Homage to Rodin - contemplating the rain at the beach.
Started off on the Tonquin Trail, supposedly the lighthouse trail. This was an excellent short walk, but you don't get to see a lighthouse at all! It was through some old growth temperate rain forest, often at cliff-top level but dipped to the beach in several places.
Some of the trees were 2000 years old and the whole place was very picturesque. Dense undergrowth with blind bends in the trail, so practised our bear drill. Reached the end safely and took a photo of Eric with the sign, if you look closely you'll see that we should have been more concerned about the cougar!! Lucky we didn't see this before we ventured forth.
Travelling down the coast to Qwistis and Long Beach to see if there were any surfer dudes and dudesses we spotted these signs.
The Interpretation Centre at Qwisitis was interesting, with exhibitions on the life and history of the local First Nations people as well as the natural history of the area. Standing at a display with imprints of animal tracks, we found that some we had seen on the beach at Tonquin Park looked like cougar prints. Talking to a lady standing there she informed us that a cougar had killed a dog outside the bank in Ucluelet (a town about 10km away) the previous evening!
Picnic in the rain - a familiar concept to us.
Returned to the B&B for a hot cuppa and to see the inlet at a higher state of the tide. Hundreds, if not thousands, of waders, ducks and gulls feeding on mudflats on opposite side of the inlet. Unfortunately too far away to identify or obtain any decent pictures. As we watched they were all spooked and we saw a Bald Eagle chasing down some prey.
Late afternoon/Early evening saw us donning multiple layers of wet gear for our Zodiac bear watching trip, and we needed every one of them. Good views of bears looking for crustaceans to eat along the shoreline. Moving large boulders like they were small pebbles in their search for food. It was incredible to see a mother bear on the beach turning rocks over while her cub was right at the top of a nearby 30ft tree, which was swaying in the wind. Also saw some harbour porpoise on the return leg of the jaunt.
