We wake up to stunning bay views at Qualicum beach and have our breakfast looking out to see and with our eyes trained for whale spouts!
It’s then on up island towards Campbell river. We have a pit stop in comox which is a lovely small town with a fab little splash park for Alex and a beautiful walkway out around the harbour. Alex happily chases bubbles and spots giant rock crabs from the walkway and a family of sea otters - mum and 3 babies playing in the marina. We love sea otters they have such engaging intelligent playful faces and we fell in love with them on our earlier yacht trip where we saw “Otto” chillin in the sea with some kelp wrapped around him to keep him in the same spot.
The people we met when we had a stop at Dutch lake gave us a map book of Vancouver island so we find a little “rec” site near Mohun lake. It looks a bit off the beaten track on the map and when we start to try and find it it’s down 11km of bumpy teeth rattling gravel logging road. We think we’ve missed it and end up going the wrong way down a single track road and I hop out of the van to guide guy reversing only to shriek after very nearly stepping on a brown snake!! After shrieking very loudly and jumping a couple of feet in the air - we safely reverse Wendy the mile or so back to the road and find the little site down a steep hill but it’s stunning right by a gorgeous lake with a pontoon out into it for fishing and swimming so we’re glad we persevered and greeted only us and 1 other set of people here. Some inevitable fishing and paddling follows. it’s delightfully warm. There's such a range of temperature of the lakes here from the Uber cold inland seas and glacial lakes to tepid bath water lakes - the temperature range is almost as broad as the colour range from blue to green.
We enjoy some tasty fajitas and a beer looking across the lake and wake up the next morning to glorious sun and more messing about in the water. I had fun jumping in off the pontoon and watching a bald eagle fishing across the other side of the lake. We also watch stunning black and white giant dragonflies dancing across the water and catching flies. After packing up we follow the boneshaking route back to the main road and stop for lunch on the way to telegraph cove. When we arrive at telegraph cove it’s so quaint and we love the whale museum which is full of bones and very knowledgable whale experts that explain the different types of orca family groups they see and the tail patterns of known humpbacks.
After chatting to the local whale watching people we’re seduced into booking one more trip with the hope of seeing orcas and humpbacks for a couple of days time. The orcas arrive back mid July and they haven’t quite come back yet so we’re a little early.
We decide to head over to port McNeill and try to get a ferry to Malcom island. We’re lucky and manage to catch a ferry (after topping up on hard lemonade and gin smash which are becoming our faves form the liquor stores). The ferry trip is a short 20 minutes of beauteousness and we arrive on the tiny island and quickly find a stunning pullout on the only real road as we head to the tip of the Ilana right by the sea. We’re just setting up and a grumpy fella turns up in his pickup truck, it turns out we’re parked on his land and he’s not too happy, as we apologise and start to chat the most amazing thing happens and we’re suddenly chatting like old friends and he lets us stay.
Turns out he’s a big old softy that fosters children with his wife and has a little small holding. Alex and Zara take us some okanagan cherries we had to say thankyou for letting us stay and he invites Alex to have a bounce on the kids trampoline and meet some of the menagerie which is lovely. Za spends the evening scanning the horizon for orcas as they often pass through the straits here but none can be seen.
We wake up to a foggy start and drive to bere point which is famed as a beach where orcas come to rub their bellies on the rounded stones when they pass through and also for ancient cedar forest. It’s a gorgeous place with a lovely campsite and we enjoy strolling through the old trees and along the shoreline of super round pebbles, no orcas to be seen though! Apparently a couple of days ago campers here were woken in the night to orca vocalisations as they chatted to each other.
We then head back to the little village of sointula and do a spot of fishing off the pier and spot incredible anemones whilst we pop some washing on. There are so many little fish and we try everything but fail to get a bite! Frustrating for Alex when he can see them all but can’t catch them. Laundry done we head back on the ferry to port McNeill and setup on the docks here and after a quick shop make some delicious homemade Greek flatbreads and marinated lemon chicken - yum!
We’re up early the next day as we need to head back to telegraph cove as we have a date with a small boat to go and try to see some whales! Connor our guide also has an amazing moustache like Jean Yves (za and I are still a little in love with him) so we’re hopeful his moustache has magical whale finding powers too! The boat ride though the Blackfish sound (named for the orcas that pass though here) is simply beautiful and we’re soon at a meeting of different water flows signifying food for whales and it’s not long before we spot our first spouts. The humpbacks travel up here from Mexico to feed due to the plentiful supplies. It's also where the big cruise liners doing the Alaska inside passage route come though - we see one and they look so large and incongruous here. We follow one glorious humpback for a while and see his beautiful tail - he’s Argonaut. Many of the whales return year after year and are old known friends to the guides who recognise them by the unique patterns on their tails. Argonaut has an “A” on the left of his tail and is a familiar friend here for Connor. As we follow Argonaut for a while we’re thrilled when dolls porpoises ( a bit like dolphins) pop up all around the boat and chase each other! They then start chasing our friend Argonaut - Connor tells us some whales like to play with the porpoises, others fight with them, others run away. It seems arganout quite likes them as we keep seeing him and the porpoises around him. After a while we see his behaviour change and he is “logging” which means he’s sleeping but he still needs to breathe so half his brain shuts down while the other half controls breathing - amazing! We think maybe he’s been worn out playing with the porpoises. After spending some time with this whale it becomes apparent that there are actually 2 whales here but there are other boats so move to another location so we don’t disturb the whales. We’re so impressed with the care and attention not to disturb these magnificent creatures, all watercraft must stay 100m away from whales (unless a whale comes up to the boat then the engine is switched off) and there are time limits on how long to stay with them. At our next location it’s not long before we see another spout and see the beautiful whale tail and this one is ripple. We are so lucky that she comes in close to the boat maybe 50m and we see her beautiful tail again with the engine shut off.
As we are mesmerised by ripple we see another spout and then there’s another whale called quartz whose tail we see - whale soup again - we are so lucky!! We have seen 3 lovely individuals and on the way back to base we see another spout so we’ve spent time with 3 whales and seen 4 individuals - very lucky indeed. Another precious magical day of memories.
When we get back to shore we have a cuppa to process the magic and head off on our way back towards nanimo.
We stop at a place we’ve been keen to see which is in Coombs - it’s a cool Little collection of shops with a living roof that’s home to some goats - goats on the roof! We have a quick potter then head back on our way and stop at a nice little campsite by the sea - Snaw Naw As as we all need a shower! We make friends with our neighbour who joins us for a chat and another family with young children Alex plays happily on the beach with and we do some rock painting together. Alex loves doing this and it really seems to bring out creativity in people when they join us - kids big and little love it.
After a lazy start we head to the nanimo ferry and across to Vancouver. We spend the whole time on deck hoping to see whales again but none to be seen this time! farewell Vancouver island we've loved you!
Emma
Commentaires