Tofino Tour

Tofino is, I guess, a tourist spot on the west side of Vancouver Island. It's situated at the tip of a beach-lined penninsula and surrounded with small, hilly islands covered by original rainforest. It is the home of some of the "first nations" as the Indians are called here. Tofino is a small place - four by four streets and the home of a lot of B & B's, restaurants and outdoor activity operators. Dozens of expensive resorts seems to be hidden in the surrounding pines. It's not too big and actually quite pleasant. People come here for the nature and wildlife, and to surf. There are several kinds of whales in the ocean and grizzly bears in the wood. People get around in boats, mainly open Zodiacs, small, covered motor boats and kayaks. It's one of the better surfing spots in the world and some of the world's best surfer actually come from this place.

The drive from Victoria takes 5,5 hours. A good freeway up to Port Alberni (and a stop at McDonalds)and then a winding highway. The road across the island is scenic, with montains, big forest and rivers. For Alice with her motion sickness, however, it's a nightmare. The Toyota Highlander handled great, so much better than the SAAB at home.

In Tofino we stayed in a family room in the hostel "Whalers on the Point" (http://www.tofinohostel.com/). It's a great place with great views although it gets pretty rambling around dinner time. Alice especially seemed to enjoy being in that environment.

We had booked a whale watching tour in an open Zodiac but the operators called us and persuaded us to go in a covered boat instead. A storm around Hawaii was about to pass some bad and rainy weather on us. The sea was high in the morning as the boat shot around some islets for a look at an eagle's nest, seals and sea lions. Then we started looking for whales. Normally, they are easily spotted by the water shooting up from their breeding hole but with winds and high waves it was difficult. Still, it didn't take long to find a group of three Humpback whales. Lucky for us, they moved into a channel bewtween islands where the sea was a bit calmer and we could get a better look at them. You don't see much of them, though. Only the back rising over the water when they come up to breath. Esbjörn seemed to enjoy it more when the boat jumped off big waves, and after a while Alice started to get seasick. Still, it was a good tour, interpretative, not streamlined, rugged, a good guide/captain. In the evening we walked to one of the sandy beaches. The weather cleared. It was beautiful but it was hardly a time for swimming.

The next day we drove back. A hard rain was falling most of the time but we did stop at a place to take a look at the forest and some really old and big trees.