Campbell River to Port Hardy

We headed north toward Port Hardy today to see as many interesting sights as we could cram into one day. The road reminded me of northern Ontario with all the twists and turns cut through areas of jagged rock, many beautiful lakes and waterfalls and lush forest.

Our first stop was Sayward, a small town with the world's only structure wrapped in logging cable. It is now a resturant but was once a cookhouse.

They aslo had a steam donkey that was used to move logs.

This huge log was 32 feet long, 9 feet in diamater and could make 11,500 board feet. Oh and just in case that didn't impress you the tree was 962 years old!

Oh yes we really are headed North ! As we climbed to higher elevation near Woss we encountered a bit of snow. Wonder what the passers by thought of the crazy Albertans standing out taking pictures of snow.

We stopped at Telegraph Cove, named for a one room telegraph station built there in the early 1900's. Many of the original historic buildings were built on stilts above the water and are connected by a boardwalk. Picture perfect! Oh and David found his Dream Boat so I made him stand in front of it while I took his picture.

On the way from Telegraph Cove we stopped to take a picture of a bald eagle in a tree but when we looked closer we discovered that there were lots of trees with as many as 20 or more eagles per tree. Amazing! Must have been an eagle convention.

Next we moved on to Port McNeill and the world's largest Burl weighing 24 tons and is estimated at over 525 years old. We also checked out the marina....beautiful.

Port Hardy is the furthest north that the paved road goes. We didn't spend much time exploring as we were feeling a little tired by this time and vowed to return and bring the motorhome so we can enjoy the sights unhurried. The view was of course breath taking. The Carrot Campaign as depicted on this sign was interesting. It was aimed at forcing the government keep its promise of a completed Island Highway.

Coal Harbour was our last stop and was about a 20minitue drive south west of Port Hardy. It was once a seaplane base for the Royal Canadian Air Force and the last whaling station in Canada. It is no longer a whaling station but still has a 20 foot jawbone from a blue whale.

Campbell River BC

We arrived in Campbell River yesterday, March 28 and are staying at Driftwood By the Sea RV park. It is a nice park and the people running it are super and very accomodating. Shortly after we arrived the wind picked up and by nightfall was blowing very hard and raining. The winds overnight reached 100 km per hour and we had to pull in our bedroom slide because we were afraid the over the slide awning would be torn off.

The wind has calmed somewhat today although it is still blowing and I can tell by the trees that wind is not uncommon in these parts. Molly and I decided to do a bit of exploring anyway.

There is an 8 km sea walk that is dotted with numerous picnic areas, benches and carvings. This is one such area and I was told by a local resident that the driftwood debris that you see is what is washed up in the winter time when the waves are much larger.

We saw this unique gateway looking out to sea which I will have to find out more about and we got to see a sea plane taking off. I was amazed that he was able to take off in such a short distance.

Victoria

We visited Victoria's Chinatown today. It is Canada's oldest settled in 1858. While we were there we walked down Fan Tan Alley which is Canada's narrowest street and has little shops all along it.

We drove along the scenic Beach Drive and saw some wind serfers as well as some beautiful views.

We then continued up toward Sydney and Swartz Bay, across to Deep Cove and Patricia Bay where we stopped for a short break and then back to Crofton, after a stop at Mad Dog Crab where we picked up some Cowichan Bay scallops for supper. There is nothing that can compare to fresh scallops.

Chemainus

Chemainus is a unique little town that has chosen to depict its history on the walls of the town's buildings in the form of murals. The murals consist of more than 40 comissioned works of art by various artists, some from as far away as Edinburg, Scotland, the Bahamas and Lafayette, Louisiana. The murals truly are incredible and attract many tourists each year.

Molly and I went to Chemainus yesterday but forgot the camera so we returned today to take some pictures.