Little Qualicum Falls and Englishman River Falls offer well-maintained trails, Rathtrevor Provincial Park offers a 5 km riverside walk and for more intrepid explorers there is a five-hour journey deep below the surface at Horne Lake Caves which includes a seven-storey underground waterfall called the Rain Barrel. For those of us less brave there is Milner Gardens to explore which is rated one of the ten best public gardens in Canada – sadly for me who loves to visit any garden it was only open Thurs – Sun in October. Oh well, another excuse to re-visit the Island. Continue reading Englishman River Falls
Tag: outdoors
Canadian ‘Riviera’
On to Coombs and our next B&B which was very close to the Country Market and its famous goats on the roof– also the best ice cream on the island, but ask for a child’s portion because they are huge! Our comfortable B&B was a smallholding in Coombs which had three gorgeous looking alpacas named Willie, Alonso and Jack. There are often other wildlife visitors to the farm including black bears and deer. Unfortunately we didn’t see a bear, but we did see a visiting stag and several deer that I almost ran over as we drove out one evening to visit Parksville. Continue reading Canadian ‘Riviera’
Cathedral Grove
We didn’t want to leave the Pacific Rim side of the Island and could easily have spent another week here, especially as the weather was being so good to us. There was just enough time to squeeze in a little more after breakfast.
A hike down the Schooner trail was a good wake-up hike as it leads through a lovely mature rainforest with moss-draped trees and a golden light filtering through: the boardwalk with its series of steps and ramps leads to the very scenic Schooner Cove.
This is at the northern end of the very long aptly named Long Beach. By the time we’d walked back to the car our knees had definitely had a thorough work-out and reminded me about it for the rest of the day!
Driving back across the Island towards Coombs we stopped at the famous Cathedral Grove where you can wander around a trail through large Douglas Fir and Red Cedar trees. The trees are massive in MacMillan Park and some are over 800 years old with The Big Tree in Cathedral Grove being 76 m tall (which is 20 m taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa) and 9 m in diameter. It is an opportunity to see a west coast rainforest, but I must admit walking through forests is not my most favourite thing, although I do seem to do an awful lot of it and I much prefer the ones that lead to a beach!
Hikin’ and Surfin’
Next stop was Combers beach with a trail through a mature Sitka spruce forest to the beach. Near the beach the dramatic effect of the ocean’s salt and winds can be seen on the stunted trees. Beach access can be tricky due to shifting logs on the fringe of the beach, but well worth the effort as we watched flocks of seagulls rise and dive into the shallow streams for fish. As we left the wind rose and the whole beach appeared to move as the sand shimmered and turned into a flowing river. I have never seen anything like it.
Final stop was Radar Hill with panoramic views over Tofino and the Clayoquot Sound and where we saw our first and only beautiful blue Steller’s Jay.
The evening ended at Shelter for a special meal. Started with a glass of prosecco for me and a cocktail containing Manuka honey vodka for OH who had creamy chowder with mussels followed by chicken breast on lentils, green beans and capers. I had an arugula salad with rocket, green leaves, arugula cheese, blue cheese finely diced, caramelised onions, cranberries and pomegranate followed by a rib-eye steak, yams, green beans and a pepper type sauce and a glass of Bulldog Shiraz from Australia.
The restaurant is very informal and has a large popular bar and TV sets. There was a baseball game happening on one set, but the one closest to us was showing a program about a group of surfers on tour in South Africa! How unreal to be sitting in Canada and following this group of lads on their tour from Cape Town and my beloved Muizenberg to Jeffrey’s Bay, St John’s on the Wild Coast and finally Durban, all with fabulous photography of the beaches and surrounding areas – if only it had sound! The O’Neill Cold Water Classic Canada surf competition in Chesterman Beach was due to be held over the following weekend – a pity we would be gone by then as I would have loved to have watched it.
A great day and a lovely meal to end it with. Tomorrow we leave this part of the island, but have one last walk to do before finally saying goodbye.
