Wed. 23rd September ‘26
3 nights / 2 days are all we have, not just of Campbell River but of the east coast of Vancouver Island. And great days they have been. Bear-tastic you might say, but also a very different less-busy, slower pace of life than we experienced on the mainland. Campbell River has certainly lived up to the hopes that we had for it. With another day here, we would have headed north to even remoter parts in the hope of finding elk. Unfortunately, we are out of time and today we are heading across the island to (near) Tofino on the west coast – another town that people have told us that we must visit.
Rather than just take Highway 19 straight down, we decide to stick to the coast for a little while and visit the sleepy little harbour town of Comox. As well as a chance to take a pic of boats in the harbour we also take the chance to grab a coffee. This turns out to be a good (or possibly bad) idea. Claude put a throwaway line in our itinerary that we should check the drivebc.ca website to check that the main road across the island was open. Janet followed this advice and found that it wasn’t. It was shut until 3pm.
Not a problem, Google showed an alternative route further north which we wouldn’t have noticed unless we had the coffee stop. When this new road loses the tarmac and goes gravel that isn’t too much of a problem, it keeps our speed down but still gets us around the closed road. Until, that is, we get to the barrier across the road. We have a quick chat with an SUV driver who is also turning round at the barrier, and he says that this can happen on this road. There is an alternative road much further south, and the conclusion is that it’s best to wait until 3 and for the road to open.
So, it’s back to Plan A but with a slight delay. It will mean that we won’t get to Tofino until late but there really isn’t much option. The upside is that we get to see the town of Coombs with it’s somewhat famous Old Country Market – a “quaint” building (inside and out) with a grass roof complete with goats. Obviously, this is a fantastic tourist attraction, but there is at least a bit of rationale. The market was founded in 1973 by two Norwegians and buildings with grass roofs are not uncommon in (rural) Norway, so why not in Canada. Eventually, the grass needed cutting and someone suggested having goats do the job. They became a talking point and so they stayed.
The interior of the market was also quirky, but there was a café and the soup was delicious. Sorted! However, the closed section of road was not far from Coombs so there was still some time to kill. Fortunately, Little Qualicum Falls Park was just before the closed section, so we were able to get in there and get a little exercise to break up the journey. There is a trail that runs up one side of the Little Qualicum River and down the other and visits both the upper and lower falls and takes just about an hour. Perfect! Not the most spectacular falls we have visited in Canada, but that is a very high bar. We also get a reminder as to how fascinating we find the forests here – tall trees, fallen tree covered in moss and all sorts of fungi growing on them. I’m now getting quite a collection of fungi photos.
We
emerge on to Highway 4 and join the growing queue for the road to open. There’s a big sigh of relief when, finally, the cars start moving. The drive is straightforward, but there’s over 2 hours of it still to go and time is ticking on. No chance for the stops we’d hoped to make – and even at a brief stop at the Kennedy Lake lookout the view was straight into the sun and photos would be hopeless. Just keep cracking on. It’s late and we’re tired when we get to the hotel and we don’t really do justice to the setting sun on the beach which is just a short walk from our rooms. If only we had the time to sit in the Adirondack chairs around a blazing firepit watching the sun set!