Sophie and Rowan in Canada

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.