Sophie and Rowan in Canada

Wednesday 13 December

After breakfast in the hotel, we packed for the last time (that’s something we won’t miss doing every few days), then got the hotel shuttle bus to the airport.

We were surprised to find when we checked in that our bags were between them more than 8kg below the luggage allowance. We tried to work out where we had lost 5kg on the way, and hoped we hadn’t lost anything else apart from the things we knew about.

The airside shops were disappointing – mostly just perfume and designer handbags. There were a few better shops and far more cafés in the US flights section of the departures lounge that we could see through a glass wall but couldn’t get into. That was disappointing because we wanted to go to Tim Hortons (a Canadian fast food chain that does good sandwiches and doughnuts) for lunch, but couldn’t get there. So we made do with Burger King instead.

The plane was delayed as it arrived late and then had to have a Customs inspection, but we finally took off around 5.20pm.

According to the flight information screen on the plane, we have just passed over Baffin Island and are heading towards Greenland, so we are now leaving Canada. It’s a sad moment, but we will be back.

This has been a wonderful three months and it’s hard to believe it’s over. We have learnt lots of interesting and useful things, including:

• How to wash, card and spin wool (from Marilyn Rand)
  
• That lambs are nearly adult size when they are slaughtered (at the Rands’)
  
• That ducks are useful to keep in the garden (from the Storey’s Guide to Ducks)
  
• That an orchard that hasn’t been cultivated for twenty years doesn’t produce many good apples (at the Crown Jewel Resort Ranch)
  
• That horses can be trained to respond to voice commands without a bit (at the Crown Jewel Resort Ranch)
  
• How to make soap (from Em Zember)
  
• How to move hay with a pitchfork (at the Zembers’)
  
• That grass-fed animals produce healthier (to eat) meat than grain-fed ones (from the books You Can Farm and Why Grassfed Is Better)
  
• That chickens can scratch up a piece of ground very quickly (at the Hyatts’)
  
• How to kill, pluck and gut a turkey (from Bryce Hyatt)
  
• How to kill, skin and gut a sheep (from Jacques, Andrew and Tommy Campbell)
  
• That border collies are very intelligent and obedient dogs (from Roger, Portia, Jasmine, Lily, Jackie, Maddy, Jock, Carrie and Alice); and
  
• That we really do want to be farmers (from everything we have done).
  

Thank you to all our hosts for looking after us so well and making this trip so much fun. It’s been a privilege to be able to spend three months in Canada seeing beautiful places and working with inspiring people.

And that’s all, folks!
(there are a few more new photos on the earlier posts below)

Tuesday 12 December

We had to get up early to finish packing so we could get the morning ferry. It was sad to watch Saturna receding into the distance, as we had had a lovely time there. While we were waiting at Swartz Bay, a woman who had been on the ferry from Saturna and had seen us with Jacques came up to Sophie and very kindly offered us a lift to our hotel from Tsawwassen, which we accepted.

When we boarded the Tsawwassen ferry we saw the woman and her daughter rummaging for their tickets, and we didn’t see them for the whole of the journey, so we were a bit concerned in case they hadn’t got on. They reappeared when the ferry arrived in Tsawwassen, to our relief. They live in Vancouver but have a house on Saturna, and had left their car in the car park at Tsawwassen.

They dropped us right by the hotel, which was great. The Quality Hotel was very good, despite being the cheapest airport hotel we could find. Our room even had high-speed internet.

We had dinner in a Japanese restaurant bar called Rz. We spent a long time looking at the menu before giving up and going for the sushi combo options as usual. The food was good – not quite traditional Japanese but a Westernised version.  

Monday 11 December

After we fed the animals this morning, Jacques drove us to East Point, the aptly named eastern point of the island. First we went to the windswept grassy headland, which had a plaque commemorating the sighting of Saturna by the Spanish captain of the Santa Saturnina in 1790 (or thereabouts). It was so windy today that at times we could hardly stand up, and the salt spray covered everything, especially the camera lens. Later, Jacques heard on the radio that the wind had been 100km/h when we were there. The sea as it crashed on the rocks was a beautiful pale jade green. There was a big flock of seabirds on the water, which must have been paddling hard to stay in the same position. We then walked along a short trail which formed a loop along low rocky cliffs. The sandstone rocks were worn into pools and hollows. Rowan watched a big incoming wave for too long and got soaked by the spray when it broke.

In the afternoon we performed our final farm chore of this trip, which was to take down a stretch of wooden fence which was part of a claiming pen and had been damaged in the snowstorm. (A claiming pen is where two or three ewes and their lambs are kept for a few days after lambing, partly so that the farmer can check that the lambs are getting enough milk.) Jacques said she had been planning to turn that pen into two pens for a while, so she thought this was a good opportunity to rearrange it. It was nearly dark by the time we finished.

