We opted for a 7 am breakfast and were the only ones up early but it enabled us to get to know the owner Dan who prepared our scrambled egg. He had been a manager in the lumber industry and built the house himself - he was a real individual with a wicked sense of humour. Breakfast over we got ready for our bear viewing trip - we were being collected from Hidden Cove's own dock at 0830. The day dawned cool but it didn't take long to warm up. We set off with 10 ot...

Today was a travel day - we left the lovely Tofino ( today's picture is the view from our apartment) and headed to Telegraph Cove on the northern east coast of Vancouver Island. It was a good 6 hour drive broken by stops for brunch at Port Alberni and a fantastic soft serve custard/yogurt ice cream 'thingy' called a froosh in Campbell River - it was made in the locally owned cafe called Quench where we sat eating our way slowly through it! Refreshed we headed off...

I was up early and went for a run in cool autumnal drizzle - it was refreshing running along the bike/pedestrian track smelling the pine trees and taking in the clean fresh air. Back at the apartment we had a lovely light breakfast of fruit and yogurt before heading back to Remote Passages for our whale watching trip. As we were early we found a coffee shop, had a coffee and bought a couple of freshly baked cakes for later; as we spotted the post office I also bo...

We left London yesterday after frantic phone calls to Wildlife Trails as I had, while waiting for the car taking us to the airport, checked the BC ferry sailings from Tswasswen to Nanaimo - as you do! - and found the ones we wanted didn't run on Saturdays! So this morning we are waking up in Victoria, 160kms further south having caught the last sailing (9pm) to here instead. Our hotel booking was changed to the Accent Inn which we found with not too much trouble;...