VANCOUVER ISLAND: day 20

I was rudely awakened at 4am by quite literally, one of my worst nightmares; hundreds teeny tiny flies crawling all over us and biting our faces/whole body. Thought maybe it was just a nightmare until I saw a swarm of them covering the inside of the windows. Turns out the holes in our fly nets are mosquito size only. Minuscule bastards. 

We packed up then went to check out and Eternal Fountain nearby. It was a waterfall that appeared out of nowhere, in a forest full of squishy moss. It popped out from the side of a mound and disappear again back into the ground. Nature is cool. 

Next stop is camping on the beaches of Cape Scott Provincial Park, the northern tip of the island. Tomorrow night is the only day that isn’t going to be pouring with rain for a while, so the pressure is on. Isaac is still on a mission to test the off-roading capacity of the van and picked a route that is forest service roads only (FSRs). Will we make the 100km of off-roading in a van that’s older than me in time for the beach camping weather? Unsure, but maybe should have more faith. 

45 mins of driving in, we reach a huge sinkhole in the road. Find different route through a network deactivated FSRs (apparently this will be quicker/more direct than the highway). Clearly no one had driven down these road in a very long time. Animal carcasses were strewn across the road, the bushes and trees were so overgrown we were getting whipped in the face if the van windows were open, and I lost count of the amount of bears we startled from the road. Perhaps we we should have taken the ‘4x4 recommended’ sign more seriously, but we were too far to turn around so onwards and upwards. 

Anxiety levels were through the roof, but the GPS map said we were so close to the end of the road. We turned almost the final bend and the road disappeared into ANOTHER sink hole. lol. Back we go (literally, had to reverse for a while as no space to turn and bushes so thick you can't see in the wing mirror).

Despite all the delays and backtracking, we made it to the heritage campsite on the edge of the beaches before it was completely dark, passing a beautiful shoe memorial on the way. This has been a stressful day, but hopefully the rush will be worth it. Did a sun dance to cement tomorrow’s supposed glorious camping weather, made dinner, then went to bed.