When we went down to the farmhouse for dinner, Jacques said they had been watching the weather forecast and they thought we should get the morning ferry to Swartz Bay (Victoria) and change there for a ferry to Tsawwassen (Vancouver) instead of getting the direct afternoon ferry as we had planned. According to the weather forecast, a storm is headed for the area tomorrow afternoon that will make today’s winds seem like nothing.

After dinner we said goodbye to Jim, Lorraine and Tommy, as they aren’t going to be here tomorrow morning, then we packed most of our stuff and made and wrote Christmas cards to our previous hosts.

Sunday 10 December

We fed the animals as usual, then went to the slaughterhouse – we did three lambs and five ewes (now mutton) today.

After lunch we went to church with Jim and Lorraine. It is a small church – Anglican in theory but they have United and Presbyterian services there too. There were about 20 people there altogether. Jim told us that before there was a church on the Island he used to pick up a semi-retired bishop from Victoria in his boat every two weeks, and they would have services in the Community Hall. One year, this bishop built a church on the island. No-one knew where he had got the money from until one of Jim’s friends who lived in New York read him a newspaper article about this bishop who had been fundraising for a church on a tiny island in the Pacific with no church where a farmer took the bishop over “tide-washed and storm-tossed seas” every fortnight for the service. Money poured in for a church on this poor, remote Pacific island!

After that, Jim and Lorraine took us for a drive through Lyall Harbour to their other property in Winter Cove. The cove itself is very pretty, with views over the other islands. They have 22 acres there which they use for sheep and hay.

We had steak for dinner – from the 20 year old cow. Despite that, they were very good steaks.

 

Saturday 9 December

We fed the animals and cut and packed beef again in the morning.  The dogs were happy as they got bones that were as big as they were!

In the afternoon we went to the vineyard for their Christmas wine tasting. The tasting room was a beautiful timber frame building with great views over the vineyard and the sea. There were lots of nice nibbles. Saturna has rather a cold climate for growing grapes, but their gewürztraminer was pretty good.

In the evening our hosts took us out for a pub dinner. The Saturna pub (there's only one on the island) was nice and a lot like an English pub.





 

Friday 8 December

“Andy the Hunter” was on the farm hunting the wild (feral) goats, and he’d left a big box of Tim Horton’s doughnuts so we had a good breakfast. We fed the animals as usual and as Andrew was in the slaughterhouse making sausages we had the morning off. We walked through the National Park to the south-facing beach. The tide was in so there wasn’t much beach, but the view was very beautiful. It was a stony beach with the usual driftwood and also some sandstone boulders with little round hollows in. We had to walk back up after only about ten mintues down there to be in time for lunch.

In the afternoon we cut and packed two sides of beef, one of which had been a 20 year old cow. There is a lot more chopping and mincing with beef than with lamb, and the meat is wetter so your hands get colder. The cow went mostly into mince and stew as the meat from an old animal is generally less tender (beef cattle are usually slaughtered before they are 30 months old), and they kept the other cuts for home consumption. In the evening we had the prime rib roast from the 20-year-old cow which was very good (they’d pot-roasted it slowly).

Thursday 7 December

Once we'd fed the animals we went to the slaughterhouse. Andrew, Tommy and Jacques were already there in full swing killing lambs. The process is...

--ANOTHER TWO PARAGRAPHS TO SKIP IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH!--

...that a sheep is carried in and tied belly up on the cradle. Tommy then cuts the sheep’s throat (right through the neck to the spine), then cuts the spinal cord. The sheep then bleeds into a large tray (you get a lot of blood out of a sheep). As a two-year old daughter of one of Jacques’ friends said, “it wriggled a bit and then it was meat”. Once the legs have stopped kicking, Andrew and Tommy (and Jacques if she’s not still working on the previous sheep) start skinning. They cut down the legs starting in between the toes, with the cuts from the two front legs meeting above the neck and the back leg cuts meeting at the groin. Then they skin around the lower part of each leg and cut it at the wrist or heel joint, so the ends of the legs are hanging on by the skin. They put paper around the ends of the front legs and between the skin and the neck, to keep the wool off the meat. Lanolin leaves a nasty taste on the meat. Then they begin “punching” the body to remove the skin. It’s called “punching” because you push your fist between the skin and the carcass. It is quite hard work, and tricky to get it right – it’s easy to remove the top layer of muscle with the skin. While that’s being done, someone puts a knife right into the chest just below the breastbone and cuts down the front of the neck. This releases a lot more blood, and exposes the trachea and oesophagus, which are pulled out of the neck and separated. The oesophagus is tied with a bit of string to stop the stomach contents coming out. When the punching is nearly done the carcass is winched up. Jacques then guts it. There are a lot of guts in a sheep. They keep the heart and the liver. The carcass is then weighed and hung on a hook for a while before it is put into the cold room. Because there were a lot of people there were usually two sheep going on at different stages at once.

