Hey all, Sorry I know I'm a bit slow with posting this update... Been feeling a bit blah about blog writing and kept putting it off - I couldn't really be bothered with it till now to be honest lol. But finally here is this weeks' wrap up :) Wednesday 01.05.13: Move out day. This morning we took our time packing up so it wasn't till around 11am that we were leaving Rathtrevor Beach. Toby's power points don't work off the coach battery and we haven't yet bought an inverter or generator, so after dry camping for a few days our phones, iPad and cameras are usually all dead. We had originally planned to head into nearby Parksville to find an RV park with power to charge everything & wifi so Ben could do some dentist research... But since we were through town before we knew it, we decided to just keep heading up the coast. We checked out several parks along the way and ended up in the Courtney/Comox area (mid Island). It was a really beautiful scenic drive along the coast to get here. We stopped in at Maccas for lunch and to use their wifi to check out nearby parks. We finally settled on Bates Beach Resort and it was around 3pm before we got there and settled in. At first glance it's nothing special but once we settled in it's quite ok & the guy running the office was really friendly. It's one of the smaller campgrounds we've stayed in (only 30 odd campsites) but there are only 2 other sites occupied so its really quiet at the moment. I wouldn't like to be here when the park is full though - you'd have no privacy at all. The campground looks out over the beach and is located next to Seal Bay Nature Park, which is highly recommended for nature hikes and wildlife spotting. We went for a walk up the beach and saw a couple of sea lions sitting out on a rock sunning themselves. Thursday 02.05.13: Being so close to the beach we could hear the sea lions barking throughout the night last night, it was pretty cool. We had a quick walk this morning and you could see them playing offshore again - seeing that never gets old... I was talking to Wendy in the office when I went to check out and she said they're around all the time and she's still not sick of seeing them! She was such a lovely lady - I went to drop off the washroom key and ended up staying to chat for ages... The Australian accent is a real ice breaker, as soon as you say you're from Oz everyone says things like "oh I went to Ohhhhstralia once" (I can't spell it the way they pronounce it but you get the idea) or "I've always wanted to go there" which then leads to a chat about where they went and where we live etc.... She was so nice too, I had borrowed a book from their library and she's like "oh if you see any there you like feel free to take some, we have too many". So Ben had started Toby to warm him up when I went into the office and then sat there waiting till I came trotting out 15mins later after a big chat & with a handful of books haha!! We're off to Elk Falls Provincial Park today which is only about a 50km trip from here. We took the coast road again and it was such a pretty drive - its a slower trip along the coast, but much more interesting than the inland highway! We got to Campbell River around 11.30am and found a laundromat to do some washing. Holy expensive! At most parks it's been about $1.50-$2 for a load - here it's $3.25 per load!!! So we sorted out what we HAD to wash and what could wait, put the loads on & went searching for coffee. It's so nice now that Ben's graduated from drinking ice breaks to real coffee - we can go "get coffee" together lol :) After the laundry was done we had lunch at the yummiest Thai restaurant. We haven't had Thai since we left Oz and it was soooo good. It was so nice to eat out for a change as well, how luxurious... We grabbed some groceries then hit the road and arrived at Elk Falls around 3pm. We picked a site and self-registered - it's $16 a night so you can't beat that!!! The campground is still half closed off and there's only about 8 other sites occupied. We're so lucky to have most of these gorgeous places pretty much to ourselves at the moment - in summer they will be chockers... Our site is so pretty, it backs onto the Quinsam River & it's so nice to sit outside and watch the river flow past. After we set up this afternoon we saw an otter floating past in the river - so much wildlife... Also tonight we had a nice surprise when I went to turn on the nights and nothing.... No lights.... Right, so we went searching for the circuit breaker to check the fuses, but searching in the dark wasn't really successful. So we'll have to look for it tomorrow morning and check it out. We've been sitting out by the campfire and since its light till about 9pm we don't really need lights anyway. Bring out the candles :) Friday 03.05.13: We had such a great sleep last night, it's so soothing going to sleep listening to the river flowing past at night. Great news, we located the circuit breaker - good to know where it is now lol - Ben reset all of the fuses and hey presto we have lights again. So I'm not sure what tripped but we'll get Toby checked over at some stage, it's all good for the time being! Today was a nice lazy day, it's so beautiful and warm here. It's meant to get to 26 degrees over the weekend, we're so excited!!! Today was probably about 20 degrees and it was so nice - Benny's got shorts on and we're both in t-shirts and thongs! Yes! We're sitting out in the sunshine by the river reading magazines and books, greedily soaking up the warmth and sun while we can. We're actually sweating and might be sunburned but for once I don't care, I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to be hot!!! So good!! We went for a ride around the campground this afternoon & it's filling up since yesterday - quite a few new arrivals as the weekend approaches. Saturday 04.05.13: It's another gorgeous and sunny day here today. We were talking to one of the park rangers yesterday and she recommended we hike to the falls so that's on the agenda today. We left home