At the Kinsol Trestle bridge in the Cowichan Valley
Day 8 Monday
We set off from the housesit which was quite sad. We are not good at such short sits, and know we could have bonded more if we'd been there longer, though for the time we had we did get fuss and cuddles so not too bad.
Quite impressive we thought, although I did send a copy to our group in the village at home saying 'this is a railway bridge'. He sent back a photo of a Victorian stone bridge in the UK saying 'no this is a railway bridge - it has a good pub at the end of it' . OK, he wins!
A four hour drive ahead of us, but rather than just drive, the plan was to stop and see things en route,. though we are not very good at doing that! Our first stop was a bit of a deviation to the Kinsol Trestle. It is one of 8 in the Cowichan valley, but definitely the most impressive. It is one of the tallest free standing timber rail structures in the world. It's 187m long and 44m above the Koksilah River. It was worth the deviation.
An old photo of a steam train traversing the bridge
Next stop was Duncan, for totem poles with a little walking tour. That was interesting, but sadly Duncan seemed to be closed. It was a public holiday, but we think it was just usually shut on a Monday. Even finding a coffee was difficult.
We saw a little snake on the way out
We tried a little bit of the old road, to see more, but this proved frustrating with changing speed limits and traffic lights, so we just gave up and headed for Campbell River.
Some of the totem poles of Duncan
Our Airbnb is lovely, almost perfect, I can see into the strait between Vancouver Island and Quadra Island, but only really by standing with one foot on the arm of the sofa and one on the windowsill. Why is this important? Because of the Whales, dolphins and orca that might go past. I found a group on Facebook that posts when and where they see such things , which obviously I'm very keen on.
We did stop at a cafe in Duncan and, outside was this man with two pet Macaws. The blue one was over 50 years old and the red one much younger, in it's 20's I think
We did a bit of shopping and prepared for an early night as the boat trip to see marine life and hopefully Grizzly bears was leaving at 08.00. Just sitting down to eat and hurrah, we are not setting off till 10.00. That's more civilised.
Jackie standing on her tip toes to look out of our lounge window at the deep channel of water that is a whale and orca freeway (along with cruise ships). She joined a Campbell River Facebook group to notify whale sightings and, one morning she spotted some and reported it...
Day 9 Tuesday
My birthday, which isn't why we booked the trip, but it's a good excuse. I'm amazed I managed to eat any breakfast, jumping up and down to see first a humpback whale and then a pod of dolphins go past.
Within ten minutes three boats had arrived and there's the whale blowing a spout of water. This is all from our lounge window
We got to the marina in good time and said hello to the seals swimming about. That's three and we haven't even seen our boat yet. The zodiac turned up with our skipper Benji, who really didn't look very old, and then told us it was the first time he'd done this trip on his own, but not to worry, he's got at least 3000 hours driving these boats! He was lovely, and very good. There was us, a couple from Denmark, an Ozzy man Anthony and a local lady.
On our zodiac rib ready to go. Behind us is the Danish couple and behind them Heather, the local expert
Heather obviously knew what was what as we headed out of the marina into the channel she knew we were going to see something immediately. And so we did, the ferry to Quadra Island taking a very strange route around two humpback whales. They vanished with no time for photos, but Benji started talking about them and with that they broke the surface so close to the boat. Still no time for photos, but what a welcome.
The two humpback whales that unexpectedly surfaced right next to us were too quick for me to get a photo. I just snapped this photo of one's tail as it disappeared beneath the waves
We watched them head off before turning away to go and see the family of orca that were hunting seals. This is where Heather came into her own, this is what she told us:
Today's whales were a well-known family here in Campbell River (& Qualicum) - the T002Cs
Matriarch, T002C Tasu (1989)
T002C1 Rocky (2002)
T002C3 Lucy (2011)
T002C5 Zippy (2020)
T002C6 (2025)
She told us all about Tasu being the granddaughter of a killer whale who had been set free in the 70's that she had seen in the zoo.
Orcas hunting in the channel in front of us
We watched them chasing and hunting, pictures were taken, which are never very impressive, I've seen lots of the Facebook group. They were better to see, until Rocky, the big male, breached out of the water, twice. Absolutely amazing, and very rare, and Brian caught it, with his little camera.
We we're extremely lucky to see Rocky breaching twice and I think I was even more lucky to capture it with my little camera. Heather was keen to show her photo to us all and I think she was quite surprised I got one too. To be fair, hers is much clearer, but she has an expensive camera with a huge lens. I'm still pretty pleased with my effort though
As did Heather with her big flash one. Turns out she's a professional photographer! Not only that, she set up the Facebook group I've been watching, and posting on with my whales and dolphins that very morning!
This is the tail of an Orca just going down
This was all within the first hour, so we can now head off looking for bears. Lots of suitable beaches, but no black bears, so off to the mainland to look for grizzlies. We'll go down here, oh no we won't, we'll go over there. The power of the radio! It took ages for me to look in the right direction, but when we did, there was a mother bear and two cubs ambling along the shore, turning over rocks and feasting on crabs and fish and molluscs.
Ive got so many photos it's difficult to pick out the best, so here's a few
The two boats that had been there when we arrived headed off and we were left with the bears for ages. They were trying their hardest, but I saw one of them tug at a rock so hard it fell onto it's bottom at least twice. The other one then made so much noise trying to turn one I almost thought it had it's paw trapped. This was just what we had come for, and was absolutely amazing.
They were all doing what mum was doing, rolling over rocks looking for something to eat
We finally headed off to have our own lunch, while hoping for a black bear to come and wave. It didn't, but finally I spotted one. Benji and Omar also saw it but then it vanished before Brian could see it.
