VANCOUVER ISLAND: day 3
The sunlight woke me up too early, but being the pro sleeper that I am, I managed to force myself back to sleep. I probably should have just started the day. Next time.
Bit drizzly still, so made breakfast inside (french toast today, oo la la). We packed up super quick to avoid the ranger and carried on driving along the coastline. Had zero signal, but roughly knew that if we turned left out of Jordan River, Sombrio Beach/Port Renfrew would be the next stop. Drove in that general direction and hoped for the best.
The road was v windy, twisty and bumpy, the weather was abysmal. It felt like we were in a huge cloud, could barely see 100m in front of us. The forest next to us was thick, all the trees were huge and covered in juicy moss. It felt super eerie, I half expected to see a real life Sasquatch after each bend. In sum, not ideal driving conditions.
Skipped Sombrio Beach which was sad, but we could barely see our hands in front of our face. Port Renfrew was a strange lil’ town. Sort of spread out down the road, bizarre adverts for Airbnbs and gas prices nailed to the trees along the way.
We walked down to Botanical Bay on the seafront. Low tides = millions of rock pools. I REALLY love rock pools. The longer you look at them, the busier they become. Teeny-tiny crabs and fish poke their heads out after they think you’re gone.
We wandered down the rocky shore, then headed back through the forest. Isaac wore thongs (Australian for flip flops) which is not the best footwear for slippery, jagged rocks/slippery, root-y forests. Some very cool, wobbly trees in this forest though. Made Isaac look like a tiny person.
Port Renfrew feels on the edge of being a ghost town. Only one place open to get food, I had very low expectations but the food turned out to be insane (curried mussels). Checked out the very limited, local shop, then headed towards Lake Cowichan.
Stopped at a really, really big tree on the way (San Juan Sitka Spruce). It was like the ones from Avatar. I felt small. Hard to imagine that once, it too was as small as me. Lake Cowichan was huuuge and really very lovely. Reminds me a bit of Cheakamus Lake.
Bit the bullet and paid for a campsite as it was getting late. It’s no fun trying to find somewhere to sleep for the night in the dark.
The evening lake is lush and the moon was looking fat. So many freakin’ mosquitoes though. Why are the Canadian ones so huge?! I did the washing up from yesterday then made dinner (veggie burgers, salad and mash), Isaac made a fire (finally after what felt like hours of trying, failing and swearing).
For some reason I didn’t picture bumping into a single soul on this trip. I imagined Vancouver Island to be semi deserted. I forgot that despite being in a pandemic, we are still in the middle of the summer holidays. I guess The Island is a popular holiday destination. There are a lot of screaming kids running about this campsite. Already getting a bit sick of other people.