Canada - Part One - Vancouver Island - Sun, Sea, Surf and Wildlife!Part OneDay 1Landed at Vancouver airport and met the car waiting to transfer us to the "Rosedale on Robson" Hotel for the night as no one is allowed to "fly and drive" on the same day. The hotel was fine, although on opening our room door, we found another couple sat eating a meal! Weird! However, a phone call later and we were ensconced in another room on the same floor, so all was well.
As it was late afternoon, Vancouver time, we decided to go out straight away and check out the famous Stanley Park before having a meal later on.
It was a beautifully warm day, about 25 degrees! So we were very hot after walking about 5 or 6 miles around, and through, the park.
After working up a hunger as well as a thirst, we stopped off at a place called "The Lift Bar and Grill" on the waterfront. We now know why they call it "The Lift", as it is because they lift all the money from your wallet to pay for the meal you just ate! Honestly, it set the tone for the whole holiday.....eating is expensive in Canada. We had a couple of steaks, a couple of beers and Stef had her usual "Spritzer" and the bill was £86.43 including taxes....which were not insignificant! We left a tip in Cash as there was nothing wrong with the Staff who were very, very, pleasant and helpful. The view of the sunset was just as magnificent as the Bill!
The stroll back to the Hotel along the waterfront was very pleasant as well. We had now been awake for about twenty two hours and were feeling very tired.
Day 2Having never been to Canada before, we decided that we would cover as much ground as possible "to see what we could see"..... but calling at the places where, in theory, we could possibly see, Orca; Humpback Whales; Black Bear; Grizzly Bear; Elk; Deer; Bald Eagles and hopefully, various other wildlife. Our plans, which Stef had researched and refined over many months included visiting Vancouver Island, specifically, Cowichan Bay; Tofino; Tahsis; Port McNeal; and Port Hardy. Then over to the mainland by ferry to Bella Coola, and after a couple of days, moving on overland to Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff. From Banff, we would return the RV to Vancouver and then transfer by coach to Whistler for two nights R&R in a proper bed! before returning to Vancouver and flying home.
We picked up the RV just outside Vancouver, made a quick 30 minute run to the ferry, calling off at Walmart for supplies on the way. $235CD's later, for hardly any groceries at all and we were on our way to the ferry with just enough time to spare. On arriving at the terminal, we spent 10 or 15 minutes waiting in the queue before they started loading the vehicles. They let every vehicle go in front of us and in the lines to the left and the right of us. Just as we were following the vehicle ahead, this chap jumped in front of us with his hand held up, stopping us in our tracks. He threw a barrier cone in front of us and walked away without a word. We were the only vehicle left in the whole terminal parking lanes! It felt like he did it on purpose, even if he didn't!..... either way, it wouldn't have cost the chap anything to have had a couple of words with us, would it! It was nearing 19:00 when we arrived at Victoria on Vancouver Island and we only had to drive 54 km to the first Camp site at Crofton. An easy drive....or so we thought! We had brought our Sat Nav with us, with the latest Canadian maps downloaded on to it. We set the Campsite address and started to follow instructions. After a while Stef said that she thought we were travelling in the wrong direction. So, we got the map out and discovered that we were travelling up a road on a peninsular on the wrong side of the water from where we wanted to be, DOH! We called into a store to ask directions to make sure and found out what the problem was. It turns out that a few miles up the road was a FERRY!!! , and the Sat Nav's ferry option was turned ON! - so she was taking us to it....."very good" I hear you say, HOWEVER, the ferry closed at 17:30 and it was now 19:30! Lesson Learned, turn ferries and toll roads off!!! So we turned around, retraced our steps and eventually did the thing that we did not want to do and that was to arrive at our first Campsite in the dark! With everything being new to us, it would have been great to have been able to set up in daylight but hey-ho.... not a problem in the end. The Camp site was functional but not fantastic, however, dawn the next day was!
