hi we travelled to the west coast today and saw the Pacific Ocean. We are on what they call the Pacific Rim.

There is a long stretch of beaches collectively called Long Beach . We are in a B&B for 2 nights and it seems ok. I’m sitting in the back garden on a veranda writing this. We have toured the length of this sandy beach. There are surfers everywhere and young people. We feel very old. It is cooler on the West coast and a cold wind. Maybe this is preparing us for Newfoundland!  

 There is a rainforest and small rocky coves filled with beautiful white sand. It is very picturesque. The only drawback I can see/hear is a continual fog horn…oh  dear. There is a long path called the Wild Pacific Trail which we intend to walk. 

 We treated ourselves out for dinner tonight. We had clams in a tomato basted chili sauce (they cooked mine without chili ) followed by halibut wrapped in Parma ham on risotto rice with peas and with asparagus Cherry tomatoes. It was delicious 

Tomorrow we are going to explore this headland some more before we head further North on the Campbell River for the rest of the week.

Love you all xxx

This morning we both wanted to go back to Nanaimo to spend more time walking around the waterfront. This time we walked past the bastillion and down to the front by the sea. It was sunny and very clear visibility. I could even see a totem pole on the headland on the island opposite! 

 We were chatting and laughing about what some people have said to us. E.g.s  One U.S. Girl said “what state?oh England, is that on the other side where it’s winter now?” On the whale watching boat, an Amish lady said to Vince” can you speak in English” she couldn’t understand him! Oh and no one in U.S. Or Canada understands “2 coffees,one black ,one white”.

There was a long path to stroll along and lots of activity on the sea in the harbour. The sea plane took off for Vancouver and we saw a sailing ship, the ferries, ships of all sizes and lots of private boats. Hope you like the photos I took. 

 2 hours later, after coffee and ice cream we left the town to explore further down the coast heading South. It is hard to get access to the beach as there are logging saw mills and other industries along there. We eventually found Yellow Point and a picnic area called blue heron park. The beach there was different to others we have visited. It is a wide flat rock pavement with millions of tiny shell pieces, gravel and grey sand. 

 The tide was out and there were shallow rock pools. EVERYWHERE there were tiny crabs no bigger than your little finger nail,of all different colours. As you walked they were scuttling out of your way. The whole rock pavement was alive. There were bigger dead crabs around and hundreds of large shells. People were swimming in the sea but there was lots of seaweed in it.  

 Grandad had a lie down so I had to photograph him didn’t I? 

 We kept in the shadow at times as it was hot. There were lovely people there all having picnics and everyone was happy.

On the way back to the hotel we found a fish and chip shop and had very fresh haddock. We got talking ,(well shouting )to the owner who was a bit deaf. He was from Czechoslovakia and had moved here 25 years ago. He thanked us for calling in and talking to him about Prague. This is the best fish we have eaten so far this holiday. 

 And now we are back doing our washing and visiting a fabricland that has a sale! Grandad bought himself  a Carl Minion too xxxx 

We walked up to Neck Point, the headland nearest to our hotel, to watch the sunset on the longest day of the year. It was lovely. As the sky changed we noticed a white mountain and it seemed to get bigger and bigger. A Canadian told us it was Mount Baker over 11000feet actually in U.S. And you only see it well at sunset. It disappeared as the sun set, magical!

 

Saturday came round fast again! All the mosquitoes were sharpening their knives and forks for their tasty Janet dinner…

This morning we drove towards the west coast,inland to the town of Port Alberni. Huge ships can travel inland via  the Trevor river over half way across the island. We noticed a steam train was firing up and went over to the station. Grandad took lots of photos for his grandsons to see (and granddaughters too). 

 We strolled around the harbour and really enjoyed the views over the water.

Back in the car we next headed to Sproat Lake, intending to spend the afternoon there. It was a beautiful place and we both sat on a huge sawn off tree log in the sunshine. Next the peace was absolutely shattered and spoilt by a guy on a high powered speed boat who revved up and went round the lake disturbing everyone. 

