Tofino & Waterfalls

Tofino

From today we going to explore the middle of Vancouver Island. We'll be based at Quaillicum Beach for a couple of nights so we can do a couple of day trips to explore our surroundings. Our exploration today took us to Tofino on the remote west coast. From Quallicum Beach there's a 170km narrow windy hacked up road to negotiate to cross the island. The drive took us 2-1/2 hours! Just before we reached Tofio township we passed through this dense forest. This is about the best photo we have of coastal rain forest typical of the western shore of VI. The trees here aren't as tall as the ones we saw near Victoria 2 days ago, but are still very impressive.

Canadians have a huge coastline but very few places where they can surf. The north is frozen most of the year & the Atlantic Ocean is bitterly cold.
Long Beach near Tofino is the best known surfing beach in Canada (pictured is Chesterman Beach next door). I don't see the attraction myself. The water, even in the middle of summer is still icy.
There wasn't much in the way of surf today & the fog was thick & cold. We may well have been there on a quiet day surf wise. I could see the potential for great waves on the right day but I think I'll stick to the surf back home. The crazies were still out in the water regardless of how inviting the weather was.

We saw lots of black bears along the road across the island but there was nowhere to pull over safely to take any photos.

Quallicum Falls

On the way back from Tofino we took a divert to a couple of the provincial parks close to Parksville. The first one was Quallicum falls. A short walk took us to Upper Quallicum Falls (above). There was also a smaller unnamed water fall at the foot of the Upper Falls (below).

There was also another waterfall close by called <wait for it> Lower Quallicum Falls (below).

 

Englishman Falls

A short drive from Quallicum Falls is Englishman falls. Once again there was an Upper Falls (above & below) & a Lower Falls.

The Upper falls is one of the most unusual waterfalls I have ever seen. It topples down into a seemingly endless crack in the earth and disappears.

The lower falls (above) are a bit more conventional despite being a twin fall. It is slightly ironic that we drove for 5 hours to Tofino today but the pick of the scenery was 15 mins from our base at Quallicum Beach.

Mount Douglas & Craigdarroch Castle

Another thing you can do around Victoria is drive along the coastline & then up to the Mt Douglas Lookout. It's a great vantage point for overlooking Victoria & over to mainland US & Canada. The drive along the coast in nice, but nothing that spectacular. It is difficult to impress an Aussie with a coastline.

 We were able to look north and see where we'll be driving to tomorrow. We're off to Qualicum Beach, half way up Vancouver Island.

Across the water to the South East we could see mainland Washington State with Mt Barker watching us once again.

This is another of Victoria's overrated tourist attractions, Craigdarroch Castle. Sure it's a castle, but having been to Europe & the UK, this one is just a little cottage that isn't that old. We took the photo from out front & didn't bother going in. The write-ups hadn't inspired us at all.

South West Vancouver Island

Today we ventured out from Victoria and completed a lap of the south west of Vancouver Island. We followed the coastal road to Port Renfrew then went inland to Cowichan Lake & back to Vancouver along Hwy 1 that runs along the east coast.
The drive along the south west coast is quite an interesting drive. The road winds though a lush old growth rain forest with huge cedar trees. It was really hard to take good photos of due to the lack of places to pull over and the lack of light because the forest is so dense. Many rave about Cathedral Grove to the north but it's only a very small little pocket of forest. The south west coastal forest runs for some 50kms. It's more or less devoid of tourists which is always a good thing. We did a short hike around the small peninsular at Port Renfrew called the Botanical Loop. Above is the first point of interest you come to. It's called Botany Bay. It doesn't look anything like the Botany Bay I know in Australia.

You may have noticed in the first photo, a solid coverage of low cloud. The western coast of Vancouver Island (and apparently the North American west coast) tends to be covered in fog most of the time before 11am. Today was no exception. Then all of a sudden, the fog lifted and the sun made an appearance. It's amazing what a difference it made in such a short amount of time. If you look close enough, you'll see the Washington State coast across that water. I was impressed by the shear cliff sculptured by abuse from the wind and waves. Its about 8m high. Nature still manages to cling on despite the weather conditions. The trees are clustered tight right up to the edge of the overhang of the cliff.

Port Renfrew is nothing more than a jetty and a hotel (well not quite, but close). We walked along the jetty being the nosey tourists we are and saw this shifty character up one of the trees. The inland part of the "Circle Route" as it's called, was interesting enough without being spectacular. Logging on the island is big business and most of the island is scarred with patches of tree stumps. Much of the rest of the journey was tree stump scenery. The lakes on the island are nowhere near as pretty as those in the Rockies. Cowichan Lake wasn't even worth taking a photo of.

Orcas & Butchart Gardens

Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf is just around the Inner Harbour from the main tourist part. There are a whole bunch of odd little house boats that actually look more like houses than boats. Be assured they all have a motor of some type or other, but I wouldn't think you would want to drive them around in anything too rough. Some of them are even shops of varying types from ice cream shops to art galleries.

Whale watching

This is the way to go whale watching. Take a scarab hull & bolt three 250hp 4-stroke outboards to the back & you've got a brilliant way of getting places in a real hurry!
Eagle Wing Tours only have two boats & ours was the smaller of the two. All the other whale watching operators have either big slow cruisers or Zodiacs which are fast but if the weather's even slightly wind, you get soaked! We made a good choice because we stayed dry, didn't get beaten up by the rough seas & smoked the Zodiacs on the way back.

I'd Like to introduce you to L74. He's a male orca of "L-Pod". L-Pod are one of the "Resident" families that live around Vancouver Island. L74 is about 22 years old. All the whales are studied & given a name (of sorts). They can be easily recognised by the experts by their dorsal fin & the markings on their backs. As you can see from the photo, the orcas are not given much peace. They are surrounded by tourist operators on a daily basis. It's a bit disturbing really.

