Two Ducks in Bear Country

October 1, 2012

Okay, so today wasn’t really a day we had included in our planning. Still, since we were staying in North Vancouver for the night, and our flight was due to depart 8:30pm, we still had plenty of time to kill.

Our last day in Vancouver

So, we had breakfast in the hotel and then packed our stuff for one last time to get going. From our hotel it was just two corners and we were driving over the Lions Gate Bridge straight into Stanley Park. As we crossed the bridge under a blue sky, we had a feeling that this might be a great day to do a little sightseeing. And the weather did not disappoint, in fact it was even better than when we had been in Vancouver three weeks earlier.

Today was Sunday, which in Germany usually means little traffic, closed shops and only a few people in the shopping streets downtown. In Vancouver it’s almost the opposite: Almost everything is open, especially the high-end stores and shopping malls. The streets are filled with people shopping, and the traffic is still noticeable. Without a weekday to compare against, it would have been hard to guess it was Sunday.

Our last day in Vancouver

We joined the crowds, parked somewhere downtown and went through every store that struck our interest. We walked down Robson Street, something we had missed before. Katrin finally found a nice winter coat, this time even in the women’s department. We saw quite a lot, considering the limited time we had. We managed to almost spend all of our remaining cash in a variety of ways: Tim Horton’s, a delicious Japanese restaurant, Starbucks.

One last time ;)

At the airport we still had some time to kill. So I tried to drink all our remaining water and Coke before going through security. I almost succeeded, but I also had to look for a bathroom four times in the next hour. We’re back home now, and quite exhausted. We managed to grab a solid six hours of sleep on the plane, a first for me. I will follow up here in the next few days with a conclusion, but for now, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed the posts and the photos, we really had a lot fun. See you next year ;)

September 30, 2012

We’re back in the thick of the city that is Vancouver, since our flight leaves tomorrow. Our trip today took us from Tofino across Vancouver Island to Nanaimo. There we boarded the ferry back to the mainland, this time to Horseshoe Bay instead of Tsawwassen. We didn’t stop very often on our way, and on the ferry we mostly sat in the sun and read.

On the way from Tofino to Nanaimo

In North Vancouver we first stopped at a large mall right around the corner from our hotel for the night. After some Sushi and a cup of Oreo sundae, we had seen enough, so we checked into the three huge rooms in our hotel for the night. The day wasn’t quite over yet, so we spent the last one and a half hour before sunset driving up Cypress Mountain.

On the ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay

Cypress Mountain has many ski slopes (and hosted multiple tournaments during the 2010 Winter Olympics). We went up there for the spectacular views across downtown Vancouver. It was a little hazy though, and the photos show it, but the view was worth the drive nonetheless.

Looking down on Vancouver

September 28, 2012

We’re mentally preparing ourselves for the long drive back to Vancouver, and a day after that, the even longer flight back home. We had chosen to extend our stay in Tofino for another night. Just as we suspected, it was raining when we woke up today.

Impressions from Ucluelet, BC

We passed some time reading and extending our breakfast and by noon, the rain had almost died down. Since going to the beach was not an option, we got into our car and drove to Ucluelet, the other small community on this peninsula. It is even smaller than Tofino and does not have that much to offer. The dense fog and light rain didn’t help either. So we just had a look around town, took some photos and grabbed a bite to eat. Katrin had Crab Wrap (with Miso soup) and I again went for the burger, only this time it was a Duck Burger. While I usually associate traditional and high-end food with the taste of duck, having it on a bun with lettuce and tomatoes was an interesting change.

Emerald Forest B&B, outside shower anyone?

After lunch we headed back home, took some photos of our B&B and started shuffling our stuff between our two suitcases. I changed a few things on this website, so that the photo-galleries look better now. Also I added a “Tips” page, probably to be extended. That’s it for today.

September 27, 2012

This morning, we got up shortly before 8am and found our breakfast waiting for us right in front of our room. Self-baked bread, cream cheese, two types of jam, cereal, coffee and tea. Yummie!

Breakfast

We took it a little slower today, after all we are staying here to relax a little bit from all the things we did over the last two weeks. Beautiful as it wants, driving from town to town, hotel to hotel everyday does take its toll, especially with some hiking and sight-seeing in between. Not to mention the time that we spend each day getting ready, packing our stuff, checking out, checking in, blogging and googling for the nearest Tim Horton’s.

So today we only had to drive a few kilometers into Pacific Rim National Park for our first hike. “Hike” might be overstating it a bit, since it was basically a boardwalk through dense and beautiful forest. I talked about the Temperate Rainforest yesterday, and today we were able to witness two types of ecosystems up close: The rainforest on BCs western coast and immediately adjacent the beach and open sea.

