Saturday, May 29th
Done.
You’ll have to excuse me, I’m not at my best
I’ve been gone for a month, I’ve been drunk since I left
These so-called vacations will soon be my death
I’m so sick from the drink I need home for a rest.— Spirit of the West, Home for a Rest.
Now that I have reached the west coast, I seem to have lost my enthusiasm. I could travel further north-west to Port Hardy at the top of Vancouver Island, but that would mean another full day travelling the busy roads of British Columbia, on a Saturday even. My plan instead is to go back to the mainland and find a hotel somewhere in Vancouver.
As I drive out of Tofino, my impression of this being a rather alternative destination is enforced by about a dozen hitch-hikers waiting by the roadside. One even has a bicycle. It doesn’t take long and I wind up behind some RVs. This is the sort of road you need to have done a couple of times in order to know all the spots where you can overtake. Despite a sign asking drivers of vehicles ‘impeding others’ to pull out, the RV driver isn’t. Bloody tourists.
A sign at the entrance to Port Alberni declares the town the home of the Mars Water Bombers. The JRM Mars is a flying boat developed during the second world war. Seven were built, but when they entered service, the time of the flying boats had passed. Four of them wound up in British Columbia to be converted as water bombers for forest fire fighting. Two of them were lost, one crashed and one was destroyed by a typhoon, but two are still around and are fighting fires still. Their home is Sproat Lake just outside of Port Alberni along the road to Nanaimo.
I have some quick lunch in Port Alberni and then have a look at the city. The city centre is negligible, a very wide, windy street running up a hill with boring buildings on both sides. There are a theatre and a movie theatre, though, the latter currently playing Shrek number, where are we now? seventeen?
But Port Alberni sits at the end of a very long yet narrow inlet, stretching forty kilometres inland from the west coast and, with the usual inventiveness of European settlers, named Alberni Inlet. It used to be the Alberni Canal, but that confused mariners who thought they could reach Georgia Strait. Sailing up the canal, they eventually wound up at Port Alberni’s Harbour Quai, much like I did. The quai is a curious mix of active industry—there is an active ship yard—, ferry docks, restaurants, and shops. There also is a little park with a play ground, but today it is to windy and wet to enjoy a park by the shore. The locals meet here on this Saturday, anyhow, as there is some sort of fair going on.
I continue along the road back to the east coast, but decide to have a look at Cathedral Grove. Now part of MacMillan Provincial Park it is a forest of ancient arboreal giants situated conveniently on both sides of the highway. The most impressive trees are Douglas Firs and up to eight hundred years old. Bad weather on New Year’s Day 1997 toppled many of them, leaving the park in an even more impressive state, as you can now see new trees and bushes growing out of the decaying trunks.
The Douglas fir is named for David Douglas, possibly the most productive botanist ever. He came to the American North-West in the early 1800s on an expedition sponsored by the Royal Horticultural Society. On this and several further trips he returned with well over two hundred new species to Britain. Only 35, he died while exploring Hawaii (remind me to not go to Hawaii next year).
After all this rain, the park, including its paths, is muddy and wet and in a rather melancholic, contemplative mood. But that is quite fitting with all the fallen giants everywhere.
As I drive on, I am stuck behind yet another Volkswagen. This brand seems to be typical of the North American west. The rest of Canada shows a preference of Dodge, except for pick-up trucks where there is battle raging between Dodge and Ford.
Back on the densely settled east coast of Vancouver Island, it transpires that there is two ferry choices. Vancouver’s airport is south of the city and there is a second ferry terminal even further south at Tsawwassen, just north of the US border. I knew of the ferry line connecting it with Swartz Bay outside of Victoria, but there is a second line from Duke Point just south of Nanaimo. I struggle a bit whether to go south, maybe have a look at Victoria, but eventually decide to just take the boat from Duke Point and leave Victoria for another time.
The M/V Coastal Inspiration, sister of the ship that brought me over to the island, takes me back to the main land. A poster at the ferry terminal terms the three sisters as the Super C class and declares them the largest double-ended ferries in the world, a claim backed up by Wikipedia (although, this being Wikipedia, the authors may have their information from the very same poster). The crossing takes about two hours.
Travelling north after leaving port, the highway dives under Fraser River by way of a tunnel. On its entrance is a sign asking motorist to ‘use headlights, remove sunglasses.’ The tunnel is rather narrow, providing two lanes where a German tunnel would only ever provide one, and completely lacks shoulders.
I have chosen to stay at one of the airport hotels which are located in northern Richmond, just off Sea Island, home of Vancouver airport. The plan is to check in and then return the car to their rightful owners. However, Radisson (chosen for their free Wifi policy) not only upgrades me from a regular room to a suite they also throw in free parking. Since it is already seven as I arrive, I scrap my original plan and head downtown.
Since I last was here, the Canada Line has opened to connect Richmond and the airport with downtown Vancouver. Back in the days, there was a so called express bus which took half an eternity. With the new train line, the travel time has shortened, but it still takes at least a quarter of an eternity.
My intention is to find dinner somewhere nice. But I forget that it is Saturday night at around eight. In addition, as I arrive in Vancouver, it starts raining. I quickly scrap the whole idea. Steamworks by the Waterfront station has its very own liquor store. While they don’t sell their very own beer in single bottles, they have some other brewery’s. So I get one of those and retire to my suite.
Beer of the day: Tree’s Hop Head Double India Pale Ale (very hoppy and very strong).