Beaver Creek and Tofino

For the past few days I have been in Beaver Creek at Lynnes home and also visiting Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Camper Van.

A beautiful Indian Pipe fungus near Beaver Creek, Port Alberni

Moss in the forest on the banks of the Stamp River, Beaver Creek

Marina in Uclulet, West Coast of Vancouver Island

On the second day of our visit to the west coast we signed up for boat trip to the Hot Springs about 2 hours boat ride north of Tofino. This is the wharf on the morning of that trip. Notice the sea fog coming in.

A Sea Lion basking in the sun with a Kelp bed in the foreground.

A Sea Otter with baby hiding in a bed a kelp. In the first few hours after a baby otter is borne it is unable to swim so the mother must stay on the surface with it.

Hot Springs Point Lighthouse, two hours north of Tofino. There is a permanant Indian community just around the point.

The Indian community of Hotsprings Point. The original village was located closer to the water but was wiped out in the Tsunami of 1964.

This is an example of how a new tree will start out on a Host Log (one which has fallen and is rotting away) and develop into a mature tree while the host log rots to nothing. Note the timber walkway. The entire 1.8 km walk to the hot spring was like this.

A Garter Snake basking in the sun alonside the walkway.

The hot spring falls and bathing pool. The water issues from the spring at 50 deg C. The pools were quite small and communal bathing was an intimate affair.

Wild Ginger and moss in a rotting log alongside the walkway to the hot springs.

An Old Growth Cedar tree alongside the walkway.

A Black Bear hunting for limpets on a rocky beach. Her cub had just run back into the forest. We were about 10 metres away in the boat.

We passed a barge loaded with cedar timber cut ready to make roof shingles.

Long Beach near Tofino with the sea fog rolling in on a fine day.

two surfers coming out of the distant surf through the sea fog.

Well this is the last of my blog entries so I will sign off now until I return to Australia. I hope you have enjoyed sharing my adventures over the last two months.



Vancouver Island

Saturday 4 th August

We have just returned to Port Alberni after a four day camping trip to Strathcona Provincial Park in the north of Vancouver Island about 250km north of Nanaimo. Lynne and I took the Camper Van courtesy of Michael and Darlene and it served us very well.

Buttle Lake

The campsite was at the southern end of Buttle Lake on the banks of the Ralph River.

A Stella Blue Jay waiting for breakfast

The site was surrounded by giant Cedar , Alder and Douglas Fir trees with undergrowth of Huckleberry, Kinnanick, bunchberries and sword fearns to the extent that we could not see the neighboring sites. Facilities were limited to drop toilets, benches and tablest plus a fire place each.



The lake was surrounded by 6,000ft mountains with the odd patch of snow still holding out under the summer sun.

Lynne with one of the many trees felled to clear the walking track.

We passed the time with walks through pristine forest where fallen trees are left to rot and form new soil for the constantly changing undergrowth. At times we would come across a stream glistening green under the patches of sun that forced through the high growth.



A visit to the upper and lower Myra Falls was a real treat. Millenniums of slow wear by the constant flow of water had carved large and small pockets where still water provided a drinking pond or a whirl pool in which large logs circled aimlessly while waiting for the next high water to escape.



The upper fall was reached via one hour walk up through the forest and I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple at the fall who had spent some time teaching in Adelaide in the 1970's. 

Another day we drove out to Gold River to visit the Upana river caves but lost our way and gave up after having only visited the town and small port where logs were being formed into log booms to be towed to ports south.

More at Mabel lake

Sunday 29 th July  Picture the following,  a beautiful midsummer evening with the girl of your dreams, or guy if you prefer, on a lake in the middle of nowhere, hidden lake to be precise, slowly paddling in a bright yellow canoe for two as the sun sets over the mountains in the west. The water surface is so still that the soft cumulus clouds reflect back as if there was no up or down and the mountains recede to ever darker hues of blue.

We gently approach a pair of Loons as they stroke slowly away from us only to be heard later calling to each other with the plaintive cry that only loons can utter. The sun sets further and the reflections of tree lined shore darken into the night. We paddle back to the shoe and pack to drive home for a wine before bed. All true last Wednesday except that the girl turned out to be Art, my host.

On the way home that evening we stopped off at a neighbor  of Arts' so that he could show me his unique home, a veritable tree house in the forest, three levels high supported by poles cut from the forest. Each level was honeycombed with rooms of varying size and cluttered with debris of many years of remote living. At one time there were goats in the lower floor while he raised 3 children in the upper stories. A waterfall chuckles in the back while a generator purrs in the front to provide electricity for essential living. Not surprisingly his wife left him when the all three children were under four. I am now back on Vancouver Island where I am going to do some exploring in a great little camper van courtesy of Michael and Darlene.

Mabel Lake, BC

Sunday 22nd July  The past week has been busy and I have not had sufficient time to update my journal.  Last week my friends took me to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, where took in the sites and road bicycles from Victoria to Sidney for lunch and return, a total of 50km.

Float plane taking off from Victoria Harbour

Sister's Darlene and Vicki

Roger and friend

On Friday my friend Lynne picked me up and we caught the ferry over to the mainland where we stayed with Lynne's sister Sharon in her beautiful home in Horseshoe Bay. Saturday brought misty rain when we left Vancouver to drive 300km to Princeton where Lynne is serving as resident nurse at a church camp for 72 teenagers. I borrowed her car and drove on another 260km to Enderby where I am currently staying with Carolyn and Art Herbert on their 170 acre property in the woods alongside a rapidly flowing river. The farm is on the opposite side of the river and must be crossed via a small private ferry.

