Leaving VI - British Columbia Ferry to Powell River

Up early to fit in a FaceTime link with family back home and to catch the ferry.

We won't mention the breakfast, suffice to say it was early, very good, and with fruit number 25 entering the fray. 

Waiting at the dockside in the early morning sunshine.

Comox (Little River) to Powell River Ferry.

 

A smooth ride with no wildlife sightings this time. Ninety minutes later we embark at Powell River, do our usual drive to information booth to pick up yet more maps, and then on to a small fishing village called Lund.  Lots of adventures into Desolation Sound Marine Protected Reserve run from here, but unfortunately no time for one of these today. Lund has the honour of being at the Mile 0 point of Highway 101 down the entire west coast of Canada, in the same way as Route 101 runs the whole way down the west coast of the US, although according to Wikipedia the two do not actually connect. Whilst according to the man in the tourist office - the Highway 101 starting in Lund runs as far as South America - you choose. 

Here's Eric at the start point in Lund.

The marina at Lund was quite pretty. 

and we had a picnic (in the sunshine) outside the Harbour Master's Office (who was a lady).  There's another world famous bakery here, but it did not get the thumbs up from us I'm afraid.  There was a sea boardwalk around the marina that passed a tiny watermill. 

Also saw a Stellar's Jay here.

Eric admiring the flowers at the marina.

Returning to Powell River for a stroll on Willingdon Beach we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking the pulp mill, which is as evocative as it sounds.

They used old concrete hulled ships built during the Second World War, because of the shortage of steel. However they were unable to carry sufficient loads to be economically viable after the war, so were used as a breakwater. 

Eric catching some rays and checking out the beach.

On the beach we noticed a gull that looked like it had something stuck in it's beak. When we took a photo to see what it was, it turned out to be a starfish.  The gull spent about 20min seemingly just sat there with it in it's mouth before being harassed by two juveniles and losing it's booty to one of them.

Before the juvenile raid. 

We haven't ID'd the gull yet. 

Checked out the shops in downtown Powell River, managing not to spend anything, and returned to the beach for an ice-cream.  Only had one between us as they were huge - this is called one scoop! 

It was only $2 and yet the sourdough bread we had for our picnic was $6.99. 

We are staying in the Historic District of Powell River in what used to be the old court and administration building.  It's very old and quite interesting (you can read into this what you like). As we pulled up we could see pictures of Basil and Sybil Fawlty painted on window spaces over-looking the car park. 

Not quite sure what to expect next.  Reviews of this 'boutique hotel' checked out before we departed from our holiday did warn of it's 'old charm' and it certainly lived up to that. One night is probably enough. Our room has magnificent views of the aforementioned pulp mill, and you have to clip the curtains together with a hair gripper if you want it darker in the morning!  On the positive side the people seem very friendly and the bed comfy.  The first one we've stayed in that we would not recommend.

Now off to find somewhere to eat tonight to prepare us for the next ferry journey tomorrow. 

P.S For those anxious to know what the additional fruit was - it was a plum.

Tofino to Qualicum Beach

Breakfast started the day with blue berry pancakes and fresh fruit on the side, with bacon for some.  Yesterday's was a turkey burger with fresh fruit and sauté potatoes with the usual starter of muesli and fruit juice. The burger also had egg, cheese, spinach and tomato, so was quite a meal.

Outside the B&B they had some really cool substitutes for down pipes, called a rain chain. Looked very sculptural. We shall have to see if we can have some for the garden back home.

Stopped to check the surf at Incinerator Point as there had been reports of a 7m swell.  It was very rough because of the onshore winds and certainly not very good for surfing, but it didn't look to be quite as big as we had been told. 

The rain had eased and we headed back over the mountains with the sun trying to make a breakthrough.  First port of call was Old Coombs Market, which we had missed on the way up.  Here, the must see attraction is the goats on the roof (it is grass), they even merit their own tourist sign on the main highway. So how on earth did we miss it before? 

Picked up some picnic provisions as the sun was out by this time.  Drove onward to Qualicum Beach to find a suitable picnic spot, calling in the tourist info place on the way.  By the time we came out of there the rain had caught up with us again. Pah! 