We watched one lamb being done, and Jacques found that it was pregnant so she threw us the uterus to have a look at and open up “if we liked”. Sophie took the plunge and found a tiny foetus, about 2 inches long, which even had minute cloven hooves. We weren’t let in gently! For the next lamb Rowan did the knife in the throat which went ok. We both did a couple of hind legs and front legs and throats, and had a go at punching. There was a bucket with cold water which we were constantly washing our hands in, so we got very cold. Obviously the slaughterhouse is cold anyway. We got through ten lambs. They bring down more animals than they are going to slaughter to avoid ever having an animal left on its own in the holding pen, as they get very nervous if they are alone. We helped Andrew load the offal and skins onto the tractor. They dump it all in a spot in the woods they call the “Monty Python Nature Walk” and the eagles and ravens clear it up. They put the blood on the vegetable garden, as it’s a very good fertilizer, but they make sure it doesn’t go on vegetables they will want to dig up in the near future...

It wasn't too bad. Not something we'd want to do for fun, but as Jim says, "If you had to do it to be able to stay on Saturna, you would".

--IT'S SAFE TO LOOK NOW--

After lunch we went out to move some of the cows. Carrie and Jock (the older dogs) were herding them, and Tommy shook some feed in a bucket to lead them (animals tend to follow food!).

Then Jacques drove us up to yet another cottage on Campbell farm which is on the top of Brown Ridge, and drew us a little map of how to get down to Taylor Point, where we'd walked before. The view was absolutely breathtaking and yet again we were amazed that there could be so many incredibly beautiful places on one farm. Directly below, down a steep grassy and rocky slope, were the fields of Campbell's Farm, and beyond was the sea with the US gulf islands. Rising up from the mist in the distance were the huge Olympian Mountains. We walked along the ridge admiring the view and the sunset, and caught a glimpse of a group of goats. The goats on the mountain are feral goats, descended from goats released by early settlers. When the path we were on started to go in the wrong direction, we realised we’d missed the path down. We backtracked and found a path going in the right direction, but by this time it was getting a bit dark. We found the rope and the stream crossing marked on Jacques’ map, but there were lots of branches covering the ground which made it hard to see which of the many goat tracks we should take. We followed one for a while, but it seemed to be going in the wrong direction so we went back again and eventually found the right path. It was a relief to get back to the beach at Taylor Point as in the dark we could easily have got completely lost. We walked the two miles back (it's a big farm!) with only a small and fading torch, so our boots were soaked by the time we got back from stepping in puddles.

Wednesday 6 December

This morning we fed the horses then met Jacques by the sheep. We separated the ones in best condition,which Jacques chose by feeling their backs; they'll be slaughtered tomorrow. It was difficult to get the sheep to go in the right direction, but with three people and two dogs helping (Alice wasn’t very helpful) we did it. We wouldn’t like to have to move sheep on our own.

When we had fed both groups of sheep, Rowan did a bit of wood chopping by the still-smouldering fires, whileSophie wandered around in the trees admiring such natural wonders as animal skulls (she found two) and the amber-like globs of resin on an old Douglas fir.

Then we went in the van to take some things for recycling to the recycling centre. They have a “free store” there where people donate reusable things and you can just take them, free. We went to the Rec Centre again to use the internet, then went to the café (the one attached to the Saturna General Store) for lunch.

The light was really nice today so Sophie took a lot of photos when we got back, while Rowan relit the stove and chopped more firewood. Alice went with Sophie to see the sheep while she was taking pictures, and she was very good. She ran off when she heard Carrie barking. Sophie followed and found that Carrie had been drawn by the sound of Rowan’s wood chopping, which she seems to associate with playing “fetch”. Carrie is very good at it (Alice doesn't get much of a look in) and can get very possessive about her sticks.

 

Monday 4 December

After breakfast we went out to feed the sheep while Jacques fed the horses. Then we went out in the tractor to feed the cows and the other sheep. We stacked 12 bales of hay on the trailer, then drove up the track with the dogs, stopping off at a couple of places to put out hay (mostly under trees). Jacques rounded the sheep up with Carrie (and Jock helping) which was impressive.

After lunch, we went into the slaughterhouse to start cutting meat. The lamb carcasses were in the walk-in cold room. Jacques cut them up using a knife and a bandsaw, and we packed the various cuts in waxed paper, writing what they were on the packages and putting them in a cardboard box. The lambs weighed around 40lbs, and when all cut up they fit into a box about 18 inches long and a foot square at the ends – so not an unmanageable amount of meat for a family. They have a waiting list for lamb, as almost all of their meat goes to long standing regular customers who order almost a year in advance. It was interesting to see where all the different cuts come from.

