What a lovely little place
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2006
1
161
188
Trip End
Ongoing
Tofino,
British Columbia,
Canada
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Well, that's what they thought. I was sat on our bus looking oot of the window when the bus next to us reversed oot and the lad appeared from behind the depot to see his bus driving away. His face was an absolute picture. Confusion, then realisation then panic, all the classic signs of someone realising that his girlfriend and luggage were setting off withoot him. His running and flapping seemed to be having no effect at first until it eventually stopped. The moral, don't smoke kids, you might miss your bus.
Our bus soon followed oot of the station and across the island to Tofino, a lovely little town on the waterfront in a bay on the west coast. I suppose you could say it's very commercial as most places were offering tours of some sort or another, but it doesn't feel like that. More like a sleepy fishing village. Rather than aggresive marketing they just sit there and accept their tourism if it turns up, which in the summer I'm sure it does. I think it'd be a really nice place to settle to get a job for a summer. Perhaps I was just being influenced by the spring sun, I was almost warm and went oot withoot my jacket. I know. Madness.
We were staying in the cadillac of hostels according to the lonely planet and it's hard to argue. It's set on the water and was pristine with a really nice kitchen and living area with views across the inlet to the mountains. We strolled up to a tour operator to see if we could book a hot springs tour and by luck I'd chosen the place that offered the best discount with the hostel card.
The next day we got up bright and early and headed along to find oot that there weren't enough people for the tour to go ahead. There's a theme emerging here after the floatplane. Yet again it all worked oot and we were joined on the trip by an Aussie couple, a bloke from Seattle and his two sons and a random punter who although like us had signed up for a hot springs tour didn't get wet. We set off at 12, a couple of hours later than expected on a nippy boat that bounced its way across the waves. Our skipper was a fella with a searing voice which unfortunate as by the end of the return journey I'd gained a stinking headache. The first stop was a couple of very small islands and the Oz lass asked a particularly sharp question which got the answer it deserved. She asked how large the islands were. The answer, they're there, they're as large as you can see they are. We stopped there to see some bad eagles nests. One of them was on a branch and I thought this was my chance to finally get a photo of a bird of prey in its natural environment after trying for the past 16 months. I settled against the railings, zoomed in, got the bird in my sight and then he moved the boat. This was a bit of a theme. He had his schedule to stick to and we then headed oot to the Pacific to see if we could spot some whales.
March to May is the migrating season for grey whales returning from their winter hols in Mexico. They arrive in waves (BOOM BOOM there's an accidental crap gag for you), with the adult males turning up before the mothers and calves with random adolescents following behind. We managed to spot a few and hung around a while to get some badly framed wobbly pictures of grey splodges. We then settled back in the boat to head on to the hot springs. We saw another whale off to the right but the idea of seeing that was swiftly shot down by the screech that "this is a hot springs tour!".
After a great deal of bobbing along through the ocean waves we arrived at the mooring point for the hot springs. There was a 25 minute boardwalk through the trees to get there and then it was time to face stripping off in the Canadian spring to get in the warmth. It wasn't actually too bad, the springs were reasonably sheltered from the ocean breeze and after some clambering over some rocks it was time for a nice relaxing slightly eggy sulphuric dip. It was a nice spot with a couple of waterfalls feeding 3 small pools for sitting in. With all the operators it was a good time of year to be there as we got the place to ourselves. Just like Goldilocks I thought the middle pool was the best; not too hot and not too cold, just right. It was the temperature of a nice warm bath that you've just finished topping off with hot water so it's just fractionally too warm.
There were also a couple of rock pools further down which other than the risk of death from being washed oot to sea would be good in the summer as the cool ocean would mix in with the hot water. After an hour or so lazing I slowly pottered back. I did anyway, Graham had seen the sign that warned of bears so had picked up the pace. The journey back was through the inner route through the inlets and it reminded me of Milford Sound. We managed to see a tiny black slodge which through some binoculars turned oot to be a black bear. Excellent news, that's ticked off so I don't have to go oot hunting for one. What a brilliant day, whales, hot springs and a bear. I certainly didn't think I'd be relaxing in hot springs whilst I was in Canada and the nature was a top bonus that made it even better value. If you find yourself near and can spare the time to get over there, head to Tofino.
