying she’d needed a trip like this. See, I told you we were her favourites. 

We were initially planning to leave straight away as we had a hotel booked in Parksville which was going to be a four hour drive but we decided to go for a drink with everyone as we just didn’t want to say goodbye yet. We sat out on the deck of The Old Saltery Pub and continued to chat about all sorts of stuff while we swapped e-mail addresses to share photos and videos. Julie told us to get in touch when we got to Calgary. Shjulie told us to look her up if we ever make it to Calgary, we told them to come and see us if they were ever in Nottingham, which we didn’t think was likely, but now they knew there was Robin Hood and Batman’s house, there was a couple of reasons other than us to come over.

We said goodbye and left with slightly heavy hearts but with a smile on our faces thinking about all the amazing things we’d seen and the laughs we’d had. Feeling euphoric, we decided to take the roof off the Jeep and we drove the first hour of the journey with the wind in our hair and sun on our faces. (Natalie: I felt so carefree and happy).

We drove down to Parksville, which felt like the longest drive in the world. We finally made it to the Pacific Shores Resort at 10, just as the security guy was closing the door to reception, eek! We got our room, which turned out to be a whole massive apartment; I had to check how much we’d paid because I was worried all of a sudden, but it was a bargain at £75 - it would have been a fab base for a couple of days! We both grabbed a quick shower to wash off all of the camping scum then headed straight to bed. What a fantastic couple of days that I’ll never forget. Best holiday ever!

Day 4 - Kayaking Trip, part 1

Warning: this is probably going to be a long entry. Grab a cup of tea and sit down. 

Our alarm went off at 7am, however I had been awake for at least half an hour and despite having a lovely double bed all to myself I didn't sleep well; it's always the way, you know you have to get up for a day of kayaking and wildlife hunting and you just can't sleep! When we looked out of the window we couldn't see to the end of the cove, there was a thick fog, we hoped it would burn off as we were looking forward to the views of Johnstone Strait which includes lots of mountains and islands dotted around. We got up, finished packing our bags for the trip and headed out to the Seahorse Cafe where I got a yummy breakfast burrito and nat got some toast with ham and eggs. It was a hearty breakfast which we hoped would give us the energy we needed for the morning ahead. 

We made our way across to North Island Kayak and met our guide Ashleigh briefly, she said hello, told us we'd be needing better shoes to get in and out of the kayaks on the beaches and went to get us some, they were kind of diving/wetsuit shoes, they were the comfiest things I've ever worn, I'm considering giving up trainers and wearing only them from now on.

After a few minutes the other members of our trip arrived; first up was Scott and Julie, a couple from Calgary, then Jean and Julie from Montreal who spoke French Canadian as their first language (so read their names with a French accent please...Shjon and Shjulie). Both couples were a bit older than us, but still seemed really nice, phew! 

Ashleigh came back and got us into our kayaking gear which consisted of a massive waterproof coat, a kayak skirt and a life jacket, which obviously we all looked super cool in. We had a short training talk where she showed us how to get in and out of the kayak without breaking it and how to  load all of our stuff into it, I was surprised how much you can fit into one boat, we had all of our stuff, a couple of big water bags and a load of dinner time pots, pans and utensils.

Once we were loaded up we got in, launched ourselves and paddled our way out of the cove. We saw a bunch of lovely houses with lovely views and thought how nice it would be to live here. The fog was still pretty bad at this point but it was definitely brightening up and we could see across the Strait. It was pretty atmospheric.

The water was very calm and inky black. We paddled around quite close to the coast for a bit, we saw a big starfish (or Sea Star as they’re called here), a few birds which looked like some type of hawk flying around and lots of little fish jumping out of the sea which turned out to be salmon fry, when they get bigger they attract the Orca’s to the area.

We made it to a little beach and got out of our kayaks, everyone managed not to fall out into the water, phew. Ashleigh took us up to a viewpoint, pointing out along the way a little shed which was an outdoor composing toilet with no door on it - why would you want a door when it was set in such a nice location? The rules we learnt that would be in place for the rest of the trip was that a yellow bag containing loo roll and hand sanitiser would be left outside the toilet and if the bag was gone, someone was in the loo. It worked pretty well, no one invaded anyone’s privacy for the full two days. We had a cereal bar, enjoyed the look out for a few minutes, Ashleigh explained that as the fog had lifted and we could see across Johnston Strait we would be crossing over and using one of the campsites set up on Hanson Island. I was pretty excited about this because during my research the website said all of the campsites were on Vancouver Island coastline and I’d been sad! Thinking about it now, I’m not sure I’d have been able to tell where I was so it wouldn’t have mattered. 