Day Three
Dawn was brilliant, as the above image shows. I also has the bonus of a lone heron fishing (seen in the centre of the above image. I hung around and managed to get a couple of nice images
But to be honest, The Dawn was enough reason to be up early....but this Heron was the icing on the cake.
We were up early so we could get to our first, full day, wildlife tour by 10:15, which was only 21km away, with Ocean Eco Ventures in Cowichan Bay. We had booked a full day trip on the sea looking for Orca (Killer Whales) and Humpback Whales. Our Captain for the day was Gary, who has many years experience looking for whales in the Salish Sea, the body of water that forms the coastal waterways to the South West of the province of British Columbia and around Vancouver Island. His knowledge and experience of the boat and the environment is immediately obvious and his enthusiasm for the Orcas and Humpback Whales is contagious. An "all in one" insulated Flotation suit is provided which are fantastic at keeping out both wind and rain, but I would advise wearing water proof trousers and taking a couple of upper body "shell layers" with you, in addition to waterproof gloves. We had a brilliantly sunny day, but I can imagine that things would not quite be so great if the sun wasn't shining! They also supply goggles and hats, should you require them. We can't recommend this trip enough. Not only do you (hopefully) get the incredible experience of being next to the orca's and whales, etc but travelling on one of these craft at full speed is also a very exhilarating experience! It is interesting to note that if we had booked a half day tour, we would not have had enough time to travel to the location where the Orca were actually passing through, at that time. However, if we had been on the trip a few days earlier, we would not have needed to travel so far. So, "you pays your money and you takes your chance"! The image below is from "Ocean Eco Ventures" own website and illustrates the boat we were taken out on.
We were a little uncertain about what equipment to take with us as we did not know what to expect. Stef had her Nikon D500 along with her lens of choice, which was the Tamron 600mm (effectively around 900mm). I had my Nikon D3s and Sigma 600mm Sport. We can both, when necessary, handhold this set-up for quite long spells as there was no room for tripods or monopods and even if there had been room, they would have been useless. There was room on the boat for a bag under the seat, in which we had wet gear for the cameras and for ourselves, along with binoculars. I also took the Nikon D800 along with the 16mm to 35mm wide angle lens. Just in case, I also took quite a bit of kitchen roll just in case things got a little damp. The Meeting Point was Cowichan Bay, on Vancouver Island, in theory, one of the best places to see the species we were looking for. Stef had taken her sea-sickness tablet earlier in the day...
An hour and a half later we arrived at the site where the Orca's had been seen and yes, they were still around.
We find a pod of six Orca's of which there are two "outriders" that tended to keep to themselves and four that were more "social", keeping up and swimming with each other.
Two adults and a calf
The Dorsal fin's shape and markings identify individual Orca. But there are also many markings that can be seen on the bodies of the whales..... sometimes they almost look like tattoo's - as this one has in the white area below the dorsal fin.
The pod of Orca's kept to an area that was probably about the size of a couple of football fields. Our guide said they were hunting and so they kept diving and surfacing within this area for a good hour or so. We would watch them dive and then he would cut the engines and watch for them surfacing. Sometimes they could be a good few hundred yards away, in which case, we would head off in their direction to try and get images before they dived.
Sometimes, they would surface almost beneath the boat..... it was simply amazing to watch them surface just a few yards away from you. The 150mm - 600mm lenses were not a great help sometimes as they would not zoom in far enough to capture the Orca's. Sometimes you just have to sit and look in awe.
Eventually, we had to head back toward Cowichan Bay - so we headed off to look for some Humpback Whales. We did find a pair of Humpback's but they were on a mission and kept to one heading, and just kept going. Our Guide said it was a mother and calf.
On our way back in to Cowitchan Bay, we came across a few critters that we paused to photograph.
This is a popular hauling out place for Sea Lions and as we can see there are several Sea Lions of varied ages taking the opportunity to rest on this bouy. The colour of the body certainly sets off the blandness of the sea and sky, giving a spectacularly colourful image.
A few minutes "cruise" away takes us to another place where the sea mammals haul out. This Seal is poised below the two cormorant sat atop the lighthouse.