In the evening we went to the Community Club meeting and potluck dinner. The Club runs a community hall (where the meeting was held) and also runs medical services on the island. We like island life – it is a lot like a small village but because of the isolation they run a lot of the services themselves.

Tuesday 5 December

This morning Rowan didn’t want to get up because he had a cold. We fed the sheep and horses while Jacques got the slaughterhouse ready.

We cut up the rest of the lambs (9 in total) and some beef offal. In the afternoon we went to the store to drop off some meat and check our email. We spent quite a long time on the internet emailing and blogging.

Friday 1 December

Nan’s nephew Andrew was going back to Saturna this morning (he’d been staying in Victoria) so he collected us at 7.40am and we got the ferry to Saturna. The road from the Saturna ferry terminal was impassable because of the snow and broken power lines, so we were met in a boat and taken round to Saturna Beach. Jim, Jacques’ father, was at the beach to meet us in his tractor. One of their neighbours happened to be there too (with a 4x4 with snow chains on the tyres), so he gave us a lift to the farm while Jim took our bags on the tractor trailer.

We had tea in the farmhouse with Jacques, Jim, Lorraine (Jacques’ mother) and Tommy (Jacques’ brother, who lives in another house on the farm), then went to the log cabin we were to stay in. It’s one main room and two bedrooms, with an outside toilet. There’s running cold water but no hot water or electricity. For heat there’s a wood stove, for light there are kerosene lamps and candles, and for cooking there’s a propane cooker. There is a very beautiful view down to the sea, and we were pleased to find that the bed was piled high with blankets.

We went back to the farmhouse for lunch (the electricity was still off but they cook on their wood stove so can manage without it). There are three border collies here – Jock who is 11, Carrie who is 6 or 7, and Alice who is 4 months. They are all lovely dogs: playful, entertaining, friendly, intelligent and obedient which seems typical for the breed as far as we can tell.

After lunch we went up the track a little way to where a big tree had fallen across it. A lot of trees and branches came down in the snow. Tommy and Jim cut the logs with chainsaws (Jim is pretty handy with a chainsaw despite being 88) and Rowan tried his hand at splitting the rounds with a big axe. After a bit of coaching Rowan began to get the hang of it. It was incredibly tiring work. You have to look at the very centre of the log for small cracks, then start at the edge of the log making cuts that point inwards to the centre in the direction of the cracks, also avoiding any knots. Accuracy with the axe counts for a lot. We also built bonfires to burn the logs and smaller branches that couldn’t be used for lumber (they have a sawmill) or firewood on the stoves. One of the trees that Tommy started to cut was a juniper tree. The wood was purple/pink and very aromatic – it had a lovely spicy sweet smell. It’s a good moth repellent too.

When we got back to the cabin after dinner in the farmhouse (they have a generator on in the evenings), it was cold as our fire had gone out and it was below freezing outside (the water in the toilet was frozen solid).

Saturday 2 December

It was freezing cold in the cabin still when we got up, so we got the stove lit again. After breakfast we went with Jacques to feed the horses and one group of sheep which are due to be slaughtered soon. They live outdoors all year round but there’s not much grass growth in winter, and at the moment the grass is all under snow. Then we went back to the bonfires, relit them and carried on tidying the track and fields – picking up branches and dragging them to the fires. After lunch we raked up some of the smaller branches and put them on the bonfires. The trees falling had made an incredible mess – broken branches everywhere.

As it was a nice day (the sun came out in the afternoon and it got warmer) Jacques suggested we walk to Taylor Point (the east end of the property – about 2 miles from the farmhouse which is at the West end). We did, passing through a grove of huge Douglas Firs (there are firs all over the farm). Next to Taylor Point (which is owned by Parks Canada) there is a beautiful beach. The sun was setting as we got there, and we could see the mountains in Washington state over the water glowing pink. It was an incredible place – this certainly is our ideal spot to have a farm. It was dark by the time we got back and our boots and feet were wet through.


Sunday 3 December

Breakfast, because it was Sunday, was pancakes with bacon and maple syrup which was lovely. The power had come back on sometime in the morning or previous night, as we discovered at 10am when Jim threw the switch that changed between generator and mains. We fed the sheep and horses, then did some more branch raking and fire building.  After lunch, Jacques looked in the caravan which had been intended to be our home, and fixed a water leak. We couldn’t decide whether we wanted to go into the caravan (which had electricity and a shower) or stay in our rustic cabin and live the simple life. We decided to try and keep the stove alight all day and see if we were any warmer, as neither of us wanted to give up the view and the cosy lamplit atmosphere. Jacques found us both some wellies, which was nice as our boots hadn’t dried out properly since we got here.