Looked for a wet weather attraction to visit. Found the Vancouver Island University Marine Station, which was open to visitors.  Plenty to keep us amused for a while and even a gift shop to extract a few more dollars from us.  The building is extremely 'green' and has won awards. The favourite fish in the display had a red and white end - it was called a Grunt Sculpin - what a great name for a weird looking fish. 

This one looked very sad.

A variety of anemones, starfish and nudibranchs were in another tank.

There were also feely tanks, where you could 'play' gently with the exhibits.  

This one looked a bit too prickly to pick up.

As we finished there the sun came out long enough for us to have a picnic in the grounds overlooking the sound between Vancouver Island and mainland Canada.  A brief glimpse of a large raptor during our now rather late lunch break - no positive ID but very large and very brown - we'd like to think it was  an eagle! 

At last, a sign warning of animals crossing the road where we actually saw the mentioned animals crossing the road; and browsing in people's gardens.

This area is called Lighthouse Country, and many of the local houses have miniature lighthouses in their gardens.  I want one, I want one.  

On our way back we stopped at Qualicum Bay - a busy marina, a Goosander, and a Tundra/Bewick's Swan. 

 

Rain again, so back to Qualicum village and the Old School Art Gallery - lots of lovely things to buy, but resisted as we understand that there was customs duty to pay on the last lot of gift type stuff we sent home.  Not sure why and an expensive mistake somewhere in our calculations.

Rain desists so a walk along the promenade is in order.  Find a 'beach book library' - what a lovely idea.

Sun is out again but still enough rain in the air to create a splendid rainbow. 

Eric wonders where the pot of gold is.

Eric shows no fear of crustaceans, especially dead ones.

To end the evening, we drove along the Oceanfront Route to Parksville and had a lovely dinner at the Chameleons restaurant.

The Rim in the Rain

Today we visited the nearby Pacific Rim National Park, it rained fairly consistently all day, from a heavy mist to a torrential downpour and everything in between.  There's no complaints about the rain as without this weather the landscape wouldn't be as it is. 

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. 

Oh We're Going to Tofino (sounds best when sung)

As usual the day's report starts with breakfast. We thought we'd exhausted the possibilities of fruits available. This time Paula turned up a new one to us - a Dragon Fruit - in a smoothie with apple.  It is from a cactus like plant and has a red skin, but the fruit is white and seeded like a kiwi fruit. Maple scones together with pumpkin and cranberry muffin type thing, followed by a cooked breakfast.  Egg soufflé with a slice of Jarlsberg cheese through the middle; spicy polenta slices; poached ham (carnivores) or sliced stuffed nut roll (vegetarian); tomato with a sun-dried tomato and pesto dressing. Doggie bags of scones and muffins were taken for later consumption. 

Today's drive was quite a long one, along the east coast of Vancouver Island with some views back across Sannich Sound to Mount Baker in the US.

We managed to get to Nanaimo without any rain, and stopped at the tourist office.  The information man said 'you two talk funny, where are you from?' He then supplied us with a wealth of information, said we absolutely must stop at Cathedral Grove and sent us on our way, west across the mountain range, warning us of narrow twisty roads with steep drop-offs.  

Eric managed to find a rather snooty looking eagle before we set off.

Cathedral Grove with huge Douglas fir to the north of the road and massive Western Red Cedar to the south (one trunk was over 7m in girth) - I did say huge!

A panorama from top to bottom to try and show the immensity (not sure that worked) - the trunks are actually arrow straight.

The rain started as we entered the mountains, this was real rain, the sort that gets you very wet.

We arrived at the west coast of the Island still waiting to find the very narrow, twisty road - they obviously haven't been to the Lake District. It was bendy but that was about it.

Bed and Breakfast is called Black Bear and is stunningly located, with views over the inlet (hope it's good for watching birds, our room is called The Osprey, is this an omen?).

Eric wondered when the daddy bear might return.

Vancouver Island - Orca

Now we are back staying at proper B&Bs the breakfast delights have resurfaced. Muesli and yogurt to begin, then a fresh fruit smoothie to be followed by the hot course of buckwheat waffles with freshly made blueberry compote and a bratwurst sausage (or cheese if you're not a carnivore). Plus, wonder of wonders, a spiffing cup of tea.  So good we had to have several. 

More brilliant sunshine, so it's off to the coast which was about a two hundred yard stroll from the house. 

Here's the picture of the house we are staying in, as promised in the last blog. 

