Ever since I retired last year, I’ve been half-heartedly pondering doing a grand adventure and driving coast to coast across Canada. There are a couple of potential issues, not least of which is that my rescue dog Gromit has anxiety issues and I’m not sure how he’d fare being cooked up in a car for hours on end, day after day. The temptation and wanderlust continued unaddressed…
Firstborn didn’t help by buying me a copy of “Best Road Trips: Canada” by Lonely Planet. Full of helpful maps, places to stop – lots of things to make saying no seem petty at best.
The logical thing seemed to be to start small, somewhere not too far away, so baling was at least possible if it just wasn’t working out. I opted for a couple of nights away to the north of Vancouver Island, and even managed to convince one of my friends to tag along, since the incremental cost was negligible and it’s always more fun sharing your adventures. My friend was actually brought up on the island and knows it well. As a – shall we say “more experienced”? – person she even gets to use the BC Ferries for free, mid week. Even better, BC Ferries are now using an airline model for ticketing, so if you pre-buy a ticket for a specific crossing, they no longer charge a booking fee, and the price is variable based on the crossing popularity.
If you just rock up and pay, it’s currently CAD$95.50 for car and driver one way. By pre-booking, going mid-week and selecting the cheaper crossings (5:15am – but we did want to take a lazy drive up once we arrived anyway), we paid $49.50 for the car, driver and passenger, each way!
Gromit didn’t seem to mind TOO much at having his sleep interrupted at 3 am in order to get ready, but my friend turned up in plenty of time, and we loaded up and had time for a Timmie’s stop for breakfast before getting to the Tsawwassen terminal right on time for the first crossing of the day on Tuesday. The crossing was calm, and a little misty as the sun rose, which made it quite atmospheric… like crossing the Styx!
Once we were at Nanaimo, we headed up the old 19A coast road, rather than the faster highway 19, just so we could enjoy the journey. We had no set agenda, and couldn’t check into our accommodation before 4pm anyway. First stop was at Oyster Bay Rest Area, south of Campbell River, so Gromit could stretch his legs and have a drink of water.
Naturally, we couldn’t let him have all the fun, so my friend did some beachcombing to look for pieces of driftwood for her art projects. Then we piled back in the car and headed a little further up the coast to Willow Point and enjoyed a coffee at Serious Coffee in one of the strip malls there.
Then, we were back on the road and took a meander at Sayward towards Kelsey Bay, so Gromit could have another leg stretch (well – he has twice as many legs as we did!)
We’d passed a wood carving artisan’s place on the way through Sayward, and my friend asked if we could stop to have a chat, since it was on the way back to the old coast road and she too is a carver and mixed media artist. Carole Hartfield of Carole’s Inspirations has some awesome pieces for sale and was kind enough to make us a coffee and show us around her extensive workshop. She has “all the toys” and carves, turns, inlays and generally makes wood do her every bidding. And a lovely lady to boot.
She told us of a mother grizzly in the area with a couple of 3 year old cubs, and we agreed to drop by on our way home to chat further.
As we continued north, we passed a giant blade from a wind turbine, and an information sign placed by the Rotary Club. Just as we booted up Google Maps to see where our lodging was, it told us it was the next turning on the right! Perfect timing.
A little road weary and glad to no longer be in motion, we finally pulled into Port Hardy RV and Resort. We’d booked a log cabin for a couple of nights at a very reasonable price, and the site also catered for camping and RVs though due to the early season there was only one tent (a chatty guy from Germany – we spoke about Trangia stoves as only European camping nerds can) and a couple of RVs. The estuary offered a lovely raised path and nature walk which Gromit and I enjoyed several times over the next couple of days.
The Wednesday was our one full day to explore and we started off with a trip into Port Hardy proper. The Visitor Centre doesn’t open until 10am, so we decamped to the local café – Café Guido. I sat outside with Gromit, and my friend disappeared for ages as she’d discovered the upstairs floor was an art gallery filled with temptation!
Time waits for no mango and it was now 10 am so I popped into the Visitor Centre to see what they recommended as the highlights to see, since we only had the one day. I confess I was a little disappointed that the recommendations were (i) the museum over the road which we were about to visit anyway, (ii) Café Guido (it was good, but was it THAT good to make the top 3 things to visit Port Hardy for?) and (iii) Coal Harbour – a town about 20km south, lying on a very sheltered inlet, and hardly qualifying as Port Hardy at all!!
The museum was small and pretty much what you’d expect in a town like Port Hardy – items from its more bustling past as a successful forestry, fishing and mining area. Entry is by donation and the staff were very chatty and friendly, and we passed a very pleasant half hour oo-ing and ah-ing at the exhibits. As with the Visitor Centre, the postcards were pleasant enough, but generic or art pictures rather than anything to do with Port Hardy and its indisputable natural beauty. I ended up buying 4 postcards of black and white photos of Haida Gwaii, of all things!