This female orca is called L12. L12 was born in 1933. She's one of the oldest of her pod. There's a web site that has all the info for identifying the individuals including family trees. L12 & L74 were traveling together when we were there. There were a number of other members of L-Pod we saw that day, but they were a way off & hounded by other boats. Some of the other cruise operators aren't very good at obeying the rules about staying at least 100m from the animals.

Among about 70 photos I took today, about six were good. This one was the best of the lot. The whales were on a serious mission to get wherever they were going & were surfacing only briefly. At one point they were chasing a school of salmon, but otherwise weren't doing anything particularly interesting. L74 got all excited for just a little while & started breaching. He only did it about 4 times & I managed to catch him in the act once.

On the return journey from the whale watching, the captain took us to a favourite hang out for some of the local Harbour Seals. They are the same species as the ones we saw in Alaska & just as lazy! The difference here was the lack of rain.

Everywhere we went chasing the whales, Mt Barker seemed to be watching over us. It towers over the surrounding peaks that are substantial themselves.

Butchart Gardens

 A short drive north of Victoria is the Butchart Gardens. "Gardens" I hear you say. Why would you go there? Well believe it or not, if you get a chance to go to Vancouver Island, this is one of the must see attractions on the list.Above, the Sunken Garden, is one of the many theme gardens within the Butchart Gardens complex.

It is the middle of summer and the flowers in the garden are in full bloom much like their wild cousins we saw in the mountains last week.

This is Ross Fountain. It has a similar fancy water jet display to the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

More flowers.....

And more with the obsession with totem poles! I couldn't help but act the goose.

This is another of the theme gardens in Butchart Gardens. The Japanese garden is one of the better ones.

Like I said, a must see if you visit Victoria B.C.

Victoria Inner Harbour.

This evening we had dinner and wandered around the Inner Harbour enjoying the twilight and taking a few photos. I'll let the photos themselves speak for me.

It was a very rewarding day and it will to be a tough one to top.

Victoria

Monday morning we checked out of the hotel & jumped on a bus to take us to Tsawwassen, south of Vancouver. The bus then boarded one of the BC Ferries and headed for Sydney on Vancouver Island. The trip was actually quite interesting as it went through the Gulf Islands off the SE of Vancouver Island. It was a bit like Prince William Sound in Alaska but DRY! There were no glaciers either. I even saw a few puffins at one point. Apparently they occasionally see killer whales from the ferry.

Vancouver and the Gulf Islands are littered with lighthouses and it seems most of them are still in operation. Above is one was on one of the Gulf Islands we traveled past on the ferry to Sydney.

After landing in Sydney, to bus took us the final 40ish kms south to Victoria. First impressions were pretty good. The downtown area where we stayed is on a small harbour. It's quite the sight with the Parliament Building (below) overlooking the harbour. To the right of picture is yet another of Fairmount's many over the top hotels, The Empress. To the right, a busy harbour. It's picturesque & well worth a look if you get a chance.

Apart from some private boats (and some are very extravagant), there's a ferry that comes up from Seattle and a float plane port that seemed busier than Vancouver (and the aircraft were way closer!). It's another place that I would be happy just sitting & watching the world go by.

This "Undersea Gardens" is the biggest waste time & money in Victoria. Don't even bother going near it. It is badly kept & there just isn't much of interest to see. Save it for something more worth while. There are much better things to spent you time & money on in the area.

The Victorian locals are mad gardeners. The city has the most moderate climate in Canada. It has warmer temperatures in winter & rarely snows, (it doesn't even rain anywhere as much as Vancouver). In summer the proximity to the ocean keeps the top temperatures to the high 20's - low 30's. Consequently, the plants don't get frozen through the winter or roasted in summer so you can grow just about anything there. The city is very colourful with hanging baskets (above) lining the streets and the locals fanatical about having the best garden in their street. It certainly works for them.

This would never happen in Alberta or Australia! It's not even a French translation.

Victoria isn't just photogenic during the day, it's also quite the postcard in the evening.

Vancouver

Today we hired bikes and rode around Stanley park (among other things). Having not been on a bike for a number of months, our back sides were in agony after a relatively short time. We pressed on regardless.Above is the Brockton Point Lighthouse with the Lion's Gate bridge in the background.

One thing you notice in B.C. and Alaska in particular is the obsession with totem poles! I know its native art blah blah blah, heritage.... Apparently, this cluster of totem poles in Stanley Park are part of the most visited heritage site in B.C.

After conquering Stanley Park, we continued along the inlet to the south of Vancouver Downtown to the far end. This "Golf Ball" was part of a World Expo & is now Science world. We chose not to go in because the write-ups on it didn't inspire us.

We continued around the inlet to Granville Island. I'm not too sure why its called an island because it isn't even nearly surrounded by water. The entire place is pretty much a big market. It's a bit like the Fremantle Markets back home. Some people really enjoy it, but its not my thing. I hate shopping and crowds so it has two black marks against it from me for starters.

After having a fairly average lunch there we headed back to town. We cheated by jumping on one of the little water taxis (see centre of photo above) that take you to the other side of the inlet for a couple of bucks. The way my rear was feeling, I wasn't about to ride the however many kms back around the inlet. We sat along the waterfront watching the world go by for an hour or so & happily handed the bikes back.

Overall, Vancouver is OK, but its more of a city of business than tourist place. I'm glad I've had a look around, but I would leave it off the list if I was short for time when travelling. Vancouver Island is far more interesting. We're off there tomorrow.