Crossing the Straits of Georgia
After some deliberation as to when to pick up the rental car (early start vs extortionate parking fees) I collected the car from Hornby Street on the Friday afternoon and parked it at the Devonian park (24hrs) which was at least $10 cheaper than the underground car-park closer to the hotel. Parking in Vancouver I must add, is not cheap which is why I chose to use public transport to get around during the week. (Another point for those interested is that car rentals in Canada are much higher than those in the USA.)
We left the hotel early in plenty of time to catch the 10:30 ferry at Horseshoe Bay over to Nanaimo (Departure Bay) as we had reservations (these cost around £15 and not strictly necessary except in peak times unless you have to be somewhere such as the airport!), but if you don’t make that first ferry then you have to wait in line for the next and this can eat up a good couple of hours). £15 didn’t seem to be too much of a hardship for us to be on our way.
I love BC Ferries – they arrive on time, they depart on time and they are easy to drive on and off (particularly important for me whilst struggling to come to terms with a new car and its associated gadgets) then on board you can wander around during the crossing, have a meal, look at the views and if you’re lucky (as we were) see a pod or two of Orcas en route. On our previous visit to the Island we bought a circle ticket for the ferries which allowed us to drive slowly up the Sunshine Coast crossing the fjords by ferry and then over to Comox on the central coast of the Island from Powell’s River. If you have the time I thoroughly recommend this route for its beauty and peacefulness, (but be careful of the “granny traps” at the side of the road in places – deep gullies or drains at the edge – we saw several cars stuck in these and dread to think of the damage to the underside of the vehicle).
Lifeboat
On this occasion we chose to go directly to Nanaimo (home of the famous Nanaimo bar) as we were heading over to the Pacific Rim on the west coast for a few days staying in Tofino, surf capital of the Island. We didn’t bother with a GPS as there really isn’t much need for one on the Island – or so we thought… got a bit lost in Nanaimo as hubby got confused over route signs which meant we went around in a circle and tempers frayed somewhat! Eventually we found the correct route, confusingly there’s a 19 which is the Inland Island Hwy and a 19a the Island Hwy, but since they merge to the north we really had nothing to worry about and could relax and enjoy the scenery.
Following the 19 you by-pass Parksville and turn onto the 4A at Coombs where we would be staying on our return journey. Coombs is famous for the “Goats on the Roof” at the country market, but more about that later. The 4A turns into the 4 which is the Alberni Hwy and basically you follow this all the way to the west coast. Passing Whisky Creek and Little Qualicum Falls you drive alongside Cameron Lake before winding round through MacMillan Provincial Park and past Cathedral Grove to Port Alberni. I have never stopped, but imagine it could be a nice place to break for lunch at the quayside and I believe you can get to Ucluelet by boat from here. We continued onwards (105 km) and around Lake Sproat which is vast!
The road winds up and down and you gasp at the views as you are surrounded by mountains with glimpses of lakes. You then reach Kennedy lake passing over creeks with names such as “Cats Ear Creek”, “Log Dump Bridge” and “Lost Shoe Creek #1” and “Lost Shoe Creek #2” (obviously ran out of imagination there, or perhaps there are lots of lost shoes) and finally reach the T junction where the Pacific Rim Visitor Centre is located and where you can buy a National Park pass – these are not needed to drive through to Tofino, but are required for parking at any of the trails in the park between mid March to mid October. Turn left at the junction to Ucluelet (9 km) and right to Tofino (36 km).
We were staying a little way out of Tofino, close to Chesterman Beach (literally across the road from our B&B) so had to drive into Tofino for restaurants. Maybe next time (and yes there does have to be a next time) we would stay in the town so we could walk.
We ate at SOBO (all the best eating places in Tofino begin with S) which is at the corner of Neil St and 1st and serves beautifully prepared local and seasonal seafood and good BC wine. We had the special chowder which is the best I have ever tasted – it is spicy – followed by a thin-crust pizza. Mine was goat’s cheese and mixed mushrooms and it was delicious, OH had BBQ chicken with whisky sauce which was a little too sweet. Washed down with a respectable B.C. Pinot Noir.
And we caught the sunset on the beach too so a perfect end to the day.
TRAVEL WORDS 