Captain Art meeting me on the ferry.

Supper with Art and Carolyn

Paradise Farm

Chipmunk in the barn

Today their son Leigh took me to join members of the local community to paddle around Mabel Lake in a large voyager canoe. We were joined by five others and paddled for about two hours to see some 600 year old Pictographs and stopped for a break for a beach walk before returning to the Mabel Lake village.

After a cherry picking session in the afternoon we went for a quick swim in the river. Wednesday 25th  July . Since my last report I have been busy here at Mabel Lake, actually I have learned that the area is called Kingfisher, with picking raspberries, cherries ( I fell off the ladder and broke a tree limb on the way down) red currants and other minor jobs around the farm.

Market garden and cow paddock.

Last night we attended an outdoor live performance of an interpretation of the original Bonnie and Clyde. It was hilarious and included two vintage cars and three horses on stage which involved the surrounding countryside. It seems typical of Canadian country towns to have many live performances all summer long.

Nanaimo & Lake Cowichan

Thursday 12th July  I have been invited to join Michael and Darlene for a few days visit at the Cowichan Lake cabin belonging to the family of Darlene's brother in law Rob Strachan. This is a very special place nestled between mountains just west of the town of Duncan.

The House in the woods on Lake Cowichan.

The private launching ramp.

The weather is fine and warm, in stark contrast to my journey over the past four weeks. The Cowichan Valley is famous for the Indian Sweaters made from raw untreated wool.

Monday 16 th July. Nanaimo, Vancouver Island Well I am now back in Vancouver having had no time, or inclination, to update my blog until now. The weather since the 12th has been superb, in the mid to high 20's every day with little or no cloud. My time at Lake Cowichan was spent assisting Rob and his family bring the lake house out of it's winter cloak into the warmth of a late summer by clearing away the detritus of winter and in addition we installed water piping and taps to aid in the more easy watering of the garden.

Just me being whimsical.

Rob's mother Lillian with the Aussie flag.

Huckleberries for the taking. I beat the bears to these.

As a break from the foregoing Rod launched their two Jet Skis and he and I enjoyed a leisurely tour of the eastern end of the lake. It is a most idyllic place to spend time to recuperate from my time time in Alaska and I took advantage of it. Thank you Rob and Vicki.
Back here in Nanaimo I have been Enjoying the company of Darlene and Michael in there beautiful home overlooking the waters of the Strait of Georgia where cruise ships can be seen heading north up the Inside Passage to Alaska and the occasional tug with a lazy log boom towing reluctantly behind.

 On our evening walks we often pass BlackTailed Deer with young fawn grazing on the  fruits of some hard working gardener.

The deer seem almost unafraid of humans and move away only if approached closer than a couple of metres.

Port Hardy

Wednesday July 11 Port Hardy, BC Yesterday, Tuesday, I made my way to the Prince Rupert ferry terminal at 6.30 for a 7.30am departure to Port Hardy. The ferry Northern Expedition is a 150m vessel built in Germany in 2009 and is by far the most impressive Ferry I have sailed in. BC Ferries sure know how to run a ferry system and compared to the Alaskan Marine Highway Ferries, they are the best.

On board the Northern Expedition. Note! All of the life rafts are built in Australia.

The 450km journey south passed through waters varying from narrow channels to open sea but still with many islands on the horizon. We stopped once at a small Native community,Klemtu, for one hour and enjoyed the sun while a couple of people came aboard.

Klemtu Indian village port.

 The weather for most of the trip was cool but pleasant and the visibility excellent so I was able to get many photos of thickly tree'd coast line dotted with water falls cascading directly into the sea. 

At one point we came across a helicopter logging operation which allows selective logging instead of the often used method of clear felling. The helicopter hovers over the newly felled tree while riggers engage a line to the log which is then lifted and shuttled over the water then dropped to join an ever growing log boom.

Helicopter logging.

 The journey was punctuated by many whale sightings, both Killer and Humpback but the simply surfaced to blow stale air from their lungs to be replaced by fresh. No breaching with huge splashes, this happens later in the year.

An abandoned cannery.

The Canadian flag.

We docked inert Hardy at 11.15pm and I bussed the 10km to a Backpackers hostel I had booked while on the ferry. That was an interesting experience as I have never had cause to book one before but I enjoyed it and met a couple of interesting people, one, a German lad with whom I shared a room. I could see no point in paying $120 for a room I would only be for 6 hours when $22 did the job.

The Backpackers lodge in Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

Today, Wednesday July 11 Port Hardy was cloaked in a thin shroud of mist when I ventured out at 7.00am but I could tell it was going to be a pleasant day. After taking advantage of a few photo ops. I returned to the Backpackers lodge to retrieve my somewhat heavy load of two bags and make my way to the bus terminal, well bus office actually.

Port Hardy Totem Pole.

Canada Customs vessel, Port Hardy.

 Greyhound lived up to their reputation and departed right on time. The road led south through thick forest with the occasional glimpse of channel running up the east side of Vancouver Island. It an otherwise uneventful 400km journey and at 4.00pm I was met by Michael Booth in Nanaimo. My gratitude to Michael and Darlene knows no bounds as they are always ready to help out when I am in Nanaimo. I will stay with them until July 20 when I plan to visit my friends near Enderby in central BC.