This is where the seaplanes were located that carry water to quench forest fires, it was interesting to see them there, but we couldn’t stand the noise so we left.

On the way back Vince stopped at Cathedral Grove, an ancient forest with 800 year old Douglas fir trees. We took a picture of ourselves by the tallest tree I’ve ever seen in my life. 

  

  

 The oldest trees had survived a forest fire 350 years ago.  Also many of these huge ancient trees had fallen down blown over by a huge wind about 10 years ago . I can’t believe the force of that wind to be able to do this. We really loved this forest, Douglas trees can live for over a thousand years and so they will be there for a while yet.

After a coffee to wake us up at our favourite Canadian coffee shops called Serious Coffee ………we went to Neck Point. This is only 3 miles away from where we are staying and we hadn’t realised we had such a nice beach so close. You can see where there was a whaling station. Thankfully not allowed now. 

 You can walk right around the small rocky headland and there are little coves which you can swim in. There are rocks and pebbles and grit though, no sand. We spotted a blue heron,it was huge and we watched it for ages catching an eel and fish. It chased another heron away.  

 We saw Canadian geese and gulls too. A lady was walking her small dog and a ferret on a lead! I took a photo lily but it’s not very good. I’ll show you it when I get home.

Last day in Nanaimo tomorrow and we are going back to Neck point now we’ve found out about it.

Love to you all xxxxxx

So fully refreshed and wanting to see what today will bring, we followed trip advisors suggestion and went to Englishman River Falls. 

It is an ancient forest with gigantic old trees growing in all directions. 

  We followed the trails to the upper and lower waterfalls. It has 2 bridges over the river and great views of the water falls. The circular walk wound up and down steeply through the forest. I’m so fit now! AND for once I didn’t get one mosquito bite. Moss grew all over some trees and there were beautiful ferns in many varieties. The sun was filtering through the many trees and glistening on the water below, it was magical. 

 
  We chatted to 2 Canadian guys for a while. Canadians are so friendly and love a chat we’ve found!

By now it was lunch time and so we headed for French Creek Marina to take more photos ( we have THOUSANDS now) it was a bit smelly of seaweed and harbour smells but fascinating.  

 We had a pub lunch and again felt like we were in a mixture of France and Ireland. The sun was shining and in the car park several vintage cars were parked all clean and well cared for. Hope you like the photos.  

   We watched 3 eagles soaring over the boats and sea and sat on a bench which said ” sit and enjoy the moment” …well we certainly did.

Next we went to Rathtrevor beach for a sleep! Again very peaceful and a bald headed eagle spotted over the sea in front of us. There are hundreds of shells and pieces of driftwood here and all along the coastline. It’s a shame I can’t bring any home for our garden.

Hope you are all ok and am missing you all very much..time is ticking by and I will be sad when our holiday is over, but will be very pleased to see you all again. Xxxxx 

I saw whales more later

Had a good nights sleep and can write now. We were exhausted cold and wet when we got back at 10.45pm last night, but it was worth every minute. This holiday is unbelievable with all the things we are doing.

We set off towards Victoria in the morning. It is a 2 hour drive in the traffic. We wanted to visit the Butchart Gardens in the morning and whale watching in the afternoon.

Butchart Gardens was planted 100 years ago and is a famous horticultural wonder ( no I didn’t copy that last sentence from the brochure it came from within me lol ) needless to say it was beautiful and we loved it. We didn’t love the thousands of mainly Japanese visitors in there though but that’s another story! 

   We left to travel on to Victoria and our adventure. Fortunately we had a snack for dinner time and a drink because we had to last without either until we got back to the port which we hadn’t realised. We got to check in for the trip and our faces fell. They had cancelled our trip and not let us know. Anyway they fitted us up with another whale watching firm on the other side of the harbour a couple of miles a way and a hurried taxi drive later we managed to get on just before the boat left. Phew! This trip was a 4 and a half hour one on a much nicer boat and so we were happy.

