We were supposed to be on the early boat to see the Whales, however, we phoned the office, arranged to go on the thee thirty boat and went back to sleep.
Breakfast was a bit of a disaster, due to our new server having a poor memory. we had asked for Tea and coffee on two occasions, by the time we had finished our breakfast, neither had arrived. So, we gave up and went into town for some beverage.
The sun was up and getting hot. We found a map in a local cafe that had some little known routs up into the forest. We eventually found the route which was also no the way to the local refuse dump. Nice!!
However, this turned out to be a blessing, as it had the effect of putting people off. we had a fantastic walk in the forest and saw, amongst others, a group of bald eagles (Bald in this context means white), a snake, a Golden Eagle, frogs, huge slugs (about 6 inches long) and a group of people camping deep in the forest. we also saw a lot of bear poop. They only have black bears in this area, which are quite nervous of humans and not known to attack.
After a couple of hours the temperature was high, so we turned back a retraced our steps back to the car. On the was back, we stopped at one of the local beaches for a quick photo. We came back to the car to find a permit fine. John tried to barter with the attendant who was not interested. The fine was $40, so John managed to track down the main office (15 minutes drive away) and told the lady in charge what had happened. she apologised and cancelled the fine. RESULT!!
We then rushed back to town for our Whale watching trip. We arrived at Jamie's Whale station and began the arduous task of "kitting up". This entailed getting into a huge red buoyancy and protection suit, followed by a protective poncho. After a few minutes, we both became very hot.
After a quick safety check, we headed down to the dock and loaded ourselves onto the Zodiac boat, securing the front seat which the captain warned us was more bumpy but less wet.
He wasn't wrong, as we sped out of the harbour the waves quickly grew until they were huge. we flew over them, slapping the waves in front each time. After 45 minutes of theme park ride (very enjoyable), we arrived at the Whale site.
Yes, there was a Grey Whale, spouting water into the air. Most of the time the Whale stayed well under the water, only it's spray showing above. Still, it came up a few times and we managed to get some video and a few distant photo's which we were happy about. The boats stayed at a respectful distance, which was good.
By the time we headed back the waves had become even bigger. The ride back was pure action film stuff. At one time, the captain had to stop the boat and turn to face the waves as their sheer size had become, well, a problem!!
Half was back we suddenly turned into a bay, and there on rocks in front of us were a family of local seals. They were chilling out on the rocks. Apparently, these seals are the biggest in the world. Just after, when flying home, some small sea birds flew right in front of the boat with beaks full of fish. They were flying just above the sea and were much faster than us.
We raced back to the dock, where the captain completed a couple of very tight circles which was great fun.
We docked back by 6 and then raced back to the hotel to shower and change in time for our 7 PM reservation at the Shelter restaurant, which has quickly become our favourite. The meal was very enjoyable, we shared a crispy squid tempura then Fiona had local Chicken and John a Thai Seafood Curry which was half the price of the previous evening and ten times as enjoyable.
If you are reading this and fancy a great meal, take a look at the following link, which can take some time to load, but it's worth it!! http://www.shelterrestaurant.com/welcome.htm
Tomorrow we are off to our next destination, Campbell River, take a look at:
http://www.campbellriver.travel
