A Tiny Place on the Water

Today I am taking you back to Vancouver Island - to be more precise to the North of Vancouver Island. "North" begins at Campbell River, the "end of civilization" at it is often called. Beyond here, "there's nothing up there worth seeing" as anyone below Campbell River will tell you. Nothing could be further from the truth.

After you have passed Campbell River, you enter the extensive wilderness of Vancouver Island. Here, you can find small primitive campgrounds where you can be on your own - our first night here was spent in a campground just north of Campbell River and we were the only people there. It was a bit unusual, especially when we heard someone walking around the campground in the middle of the night - someone with four legs! We never found out what animal it was - a bear? an elk? - but it didn't bother us and we eventually returned to sleep.

This part of Vancouver Island is mainly used by the lumber industry which you are aware of by the many lumber truck signs along the road. This sign below means that lumber trucks enter the road from the right. There are also signs with the front of the truck on the right side (just flip the image horizontally in your mind) which means the lumber trucks enter from the left. At least this is what I figured out after observing this for several (many) kilometers.

The lumber floats on the water, something I had only seen in Scandinavia before, and it is also worked by little boats here.

The North Island has some quirky outback communities, one of them is Telegraph Cove. It is a tiny funky place on the water and is a complete boardwalk "town" with wooden buildings built on stilts.

Right at the beginning of the boardwalk you can see what this place is all about and why you find quite some tourists here:

Some of the best whale watching and grizzly bear tours start here in any kind of weather. These tours are not cheap, but I do think they would be a wonderful thing to do.

One of the whale watching boats

It's a dangerous place!

Unfortunately we didn't... but we visited the Whale Interpretive Center at the end of the boardwalk. It has some fantastic exhibitions and give you a lot of food for thought. This exhibit is the skeleton of a fin whale, the second longest animal in the world.

The busiest place in this small community is the marina with all its little and bigger boats and fisher boats as well.

Another great place to visit is the Killer Whale Cafe almost at the end of the boardwalk, right across from the small office of the Grizzly Bear Adventure Tours.

We ended up here twice during our stay on the North Island. Not only does it have a fantastic Killer Whale Pale Ale (try to say that very fast!) but it also serves the most delicious fish and chips we ever had.

You could choose between cod, salmon and halibut. While the Geek and Kaefer had cod I opted for halibut and a glass of Killer Whale Pale Ale - oh yummy!!!

Walking Through the Rain Forest

My posts about Cape Scott wouldn't be complete without telling you about the rain forest that we had to hike through in order to get to the wonderful deserted beach at San Josef Bay. The hike through the rain forest took about 45 to 60 minutes and was easy.

It was also beautiful. The rain forest is never silent. There are birds singing, water dripping, mosquitoes buzzing. Your own sweat collecting at your neck and slowly running down your back - yes, it's humid in there. The humidity, however, causes this incredible growth we found in this rain forest.

The rain forest starts right at the beach - one moment you're still out in the sand, the next you are in the cool and shady forest. Quite a sudden transition.

The trees are huge and really impressive looking. Many of them are covered with moss, especially the further away from the beach you get.

Everything is so fascinating here - the trees, the plants and the little animals - that I wasn't the only one who got carried way by taking pictures.

What fascinated me most were the beautiful mushrooms - difficult to photograph since I didn't want to lay flat on the ground here. So I just put my camera on the ground and did some "blind shots", hoping it would work out.

This last photo is my contribution to this week's Texture Tuesday, layered with Kim Klassen's texture "kk_littlethings".

The Texture of Sand

After a little excursion we are back to San Josef Bay in Cape Scott Provincial Park at the very northern end of Vancouver Island. While we were hanging out at this beautiful, deserted beach I noticed how different the texture of the sand was in different locations - quite fascinating!

You can already see it here in all the ripples in the sand. But there was more.

This looks like the wind is  blasting across the sand, but it actually was rather still here.

Look at this interesting pattern - when the tide went out, the small pebbles that were still floating in the water painted these zig-zag lines into the sand until they just stopped where the water would drop them.

I love this landscape - just a different perspective of the sand in the top photo.

Here you can clearly see where the water was flowing before it retreated and left these canyons.

A peaceful pattern, one you think can go on for miles and miles. Again, just a different perspective of the second photo.

And this is how the sand looks like in the water - gorgeous. I feel like picking up a brush (or using my fingers) and make beautiful textures with heavy bodied paint.

Where Solitude Meets the Ocean

Remember my post about the road to Cape Scott? So, here we are in the parking lot at the end of the 63 km long gravel road. We put on our hiking boots, take some water, our cameras and whatever else we need with us and walk 2.5 km through the rain forest to get to this deserted, empty and wide beach at San Josef Bay in the very north of Vancouver Island.

It's as if you have stepped into another world. Except for a few other people there is no one there, it is absolutely quiet with the exception of the wind and the sound of the relatively small waves crashing onshore. A tame Pacific, enclosed by the beautiful bay with its hilly forests.

The beach is not all sand - there are quite some plants that peek through as well as some driftwood.

please notice the flip flops...

Each of us enjoyed this heavenly place in his or her own way. Kaefer sat in the sand, drawing the bay and some little animal that she had discovered in the sand.

All of us at some point or other took pictures - each of us with their very own point of view. Kaefer was fascinated by the little waves, the Geek by some pattern in the sand and I just took pictures of both of them (beside all the other photos, of course).

I loved the solitude at this beach. You can actually camp here if you bring everything you need and are willing to carry it through the rain forest. There is a pit toilet here, but no drinking water; however, there is a waterfall at the far end of the beach which you can use if you bring a water filter. The Geek and I are already talking of coming here again and staying for two nights in our tent. There were just a few people camping here, it's not for everyone hauling all your stuff out here. The price is quietness and peacefulness amongst natural beauty.

If you want to know what the hike through the rain forest was like - that will be a future post.