That’s beside the point. Anyway today we drove from Victoria to Port Hardy, 260 km of beautiful seaside and 240 km of endless forest. Both were spectacular in their own way. From Victoria to Campbell River the countryside was very well occupied with towns every 10 to 20 km. From Campbell River to Port Hardy there was hardly a house to be seen, no towns of any sort, just endless walls of heavily treed and mountainous forest.

The town of Duncan had nothing to offer all the tourists passing through so they decided to become the totem pole town. And they have surpassed all expectations. After all, we stopped.

Collette’s favourite

An intelligent use of a totem pole

Nanaimo is the second largest city of Vancouver Island and is a beautiful and old seaside city with not a lot to do unless you have a boat. The city claims to be:

The Sunporch Capital

Jewel of the West

Bathtub Capital of the World

The first two are possible as it was sunny and warm. On the last they do have an annual and reportedly the largest bathtub race. Anyhow we had a nice time walking around the harbour and town.

Helps if you are a boatie

Campbell River is a sleepy seaside town with some interesting features, the first of which is the results of the Chainsaw Sculpture competition displayed in a foreshore park. The work done is simply stunning, specially when it is all just chainsaw.

Then comes Campbell River Award Winning Water. Tasted the same to me

A common house style of the island, clean and modest lines with plenty of space and trees.

A not so common gate

The road to Port Hardy and the endless forest

Port Hardy is a quiet but obviously prosperous fishing village with a lot of charm. That goes for all of Vancouver Island and we feel we could easily spend at least a couple of weeks exploring its many wonders, sights and activities.

Tomorrow we line up for the next ferry at 5.30 am for the voyage to Prince Rupert, taking about 12 hours. We hope to see plenty of marine life and have enough signal to post. Till then.

Unoccupied we hope because he is parked next door