On the beach

The first hike was along the “Schooner Trail”, a 2km hike through rainforest which suddenly opens onto a huge beach (“Schooner Cove” and “Long Beach”). Up until now I had never imagined that a forest could be so thick, so completely drowning out any light or noise, be it from a nearby road or from the sea. A few dozen of meters into the forest, it becomes difficult to make out any outside sound. So much for navigating these types of terrain if you’re in a survival situation ;)

After the first trail we did two loops through another part of the Pacific Rim National Park, simply called “Rainforest”. Again, these were boardwalks, but more elaborate and imaginative than any boardwalk we had seen before. The path would wind through dense forest, above and below fallen logs, rising and dipping with the terrain, along toppled-over branches and roots towering two stories high. Evenly spaced throughout the trail would be informative panels which told about the history of these ecosystems (the trees are several thousands of years old), and about the way the different plants and animals coexist. For Katrin and me, these relatively short trails in this small National Park where among the most interesting things we had seen on this trip. The unique feeling of the rainforest, with its colorful vegetation and the sound of strange animals from every direction, was something we previously had only seen in artificial environments, like the Montreal Biodrome.

Impressions from the rainforest

We had late lunch at a nearby commercial center, which in Tofino means five wooden shacks, three surf shops and a handmade ice-cream vendor. I had a tasty Salmon Burger and Katrin went with Fish ‘n Chips (Salmon as well). Afterwards we got two of the biggest scoops of icecream we’ve ever had. We only managed to drag ourselves to the same beach as yesterday evening and sat there until the sun set once again.

Lunch!

September 26, 2012

Today we had breakfast not at Tim Horton’s but rather in the Darlene’s kitchen, the woman running the B&B we stayed at for the night. We had a nice chat over croissants with scrambled eggs with three other guest: A somewhat older and grumpy guy from Montreal and a couple from, you guessed it, Germany. Hard as it was, we had to said goodbye to Darlene, and left for Tofino. While Victoria and Nanaimo are on the east coast of Vancouver Island, Tofino is on the opposite side, which meant that we had to cross the island from east to west, driving through the mountainous center.

MacMillan Provincial Park

We didn’t stop very often on the way. Sad as it may sound, we’ve almost gotten used to the spectacular views of endless forests, snow-capped mountains and glacier-fed lakes wedged in between. Also the road didn’t allow for much sight-seeing. We stopped in MacMillan provincial park, which features huge trees which are a few thousand years old. The sheer size of these trees was hard to grasp from the ground. Luckily there were plenty of logs of trees that toppled over right next to the trail, so one could conveniently pose next to them as a reference for scale.

The rest of the route was nice but very demanding in terms of driving. Katrin almost got car-sick and it was not for my reckless driving but rather as a result of endless supply of rising and falling steep turns, often flanked by rock on the one and an abyss on the other side of the road. Eventually we crossed the mountains and drove along the west coast of Vancouver Island. The temperature had dropped by a few degrees, and the vegetation looked completely different from what we had seen just two hours earlier. At the first visitor info we even drove through some light fog banks.

Downtown Tofino

The west coast of Vancouver Island (and in fact British Columbia) is commonly referred to as “Temperate Rainforest”, i.e. something that is decidedly cooler than your typical “jungle”, yet receives similar amounts of rainfall. It really showed, with dense forest of uncharacteristically large trees. We drove right through Pacific Rim National Park (which we’ll visit tomorrow) and into Tofino.

A church in Tofino

We had heard a lot of praise of Tofino in advance, by people from Victoria as well as Nanaimo. And rightly so. If you think that Victoria and Nanaimo are laid-back with a slightly alternative vibe, wait until you get to Tofino. It seemed to us that there are only three types of people around here: Lumberjacks, surfers and hippies (sometimes all in one person). Tofino has a few shops, half of which are dedicated to surfing. On our way around town and the roads we saw countless people on bikes, only that here they ride in neoprene suits and pull their surf boards with two extra wheels attached. It seems like the perfect destination to surf and relax, with countless beaches and what seems to be adequate waves.

Time to go home

We’re staying in another B&B for the next two nights, and this one is probably the best accomodation we’ve ever stayed at, in Canada, the US or Europe. It only has two rooms, and each of them is furnished with so much care that you begin rethinking some of the choices you made decorating your own place. Breakfast will be served to our room tomorrow morning, and if we want, we can use the outside shower which faces the dense forest. The only downside is the slow Internet, which is why there will only be a few photos today. We spent our evening on a nearby beach, reading until the sun dropped behind the horizon.