Tuesday 12 August 2014

Canada 2014: Tofino

Tofino

Tofino is a little town at the west coast of Vancouver Island. To get there, we hired a car in Nanaimo and drove throught the mountains! It was a rather scenic drive with some huge height inclines! 18 % decline and incline is quite a lot for someone who grew up in an area where there is just flat land... 

Fortunately the car was an automatic one which made the driving a lot easier! I had a bit of a laugh when we got the car though. It was labeled as a small car: I didn't find it that small really but I guess to all the other huge cars on the road it was small indeed. Well, it was the right size for us and I wouldn't have wanted to drive a bigger one.


On our road to Tofino we stopped at the Little Qualicum Falls. The waterfalls were so pretty! Don't you just love waterfalls? They are quite magical for me... When I was a kid my parents would stop at every single waterfall and at some point I was quite annoyed by it (another one?!) but nowadays I get their fascination with waterfalls.

Tofino is a very small town full of touristy shops. Everything is very expensive (we wished several time we had done some grocery shopping in Nanaimo)... The hostel (Whaler's Point Guesthouse) we stayed in had a nice location but wasn't very good otherwise. It was very loud, the staff had a frat-party mentality and the bathrooms weren't cleaned often enough. Oh and it was very, very expensive. Just to put it in perspective: Our nice hotel right in the middle of Paris in summer cost us less then this hostel... 

We did have a lovely time in Tofino anyway! :-) We took the Hot Spring Tour and the Bear Watching Tour from Jamie's Whaling Station and saw so much wildlife on the tours! Bears, whales, otters... So exciting! The tours weren't cheap but well worth it. Seeing whales was truly magical (so was the happy face of the boyfriend who longed to see whales for some time). 



One evening we got to see four bald eagles at once right in front of our hostel! Wow! For me, this was more exciting than seeing the whales! Eagles are such majestic animals - so sad that some people hunt them!


Of course we spent some time at the beach as well! First we thought about taking surfing lessons but in the end we didn't. The pacific ocean was really cold but nice to walk along. 



Altogether the temperatures weren't high in Tofino (only about 20 ° C) but it was sunny all the time. I prefer cooler temperatures with sun anyway, so the weather was quite alright with me!


Take care
Anne

6 comments :

  1. Wow these photos are beautiful! So good that you saw so much wildlife, I've always wanted to see whales they're such beautiful creatures! And otters :) The sunsets look stunning!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! The whales were pretty amazing! We even saw a mum with a calf! I would love to see Orcas one day...

      Take care
      Anne

      Delete
  2. Love your photographs. I love the blue of the Pacific ocean. Your picture of a bluebottle jellyfish reminded me of my childhood, when our swimming lesson at the beach baths was hijacked by an influx of bluebottles. Are they found in other oceans or only the Pacific? The canadian wildlife is certainly something I would love to see. The natural world on this planet is phenomenal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what they called! We had never seen these bluebottle jellyfishes before and weren't sure what they were! I don't thing they are found in any other oceans since I hadn't seen one yet. But who knows!

      I am always stunned about the amazing, amazing natural world of the planet - breathtaking! One only needs to remember to actual see and appreciate it! It's so easy to just walk past and not see the beauty!

      Delete
  3. Hello!

    I just found your blog! :) Looking forward to reading more on here... Wow, what an amazing trip! I love your photos, such a range of wildlife and you managed to capture it all, well done!

    Enjoy your summer!
    Ingrid x
    myfunkycrochet.blogspot.be (I'm new to blogging, go and take a look!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Ingrid! Great to see you here! :-) The trip to Canada was indeed truely amazing! I already miss the country!
      Take care
      Anne

      Delete