All good things come to an end and our trip is no different. So we head off towards Cowichan Bay and experience a very good sunset.
At a conjunction of currents and tides, the water seemed to seethe and broil...... It was a fantastic sight. The water was like liquid gold.....
People say that the best sunsets are seen from the sea..... I can't argue with that!
Back at Cowichan Bay, we disembarked, thanked our guide for a very good day out, return duo our RV for a very well earned meal and a good sleep
Day 4Today, we had a 266km drive to Crystal Cove campsite at Tofino on the other side of Vancouver Island which would mean we would arrive in the early afternoon as it was a 4 hour drive. The weather was great once again and the campsite proved to be right on the beach and approx 3 km out of Tofino. So we decided to walk to Tofino, taking the coastal path following the beaches and the rainforest. We could also check out the meeting place for the next trip tomorrow afternoon, which was for black bear, once again from a boat. So after several miles walking, we headed back to the RV where we enjoyed an open fire, a BBQ meal and a couple of drinks. We'd had a long day with plenty of driving, and we had also walked a good few miles, time to get our heads down. Here are just a few images of the day.
Day 5NO TRAVELLING TODAY!.... So sight-seeing was the order of the day today. There were several good beaches to check out in the area, so we had an early breakfast and set off to explore the beaches South of Tofino. Chesterman Beach is a few km's away from Tofino on the Pacific Rim Highway. The first few images up to the woman surfer are taken at Chesterman Beach.
We moved a few Km's further down the coast to Combers Beach which merges into Wickaninnish Beach where there were a few surfers gathered as the water was rougher.
We couldn't hang around for too long as we had to be back in Tofino for the Black Bear Trip by 16:00 to catch the low tide. These beaches are definitely places where I would like to come back to, as I really enjoyed the challenge of catching the surfers before they disappeared under the waves. The water wasn't too warm though! Back in Tofino, we met up with "Ocean Outfitters", who were taking us on a trip around the local islands in another fast RIB boat with 5 other passengers. The trip is only just over two hours long and catches the water at low tide, which is when the bears come down to the shore to feed. First up was a Sow with her cub, turning over stones to find grubs. The beach was in the shade and as such the images are not as good as they could have been, had they been in the sun.
As it happens, another Black Bear came out a good few hundred yards away and he was in the sun. He spent the next half an hour turning over stones and working his way along the beach in the direction of the mother and cub.... although the mother and cub disappeared before he reached their bit of beach. Oh, and he eventually came a lot closer!
Of course, you do get the odd visit when you are out and about, so Stef snapped off on these birdies...
We arrived back just before sunset. So we went down to the pier and spent a while with the other sunset watchers.
Afterwards, we headed off to a burger bar in the centre of the village for a really nice..... and comparatively well priced meal! Then back to the RV for a good nights sleep, before tomorrow's 6/7 hour - 423km journey to Tahsis which is NOT exactly the most easily accessible westerly place on Vancouver Island (at least without a 4 x 4!)
Day 6Another early start.... before 8am... to enable us to get to Tahsis as early as possible, especially as the last 40 kilometres or so was supposedly on a "gravel" road. All the best laid plans go wrong.... we were held up by roadworks on the only road that goes to Thasis.... for 90 minutes! I say roadworks.... they are taking down sections of the mountain to widen the road..... BIG JOB! When we arrived at the "gravelled" road, it was signposted that it was not 40 km.... but 65 km to reach the "Seaside RV Campsite in Tahsis. Very, very slow going.... but the scenery was very, very good indeed.
We arrived at the campsite about 5pm in the pouring rain and you can see what a mess the gravel made of the RV!
Got set up and had a meal and a walk round. We were only here for the night as we were leaving for Port Hardy in the morning.
Keywords:
2019,
Banff,
Bella Coola,
British Columbia,
Canada,
Cowichen Bay,
Jasper,
Port Hardy,
Port Mc Neal,
Tahsis,
Tofino,
Vancouver Island,
Whistler
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