Why hello again....
We love Vancouver...a big city, but near to the parks and lots to see and do. Left to sail on the ferry to "the island" (great film by the way!). The ferry ride was nice, sitting out on the deck, sailing through many smaller islands before reaching the southern tip of Vancouver Island....then another bus trip to Victoria.

Victoria is a pretty harbour town, with many artists, street entertainers (bit of competition for Paulie hey), lots of tourists here so prices are higher then Vancouver. Booked into our hostel downtown and sorted.

Spent a couple of days seeing the sights...famous Empress Hotel, Parliament Buildings, cafes, market stalls, more gorgeous yachts that don't belong to us..boo hoo. Sunshine every day...and yet another firework display over the harbour to celebrate BC Day on the 1st.

After seeing a beautiful watercolour painting of a beach with directions underneath it and a chat with the artist..we were well taken on the idea of heading off camping on the west coast trail..which involved shopping for dried food, couple of tins of something for stews, plenty of fresh water, and a few other bits..left some stuff in storage at our hostel and told the staff that if we weren't back by a certain date to send out a search party... good idea to do this if off trekkin...

Caught a bus, then hitched to the start of the trail with a nice Canadian couple off on along weekend up the coast. Went down the wrong trail a couple of miles..which was pretty annoying...but there we go. Finally found our trail through some amazing woodland (bear and coogar country, so made lots of noise). Giant ferns, trees with roots everywhere and a cool suspension bridge...then after a few dodgy steps and a load of mud..finally found "Mystic Beach". A medium sized cove, with black sand and plenty of driftwood and a perfect camping pitch. (The beach is a proper site and we payed 2.50 each a night at the head of the trail, in an honesty box (wander how many people pay, but there was a warden about so we did).

Pitched our tent, collected wood for the fire and had a little explore. At one end of the beach is a fresh water waterfall (which we showered under and collected water to boil for drinking etc.). The surf was crashing down on the shoreline and we spotted a couple of seals in the bay. At the other end of the beach was a cave that you could walk through and follow the shoreline over many smaller coves at low tide (Good place for more fire wood). And another waterfall for showering too, with a bit more privacy. There were a couple of other couples on the beach camping and a couple of people visiting the beach by day on the trail.

The views over the ocean to the American coast were stunning and one morning I spotted a group of about 7 or 8 Orca Whales in the far distance, but good enough for us to see really clearly throught he binocs.... Some evenings an eerie pink mist would roll in and cover the tops of the pine trees at either end of the beach.. and we saw some awesome sunsets aswell.

Did have a quick dip in the sea, but rather chilly, so not for long...plenty of sunbathing, reading our books and I did a sketch of the beach.

Food had to be packed away at the end of the day and pulled up a tree away from the tent, to prevent the bears attacking us. On the first night something had a nibble at one of our bags...must have been a bird we think.

Unfortunately, on the third day Paulie fell Paulie(Poorly). Thought it was sun stroke at first.. but it turned out to be his throat and tonsils. He spent the day in the tent..not well at all. Touch and go but the fourth day we had to leave or people may have worried if we didn't report back on time. Paul was feeling abit better and we made it back and pleased to book back into a hostel and hostel comforts again.

Anyway...sorry to go on but it was a great camping place.

Since then we briefly met our friends of the family who live in Victoria and made some more friends and changed hostel. Back in town for a couple more days then off camping again by a lake not far from here...then possibly camping in a place called Sooke, next to some "potholes" (watering holes haat you can jump and swim in)....so folks. Hope I haven't bored you too much.

Shall leave you to reply with your comments...hope to hear from you all soon. Love Kate & Paulie xxxxx