Sometimes more successfully than others
Not that he could have photographed it anyway, the camera had gone flat. Benji was obviously delighted I had seen one as it meant he could head back to base and arrive bang on time. 17.00.
Poor Anthony then had to collect his wife and drive for four hours to Tofino on the west coast of the island, very close to where we are going when we leave here. We will be spending all day driving there though.
They occasionally looked out way but were unconcerned with our presence
We'd come through some exciting rapids on our journey, one set was in the Seymour Narrows. This narrow stretch of water used to be much more dangerous than it is today. Ripple rock used to sit between 5 and 7 feet below the water, at low tide, and had sunk boats causing the death of many people. In the 50's, they decided to get rid of it, so they tunnelled under it, filled it with dynamite and blew it up, in the biggest man-made non nuclear explosion in the world. It was televised in only the second live broadcast by CBC. The Narrows are now much safer and the channel is used by shipping of all sorts including big cruise liners.
What a fabulous birthday.
Seymour narrows from our vantage point. It's now a major cruise route doing the inside passage but only possible as Ripple Rock was blown up. It used to sit in the middle of that narrow pass only 5 to 7 feet below low water level. It claimed many ships over the years and 114 lives. The water flows so fast and with so many undercurrents and whirlpools it wouldn't be possible to swim to shore
Day 10 Wednesday
A more relaxed start though again, I don't know how I managed to eat while posting on the Facebook group about a humpback out of the window. It did make me smile, within 10 minutes of my putting its location on the group three zodiacs had appeared to show their customers their first whale!
Elk falls from the suspension bridge
Today was walking though, so we went off to Elk falls which were lovely did a loop there, chatted to the lady in the visitor centre who gave us a two for one ticket at the museum. She suggested the salmon hatchery in the hope of black bears. It was quite interesting, but we didn't see any bears which was disappointing.
And then a pleasant 4km walk along the various minor falls on the Campbell River up to the John Hart dam and then back through old growth Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar forest
A bite of lunch and then Brian talked me into the walk to look at the Seymour Narrows, where Ripple rock used to be. It wasn't that far, but there was a lot of up and down and we now both feel exhausted.
I've been jumping up and down while trying to eat, and write AGAIN as orca were playing outside for a long time! It's been fabulous.
We didn't see any black bears at the salmon hatchery, but we know they visit here. We walked through the wooded trail very alert!
Day 11 Thursday
A town day today, walk to the museum, with our 2 for 1 ticket. We spent ages in there, starting off with an 18 minute video about blowing up Ripple Rock. It was a two year project, a small village was built on Quadra Island for the workers who drilled and dynamited. Due to the weight of water above something like 10x more dynamite was required than if they had just been in the air. Very interesting.
Our long trek through the forest to the Ripple Rock viewpoint
Then logging, salmon fishing, canning and some first Nations history. Up until the '90's children were taken away from home and put into boarding schools to try and assimilate and 'civilise' them! Thousands of children died and never returned home with others undergoing abuse, not to mention the trauma of just being forcibly taken away from home. Compensation has now been set up and paid.
We passed an inlet where logging was still going on. Through the trees you can see piles of logs floating on the sea. They are collected together and then towed out to a sawmill
From the museum we walked to the Discovery Pier, had a cup of tea, went to the aquarium which is tiny, but very interesting. It's only open for three months a year with the animals being taken from and returned to the local seashore. They are still waiting for someone to catch them and octopus for the last tank! The guys working in there were so enthusiastic, it was a pleasure to talk to them. Perhaps I could have done that with my degree in marine biology.
The final ascent to the viewpoint over Seymour Narrows where Ripple Rocks used to lurk just blow the surface
From there to Crabby Bobs, for seafood. Prawns scallops, mussels clams, bread and garlic butter. Absolutely fantastic! Back to the pier for an ice-cream which we didn't need, but hey, before walking back to the house.
Two other girls were on the summit who kindly took our photo with Seymour Narrows behind
Quick change of clothes to head to the sea shore to go rock pooling, it was almost low tide, and was highly recommended. It wasn't like at home though, you had to walk out over slippery stones to get to some pools, rather than scramble over rocks. Wet feet were bound to happen, but having seen crabs, starfish anemones and been squirted at, probably by clams, we beat a retreat for fear of melting! Off to the supermarket for fruit and fuel before we go to Ucluelet tomorrow.
This is a photo of the actual explosion when Ripple Rocks were blown up. It took over two years of mining under the sea, up into the rocks and then a maze of shafts in the rocks in order to pack then with over 2 million pounds of explosives At the museum this morning where they were assembling a new exhibit outside. A great museum and well worth a visit Down at Crabby Bobs for lunch. It's that grey building At the entrance to Crabby Bobs Its so fresh it all still alive when you order it Look at our lunch - it was amazing! There's a driftwood sculpture trail in the town, we didn't do it all but stopped at a few. This is a racoon called Peabody Thats a bald eagle on a rock so I had to take him as well. The poor thing was being harassed by seagulls so he took refuge over there This is a humpback sculpture called Drift We walked down onto Willow Point Reef at low tide to look at all the rock pools and sea life on the exposed rocks. I saw a vulture on some rocks and she moaned at me when I didn't take a photo. Instead I took this of him flying that I think is infinitely better So much sea life to see on the rocks. This crab was a fabulous red colour Jackie informed me (because I don't know about these things) these are eggs An orange sea anemone and a purple starfish The purple starfish were everywhere Theres some more huddled up under some rocks
