Day 28 Vancouver Island

All was good as we headed through light (very) early morning traffic to arrive on time at the ferry terminal for our trip to Nanaimo to begin our Vancouver Island adventure. On the way back from fetching coffee at the terminal, the elevator door closed to bring us back to the waiting area and as we turned the glass back of the elevator presented a spectacular view of mountains! Out here even the elevators have an incredible view!!

A view from an elevator at a ferry terminal for heaven sake!!

Boarding the Coastal Renaissance we settled in to enjoy breakfast while the ferry prepared to leave the mainland. Following that I, somewhat predictably, found a spot on deck 7, the outside sun deck. I settled down to edit blog pictures so I could post the last few days but I couldn’t get a darn thing done. Every time I tried to concentrate on the task at hand, the scenery would demand attention. I would take a picture and head back to my table and before I arrived the scenery would change again and I was back at the railing for pictures.

There I am, the mad blogger, taking pictures.

Can you blame me?

Disembarking without a problem, we began our trek to the other side of the island. We had a couple of stops in mind on our way to The Pacific Rim National Park. After some hunting and pecking we found our first destination and it was well worth the effort. For the past 10 years Parksville has hosted the Canadian Open Sand Sculpting Competition. The day was brilliantly sunny with a cool ocean breeze as we perused incredibly creative sand sculptures, made by artists from all over the world. As well as competitors from all over the world, a map at the front gate holds pushpins in locations all over the world representing the visitors who have come to appreciate the art. It boggles my mind how someone can even conceive of some of the pieces we saw, let alone carve them in sand!

The 3D effect on this one was really cool.

This one was called Jungle Jazz and was incredible.

The beach where all the sand sculptures were.

One of the drawbacks of dragging your home behind you wherever you go is that sometimes you just don’t fit where you want to go. Heading out of Parksville we were destined for Cathedral Grove in MacMillian Provincial Park. We found it easily enough but the roadside parking was full and there is no way that you can just “squeeze in” with the rig we’re hauling! We have to come back this way to go to Victoria in a couple of days so maybe then … We’re told that the hike through the giant redwoods is not to be missed.

We will be back this way since there is only one road across the middle of the island; since I’m talking about an island that may not seem strange. Until I began to plan this trip I had no notion of the size of Vancouver Island. The entire province of Prince Edward Island can be traversed is a nice day’s drive. The trip from here to Victoria is expected to take 5.5 hours – and we’re only covering the bottom 1/3 of the island! It took us several hours just to drive across from Nanaimo for heaven sake! Of course that had a little something to do with the route. Through the middle of the island there really isn’t much. Beautiful scenery to be sure but appears quite remote. The road twists and turns with the rhythm of the mountains and streams. The closer we came to Pacific Rim the more interesting the road became. We were noticing the road become narrower and more twisted. Then the extreme hills began, but the twists didn’t go away nor the road widen. Then the signs started. ‘CAUTION NARROW ROAD’ – narrower? “CAUTION STEEP HILL CHECK BRAKES” (!!) – steeper? ‘CAUTION FALLING ROCKS’ – just what we need! ‘CAUTION OVERHANG ONCOMING TRAFFIC MAKES WIDE TURNS’ – as we pass a logging truck on a grade… and they weren’t kidding about the overhang!! ‘CAUTION WILDLIFE ON ROADWAY’ – we saw a bald eagle that didn’t cause us any problem, and a bear that could have, had he been on the road, but he didn’t! ‘CAUTION SOFT SHOULDER’ – by this time we were in gales of laughter. The lines on the road here had clearly been repainted, moving the center yellow line (imagine, no passing on this road!!) to the left and clearly repairing the soft shoulder on the side of the cliff! And just as we thought it couldn’t get any sillier, ‘CAUTION YOU ARE ENTERING A TSUNAMI ZONE’!!! Thank God for David and his driving! I don’t think he enjoyed the scenery as much as we did, but his concentration on the driving paid off and we arrived at our campground safe and sound!

A hike along the Pacific Rim Trail rounded out the day. On one of our cruises we visited a place called Hell. The rock formation was black and the place appeared very desolate. It wasn’t had to figure out how the location got its name. Cliff reminded us that this particular part of the coast looks somewhat like that. He’s right. More beautiful and certainly not as warm sans the Caribbean sun but there is a bleakness that’s comparable. As we stopped along the trail to grab a shot back at the Amphitrite lighthouse a bear passed within 10 feet of where we were! He was as uninterested in an encounter with us as we were with him but nonetheless a little close for comfort! The deer nursing her two fawns was worth a pause though! The trails here are beautiful. Huge, moss hung trees are thick and tangled along both sides of the path and regularly open to a spectacular view of the Pacific.

The Amphitrite Lighthouse - where I discovered a bear behind me as I took this pictures!

The wild pacific!

A stop at the local Co-op for supplies and we made it an early night! We were exhausted from an early start, entertaining adventures and splendiferous hiking!