A full five weeks we had now been travelling around Vancouver Island and had done quite well at avoiding the usual tourist routes. But since not only every one of our friends who has been here, but all the locals as well, urged us to visit Tofino, we spent our last days on Vancouver Island’s west coast.
For spontaneous travellers a trip to Tofino is not possible without a small nervous breakdown. Every single place to stay is booked out weeks, if not months, in advance for the whole summer. Even the campsites. And AirBnB spits out suggestions from 500 euros a night. For two of our planned three nights we did manage to reserve a spot at an out-of-the-way campsite after all. Something would turn up for the other night.
For the trip we hired a car for the first time in our entire journey. Which also means: driving a car for the first time in ten months! Had we forgotten how? One thing I can tell you: what a feeling of freedom!
In the most beautiful summer sunshine - as we have been used to here for five weeks - we shot off towards the north-west. We wanted to make the most of our newfound freedom and stop wherever it seemed worth stopping. First stop: Cathedral Grove. Correction: first stop Tim Hortons (effectively the Canadian Starbucks). Then Cathedral Grove.
Cathedral Grove is one of the few remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island. In this case trees up to 800 years old, standing 75 m tall. Even though the island has many forests and appears exceedingly green, most of the trees are very young. And they will stay that way, since forestry is one of the region’s most important industries.
Seen that way, what I find about Cathedral Grove above all is that it is alarming, because it makes you realise how the entire island could (should?) actually look. And something else suddenly dawned on us: there really are a great many tourists on Vancouver Island - we had simply been skirting them skilfully until now. Here in Cathedral Grove it was more than packed, and the park ranger smiled wearily that half of Germany must be in the park…?
So we quickly got back into the car and drove on. Along the route towards Tofino you pass countless lakes. We stopped at Sproat Lake for a jump into the water. From the parking bay a small path led down through the wooded shore to the lake. And even though we obviously did not have the huge lake entirely to ourselves, it certainly felt that way. The water was so wonderful - I could have swum in it all day. Especially with the backdrop of the snow-covered peaks you could see from the middle of the lake.
Refreshed, we jumped back into the car - there were still two hours of driving ahead of us to Tofino, or rather to Pacific Rim National Park. But the route is simply so beautiful that we had to make three more stops along the way: at Clayoquot Plateau Provincial Park, at the Canoe Creek Trail and at Lake Kennedy.
Arriving on the west coast, the first thing to do was obviously head for the beach. But dipping our feet in the water was all the refreshment we needed.
After securing a spot for the night at a simple but functional campsite after all, we drove to Tofino’s less touristy sister town: Ucluelet.
I am always amazed at how much you can see, experience and enjoy in a single day!
A look at the weather forecast for the next two days showed that we had done exactly the right thing in making the most of this one. Because rain was forecast for the coming two days. Then sun again. But we really cannot complain: in five weeks it has rained on only a single night and we have been able to experience the summer of the century here. Even if a summer like that is of course hard for nature to cope with. Not least, an unusually large number of forest fires have raged in British Columbia. And honestly: it could have been worse than to have our rainy days exactly when we have a car at our disposal.
The next morning the sky was grey as forecast. We were actually tempted to drive straight back towards the generally drier east coast. But we had reserved the spot at the campsite and could no longer cancel it at such short notice. As it turned out, we even had to stay, or rather pay, for a minimum of two nights. So we at least wanted to use one paid night. Alright, I wanted to use one night. Jan is more relaxed about such things.
First we drove to Tofino. Tofino is a charming little town with a very particular flair and a stunning location. What stands out most, though: in Tofino you are either a hippie or German. Ears trained here obviously pick up our German accent immediately. And yet we do not want to be part of the usual tourist flows at all. On our previous trips we had grown quite used to being the only non-locals!
We drove back to the slightly more relaxed Ucluelet, where we met Michael. He is on Vancouver Island working on a whale report. So they do still exist: the not-typical tourists who feel at home here anyway. And since it was drizzling non-stop by now, we had a look around a T-shirt shop offering wonderful prints. I really really did not want to buy anything, but I simply could not resist this sweet memento.
There was simply not much left to do with that rainy day, so we crawled into our tent. The next day it looked not one bit better. The tent was soaking wet and we packed it up in the rain. Forget the third night on the west coast: we are driving towards the sun!
On the way we picked up Fritz - at last we could at least begin to pay off some of our immense hitchhiking debt from New Zealand! We stopped once more at Sproat Lake, which was still wonderful for swimming, and took Fritz to the ferry at Nanaimo.
But somehow we still had not arrived where the sun was shining… So from the east coast we drove back west again (though considerably further south) in search of sun. Past Cowichan Lake we drove as far as Fairy Lake - where we finally gave up the search and pitched our tent in the drizzle.
The next morning it looked no better either: the coast at Port Renfrew lay shrouded in fog and drizzle. Only when we had come within about 30 km of Victoria did the sky clear and the sun beam down on us. How nicely we sang a few weeks ago at the Victoria Symphony Splash “Everybody loves Victoria” - and now we know once again why.
Back in Victoria it had arrived: the last evening together with Dan. I do not think he expected himself (and perhaps did not hope) that we would be getting on his nerves for a full five weeks. We did go on a few exploring trips as a pair, but kept coming back to stay with him in between and did quite a few things together that I have not written about here on the blog. Such as a sailing trip on the Mañana last weekend in glorious sunshine and the best sailing wind. What a lovely farewell to this wonderful time on Vancouver Island.
Thank you Dan for everything - you are amazing!
