10th day 30.07.2016 - Vancouver Island Tofino - sunny

After a peaceful night, we went to the large kitchen for breakfast. Here, as is typical in hostels, everyone took a plate, cutlery, cup, and served themselves from the large coffee machine. We had juice for Pauline. Then we sat at the big table where some of the young people were already sitting, waiting for the huge whole grain waffles that Nick made on the waffle maker. In the meantime, we could talk to the other travelers. Most of them were from Canada (Vancouver, Montreal, and other eastern provinces). There was also a woman from Berlin who was doing a year of work and travel in Canada. Some more travelers from the dormitory room arrived, with sleepy faces. It was funny to see and reminded me of my youth (even though I couldn't travel to cool countries like Canada back then).

Now the waffles also arrived, which were very tasty but also filling. On the table, there were various huge pots of jam, maple syrup, chocolate (similar to Nutella), where everyone could help themselves according to their taste. At some point, we finished the waffle but due to the conversations, we didn't pay attention to putting the plate away... and whoosh, before we knew it, a new waffle was on it. Well, that turned into work, now we had to figure out how to distribute our waffle to the others. Pauline had a particularly tricky situation, after she had finished her waffle, Nick said he saw Santa Claus outside. Pauline also looked out the window... and whoosh, she also had the second waffle on her plate and everyone laughed. Anyway, we were stuffed.

Today we had whale watching on the program and we were very excited. The weather was, as usual, very nice, sunny, and clear. At 9:45 am sharp, we stood at Jamie's Boats pier. We chose a larger boat because Marie and Anne didn't want to wear a red full-body suit to hop on the waves with the inflatable boats. Allegedly, the chance of seeing a whale is the same. There were about 30 people who got on the ship, and the captain warmly welcomed us. After we all received life jackets and safety instructions, we set off around 10:00 am. At the beginning, we sailed through the beautiful bays, leisurely along the way, and enjoyed the scenery. We passed by the islands of Amet Island, between Becks Island and Stone Island, towards Vargas Island. Here we saw some otters, seals, and bald eagles. Tofino is located in a unique landscape amidst the many wooded islands. After about 1 hour, we went out to the open sea through the Epper Passage Provincial Park and the waves started to get rough. But it was bearable on the larger ship. And indeed, after a short time, a spout appeared and we saw the back of a humpback whale. It was fascinating. Unfortunately, the whale only surfaced briefly to breathe and then disappeared under the water again. We only saw the back and the spout briefly. Nevertheless, everyone was snapping pictures like crazy. Our skipper informed the station via radio and shortly afterwards, the inflatable boats arrived. They were jumping very violently on the waves and I was also glad that we chose the larger boat. After we had thoroughly inspected the whale's surface and dive moments, we slowly headed back. On the return trip, the crew explained some details about the humpback whale, bones, diving and feeding behavior. After about 3 hours, we were back in Tofino. All in all, it was a nice tour.

We strolled around the town for a bit and refreshed ourselves. Then we headed to Long Beach. We drove south along the road to the Tourist Office. There, we first got a national park annual pass for the family. It is valid for almost 2 years now. Then we found a parking spot at Schooner Cove and took a very nice trail to Long Beach. Here, we were amazed by the huge driftwood logs on the beach. We found a nice spot on a driftwood log and chilled in the sun. In the meantime, we went into the clear Pacific water, at least with our legs, as it was quite cold.

In the evening, we went back to the guesthouse, where we made a salad in the kitchen and had dinner on the big terrace while enjoying the sunset.