SUNDAY 7TH – WHAT A GEM OF A DAY

We woke this morning to what appeared to be an overcast sky but, as we discovered when we set out on our before breakfast beach walk (I would have said early morning beach walk but it wasn’t that early), it was a fog which progressively moved out to sea to allow the sunshine to prevail.

We spent most of the day exploring the Pacific Rim national park between Tofino (where we spent last night in the shabbiest most expensive camp ground ever) and Ucluelet on the west coast. The national park includes the dense forest between the road and the ocean beach and has quite a number of spectacular walks, many of which consist of constructed board walks.

We walked a long way today and feel very virtuous.

This afternoon, we headed east and found the very obscure water bomber base located in, you guessed it, Bomber Base Road on Sproat Lake. Given that it is Sunday, it was closed but, in any event, there is a sign saying that it is closed to tourists. The closest I could get to the massive flying boats was the photos taken through the fence. It is said that they can land on a lake and, without slowing down, pick up 27 tons of water in as many seconds, take off and deposit the 27 tons on a fire.

We are now camped in our favourite forestry environment in another B C Park but this time, we have a significant bonus. We are camped at Stamp Falls campground not far from Port Alberni and we can hear the rushing water of the falls in the background but what caught our attention about this camp ground was the fact that you can apparently see the salmon trying to swim up the falls, and you can! There is a fish ladder constructed in the 1950’s to make it easier for them but some at least, can’t find the entrance to it.

We watched them milling around below the falls and then attempting to jump/swim up the falls. It appears to be a futile exercise. Getting a photo of a jumping salmon is tricky but I managed it.