First we saw a solitary male orcha unusual to be on its own in a small bay they told us. It moved very quickly and kept close to shore. People in Arbutus Bay were sitting on the rocks watching it. We stayed there for a while moving with the whale. It was like watching a huge version of Fungie in Ireland! Then we sped off for our journey North to see a pod of orcha whales. 

 The clouds were very grey by now and it was raining, eventually the whales were spotted. There had been 8 or 9 the day before but they seemed to have split up and there were definitely 4………A huge male a matriarch female with a baby and another large whale. It was absolutely pouring down by now but no one minded we were having an amazing time following the whales. They move very quickly and there were 3 other boats following close by too. When they got to the headland of the Island they started to feed. They probably had a seal which they were playing about with between the 4 of them.  

   They come up to breath every 4 to 7 minutes and their breath with vapourised water was very impressive. They stayed close by the shore again and we had a really good show from them. The baby even pushed its tail high out of the water a couple of times. It was fascinating to watch them for so long in one area. The crew said we were very lucky to witness this feeding and playing for such a long time. 

   Vince and I were absolutely drenched, I had their waterproof coat on and my hat which is water proof acted like an umbrella. Our cameras binoculars and video recorder are just about dried out now!.

We could hear the whales breathing and their clicks and talking as the crew put a microphone into the water for us to hear…. Awesome! 

    The pilot eventually said”well all good things have to come to an end, they are resting now and we should be setting off” and he started the engines. With that the 4 whales followed our boat and the huge male went underneath us and came up along side right near to Vince and I and the others followed him.It was like they were saying goodbye or don’t go yet!  

   As you can tell I am never going to forget this fabulous experience EVER.

We got talking to a Russian girl Marina who was by herself on the boat. She is waiting to finally become a Canadian citizen,after studying here. She is Blandines age and we promised to keep in touch with her and send some photos of the whales. Had a very interesting conversation with her.

We got back to Victoria harbour, miles away from our car and cold wet hungry tired and thirsty and dirty. So we took the harbour ferry across the harbour and bought ourselves fish and chips, which we ate in our car with the heater full on! Then poor Dad had to drive back 2 hours to our hotel.

We had been on the sea for 4 and a half hours. And had the most brilliant time xxxx 

     

Believe it or not we were not the first in the queue for the ferry this morning…..we were 2nd lol! We got to Horse Shoe Bay at 7am for the 8.30 am sailing… Your Dad always allows plenty of time for hold ups.

The crossing was flat as a millpond, sunny and clear visibility. We sat on the top deck for most of the time, admiring the scenery of the coastlines. 

  

 We were first off the ferry and went straight into Nanaimo town (where we docked ) and where we are staying for 5 nights. 

Nanaimo is a small coastal town and seemed like we were in Ireland. There is a Bastion there. It is a fortress built by the Hudson Bay Company to defend the town and protect the inhabitants. It has 2 storeys and on the top storey is a cannon which is still fired every day at noon in commemoration. Very interesting building both inside and outside and quite a feature of the town and harbour. The wooden steps inside were very steep and over 80% of the original wood it was built with, remains. It was built in the early 1800s. 

   There was an old man with very long grey hair and long beard playing beautiful music with a flute begging for money. The road sweeper man also asked us if we would donate money to him for cleaning the street. It’s different here …….. 

 We went to 2 coastal parks in beautiful forested areas. The wildlife we spotted was brilliant. Many many huge turquoise dragonflies, butterflies, and tiny baby deer, many gulls and Canadian geese, a bird we think was a woodpecker and best of all 3 bald headed Eagles…….. and all this in just 3 hours in the afternoon. This island is definitely our kind of holiday destination.  

