On-the-Road Again

Once we started traveling, we really didn't want to stop so we planned a trip up island as far as Port Hardy. Alert Bay on Cormorant Island and Sointula on Malcolm Island - both small island just off Port MacNeill - looked interesting so we planned to stop there and explore the islands.

We did think about waiting for better weather but then decided it could be May before there was a break in the rain and it wasn't that cold and we weren't going to shrink - so we went anyway.

It's a long way!! Once you get beyond the rapidly growing developments in Parksville and Qualicum Beach and up through Comox and Courtney to Campbell River, the settlements are few and far between. The road is windy and tunnels through a thick wall of trees.

We were impressed with how good the road is - better than a lot of sections of the TransCanada.

Sometimes being spontaneous is good and sometimes it just doesn't work out. This time it was just not the right way to go. Once we got to Port MacNeill we booked into the Haida Way, thinking that for the amount they were charging, it would be a fairly nice place - NOT!

Port MacNeill didn't offer very much - there was an old steam donkey and a couple in the Visitors' Centre who couldn't think of anything interesting in Port MacNeill or even why they lived there.

It was too early to travel up island - it was an experience but not very satisfying. The whales don't show up til March sometime, most of the museums are closed for the season, the day we wanted to visit Sointula and Alert Bay (on Malcolm and Cormorant Islands) was the day they shipped "dangerous goods" and were not taking passengers. The ferry doesn't sail from Malcolm to Cormorant anymore, you have to come back to Port MacNeill, get off the ferry, go around the toll booth and get back on the ferry so you can go to the other island. Besides which, there was an IT seminar going on on Cormorant and there was no place to stay. We went to bed Monday night thinking we would figure a way (within our budget) to visit both islands and woke up Tuesday morning deciding not to even try.

Instead, we traveled further norther to Port Hardy. Port Hardy turned out to be more appealing and more friendly. The gal in the Visitors' Centre suggested that we go out to Coal Harbour that went from one industry - coal, whaling, fishing, mining - to another and then to Port Alice that was a company town and see the different between the communities.

Nimpkish Lake had attracted our attention on the way up, so on our way back to civilization, we followed an old logging road that went down to the lake. Ah-h-h, the difference between traveling in the car and having the truck!!

The car ain't made for old gravel-limited back roads but we made it! What an incredible find. The logging company actually maintains (the extent of the maintenance is questionable) a very primitive camp ground along the shore. The silence and stillness was overwhelming.

Nimpkish is a large lake surrounded by tree covered hills. The untouched, natural British Columbia they talk about in all their commercials.

Fog and clouds hung down over the water and wandered in and among to trees. I find this so eerie but so fascinating.

It was a long way - I think we were a couple of weeks too early, but it was a good get-a-way.

Next stop the City - we're heading down to Victoria to visit our dentist-friend.

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