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| Stu and Jo styling it out in their red suits on the zodiac |
A painful 6am alarm call to get down to the harbour for
715am was made easier by a glorious morning with cloudless blue skies. At
Jamie’s Whale Watching we were kitted out in giant red suits having been
warned to wear layers.
Hopefully the
bears will want to be out on such a beautiful morning… We grabbed good spots on the Zodiac boat, which
is a type of rib with four rows of seating and a small cabin at the back for
the captain who was called Jeremy. We
were all feeling extremely warm in our outfits at the dock but as soon as
Jeremy opened up the throttle on our way out, the wind was bitterly cold and we
were all zipping up every available extra layer. Not long after leaving land we spotted a Sea
otter, which is quite rare inland by all accounts. There were bald eagles galore and amazing
scenery:
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| Si trying to keep warm |
There’s no chance of seeing any whales on a bear tour as you
are taken inland, winding around inlets, every time you round a corner, hoping
to see a bear on the water’s edge. The
problem with bears, you see, is that they look like rocks! We were hunting black bears but instead we
found a whole load of black rocks. I was feeling the pressure as the only
person on the boat with binoculars, I was constantly scouring the beaches. I handed them over to Simon, he’s ‘the
spotter’ after all. I was convinced that
if anyone could find a bear, he could!
Our boat, the Riptide, was in regular contact with other boats out
searching for the elusive fur balls. It
seemed that everyone was having a ‘dry morning’ as they called it. Jeremy tried his best to keep everyone’s
morale up, saying we had loads more time to keep searching as this was a two to
three hour boat trip. There was no way
you could complain with the dramatic, beautiful scenery on show on such a
stunning day. However, even though we
were togged up in our super-suits with countless layers on and they had
provided us with gloves and woolly hats, the cold wind was biting. After an hour or so of sitting very quietly
and still so as not to scare away the bears, my toes were definitely starting
to feel numb.
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| At least we got to see some bald eagles |
I can’t deny that, despite
the beauty of the day, it was disappointing when Jeremy finally admitted that
we weren’t going to see any bears today and we would have to start heading
back. He put it down to the cold,
suggesting that the bears probably just wanted to stay in bed. So did we Jeremy, but we still turned out
didn’t we?! I say that totally in jest,
he couldn’t have tried harder for us.
They can’t control wild animals and they don’t make any promises when
you book – they don’t guarantee a bear show.
But they do give out ‘rain checks’, which is basically another go, for
free. This is generous seeing as they
don’t have a contract with the bears, as far as I know! You have to get up early for bears (even if
they don’t) so we would be welcome to try again tomorrow. The only problem – our ferry back to the
mainland is at 1230pm so we wouldn’t be able to do the tour and make it in
time. Whilst Jo and I helped ourselves
to complimentary hot drinks, the boys were haggling with the staff. Amazingly, they managed to secure us a
whaling trip as our ‘rain-check’… at noon today! Nothing for it but to head to the RV to warm
up and enjoy bacon and egg sandwiches before putting on an extra pair of socks
this time, another layer and heading back to Jamie’s for a fresh red suit.
Heading down to the docks to see that we were on the riptide
with Jeremy again, we couldn’t resist ‘ribbing’ him a little, Si asking if we
should bother getting on board or just book for the sunset cruise
instead?! The boat was chock-full this
afternoon and the weather was still perfect.
It was a totally different experience to this morning’s calm, flat
ride. As soon as we got out of the
protection of the bay the ride became great fun as we flew up and down the
swell of the waves.
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| The view back at stunning Vancouver Island |
Then, before we’d really begun even looking, there were cries of awe
from the people in the front as a Gray whale literally jumped right up out of
the water in front of us. Jeremy has
never seen this before in all his whale touring experience. As bottom-feeders (tee-hee), Gray whales
rarely do this, unlike other species like humpbacks for example, as there is no
purpose for them to do so. I can’t claim
to have seen the whole fantastic leap, but I saw the end of it as the whale
disappeared back underneath the white foam it had created (hence, no photograph of this rare occurrence). I was at the far left rear of the boat
(port-side I think the professionals refer to it as) so I hoped that Stu and Jo
at least, on the starboard side, would have seen the spectacle. We saw this whale a couple more times but he
went rogue, going so near the shore that Jeremy didn’t want to risk following. However,
the radio was buzzing with reports of other whales everywhere, so we headed off
to go and enjoy the views. We did see a
few other ‘bits’ of Gray whales during the trip, similar to what we had seen on
our Monterey tour, but nothing to compare with the excitement of the totally
unexpected breach right at the start.
But, as bonuses, we saw a couple of sea otters, including this very
chilled out fellow, who was totally non-plussed by our presence as he was
enjoying a snack too much:
Also,
Jeremy took us to an isolated island where a colony of Stellar sea-lions live.
We had certainly got our money’s worth with our 5-6 hours in a boat today!
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| More bald eagles!! |
After our first successful night at Rathtrevor beach we all
wanted to return there again for our last night on the Island. However, we also wanted to see some sights on
the way. So we headed off back along
route 4 East. En route the traffic ahead
of us all started slowing down and stopping, but why? Forget spending three hours early in the
morning on a freezing cold boat. Turns
out the best place to see bears is alongside Highway 4 on Vancouver Island!
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| Bear standing up behind twigs..... |
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| ..... bear lying down behind twigs. Look, you can see his shiny nose on the left! |
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| Lower Qualicum Falls |
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| You've guessed it... Upper Qualicum Falls |
We just had time to stop at Little Qualicum Falls
which was well worth breaking up the journey for. We walked the trails to see the upper and
lower sections of the falls just before dusk started creeping in.
We needed gas to be able to use the generator overnight so
we stopped off at a petrol station… right opposite a Dominos’ pizza. It had been a long day, so that was decision
made for dinner! It was dark when we reached the Park. We gorged on pizza, bread and chicken bites
until we had all over-eaten. The lads
got a small fire started, but didn’t get it going like the other night as we
were all too tired for a campfire singalong like the other night.
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