at 10.30am and it took 1.5hrs to get to Elk Falls. The trail we took had a detour past the John Hart Hydro Station and pump house and then went up to the falls area where we saw Dolphin Pool, Moose Falls, Deer Falls and Elk Falls. We stopped and had our picnic lunch at Deer Falls and it was just so gorgeous in the sun. Yeah there are worse places to have lunch huh. We hiked the trail back on the opposite side of the river & got home around 3.30pm so we really made a day of it. There were a lot of hills in the hike so I'm sure we're both going to be sore tomorrow ha. There are still a few cars/rigs coming in so we went for a ride to check out the campground & it's filling right up now. It's still so warm too - I went to bed in trackies, jumper & socks out of habit but got too hot and peeled my jumper & socks off.... Love it!!! :) Sunday 05.05.13: Today's another super day, it's shorts & t-shirt weather again - awesome!! We left Elk Falls and headed back into Campbell River for a brekky and grocery stop. Then we found a self-serve car wash to give Tobes his first bath and hit the road to Tofino, about 270km away. It's a little hippy surf town much like Agnes back home - Benny can't wait to go for a surf! We didn't arrive till about 4pm - the road in is pretty horrible, quite narrow & windy in places with lots of potholes. It might not be too bad in a car but let me tell you in a motorhome you feel every bump and bounce. We're staying at Crystal Cove Resort, which is a mix of RV sites and gorgeous log cabins and it's waay fancier than what we're used to. They even have a Starbucks coffee bar in the office - could be dangerous hehe. The resort is set on Mackenzie Beach so we set up and then went for a walk down on the beach. It was still really sunny and warm - I cannot even begin to describe how good it was to feel the warm sand between my toes.... Made me miss the beach at home a bit... However my most favourite thing about this place is that the showers are included in the nightly rate. I'm so used to coin showers and washing myself super quick so I don't get caught with shampoo in my hair when time's up. Well tonight I had time to wash & condition my hair, exfoliate with actual body wash and shave all in one shower = luxury!!! I feel like a whole new woman lol. It's the little things that make my day! :) Monday 06.05.13: Wow I can't believe we've been here for 2 months already! Time flies :) Today was really just a lazy day in Tofino. We went for a jog on the beach this morning then sat around in the sun drinking coffee. We found out this morning that resort guests get a complimentary coffee each day from Starbucks - thank you very much!!! We did some laundry and lazed about in the sun uploading the blog which took most of the day. There's a little complex down the road called "Live To Surf" with a coffee shop, chocolate shop, hair salon, eatery, surf shop, grocery store & taco truck. So we went down there to Wildside Grill for dinner - it's a great little outdoor eatery - very casual, order at the counter, wait to be called & then eat outdoors type of place. And the food is just out of this world. I had the pulled pork carnitas (soft tacos) and Benny had the fish and chips - both were soooo good. Cheap & delicious - just our type of place :) When we got home there was the weirdest fog rolling in and it was starting to get cold again... We'll see what tomorrow brings weather wise. Tuesday 07.05.13: Today was meant to be sunny so we'd planned to rent Ben a surfboard and head down to Long Beach so he could finally have his surf. However when we got up its grey and miserable so we had a walk on the beach, coffee and then packed up to go exploring (we're about 4km out of Tofino). The only downside of having a motorhome when staying out of town is that when you want to explore further than on your bikes you have to pack everything away and move. It would be really handy to have a little car or scooter for times like this but that's not really feasible for us right now... First up we drove down to Long Beach to check out the surf. The beach is actually inside of the Pacific Rim National Park so you have to buy a permit to enter - about $8 per person for a day pass. The beach was beautiful but very exposed so it was pretty cold and windy, however the locals have created several windbreaks out of logs on the beach - very inventive. After we'd stayed long enough for Ben to decide that the surf was no good and it as probably lucky that the weather was horrible lol, we headed back into Tofino. It's fantastic, they have a designated RV parking lot right in town which is great coz it's sometimes hard to find parking and manoeuvre Toby around narrow streets. Every town should have an RV lot in the town centre!! We had lunch at the cutest little bakery - Common Loaf Bake House. It has a great little 'treehouse' eating area upstairs where we ate our yummy chicken pot pies. After lunch the day was starting to clear up and the sun was trying to come out so we strolled around Tofino checking out the stores. According to a few locals we spoke to the 'cloud' hanging around was actually just the usual fog and should clear up soon. Very unusual to us at least, I've never seen fog that isn't burned off by mid morning and lasts all day... A bit of bad news when we got home, Ben noticed that the toilet was leaking from the back when it's flushed. We tried tightening the inlet valve but that made it worse & now it's spraying water everywhere. It had previously been perfectly fine so we think maybe the seal has perished? We'll have to get it looked at, but for now we've had to turn the water off to stop the water spray. It's a bit of a pain but we're working around it for now. We're thinking that we might just book Tobes in at an RV service centre and have everything fixed and checked over. I think he's just not used to being used full-time, but it's all good :) No new lingo this week - again... I'll have to hunt down some new stuff!!! Much love to you all at home :) xxxxxxxx