Wednesday June 17th

5:45pm

We left the quirkiness of Port Alberni behind after leaving the Somass Motel and having a simple breakfast at the “Blue Dock Cafe”, which was like a greasy spoon.... minus the grease.....if that makes sense?! Today we headed off to Tofino.

The road was indeed very twisty and bumpy like most people had told us – although as the roads got increasingly twistier and bumpier, the weather began closing in. It was forecast to be drizzly, and all the hills and mountains had clouds and mist resting on top of them. I guess we never really got the full impact of the drive and the scenery because of the weather. There was little to see with the numerous trees everywhere – it looked just like Scotland, especially with the twisty, bumpy road.

We soon arrived at the Pacific Rim National Park Information office where we got a map and some postcards. Off we went on a last half an hour drive to Tofino. We were early, as we thought we would get an extra day, as it were, in Tofino. But we weren’t to know that we probably didn’t need to leave early at all.

The weather was still overcast a drizzly, and it didn’t help our mood when we arrived. As we drove down the main road, we noticed all the whale watching advertising and the like, but to be honest we were quite disappointed with Tofino – probably because we had higher expectations. We had been told that Tofino was “lovely” and had become all “touristy” – yes there were the usual souvenir shops, the odd gallery here and there, and a few more restaurants than Port Alberni but there was little else there. I had been expecting something like Banff, Mathew had been expecting something like Jasper....but it was actually more like Port Alberni, only larger and a bit nicer because it was larger. An hour was all that was needed to walk everywhere and we went back to the car feeling very disappointed.

On the way back to the car, we decided we would go on one of the whale watching tours. We picked “Jamie’s Whaling Station” which also boasted bear-watching tours too. It seemed the best price and I had also read about whale watching tours on the internet, and “Jamie’s” seemed to be the best one. We went in and got booked on the 1:30pm tour and left for the car. After sitting there for a short while leafing through the Rough Guide to Canada, we decided to pop into an art gallery of artist Roy Henry Vickers – where I ended up buying a framed picture. Very, very nice artwork indeed, I have to say! We had a quick bite to eat in “Breakers” which offered a great range of all sorts of munchables - we would probably come here again, I thought – and headed off to the whale watching tour......

....Which in all honesty, was NOT worth the $105 each at all. We went on the larger boat, and after what seemed an incredibly long and dull 75 minute journey down the river, we got to Bedwell Sound where we saw 5 Orcas. They were great to see of course, although I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t get closer. If there hadn’t been so many including at least one calf, we may have been able to get closer. I appreciate why we couldn’t, but it was disappointing not being able to. We took many photos, and managed to get a few good ones on our zoom lenses. We watched these Orcas (which were apparently transient Orcas, very rare to see that many at his location) for around 30 minutes before turning back for the incredibly long and dull 75 minute journey back to base. The End.

The reason why I wanted to go whale watching in the first place, was to try and grasp and understand how large whales are. Obviously, since we didn’t get that close to the Orcas, I still have no idea how big they are at all, which was quite disappointing, even though I know why we couldn’t get closer than we did. Plus, nothing else was seen – no bears, no seals, no sea lions, no sea otters, PLUS the tannoy system on the boat was REALLY bad as nobody could hear what the driver was saying over the engine, unless he really was just mumbling into the microphone and saying “Orca” a few times just to make it interesting..!

So we left the dock feeling incredibly disappointed with the whale watching tour, after having a three hour trip and seeing only Orcas for 30 minutes....we were hoping to see at least one or two beluga whales or a grey whale....but nothing. Frankly, our money would have been better spent buying some Native art, or Art by Roy Henry Vickers. Definitely NOT a trip worth $105 each – I would have rather paid $50 - $60 and be spared the disappointment.

So with heavy hearts and footsteps, we fell into our car seats and headed down the road to our next accommodation – Harvey House Bed and Breakfast. The website looked good, and it was one of the more expensive choices we had made. The sun had broken up the cloud and was shining now. We arrived at a VERY blue house, to be greeted by an English couple who had built the place on a road which was just a few minutes walk from the beach. And when we got to our room....Well! What a fantastic room it was!!!

Our windows looked out onto the temperate rain forest out the back (hence “Rainforest Room”) which was apparently frequented by black bears!! We’ll have to watch out for them in the mornings and evenings. Harvey House was an incredibly nice place to stay, and at 8:30am we had breakfast delivered to our door, ready for us to enjoy in the privacy of our own room!
So, we had a hot drink. I wrote in my journal and Mathew dozed on the (very high!) bed, and the sky became bluer and the sun shone brighter. It looked like we were in for a good sunset....! We decided to eat at 7:00pm in order to catch the sun setting at apparently 9:30. I planned to come back to the B&B and fill my mug with hot chocolate before heading out. Sadly, it had clouded over too much and we knew there would be no scenic sunset. Still, we decided to have a stroll along the beach to walk our dinner off before getting back to the B&B and THEN having hot chocolate.

THAT worked out just nicely.....as the hot chocolate turned out to be the most delicious hot chocolate I have EVER had!!