A long weekend away

It was BC Day here on Monday. Know what that is? Me neither, but it means I had Monday off work. I also took the Friday off and went camping in Tofino on Vancouver Island.

Tofino is a small town on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It takes about an hour and a half by ferry from Vancouver, and then it's another three hour drive to Tofino. Tofino itself only has 2,000 people so it's pretty small, but there are heaps of beaches all along the coast and it gets pretty busy in summer.

Today I am going to share with you with some pretty interesting stuff I discovered on my trip to Tofino.

Among the wildlife you need to be aware of are wolves, bears and COUGARS - yes, cougars. This means you have to animal proof everything and not leave any food or smelly items in your tent or at your campsite, this includes stuff like soap. And apparently gray buckets. Not sure why that is but apprently they attract bears. It can get confusing though because if you're attacked by a bear, you shouldn't maintain eye contact, but if you're attacked by a cougar, you should. Now in the event of any such attack, I am pretty sure I'd get them mixed up. Luckily, the closest encounter I came to any of the wildlife was getting stung on the finger by a wasp.

I watched an interesting video at the Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre called 'The Intertidal Zone' - does that sound like an action movie title to anyone else? The following day I walked around Schooner Cove at low tide to check out the creatures that habit the in between tide period - there was definitely a lot of action going on! So many star fish and sea anemones in amazing colours.

Tofino is a well known surf spot - one of the best in Canada. The weather and the swell weren't good enough to brave the waters so I didn't surf while I was there, but it was cool to watch the surfers. I also suspect the water was pretty cold too, as most of them were wearing full body wet suits.

Coombs, a small town just outside of Nanaimo where you get off the ferry, features some goats that live on the grass covered roof of the market. Awesome.

Although the weather in Tofino itself wasn't great when I was there, it was perfect on the first and last days when I was heading to and from the ferry. On the way to Tofino, I happened upon a perfect river for swimming and on the way back to the ferry, went for a swim in the very warm Sproat Lake. As far as tourism slogans go, British Columbia's one is pretty accurate - Super, Natural BC

Oh and Big Daddy's Fish Fry in Tofino has some of the best fish and chips I've had in ages!

Cougar picture source: http://www.travel-vancouver-island.com, all other pictures are mine