Tofino: Whales and hot springs

It was bloody freezing, there was snow on the ground and J went out on the water………twice! Why? Creatures!

Tofino is a small town on Vancouver Island, a large Island off Vancouver. When I came last time, I thought it was a large island like the Isle of Wight but at 32,000 sq km, it’s 100 times bigger. Bloody huge.

Larry and Sandra knew a great place to stay just outside the town and it was our chance to enjoy a bit of wilderness without going too wild.

The Pacific Sands sits on a beach about 7km outside Tofino town and the windswept beach was a gorgeous backdrop. It was here that we realised that when it comes to being organised and wanting things to be right, J is an amateur. Sandra showed us how it is done and by the time we settled into our cottage on day two, at least 20 man hours had been spent getting it right. It was a very clean cottage!

Tofino has some great stuff to see; whales, sea otters (the dirty little fuckers), seals, eagles, a hot spring and some really, really big trees. We got to see most of the above on a day long trip to the hot springs; Humpbacks and greys entertained us on the way back, seals lounged on rocks and sea otters (the dirty little fuckers) frolicked at the entrance to the bay. The hot springs could have been a bit of a mare as only a few people can fit in at any one time. Luckily, when it’s 7c outside the majority of sensible people do something other than sitting in a small hot spring on the edge of a bay, so for the majority of the time, there was just J and I and the other guy on our trip (who we think was competing in the ‘Most negative man in the world’ awards and would have been drowned by us if the springs had been any deeper). I did feel sorry for the group of 12 who passed us as we were leaving as they were going to experience lots of strangers pressing cold flesh against their own…… It would have been like a very intimate none sexual orgy where everyone is wearing swimmers (so not that much like an orgy……. I imagine).

Hot Springs and Whale Watching

The big trees and the eagles we saw on a kayaking trip around the bay, wrapped up warm in a kayak made for two, guided by the lovely …… from Paddle West Kayaking. We covered about 10km and walked for a couple of km along the Big Tree Trail on Meares Island, which is exactly that. Some of the trees are 1800 years old which seems unimaginable. They are huge and rather awe inspiring.

Kayaking

The only downside is that J’s cold turned into such a violent cough that she sounded like a 90 year old Chinese man with a 60-a-day habit….who had a bad cold. She was so worried that she was likely to offend the rest of us that she confined herself to our room one day and missed out on the lovely surroundings.

When not out and about, we ate well, drank some booze and had a thoroughly relaxing few days.

From here, we headed back to the mainland, then on to Whistler!!

Out and About Around Tofino