Vancouver Island - Coal Harbour

At 4:30, the alarm goes off so we can be at the ferry terminal by 5:30. After the tire change, our car display seems to have a software issue... Even with the car closed, the speedometer display remains lit... We're a bit concerned about the car battery (Benny is sleeping quite restlessly🤣), but everything is okay 😇 The first time driving through Canada's roads in the dark - we're driving even more cautiously due to wildlife 🫶

Unfortunately, we can't see the sunrise at 6:06 due to low-hanging clouds... On the densely vegetated mountain slopes, they look like cotton candy. The ferry crew has to do some puzzling with all the RVs, but the ferry departs as scheduled.👌⛴️

For 10 hours, we travel through the wide canyon in western British Columbia. Steep mountain slopes with green forests everywhere. At times, the sun breaks through the thick cloud cover. After nearly 3 hours of driving, the car deck opens briefly. Benny grabs the blanket and 2 sweaters from the car since it is quite cold air-conditioned on the ferry 🥶 Melly spots an orca fin 🥰

At 2/3 of the journey, we reach the open sea of the Pacific on the west side. 2 hours before the end of our trip, we pass a large cruise ship (Secret Serenity), as the sun continues to come out 🛳☀️ We enjoy the view for the last 2 hours on the sun deck. Benny spots a seal as we navigate between the small pre-islands.

We arrive at the ferry terminal in Port Hardy on Vancouver Island a bit earlier than planned. We do some shopping and directly secure the discount card for the island 🤣

10 minutes further south, we arrive at our next AirBnB accommodation, where Mark greets us immediately - welcome to Dragon BnB 🐲🐉 As a welcome gift, we receive a small dragon, cast by him from epoxy. The entire decor is dragon themed (GoT fans 😅) A barbecue area under the pavilion right outside the door with a view of the water👌 really nice. And Mark drives a strong car - Jaguar XK8 convertible! And when looking under the hood, a 400HP Corvette engine reveals itself 😅🚀💪

Mark is super helpful and gives us tips for our route tomorrow, a car service for our spare tire, and recommends the small aviation museum down in the village. He seems to like us and promptly gifts us a wooden board he designed with a water pattern🥰 oh man - if only we could experience something like this in Germany 🫣😅

The start on Vancouver Island is off to a strong beginning. We are staying tuned for a good wildlife tour as we hope to catch sight of Grizzly bears and whales.🤘