We did a little more work on the bonfires after that, and Sophie went back to try and relight the stove (it only kept burning for about 1-2 hours) but couldn’t, as we didn’t have any dry kindling. Jacques came and lit the stove, gave us some of their kindling and showed us the best way to light it (scrunch newspaper, use dry kindling, wait for the kindling to get going before adding a small log of heartwood) and keep it going (open it up for a couple of minutes, then add bark – the bark burns slowly and forms lots of coals). We walked to one of Jacques’ neighbours’ houses to check whether she had left anything electrical on. The house had a stunning view over the water.

When we got back we walked back to our cabin, and Alice followed us and came in which was nice, as she usually hangs around the house with the other dogs. The stove was burning very well – so well that we managed to partially melt the LED lamp we’d borrowed.

We went back to the farmhouse to have a shower before dinner. Tommy was there, as was Bob (a weekend neighbour who is moving in to one of the adjacent lots). Over the delicious dinner we had a conversation about the internet and blogs, which we promised to record in our blog in a self-referential way.

When we got back at 9:30 the stove had gone out (but not too long before). Rowan lit it successfully with our new supply of dry kindling and we went to bed quite a lot warmer than before. 

Thursday 30 November

After a lazy morning we walked along the snowy slushy roads into the centre of Sidney (about a mile from the house) for lunch and had a nice afternoon looking round shops and galleries. There was some very good art there (much better than Tofino!) but mostly outside our budget. We noticed there were a lot of bookshops for such a small place, and later heard that someone who liked Hay-on-Wye in England had decided to try to make Sidney into a bookshop town too. We got the bus back as the walk there was a bit too wet and not pedestrian-friendly.  

Nan had spoken to Jacques (her sister, our host on Saturna), who thought it would be warm enough for us to come to Saturna the next day, though they still had no electricity.

Tuesday 28 November

We got up early, had breakfast, then went left our luggage and went out. There was deep (8 inches) snow, and the pavements were very icy. Victoria is a nice city from what we saw of it. We got the bus to the ferry terminal to go to Saturna Island (our next farm). Sophie went off to get some coffee as the waiting room was freezing, and while she was gone there was a tannoy call saying, “could Sophie and R…Rawan visiting from England please contact the ticket staff”. We weren’t entirely sure what to do as our ferry just started boarding soon afterwards, but Rowan went up to the ticket office and was put through to Nan, our host’s sister, who said that the trailer we would be staying in at the farm on Saturna had no electricity so it would be too cold.  Nan said we could stay with her family in Sidney until things on the island were sorted out.  They picked us up in Sidney (which is north of Victoria and near the ferry terminal) and were very kind and welcoming.

Wednesday 29 November

We caught the bus to the Butchart Gardens near Victoria (which are very famous). The bus driver seemed surprised that we would be visiting the gardens on such an unpleasant day (wind, temperatures around freezing and wet snow). Apart from a couple of Japanese tourists we had the gardens to ourselves.

The gardens were very pretty, although we couldn’t help thinking that they would be even better without 8 inches of snow covering everything. They had displays of all the twelve days of Christmas which were good. By the time we’d gone round the gardens we were freezing so we had a bowl of soup in the café then browsed the gift shop. We caught the bus back and got off a few stops too early so had a little way to wade through the snow.

With dinner we had wine which they’d made themselves in the “U-brew” – apparently a tax dodge where the shop sells you grape must and space in a fermenter. It works out much cheaper than store-bought wine, and it was quite nice (especially at the price).

Thursday 23 November

We had dinner tonight in the Pointe Restaurant again. The tasting menu was turkey (it being Thanksgiving in the US) so we avoided that, but did have a very good three course meal.

When we got back to the room, the housekeeping staff had folded the dressing gowns into the shape of a heart on the bed.

Friday 24 November

This morning we managed to pack in time to check out before the last possible moment, unusually. We made two trips to the car so that we could sneak out without attracting the attention of the valets. Valet parking and bag-carrying services were theoretically complimentary, but we knew they would expect a tip. There was a section in the hotel folder in the room saying how much to tip for each service, which was clearly lying when it said “Tips are not in any way expected.” The weather was sunny for a change, as forecast, so we drove to Schooner Cove as planned. It was beautiful (again!) and we remembered lots of little places and trees from the last time. The tide was in, so we couldn’t get to the little island we’d explored last time we came in 2004, but instead we walked down to Incinerator Rock on Long Beach, then back to the Cove where we did some sketching for 20 minutes. Then we headed back to the car and drove to Radford’s, the B&B in Ucluelet (about 40 km south of Tofino) where we stayed on our honeymoon.

