Okay….so….we woke early to hit the road to get to Ucluelet so that we could do as much as possible, since we only had the two days available to us. We stopped at Port Alberni to seek out the Hole in the Wall Falls which are to be found only by those who know the area, and finding folk for directions so early in the morning was a bit of a worry…however, Stephon from Victoria had given us clear instructions as to where to park and very fortunately, members of the "early-morning-exercise-nutcases" pulled into the parking lot with us and were able to direct us to our desired destination. And so off we trotted on a very short walk and found the fascinating phenomenon which do not quite compare with our Hole in the Wall at Coffee Bay, but nice enough to have been seen. Back we hopped into the vehicle and went on to Sproat Lake for breakfast in the cold….again a very peaceful and tranquil setting for breakfast.

From there we went directly to Ucluelet to find the Wild Pacific Trail which covers about 8 km along the coast line with what they call "Artists loops" which provide the hiker with some stunning viewpoints of that side of the coast. We started with the Ancient Cedar Loop and ended with the Rocky Bluffs viewpoint.

Then we found the Bog Trail. This is a boardwalk trail (very short) through a bogland area and focuses on the tinier things in life. I tried out some more of my macro photography skills while Graeme forward-marched, quite disinterestedly, back to the car. Then we sought out the Nuu-cha-nulth trail which is also mostly a boardwalked trail through quite a dense rain forest to the seaside. I found a zillion mushrooms of a zillion varieties and much to Graeme's chagrin took a zillion photographs of said shrooms and other fungi. I have a serious fungus fascination….

We took the path to Halfmoon Bay which is a beautiful, secluded sandy beach in a cove, and shaped like a …???? Yes, that's right…a halfmoon. There was kelp lying at the tide line and the smell of the ocean now became the familiar smell we had not until now encountered. It was quiet, peaceful and tranquil with one or two other local folk combing the rocks for mussels and/or other goga-stuff! I was quite happy to settle on the rocks for some quiet time, but of course Mr Hyper had to try and find a better viewpoint….I left him to it. He did find better views but access was very difficult since the bog conditions surrounding the bay make it very difficult to negotiate…so after about half an hour we started our way back again….up about 150 stairs which had brought us down, but once I was up again, the walk back through the forest provided us with more beauty and many more photo ops.

We decided then to find our motel….West Coast Motel. What a lovely place it was…..much better than the time share resort we had just left. We spent a very comfortable and warm evening in our new digs and spent the evening planning for our next day in Tofino…the not-to-be-missed destination of the west coast of Vancouver Island. We settled on two or three walks and a drive up to the signal hill viewpoint.

When we woke the following morning, it was to a downpour of note! But hey, we are only here once in our lifetime so we were determined to do whatever was possible. We took ourselves off to the visitors' centre to enquire which of the walks were good for covering under the present weather conditions. The young lady assured me that rainy weather was the 'authentic' Tofino experience at this time of the year and anything else would not be a true reflection of the town!!! Graeme and I drove to the first destination which was Long Beach….one cannot go to Tofino and not see Long Beach (the world-famous surfing beach)….. Well…we saw it, took some snapshots and ran back to the car for protective cover from the heavens' joke at our expense. Of course, there were no surfers to be seen!!! We decided to forfeit the walks and drove down to the harbour to see what gives there…not much, in the rain, and therefore, we made our way back to a café and bakery we saw as we were coming into town where we ordered a coffee and hot choc with some baked goodies.

Then we conceded that we should start our way back to Campbell's River on the East Coast. Oh my word, the lovely, picturesque drive into town turned into treacherous torrents driving out of town. The road is neighboured by very austere and sheer cliff faces which had raging waterfalls dropping the heaven's contents over their edges and onto the road for about 10 km along the road. I tried, I really tried to photograph what we were seeing, but there was no stopping for clarity and focusing. The gentle bubbling brooks which had accompanied us into town were now raging, rushing, roaring rapids trying their very best to wash over the roads. I have never experienced anything like it in my life!

Once we negotiated our way through that lot we stopped over again in Port Alberni to do some shopping and also back to the time share resort to fetch clothing that Graeme had left in his bedside table drawers, before wending our way to Campbell's River to meet our Couch Surfing Hostess - Jewel Lightfoot.

And so, the West Coast adventure did not turn out quite as planned, but what an adventure it was!

This is in fact, my second last blog....had to do this to get the West Coast plotted on the map. Next one in the next day or two.......