We got back into our kayaks, paddled to the point that we were going to cross over, Ashleigh told us that we needed to stick together during the crossing so that big boats could see us and that we would need to take off any jackets we didn’t want on now as it was really important that we paddle the whole time, we couldn’t stop until we reached the other side. The sun wasn’t really out yet, and it didn’t look that far so we kept on what we were already wearing, Nat in her waterproof, me in my fleece and waterproof jacket, both of us with the life jacket on top of them. We started paddling. We paddled some more. The sun started to come out. We carried on paddling. It started to get pretty warm. We paddled some more. Why wasn’t the island getting any closer?! It took us 45 minutes to cross the straight; by the time we got there the fog had cleared, the sun was beating down, my arms were like jelly and I was a sweaty mess.

We congratulated ourselves, stripped down to our vests and paddled our way along the beautiful Hanson Island coastline, I joked about how when I’m back at work and feeling depressed, I would think of this day and feel like crying. I’m sure I’ll still feel like that, but then I’ll look back on it with such fond memories that I know it will make me smile. 





We passed our campsite (noooooo, my arms were so tired), Natalie saw a deer on a beach, we saw some porpoises and quickly found our lunch spot. Ashleigh tied up the kayaks, we took the food bags up and she laid on a lovely buffet across some rocks. We were expecting a squished sandwich and a bag of crisps but there was a greek salad with feta, pitta bread, humous, tzaziki, carrots, posh lime crisps and some orange slices and Oreos for pudding. It was amazing, sitting on a washed up tree trunk, looking out across the Strait, watching for wildlife. 



We spotted our first Bald Eagle, which was very exciting. We’d see loads more on the trip, it never got boring. While we were eating, Scott spotted some wildlife action in the distance which turned out to be a humped back whale. At first, we could just hear and see the blow, but we got a few glimpses of it coming out of the water and once or twice we saw its tail. Even though it was in the distance, it was pretty cool and we all enjoyed it for a while. 

After lunch Ashleigh wanted to check out an area a bit further down near Black Fish Sound, she’d heard it was a pretty cool spot but had never gone there before. We moseyed on down and made our way around a little island. The fog was really moving down Black Fish Sound and visibility was fairly poor. We stayed close to the island and made our way around and then headed back along Hanson Island towards camp; it didn’t take long but I really had no energy left in my weedy little arms so I was glad when we finally made it, unpacked our kayaks and carried them up to rest on some logs for the night. 

The camp was brilliant, as soon as I saw the kitchen and dining area I felt like I was in an episode of LOST so I was very happy. Ashleigh took us around the camp to show us where all of the tents were located, Natalie bagsied the best tent over looking the sea, I politely said someone else could have it if they wanted and that we could flip a coin but our camp friends let us have it, saying that we’d come the furthest so we deserved it. I felt bad but didn’t protest too much! We had another open toilet, this time up a few steps so you had an amazing view of the sea while you did your business. I’m not sure I’ll ever have a toilet with a better view.

We quickly took our stuff up to our tent and made our way to a hangout area and continued to watch the whales in the distance while Ashleigh started to prepare dinner. It was really lovely; we had a great view and we were having such a laugh with Scott, Julie, Shjon and Shjulie. I’ve been going on about all of the great views and wildlife for the majority of this post, but actually the thing that made this trip so great for me, was the fact that everyone was so nice. We hit it off straight away, there was banter from the beginning with things like Scott saying “watch out, the Brits are getting aggressive” when we nearly floated into them and it was so interesting to sit and talk to them about their lives and all of the places they’d travelled to before (which was a lot). They were all really really lovely people, I think Shjulie is one of the nicest and happiest people I’ve ever met, I loved her. I might even go to Montreal just so I can visit her - she invited us to stay, I wouldn’t just be turning up like a weirdo. Ashleigh appeared with a plate of cheese, fruit and crackers as a starter for our meal, she joined in on the conversation and we watched the wildlife a little bit longer. It was so perfect, I can’t really put it into words.

The sun started to go down so we moved to the other side of the camp, Natalie balanced some rocks which was pretty impressive, while Ashleigh made the next dinner course; this is the other thing that made the experience so amazing, despite all of us offering to help, Ashleigh was having none of it - we were on holiday and we should be relaxing. I mean, fair enough we’d paid a decent amount for this trip but all in all, it was such brilliant value for money, Ashleigh was the best guide I think we could’ve asked for and it was really nice that she cooked such good food and gave us a great experience without it feeling like she was just doing it because she was getting paid to do it. 

Dinner was an amazing salmon, rice and vegetables dish, it was so yummy and again, so much better than you expect to get on a camping trip. We continued to sit and chat, we heard stories of Ashleigh’s travels, including a trip around Europe where she and her fiancé decided to spontaneously bike through a bunch of Eastern European countries because it was cheaper than getting the train, this ended in the fiancee becoming the ex, he moaned too much! 

We finished the night with a nice cup of hot chocolate, perfect as the temperature had dropped a fair bit, thankfully we’d both packed a wooly hat. One by one, we headed into our tents, knackered from such a hard but fun day, ready for an early start the next day.