       Our hotel is lovely and we are going whale watching tomorrow afternoon. I do hope we see a whale, keep your fingers crossed xxxxxx

Love to you all and missing you all xxxx

This morning we went to see the high waterfall nearby, Shannon Falls. It is quite close to the car park fortunately and so we didn’t have to walk miles. We walked up the steps and path by the side of it and although I was puffed out, I was pleased I’d made the effort. There were huge old fir trees growing all around, the pine smelt wonderful 

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We then set off up the route 99 towards Whistler. Whistler was the furthest we travelled to 17 years ago and we wanted to revisit. What a disappointment. The 2010 Paralympics had taken place there and the whole town was transformed into a huge ski resort, totally unrecognisable from the picturesque place we’d visited! It was a huge commercial shopping town with restaurants bars and gift shops.

We were on a mission then, we wanted to find the genuine old  Canadian outpost town. So we travelled another 20 miles to Pemberton. This was lovely , it had a small station and local artisan stores. It was in a wide fertile valley stretching towards the mountains away from route 99. Of course we had to explore this road. There were farms with cattle, horses, crops, vegetables and even a farm growing hops. A beautiful river Ryan River flowed along through the valley. We could both live the rest of our lives here we said. We should have emigrated to Canada when Matthew and Alex were toddlers…. It’s a beautiful country. 

   On the way back we stopped at view points and learnt about the First Nations beliefs about the area of Squamish.

Tomorrow we get on the ferry to Victoria Island it’s a 2 hour crossing and we plan to get there early.

We are treating ourselves to dinner tonight. Were being careful with our money as we are retired now hee hee

We have brought the sunny weather with us it is unusually hot this week and 31c today. Xxxx

We set out today to sort out our ferry journey to Victoria Island and our whale watching tour( how exciting ) managed to do both with help from the tourist information guy and the ferry officer. We have those to look forward to this week. This is horse shoe bay where we will sail from.

 Then we had the whole day to spend in Vancouver. Oh My Goodness we love the waterfront and Stanley Park which is a circular drive lasting 6 miles and takes you to the sights following the coast line. 

     Highlight for me were the Totem Poles. I’ll let the photos do the talking. We kept saying “I’m in Vancouver!” Vince said he never thought he would be able to actually see the totem poles in real life. My grandad Bateman saw them when he stayed with his sister 50 years ago! 

     here I am standing inside a famous ancient hollow tree in the park 

 On the return journey we stopped off at Horse Shoe Bay to look at the harbour and have a fish tea. I sat outside in the sunshine talking for ages to an American red Indian lady. She is a teacher and just about to retire in 2 weeks time. We had a really good chat as she sat sewing sock monkeys for the children in her class. Vince was busy taking photographs of reflections in the water. 

   The weather is warm 26c and it doesn’t get dark until after 10pm.

We have done so much today but very enjoyable.

Love to all of you,kisses to the children xxxxx

not long to go now Anona and you will have finished exams and school too xxx

Today we had a lazy breakfast and drove into Squamish to the gondolas. We were whisked up to the top viewing platform 3000 feet above the town. This is the view we saw. 

 you can see the wires for the gondola on the right of photo.

We met many interesting people up there from all over the world and talked to Indians, Polish, Americans, Australians,English and Canadians. 

 

There was a rope bridge to cross which was a bit scary. 

  we walked along a couple of the trails up there and this was a scary viewing platform we both stood on 

 later in the afternoon we drove south following the coast line to get to a beach. It isn’t that easy as the train track is the water side of the road but we found a way and it was a privately owned housing complex but they allowed people to walk along the path by the water. It was idyllic and we  both would have loved to live there with these views. 

  

I have already got my first 2 of many mosquito bites to come, very red and itchy.

Grandad is tired and achy from carrying suitcases poor grandad xxxxx

Before we left Las Vegas airport we had a diet coke each and couldn’t believe the two bottles we’d picked up by chance  

  we’re a bit tired but all is good. It is cooler and fresher here and there is greenery and tall trees! Joking apart the landscape is soooo different. We are in a ski resort ( no snow) and by the coast. We arrived here at 7.30 pm. It’s 9.10 pm now and still bright day light. We had a good journey and as it was a cloudless sky I could watch the land below all the way.

We’ve just been to the hotel restaurant and had fresh vegetables and home cooked food, so different from USA.

Going to bed early but glad to be here.xxxx