The suite hadn’t changed (except that they didn’t do breakfast any more, so it was self-catering accommodation rather than a B&B). After dinner we rang several fishing tour operators, as we thought we might be able to catch our own dinner for the next night, but they were all either closed for the season, unavailable, or too expensive so we gave up. The last one Sophie spoke to told her at length about the delights of fishing in the summer (loads of halibut and salmon), even though she said we wouldn’t be coming back this summer.

Saturday 25 November

We got out early, planning to stop at the tourist information centre and see if they could recommend anything. We couldn’t find the one in Ucluelet, so we drove on to the one at the junction only to find it shut for a meeting. We decided to do the Spruce Fringe trail (one of the many boardwalk trails in Pacific Rim National Park), as we’d missed that the first time. When we got there, that was closed for the season but the Combers Beach access trail was open. Along the trail we did see one sign near the beach about how the trees on the shore are stunted and shaped by the salt spray and wind killing all the windward buds. When we got on the beach it started snowing. By the time we’d walked to one end it was snowing heavily and we were pretty cold and wet. We walked back along the beach and got even colder and wetter as the snow was blowing towards us. It was starting to settle on the sand. We were a bit concerned that we wouldn’t be able to find the path back, but we spotted some distinctive trees (in the picture above). It was nice to warm up in the car.

We drove slowly to Tofino along the by now icy road, stopping off at the Tofino tourist information office. The man there said that about the only tour running was the hot springs cove trip. We decided not to go as we’d done it before, and it was a bit cold for walking about a remote island in just a swimming costume.

We parked at the end of Campbell Street and ate our lunch, then looked round some of the galleries in town. We went in one bookshop/café mainly to use the toilet, and to get a hot drink, and they were giving out free eggnog and hot spiced apple juice, so we got what we went in for without paying. It did make us feel obliged to look round with more of an eye to buying than we would have otherwise, but we didn’t get anything in the end. A lot of the art we saw in the galleries was competent, but not exceptional enough to justify the prices (oils in particular were $1000 and up even for uninspiring paintings). We wondered if we could make a living here, as there seems to be a good market for second-rate art. They had gritted the road during the afternoon so the journey back to Ucluelet was not so bad.

Sunday 26 November

This morning we walked along the Nu chaa nulth trail, a 2.1km boardwalk trail with interpretative signs about the Nu chaa nulth peoples of Vancouver Island. We walked along the trail to the Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre (closed for the season), then to South Beach, which was beautiful in the snow. There was 2 or 3 inches of snow on the exposed bits of the boardwalk, which made it quite tiring walking. We sat on a log on South Beach and had a snack, then went back to the car to eat our lunch in the car park. After lunch we walked back along the trail to Florencia Bay. The waves were big and the tide was in, so we just watched the surf for a while then went back to the car. The Bay is very beautiful.

Next we drove to the Incinerator Rock car park. Sophie did some sketching, then we walked back up to Schooner Cove while the sun set. When we came back it was nearly dark, and we were cold and had wet feet so we were looking forward to getting back. When we got in the car it wouldn’t start. People were leaving the car park as it was nearly dark, and we had no signal on the mobile. We asked two people in another car if there was a payphone nearby (there wasn’t) but they offered us their mobile. They didn’t have any jump leads in the car. Sophie called the car hire man and persuaded him to get a tow truck out. Meanwhile Rowan was offered a beer by the car driver (he didn’t accept). When Sophie had finished, the woman whose phone we had used said, “you were lucky – I don’t normally get a signal out here. Look – it’s gone again now!”

We sat in the deserted car park in the dark wondering how long it would be. The tow truck arrived after only about half an hour, which was better than we thought it might be. It was just the battery, so we were running again very quickly and were glad to get safely back to Ucluelet.

Monday 27 November

We left Radfords shortly before nine. When we went to pay, Judith and Dan warned us that it would be a slow drive to Nanaimo as it could be very icy, and they said we should drive very carefully so as not to end up in a ditch.

The mountains in the middle of the Island are very steep and wild looking. There were quite a few logging roads but few signs of habitation between Ucluelet and Port Alberni. Clear stony creeks wound past the road in some of the valleys, not yet frozen.

We were overtaken many times and had to use the pullouts a couple of times to let cars past, because not only were we inexperienced at winter driving, but we didn’t know how good our tyres were. They certainly weren’t as good as the 4x4s which made up most of the traffic. Some people who overtook us doing silly speeds were obviously just foolhardy – we saw two cars in the ditch. Parts of the road were really icy and parts were completely clear. One of the worst stretches of road was from Parksville to Nanaimo, which was surprising as it was a dual carriageway.

