Day 16 - Tofino

More rain is forecast so what do we wake up to? Yup, brilliant sunshine, not a cloud in the sky. Yippee!! Let's go exploring Tofino and the Pacific Rim coast.

First stop is down on our beach (Chesterman) because I want get some pics in the morning sun. I also spot the resident eagle sitting imperiously on the top of the tallest tree by the restaurant just cawing and watching for food. What a great sight.








Taking our local map, with some recommended beauty spots we head onto Hwy 4. First stop is the ranger station to purchase the park passes, then on to Radar Hill, an old Cold War Missile Early Warning station concrete bunker built on a hill. Now defunct, obviously, you can still go up to see the view and stand on top of the underground bunker. Sadly much of the view is hidden by the ever-growing trees but it's nice in the sunshine and also a pleasant and easy little walkway up there.

Next on to a quick stop to take a picture of Incinerator Rock. Just a rock in the sea on Long Beach. We then drive to the proper car park of Long Beach and take a walk along the beach, looking for flotsam, jetsam, sea shells and that really HIDEOUS seaweed that we found on our last visit. Hard to describe but a bunch of it looks like a giant's entrails. As I said, hideous!

We are feeling a tad peckish and head to Wickaninnish Beach (nowhere near the Wickaninnish Inn just to confuse things) where there is an Interpretive Centre and Cafe, both of which are shut. Not a soul in sight so bugger them, we're going to Ucluelet instead. First we decide to head down one more unexplored (for us) road. Off to Florencia Bay which is famous for a wreck of a ship in the 1800's and an amazing bit of the Temperate Rain Forest which makes up much of the Pacific Rim National Park.

On our way back, something mysterious prompts Carol to get the camera ready. 3 years ago along this stretch of the road almost we saw our very first black bear, only a baby one and too quick to hide in bushes before we could get a proper picture. Now, almost to the very day and time and about 250 metres away we turn the corner and see in the road again, yep a black bear. Larger than the tiddler we saw previously and the minute he sees us, begins to turn away. Carol clicks frantically and hopes she has the zoom at max and auto focus working. We await to see the pics later with everything crossed.

 The excitement is such that we miss the lunch break and head straight to the very end of Ucluelet where we take a 2 km walk along the Wild Pacific Trail and take hundreds of photos of the wild Pacific Ocean.

Glorious views, warm sunshine (it's finally T-shirt weather) and a nice little hike (quite challenging in places) to get back to the car. Takes us around an hour to complete it and we decided to skip any lunch and head back to the Wick Inn for Jim to have his massage with a very hot masseuse named Tara and Carol to soak in the big tub and "beautify" herself.

We dine at the Pointe Restaurant again. A new Spring menu with fabulous new dishes. Carol has smoked Arctic Char to start followed by AAA Alberta fillet steak, Jim the Crab with English Pea Panacotta and Halibut with English Peas and veg. White choc panacotta to follow, wine and coffee and brandy - all very nice.

Early bed for Jim while Carol packs. On the road again tomorrow.