Somehow, time had marched on sufficiently that we could contemplate lunch, and we’d already decided the previous evening to eat at Macy’s Place fish and chip emporium, next to the Visitor Centre. Best decision of the day, and should definitely have been in the top 3 things to do in Port Hardy! The fish was very well cooked with excellent batter (I’m from Yorkshire and inherently fussy about my batter!) The servings came with generous coleslaw and tartar sauce side dishes. Gromit gazed on longingly from the car, as we ate.
After lunch we decided to try Coal Harbour – there had been talk of a museum with RCAF items, as well as stuff from the forestry and other local history. It was a lovely drive, and when we arrived, the place was deathly quiet – not a soul stirred! There were signs for the museum, but no building that seemed to answer the description. The nearest match was a large, semi-derelict warehouse that we later learnt was a remnant of the long defunct whaling industry that had been based there. No signs or indications of a museum though. Attached to the warehouse was a small office for the local air taxi (float planes were landing on the inlet as we walked around), but nobody was around to ask, and the warehouse seemed to be used for storing boats out of season. We opted to go back to the car and pootle around to see what was to be seen. The one road was of course a dead end, but we were rewarded with seeing a couple of tame deer for our troubles.
By luck, the local postman turned up to distribute the post into the collection boxes so I asked about the museum. It turned out it was in fact within the Air Cab office, attached to the warehouse, so off we went again. This time we went in, and discovered there was absolutely nobody there, just lots of museum-grade exhibits. So very BC! We had a good look around and I wrote in the guest book below the entry dated two days hence (no TARDIS in sight, though the museum definitely looked bigger on the inside!)
After such an unexpected “save” – we almost missed the museum altogether – we naturally had to celebrate with a coffee at the local Hoyalas Landing Restaurant, whose staff were very friendly and helpful.
Despite not having done very much at all, we were starting to flag a little, so we headed off to Fort Rupert, and headed for the beach. Gromit got to run free and tried to drink the entire Pacific Ocean, with only minimal success. My friend found many more interesting shells and driftwood for future art projects and I was fascinated by the white highlights of a nearby island. It turns out to be “Shell Island”, and I suspect the white areas of shells would have taken eons to build up.
We then began to head back but thought we’d visit another carver we’d heard about in Fort Rupert – at The Copper Maker Gallery. This is run by the very friendly Calvin A. Hunt, who specialises in Kwakiutl/Kwagu’ł art. He was very generous with his time and showed us several of the totems he was working on. He also makes prints and bronzes. Incredibly talented. His work is bought and displayed all over the world – in fact a totem was being raised in Singapore in the next few days.
The day was now getting away from us and half-baked plans to visit Alert Bay were no longer realistic. It’s always best to leave ’em wanting more, as the stage-treaders say.
Our final day, Thursday began with clearing out the cabin and heading into Port Hardy to fill up on go-juice for the car. There are looooong stretches of the coast highway with absolutely nothing except trees – including cell signal. Not a great place to run out of petrol. We then headed back to Sayward to see if we could spot the grizzlies we’d been told about. As we approached Kelsey Bay again, we decided that perhaps we’d not paid quite enough attention to Carole’s directions, so turned round to pay her another visit. As we did so, my friend spotted several elk just hanging out in a field next to the road.
Carole was as friendly as at our first meeting a couple of days previously, and offered to drive ahead and show us exactly where the grizzlies had been for the last few days. Alas, they were no longer there. Even BC bears know to get out of the rain, and the drizzle was being pretty persistent by now.
We said our goodbyes and steadily headed south, stopping off at Mac’s in Fanny Bay to stock up on freshly shucked oysters and some clams. Then it was off on a minor detour to Coombs, as we were in no rush. No goats on the roof just yet – too early in the season I suppose. Much more serious though – the doughnut shop had already sold out by the time we got there at 4 pm! We were forced to go to the market and buy essentials like Penguins and brie.
By now, we were dangerously close to the ferry terminal, but had another 6 hours before our late night (read “cheap”) crossing back to the mainland. We opted for a leisurely Timmie’s stop, and then headed out to Beachcomber Park, near Nanoose Bay. Just off the point is the delightfully named “Mistaken Island“. Gromit enjoyed the beach, and met his first deer almost nose to nose. Both seemed a little surprised at the encounter, but neither really reacted beyond raising an ear in enquiry.
Somehow, we managed to run the clock down, and at 9pm we were allowed into the ferry terminal ready for our return voyage. There were a few trucks on the crossing but only a handful of cars. Naps were taken, and at 2:30 am we were home, tired and all explored out for one week!
The route, as shown by Google Maps.
Quieter Elephant 