We got to Nanaimo in plenty of time and found the ViaRail station. It was closed and didn’t look like it was ever opened, so we decided to wait a bit longer before taking the car back, as we didn’t want to wait outside in the snow, which was deeper than it had been on the west coast. A phone call to ViaRail revealed that the train had had problems so it was being replaced with a bus. This was not good news but it was better than it being cancelled completely.

After a quick look around some shops, most of which were closed because of the weather, we filled up with petrol and returned the car. The Rentawreck man didn't charge us for the tow truck, though he was convinced it was our fault for letting the battery run down (we were convinced we didn't leave the lights on!)

He gave us a lift to the station and we waited in the snow for a few minutes until the station manager (who was wearing shorts!) came to open up the waiting area. It was good to get inside in the warm as the temperature outside was apparently -2ºC. The station manager and the engineer were talking, and it sounded like there were lots of trees on the line (having fallen from the weight of the snow) and they’d ruined one locomotive by running into too many tree trunks.

The bus arrived at about 3.10 and we got to Victoria at 5 pm, half an hour before the train was scheduled to arrive. That was good going considering how bad the driving conditions were – there were several more cars in ditches and even one upside-down.

We checked into the hostel then went out in search of groceries. After a bit of wandering blindly round an area of closed clothes shops we came across a 7 Eleven. The food selection was sparse but we found a tin of Campbell’s Chunky Chilli to accompany the rice we already had, and we gave in to the calling of the bakery shelf and got ourselves doughnuts for pudding. We also got some cereal for breakfast.

Our rice and chilli dinner was surprisingly good and the doughnuts were nice, if a little stale. The packet said “delivered daily from local bakeries” but we suspected that the pastries weren’t always sold on the day they were delivered. While we ate we tried to work out which bus we needed to take to the ferry terminal, and spent a long time looking at a confusing timetable before Sophie noticed that some pages were missing. 

We're going to our last farm today - it's on a small island between Victoria and Vancouver, and there was a snowstorm last week so they haven't had any power and we couldn't go there. It's due to be reconnected today. In the meantime we've been staying with some relatives of theirs on Vancouver Island. More details later!

This morning we took it easy (making the most of our seaview room) then Rowan drove into Tofino at lunchtime to get more bread and fruit for lunch. After lunch we went for a walk on Chesterman Beach next to the hotel. It was raining heavily when we went out, but it cleared a little after a while, and the light on the clouds was beautiful. This being a rainforest, there are sets of waterproofs in the rooms (they have a sign saying “don’t let the changing weather conditions put you off exploring the area”) and complimentary welly loan is available. We were prepared and had our own stuff.

The top of the beach was covered with driftwood logs and bull kelp, which looks like long bulb-headed snakes. There were several small tree-covered islands just out to sea, silhouetted black against the rays of sunlight breaking through the clouds, and intertidal ripples in the sand shone between freshwater streams coming down from the forest above the beach. It was great to be back on the Island: we still both think this is the most beautiful place we’ve ever been.

Tonight we're having dinner at the Pointe Restaurant again, and we'll probably go for three courses this time (we were restrained last night and just had two). We're hoping we won't be too full to walk back to our room afterwards!



 

Wednesday 15 November

We moved some lumber from the garden into the greenhouse to dry and stay out of the snow over the winter. Some of it had been under the tree where the chickens like to roost, so it was a bit of a dirty job. We also helped Bryce remove all the stuff from inside his boat for winter storage. Julie got Rowan to look at a database someone had set up for her, so he had a quick look at that to figure out how it worked. After lunch we had the afternoon off, so we decided to walk to Winlaw again. We checked our email in the gas station/general store, then bought a few more goodies. Dinner when we got back was roast chicken with mashed purple potatoes (great colour!), broccoli, carrots and onion soup – all of which were grown/raised on the farm.

Thursday 16th

This morning we finished off digging out the chicken house. It was a bit easier this time, as the chickens had been scratching in there and had loosened lots of the compacted litter. The smell had dispersed a bit too. The weather was unusually sunny, so after we’d finished with the coop we had a little walk down the track and did some sketching by the river.

Friday 17th

Today was our day off. We packed our bags and lunch, and set off walking towards Winlaw along the track. It was very cold – all the ground was frozen solid. We stopped at Winlaw to drop off a package of stuff to send home (trying to slim down our luggage), and check the ferry timetables on the internet, then carried on walking. We had our packed lunch by the river, then walked for a couple of hours. We turned back when we calculated we’d gone as far as we could in the daylight, and stopped to sketch. Rowan started drawing some trees that were lit brightly by the sun while the rest were in shadow, only to have the sun disappear behind a hill after 10 minutes and plunge his whole subject into shadow. When we got back it was twilight and we could see the chickens roosting in the trees outside their run – we’d never seen a tree full of chickens before!

