Horseshoe Bay to Ucluelet

The drive from Nanaimo to Ucluelet was absolutely stunning. This place is magical and driving along the coast and then over the mountains and past the lakes speaks to my soul. I know that sounds a bit daft but it really is an emotional and visceral response but in a way that makes me feel deeply at peace. Every since we drove down the sea to sky highway from Whistler and down to Horseshoe Bay and over to Vancouver I have been having conversations with Dad in my head. I now know why after his trip to this area in the 70s he came back and announced he wanted to emigrate to the Vancouver/Vancouver Island area. The combination of water/boats/scenery/amenities/people and lifestyle are just so appealing. We have been trying to give ourselves a reality check by reiterating that this is a holiday and we could not do all this if we lived here etc. Anyway enough of my fanciful mutterings.

On the way to Ucluelet we stopped at a place called Coombs which is one of the strangest places ever. It was developed to attract tourists by creating western style/fanciful architecture with frankly weird and tasteless statuery, a mini golf course complete with a paddle steamer on land, a market with goats on the roof and a mix of crafters. We spent a couple of hours here wandering around and sampling the lychee sorbet, orange and liquorice ice cream and other flavours. We wandered into a First Nation gallery staffed by a Glaswegian who has lived in Canada since 66. The art was inspiring and her chat was good.

Our wild life count went up today as a Bald Eagle soared around us at breakfast, 3 Elk were wandering through Coombs and we saw a BEAR CUB at the side of the road. Awesome. Ucluelet Campsite is another sorted campsite and we look out onto the Harbour. We went into town for dinner and after some aimless wandering and misdirection found a restaurant called Driftwood that served excellent food complete with a drunken chef chatting to guests. We walked backed to the camp in time to see the sunset over the harbour. Early to bed tonight as we are going whale watching tomorrow morning.

As Sally has said above there is something about this place. Vancouver Island is as spectacular as all the rest of BC. I had a bizarre coincidence on the way here. There was a bit of a delay at Horse Shoe Bay for the ferry over to the Island so this allowed for a little browsing in the village.

As we were looking at some First Nation art work I heard a Glasgow accent which seemed vaguely familiar. Turned out it was one of my customers from the craft fair who had bought some pictures of Glasgow as a gift for his cousin who he was visiting on Vancouver Island!!!

Pleased to report that the gifts were very well received.

Coombs was very bizarre but was redeemed by the amazing food court, the Canadian take on the House of Bruar, and the First Nation Art gallery previously mentioned. In the established format of these posts I have some pictures below.

The drive to Ucluelet was fantastic. Occasional opportunities for RV rallying, many twists and turns with steep inclines but at least it was paved, as they say over here. All the way we were afforded views of snow capped mountains whilst the road followed rivers, lakes and gorges.

Ucluelet is in essence a fishing town. Commercial fishing, from what we can gather is as highly regulated and controlled as it is at home with boats having strict quotas and only so many days in which they are allowed to fish. There is however a large fleet of sport fishing vessels with charters starting at 1000 Canadian dollars a day.

We have booked on a whale and wildlife spotting safari for tomorrow. So far we are the only customers they have so fingers crossed it stays that way.