We left Whistler (or Disneyland on skis as our mate Matt likes to call it) and escaped to Vancouver for a hit of reality. We took the opportunity to indulge in some big city pleasures as we’d been feeling a little starved of them living out in rural BC. This included gorging ourselves on cheap and tasty Japanese food, hanging out at vintage stores, and going to the flicks to watch a trilogy of odd Greek films by "master cinematographer" Pantelis Voulgaris. We like to mix it up a bit! The highlight of Vancouver though had to be our trip to the Museum of Anthropology, where we were able to see loads of examples of indigenous art: truly awe-inspiring.
After an irritating day touring various hardware stores in search of camping equipment, we finally found ourselves tooled up and ready for a few days kipping in the back of the van on Vancouver Island. We caught the ferry over to Victoria and, as it was pouring with rain, promptly checked in to a hostel. Lily-livered or what? Victoria is basically an English town that happens to be in Canada, very pretty but otherwise fairly nondescript.
We therefore set off for the west coast of the island, meeting up with a couple of our friends in a little town called Duncan on the way. Duncan was an interesting experience: it was ‘Earth Day’ when we arrived and there was a hippy-ish kind of festival taking place in the middle of town. The main attraction was a band made up of middle-age men with paunches playing covers of ‘Like a Virgin’ and ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’. The sound was special. After an encounter with the old fella in the tourist information centre in which Phil was advised not to camp by the river ‘because of the murders’, we decided it was best to get out of town before sunset!
We were really happy to arrive in Tofino, a surfing town literally at the end of road heading west on the island. It’s a beautiful and wild sort of place, the kind where you come for a day and end up staying fifteen years. Surrounded on all sides by the ocean, coastal inlets and remote islands, it's a haven for wildlife of all kinds.
We were lucky enough to spot sea-lions, sea-otters and bald-eagles from the comfort of our back porch. We also took a boat ride out and saw a grey whale and a bear feeding at low-tide. There are wolves and cougars here too, though we didn’t manage to see them – Phil thought this was a very good thing!
As Tofino is a world-famous surf destination we thought it would be rude not to give it a go whilst we were here. We are also keen to take up a new sport to replace the void that snowboarding has left! We had a couple of lessons with an all-female surf outfit called ‘Surf Sister’ (Phil enjoyed the calibre of the instructors!) and also went out on our own to try our luck. It’s definitely a cool sport, a real art form, and very addictive. We are both getting up and riding white water, but the bigger green waves are proving a little elusive so far. Still, not bad for the first attempt, and getting taken out by storm waves in the Pacific is certainly exhilarating! We will be continuing our surf adventures in the warmer climes of California and Central America….