Saturday 18th

Today we stacked some more wood in the greenhouse, then cleaned off the boat. After that we moved the feeders, feed bins, nest boxes and roosts into the chicken house and dug up the manure from the old shelter. There wasn’t so much of it as there had been in the winter chicken house, fortunately. In the afternoon after work we packed our stuff. Sophie realised that our train actually leaves on Monday rather than Sunday so we had a bit of excitement until Sophie found out that we could use our bus tickets on Sunday instead (eeven though they were dated for Monday) and stay overnight in Kamloops (Bryce and Julie couldn’t give us a lift on Monday).

Sunday 20th

This morning we got up early and got out on time – after rounding up the chickens one last time. They were especially awkward and difficult as a special treat for us. We caught the Greyhound from Castlegar with no trouble and the bus journey was to Kamloops was uneventful. On board they showed the film “Stuck on You” but we arrived at Kelowna, where we were changing buses, about 10 minutes before the end of the film, so we never found out how it ended (we speculated though). We found a cheap motel in the centre, then went to a Baptist church which was conveniently two doors away. For once, we were heavily outnumbered by the rest of the congregation.

After the service we wandered round town for a while looking for a place to eat. The centre was nearly deserted – maybe because it was a Sunday, or maybe it was the Grey cup (North American football) game that was on at the time. We settled on a small Japanese restaurant, which was good.

Monday 21st

We left the luggage at the motel, then went to Denny’s for breakfast, where we finally had the pancakes we’d been promising ourselves (Rowan had a big cooked breakfast as well). After getting haircuts, we went to the public library to use their free high speed internet (which explained why there are no internet cafés in Kamloops) then did some shopping and had lunch in a coffee shop. Rowan asked for soup and sandwiches and got just sandwiches, so as usual he had to ask again (it’s the accent!!) Then we did some more shopping and went for a drink in a bar. We went back to the motel, got our bags and got a taxi to the station. Being paranoid (memories of the Fort William incident will give us palpitations for a long time to come), we arrived more than an hour early – before the station master got there to unlock. The train ended up being an hour and a half late. Our bunks were very comfortable and surprisingly spacious. We slept pretty well, but it was rather a short night.

Tuesday 22nd

We got up quite early and had breakfast in the dining car. After breakfast Rowan had a shower on the train which was a first – and surprisingly good. We could get used to first-class train travel – not that it’s really worth the extra fare (we only did it because we had travel credits). We arrived in Vancouver late, missing the Greyhound coach we’d planned to take. Fortunately, Sophie found a local bus that went to the ferry terminal, and we ended up getting a quicker and cheaper journey than if we’d taken the all-inclusive coach. There was no tea or coffee or water on the ferry because recent storms had contaminated the Vancouver water supplies. We were starving so we had veggie burger and fries when we got on the boat. With hindsight we probably shouldn’t have, as we’d both felt a bit ill since lunch the day before. The crossing was fairly rough, and the air conditioning was on full inside the ferry so we had the impression of the wild winds inside as well. When we got to Nanaimo (on Vancouver Island) we hired a car. Rowan drove to Port Alberni, where we stopped to buy food supplies. It was raining heavily and dark when we left (Sophie took over the driving) so it wasn’t much fun driving, but we decided to press on. The weather cleared up a bit as we got to the West side of the island. When we finally arrived in Tofino we drove around a bit looking for the youth hostel. We found it after a little bit of looking and booked a private room for the night. The hostel is very nice – the lounge has an open fire and a view of the harbour and it’s all newly decorated. We went to bed exhausted by all the travelling.

Wednesday 22nd

We got up late this morning, and breakfasted out of our supplies. We went to the Co-op to buy washing powder, then went to the laundromat. When the washing was done, we went to the Wickaninnish Inn to see if we could check in. Our room wasn’t ready (but we had the luggage taken to it by the overly helpful valet – smart hotels are trying) so we sat in the lounge and had a drink. The room is fabulous, and has a great ocean view despite being one of the less expensive “restricted view” rooms. Much of the furniture is hand-made by local sculptors (they even had a resident wood carver). It also has high speed internet (hence catching up on blog). We relaxed in the room and had a bath in the afternoon, then went to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. We ate here on our honeymoon, and it was as good as we remembered it – still the best restaurant we’ve ever eaten in. It’s a semicircular room with hand-hewn cedar beams and a 180° view of the beach and ocean, and a circular fireplace in the middle. The food is awesome! We’re planning to spend most of the next two days in the hotel, as it’s so nice (and to get our money’s worth…)