Ambling along the beach path we spotted a girl staring intently at the rock wall beside the path. Was she doing some strange sort of contemplation, or yoga, or just plain strange. On closer approach we saw she was looking at a snake partially hidden in some flowers at the base of the wall. We made the mistake of informing another passer-by of its existence, he was unable to see it so almost trampled the flowers in his enthusiasm to get a better look, driving the snake out of sight down a crack. 

We continued walking to be rewarded with some good views of Harlequin duck.

Returning along the path the snake had re-appeared and was scaling/crawling/slithering (delete as appropriate) up the wall. We had a quick photo of the animal and then remarked on how amazing it was for it to be able to ascend a vertical wall only for it to fall off at that very moment.  But this provided  an ideal photo op.

Can you spot the snake?

Ascending the wall

Gravity takes over. Apparently it was Garter Snake; not venomous.

The cliff top path was a dog walkers paradise but not a cocker spaniel anywhere so we thought this very serious looking Wheaton Terrier would suffice.  

Howie

This one was called Howie and seemed every bit as quizzical as Barny of the same breed we had met earlier in Mount Robson, but had not photographed.  Although we had spelt the name of the dog breed wrong before.  

On the promenade we gazed across the water at an area of Victoria which supposedly had the highest price real-estate in Canada. A house sold for CAD$22 million last month. 

Views of more Harlequin Duck and there were also some Turnstone on the rocks, plus some familiar seaside plants.

Walk through Beacon Hill Garden.

Next up was a walk across to Fisherman's Wharf to catch the whale watching boat. Lots of float planes take off in the harbour - would be great to go on one of these.

I digress - Back to whale watching, first we had to get kitted out in all the necessary gear that made us look like polar explorers. It seemed a bit OTT with the temperature in the mid twenties on the quay, but very necessary once you were out on the water.  They provided you with everything including hats, sunglasses, gloves and sun cream.  

The boat was essentially a large speedboat, with twin diesel turbo engines, but supposedly very quiet. Very environmentally friendly, using 230L to do 52 miles! The Company is carbon neutral so I guess they must do some off-setting somewhere. 

First we visited some rocky outcrops in a protected marine area. One had a lighthouse on but also lots of very large Sea Lions - there were two different species - a Stellar Sea Lion and a Californian Sea Lion.  

A Stellar Sea Lion.

Californian Sea Lion in front.

They were all males and doing some mock fighting, nothing too serious though.  The marine biologist on board told us that these were the unsuccessful ones, as the others were still in California looking after their harems. They were leaping out of the water as well.  

Next rocky outcrop had some gulls, Harbour Seals and Elephant Seals, the former of which looked tiny in comparison with the latter. The Captain moved the boat around gently so that everyone on board had a chance to see. 

Elephant Seals.

Harbour Seals.

Next we went about 9 miles away, where some humpback whales had been spotted. They are normally fairly solitary, but two had teamed up here.  Sightings proved elusive, or should I say non-existent.  So off we went to look for some Orca, otherwise known as Killer Whale.  The ones we hope to see today are resident Orca, and eat only fish, not mammals.  There are two main pods that feed locally, and we managed to see a large proportion of one of them.  About 50 killer whales in total.  

Orca! Breaching!

A bit too close?

Just about right.

Tail flipping - flipping great.

The boats are not allowed to drive up to them but have to stay at least 200m away if the engine is running. The challenge for the driver is to pass the whales at a suitable distance, then cut the engine and wait for the whales to come to you.  Our captain did a fairly good job of this.  Vancouver Island is very close to the United States, you can see Washington State from the shore.  While we were out on the boat we actually were 1km inside US territorial waters! And we didn't have any visas. 

You may have noticed a lack of photos of Eric today.  He hadn't come out with us as he was feeling a bit under the weather and the bed was so comfortable he didn't want to leave.   He greeted us on our return, sitting on the front step of the house. 

Stroll along the other part of the prom, plus the breakwater, which was 765m long.  The sun was just setting, providing another picture.  

Although it wasn't a spectacular sunset as not too many clouds about. Dinner in a local restaurant provided an excellent salad with toasted seeds, avocado and egg plus the now obligatory ranch burger.

A handful of other birds were also seen throughout the day - a bird only entry to follow...

Possibly a Rhinocerous Auklet?