After our super exciting day of whale watching, we got up early the next morning, packed up the campsite and started southward again, back along the same (and only) island road that had carried us to Telegraph Cove. We cut due west across Vancouver Island for another gorgeous drive through parks and small towns, although I was feeling a bit too tired of driving at this point to appreciate the views as much as I probably should have!
A little over four hours later, we had arrived at Greenpoint Campground in the Pacific Rim National Reserve, a protected temperate, old-growth rainforest. The very first place I had booked, exactly three months earlier on the first day reservations opened up, this campground was the crowning glory of our trip. Our site was huge and private, surrounded by proud, ancient hemlock trees dripping in soft green lichen. A five-minute walk took us out of the green-hued forest and onto a wide-open, wind-blown, white-sand beach thrashed by the Pacific Ocean. We had three nights in this magical place.
After night's sleep in our trusty tent, Alicia and I enjoyed a morning run on the beach (well, Alicia ran and I mostly lagged behind dong my own version of power-walking interspersed with light jogging); then spent much of our day relaxing around the campground. I don't think any of us were quite sure what to do or how to begin to take everything in!We eventually decided to join a ranger-led rainforest walk, and then drove to the nearby town of Ucluelet where we paid $5 to take showers, and next bought mounds of fresh seafood from a fish market to prepare over the campfire for dinner.
DAY 15:
One of the big things you must do while in the Pacific
Rim towns of Tofino and/or Ucluelet is kayak. So we headed out early for a guided kayak tour around Tofino. Though the morning was overcast for the first half of our trip, the waters were calm and Ben and I enjoyed the tranquility in our two-person kayak, constantly falling behind the rest of the group! We paddled for about one hour, to Meares Island, home of 800- to 1300-year-old trees, and the staging ground for one of Canada's first environmental movements, when protesters stopped loggers from destroying the island.
Sadly, the battle is still going on between lumber companies and the natives who inhabited the island centuries ago, with many people (pessimistically) predicting that lumber companies will eventually name a price high enough that it will be chopped to bits. Actually, lots of the area around here was being logged until portions became protected. This fact is evident as you drive into the rainforest through decimated, stump-covered hillsides.After our kayak trip, Alicia and Ben bravely rented a surfboard and wetsuits, since Tofino is a huge surfing destination! I opted for beach-laying and journal-writing, producing the following:
"Sunshine, finally! Today is our second full day in Tofino, and it's been tough to warm up here, between the wind, clouds and constant dampness in the air. But now the sun is bright and I'm enjoying a seemingly endless view of the Pacific Ocean - due west is Australia, across those wild waters!
This area is fascinating - it's all a temperate rainforest, so things are lush and green. The rugged landscape of cedars, hemlocks and pines, creating dense, dark forests, never ceases to surprise when suddenly you emerge on a windswept beach with the softest sand I think I've ever felt under foot. It's such an odd contrast to the wild and windy shore, but then again, all of this area seems to be a study in contrasts: loggers versus environmentalists; First-Nations people versus Canadians; high-end tourism versus hippies and surfers who populate the cheap campgrounds and hostels.
Tonight is our third and final night to camp here. It is also our last night of camping for the trip, which in my mind is a blessing, as I feel I've reached my camping quota after seven nights in a row ... and a running total of 11 nights for this trip. But how else would we have afforded all the fabulous food and activities we've indulged in?!
Last night we found a wonderful fish market in Ucluelet, a smaller, more mellow (if that's possible) town south of Tofino, and bought dungeness crab, chinook salmon and scallops, all caught locally that very day. Sadly, the crab lost its life while we were standing in the next room. Though I almost cried at that moment, I thoroughly enjoyed the crab legs a few hours later after Ben steamed them over the campfire and served them up with lemon butter sauce! The whole meal was one I won't soon forget - fresh veggies roasted over the fire, alongside piles of the freshest and most amazing seafood, even accompanied by a delicious local wine, Quail's Gate chenin blanc. I was in heaven!
The simple things are always the best - you don't need a fancy restaurant when a campfire, good people and good ingredients will do the job instead.
This trip has been amazing so far - not exactly the warm, beachy summer vacation I'm accustomed to, but no less inspiring and joy-inducing! I am beyond thrilled to finally have the motivation to write for myself again. Perhaps because I was writing for a living for years, I got burned out. Perhaps I just hadn't seen the right things to inspire me - I almost feel as though my creativity froze up right along with the icy Calgary winter, and now it's thawing back out. Hooray! My mind feels free, curious and excited once more, now that my pen is hitting paper with wreckless abandon."
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