Tuesday 11 August 2009

Waves and whales

Last blog entry came from Montreal, and this one comes from Prince Rupert, northern BC. Quentin and I are 10 days into a trip that has taken in Tofino and Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, a 15-hr ferry ride to Prince Rupert, where we are now, to a mammoth coach journey that leads to Seattle, then Hawaii for eight days.

Hawaii might seem an unusual direction on such a journey, and indeed we were planning on Alaska but time and cost factored in (as they so often do) and Hawaii was the better option. Turns out getting around in the remote areas up here is fairly difficult if you don't have transportation (take the coach that runs every 3 days, to intercept with the coach that departs the day before you arrive at the junction). Altogether glad we're heading to the sun though - the weather up here is remarkably British-like. Temperate is the exotic word - damp, misty and fairly cold is what it translates to!

Wildlife spotting keeps us busy though...from a small pod of orca whales near hot springs cove on an island near Tofino, to bald eagles, puffins, a sea otter splashing around merrily and several humpback whales leaping and flipping only 50-100m or so from our ferry! Oh, and stepping on a bed of snakes whilst rock climbing round the coast of the Pacific Rim park.

On Vancouver Island we hitch-hiked around (our record for waiting was 7 mins) and met a variety of folks, from Ryan, who picked us up before we'd even finished writing our sign, to Dave who promptly turned the radio up moments after we got in, to Steve who agreed to take us half way to our destination, but ended up taking us to the hostel door instead! Camping on the beach in Tofino was wild, beautiful and cheap!

The small town of Port Hardy was an unexpected gem of a find. From the smallest main street I have ever seen (three buildings) to the friendliest, most helpful people I have ever encountered, this was one scenic random middle-of-nowhere outpost we were very happy to find ourselves in. We headed over to Alert Bay, a tiny (tiny!!) island rich in First Nations heritage and discovered a plethora of totem poles, First Nations dancing and intriguing swamps.

And now, after a 15hr ferry ride up the coast, during which we saw several humpback whales flipping and breaching, in Prince Rupert. A few numerical stats:
Hours here 72; hours of rain 66; movies watched 5; puzzles completed 1; puzzle pieces put together 550; tourist sites visited 1; tourist sites available to go see 1; cups of tea drank infinite (me) none (Q). And despite all that, we have thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been a long time since we had a few days to potter about and do not a lot - even at home in Vancouver, there is always hustle in the house. So we've done laundry, had lovely chats with fellow travellers (mainly older couples heading to Alaska) and wandered around the town, avoiding rain and catching the odd whiff of fish mixed with diesel oil (not pleasant) of the large cannery industry around these parts.

So now to Seattle. And then back from Hawaii to welcome la familia to Canada for a couple of weeks of more exploring - Victoria, Jasper, Lake Louise, the Kootenays.

Random fact I learnt today: there are five types of salmon. The largest of these, the king salmon, when heading to spawn in fresh water from the sea, turns from silver-steel-blue to bright scarlet and develops a hook snout. Talk about getting your flirt on.