Ucluelet

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After Gill and Cai's wedding on Saturday July 12 there was a birthday party for Tony on Sunday across Florence Lake at Pat's daughter's home. It was a nice spot, at the end of the road high on a ridge top. There was a bit of a fuss to celebrate the birthday. Noel and Grier, who were visiting with Ellen for the week, were there. We had to duck out relatively early as we had an AirBnB reserved in Ucluelet (we like to say You-Clue-Less but that's a tired joke) for Sunday night. We had hoped to spend the day travelling there but the birthday party has changed our plans. The goal now is to get there before nightfall.

Kate had never been to Long Beach, or on up to Tofino, on the west coast of the island and, of course, neither had I. It's about a 5 hour drive from Victoria. You head north along the east side of the island on the mostly 4-lane Island Highway through Nanaimo (famous for the chocolate bar; also the other ferry to the Horseshoe Bay on the mainland). Shortly after that you head west, crossing the island and mountain ranges through Port Alberni and on to the Pacific Rim Highway with Tofino at the north end and Ucluelet on a peninsula to the south. The road is only two lane across the island; sometimes closed because of snow or landslides; few passing areas; snow tires required in the winter season. It's a beautiful drive with lots to see but we don't have much time to make any stops.

It's only 40km along the west coast from Ucluelet to Tofino with Long Beach in between. We made it to Long Beach but not to Tofino. That 40km is the entire highway on the west coast of Victoria Island; all else is only accessible by boat. The island is a big empty country.

Ucluelet is a small fishing and tourism town of about 2,000 people. Our AirBnB is near the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula. We are on the water, or at least a swampy inlet, but the tide is out. I'm wandering down by the water and find there's a deer there munching on the sweet grass in a swampy area; later on there's one close by our stay. They seem very tame or at least nonplussed by us. I was telling/texting this to our landlord after we had gone. He said, that's nothing. He had moved the fridge out onto the driveway, a bear came along and tipped it over rooting around for something to eat!

On Monday we visited a couple of fishing harbors in town, did a walk in the woods nearby and went out to the Lighthouse before heading up to Long Beach. There's an interpretative centre at Long Beach and an Information Center on the highway where you branch south to Ucluelet or north toward Tofino.

We had a fine Monday to visit the west coast; it had been cool and foggy the night before when we arrived (I gather it often is). On the way back to Victoria we stopped at the "Old Country Market" in Coombs (famous for "goats on the roof " and yes there really were goats who live on the roof). It's a too busy and too cute by far tourist trap that Tony and Pat recommended. Further on we stopped in Cowichan to explore the many painted murals. Tony and Pat recommend the dinner theatre here but that would be for another day. There's another ferry terminal in Cowichan serving some of the islands which are just a stone's throw away.

Back in Sydney, the Victoria Airport and the Sydney Ferry Terminal are here, we meet up with Tony and Pat to return their car that they had kindly lent us. We share a meal together at Riva over looking the water and they drop us off at our hotel. We fly out in the morning.

It was a brief visit, far too short. Kate loves the woods of the west coast, we should visit again and give it more time.