After a 10-hour ferry trip from Bella Coola, we arrived in Port Hardy and stayed at a campground. The following day, we went on a 2-hour hike in what seemed like a jungle. The path was very hard to see, and others warned us not to do the entire 4-hour hike. In the afternoon, we drove towards Campbell River. Vinz suddenly stopped the car and turned around because he saw a sign for a drag race that was going on. We watched a few races to get the full American experience. After a while, I was bored, so we left and found a very nice spot to sleep overlooking the ocean.
The next morning, we were awakened by an approaching car. It was an older couple from the south part of Vancouver Island. They parked right behind us and started preparing their freshly caught fish. We asked if we could watch. It wasn’t at all as gross as we expected. He cut out two filets from each fish and threw the rest away. The couple was very nice. They are almost self-sufficient and have their basement full of self-caught fish and hunted deer and moose. We were very impressed. Interestingly, they were almost certain that due to the Ukraine-Russia war, the world would soon end in a catastrophe, and they had to be prepared with food and water provisions. They also felt bad for us for living in Switzerland because they assumed Europe was more or less in flames.
Later, we drove to Campbell River and ate a big lunch at a diner restaurant. Then we went for a run at Elk Fall Provincial Park.
We found a free ice-cold shower next to a gas station. Then we drove to a nearby Visitors Center for the night. In the middle of the night, a motorcycle drove up to us and asked whether we had any tape. It was about 3 am and very creepy. Vinz shouted to him that we didn’t have anything, and he drove away. But after that, we both couldn’t fall asleep anymore. It didn’t help that we were listening to a thriller audiobook before going to bed.
On Monday, we drove to Tofino. We had to book a campground nearby because overnight parking is illegal everywhere between Tofino and Ucluelet. The campgrounds were ridiculously expensive. We reserved the cheapest campground we could find for 80 dollars a night, which had horrible reviews. Other sites would have cost more than 200 dollars. In the afternoon, we went on a whale-watching tour with Adventure Tofino. We received full-body Mustang Survival Suits and went out on a Zodiac boat. We looked as if we were going on an expedition to the north pole.
The tour was incredible! The boat ride in itself was already thrilling. We went very fast and jumped over high waves. Vinz thought it was amazing; I was terrified. We saw all three types of whales that could be seen in the area: Gray whales, Orcas, and humpback whales. It is extremely rare to see all three in one trip, so we were very lucky. Even our guide was excited and extended the trip by half an hour.
After the tour, we ate dinner in Tofino and visited Long Beach.
On Tuesday, we spent some time running/hiking the popular trails between Ucluelet and Tofino: Canso Bomber Ruins Trail, Lighthouse Loop, South Rain Forest Trail, and North Rain Forest Trail.
The following day, we started driving towards Port Renfrew. We wanted to drive there using small roads instead of the highway to improve our chances of finding a free spot to sleep. We ended up driving on a very narrow path with lots of branches in the way. We continued and hoped to reach a wider road eventually. After about half an hour, we reached a huge pit in the road that we couldn’t pass. Luckily, we managed to turn around and drive everything back. It wasn’t fun, and we were constantly worried that we would get stuck somewhere. There was no cell reception and no other cars nearby, so that would have been quite a disaster. The van looked horrible after that trip. It was covered in dirt and had lots of scratches on the sides. At least we were able to find a private spot next to a lake to spend the night.
In Port Renfrew, we visited Big Lonely Doug, which was very underwhelming, and stayed at a campground at Fairy Lake.
On Thursday morning, we went on a 2-hour hike to a secret sea lion cave. I found the hike online through a Blog. It took us over an hour to find the correct trailhead, and there was no official hiking path. Eventually, we got there and saw a group of sea lions in the water. After the hike, we drove a very scenic road to Sooke, where we stayed at a campground.
On Saturday morning, we took the 1.5-hour ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver. We stayed in Whistler for one night, and now we’re in Vancouver in an Airbnb. Today is a work day; tomorrow, we will spend the entire day visiting the city. Then we will head back east. We have very little planned for our way back, but our first stop will most likely be Glacier National Park again. This time the Going-to-the-Sun Road will be open, and we can do the hikes we couldn’t do before.