Tofino - Dance with Dolphins and Whales 🐬🐋

We have set our minds on catching the sunrise in Campbell River - 6:16 AM 😅 We’re a bit tired, but it’s definitely worth seeing the red fireball rise above the mainland of British Columbia 🌄

We have breakfast and still have time for a visit to the Elk Falls Suspension Bridge at 7:30 - all alone 😅

Then our main plan for today: Whale Watching. Earlier in the week, we were upgraded from a 4-hour to a 6-hour tour. Our skipper is Laurill, a teacher from Campbell River / Quadra Island. Today we're going out on a Zodiac boat, and you can tell Laurill loves to go fast 😅💪

We hear the story about Ripple Rock, where we hiked the day before yesterday (now we also understand that it was a planned explosion to allow larger ships to pass), while we speed through Discovery Passage to the northwest. Then we turn northeast into Johnston Passage. Here is designated dolphin territory.

And we are super lucky this time: We see dolphins, Harbour Porpoises, and even Dall's Porpoises. The dolphins are playing in our boat's wake right next to us 😊🥰 So close!!! Amazing. For them, it’s like being in a washing machine. Laurill is excited as a cookie and jumps around on her boat with joy ☺️

We continue through the rapids a bit east towards Bute Inlet. Left, right, left, right! Past the whirlpools! Laurill is having a great time 😅 So are we 🤣 Here we see sea lions fishing for salmon in the rapids.

Laurill explains to us that 'Hake' is stirred up from the ocean floor by the tide and swift glacial water. Eagles are circling a bit further above us. They share their territory with the seagulls. And just around the corner, the fat sea lions and smaller Harbour Seals are chilling in the sun.

We both need a 5-minute power nap and then look forward to a hot coffee 😅 We take a lunch break in the middle of the water in Bute Inlet - best sunny weather☀️☀️☀️👌 Now we look for the whales 😊 And we are lucky again! We are the second boat to find the group of Orcas today 😇 and we are even welcomed with a leap (half out of the water) 😊💪

The group was identified as T55 (2 males, 2 females (mother + child)) and was last sighted in 2017.

Since not many of these Orcas are alive, you can only approach them up to 200m (unauthorized boats only 400m) and also only stay near them for 30 minutes.

Further south, we see the two humpback whales from yesterday again.

We pass Subtle Island - for Laurill also 'Camp Island', where she spent a large part of her youth. Meanwhile, the island is privately owned and is used, among other things, for retired racehorses.

That was amazing!!! And for us, it was a highlight after not seeing bears yesterday.

Our drive now takes almost 300 km to the west coast of Vancouver Island. Several classic cars are on the road from Tofino and passing us 👌 After a third of the distance, we stop at Cathedral Grove and walk among centuries-old cedars and Douglas firs - riiiidiculously huge! Some are nearly 800 years old and up to 85m tall.

We make one last short stop an hour before Tofino at the Ha'uukmin Tribal Park, where you can find rapids and waterfalls between the rocks right off the highway and cool off 😅 At one spot, it drops more than 10m into the abyss 😳😅 Impressive what the water has created here!

The last stretch of the highway is winding and hilly - Melly is having fun 😁 We pass Long Beach at Pacific Rim and reach our next stop for 2 nights in Tofino around 8:15 PM. Fingers crossed that the rain front from the weather forecast will move away ✊️✊️✊️