With an early (no breakfast) start we headed for
the ferry from Horseshoe bay to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. We had planned to
catch the 8.30 and our timing was just right. I had actually been on this ferry
before… if you go to Google Maps Street View and follow the arrows from
Horseshoe Bay you get a view from the Google car in the bowels of the ferry. A
lovely 2 hour trip ensues and the views are fantastic. Seaplanes and ferries
make for a wonderful foreground to an impressive backdrop of fjords, inlets,
islands and distant snow caps.
The waters here are calm, and there were a mix
of passengers from locals (calmly using laptops as if they had seen the view a
thousand times) and us others, cameras ready and braving the very relaxing
decks. The weather was overcast, but fortunately not raining.
But rain it did.
We were heading through Nanaimo on the highway
but had to do some essential shopping. I had never been to a Walmart, so this
was our chance. This is the Auchan of Canada… huge, and reminded me of the
Auchan store in Avignon. (Very hard not to sound pretentious when writing about
such comparisons.. we are so lucky to have travelled as much as we have over
the last few years). As W said, "This is like a Supermarket with a Kmart
attached". We got what we wanted, photographed the guns and left.
The rain started and slowly intensified
throughout the day. Crossing the island towards Tofino was again a serpiginous
route with its ups and downs and the slow uphill groans and roaring descents.
The "check engine" light comes on every now and then, disappearing
when it wishes. We ignore it. This is "the boy who cried wolf" if
ever I have seen it. One descent was 18%. That's impressive.
In drizzle and plonking rain we finally reached
the west coast and we were in the Pacific Rim National Park. The visitors
centre warned us about several hazards. There was one region sealed off due to
unexploded munitions, a warning about cougars and wolves, and another about
Tsunamis! It's really strange driving through coastal forest, without a view of
the sea and coming across "Warning- Tsunami Zone". I must look up
what happened here after the Tsunami in 2011.
Just looked it up.. nothing much actually happened, but they were a bit worried for a while..
Article here
We had used Skype to book at the Crystal Creek
Resort for two nights and we motored into our secluded home. A lovely place,
upmarket and well maintained. Free Wifi… usual deal.. almost unusable and for
some strange reason undetectable by iPads. I think the superior antenna in the
Macbook Pro was the factor that made a difference.
Despite the rain which was now steady we all
went down to the beach and wandered along the adjacent MacKenzie's beach. We
found a little trail into Pacifica something-or-other Park and Mary and I decided to walk the
couple of kilometres into Tofino proper. V and W had enough sense to turn back.
Wet and squelchy, Mary and I used the bike trail, only disturbed occasionally
by cyclists, many still in wetsuits and carrying surfboards.
In Tofino we came across a store where there
were some walking boots of my size on special. These were no $12 no name
sneakers- they were Merrell's leather and gore tex boots for $96 plus tax.
They
were really comfortable and my sneakers were starting to get wet, so new boots
with comfy socks was a simple comfort that made all the difference on the
return trip. Cosy and steamy in the RV we settled for the night.
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| Yep, that's the one - from another site |
The internet became reliable at 10.30 which
enabled me to check our finances. We are way over budget. We only had $62 left
in CAD in our special travel card for this trip. Good to know as we had been
using it in ignorance, assuming a higher buffer… would have been embarrassing
to produce it and have that old chestnut "Insufficient funds" appear.
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