San Josef Bay - Nimpkish Heights - and a workshop visit 🛞🪫

We sleep well at Dragons BnB and are looking forward to our breakfast. But it shouldn’t be boring... Our car battery is definitely dead and the Dodge won’t start🫣 Benny’s fears from the night before were indeed justified. The long ferry ride and only 2 short trips yesterday were not a good combination for Eddi 😕 Mark is doing everything to help us. Thankfully, he is a true car lover and has the necessary equipment in his workshop garage. He even jokingly offers that we can use his convertible in case of emergency 😅 and we could also stay another night.

While Mark charges the battery, we are on hold with Avis... Let’s see if they can help.🤷‍♀️

We use the waiting time to plan the routes for the next few days. A wildlife company has last-minute spots available for a 10-hour tour on Friday. Once-in-a-lifetime chance?!? Should we go for it? At the same time, we are offered an upgrade for our already booked whale-watching tour on Saturday (6 instead of 4 hours at no extra charge). We consider what to do with these two offers.

We breathe a sigh of relief when the engine starts again after an hour. Phew 🥹 We briefly meet Mark’s wife, who gives us a few of her own tomatoes from the garden as a farewell gift. Mark drives us together to OK Tire (and nearly hits a little black bear that suddenly runs across the road 🫣). He is a huge help for us at the workshop, and while we wait, he even drives us around the town.

We have lunch together (fish & chips) and Mark tells us a bit about Port Hardy. We visit Carrot Park, which is named after the Carrot campaign (1897) and is a symbol of promise for the highway construction.

We stop at Fort Rupert at the tsunami hazard zone (tidal flats) and find crab shells and claws. Next door is the wealthier area with large houses.

Back at the workshop, the joyful news: Eddi is running again 💪 The signal error was due to the original rim not being on the car but lying on our truck bed... After the swap, everything seems to be running normally again. And although everything else here in Canada seems quite expensive, we can have a laugh about the workshop costs at this point -> 104 dollars (around 70 Euros) for a used spare tire and the change of the two rims 😅😅😅

We say goodbye to Mark and can’t thank him enough! Airbnb rating 100000/10 🚀😀 What a cool guy! To all readers: If you ever travel to Vancouver Island, stay at Mark's Dragons BnB 🐲🐉 (Coal Harbour)

It seems it was karma that we had some trouble with another Airbnb host and decided to rebook at the last minute 7 days ago 😇

We decide to brave the road west to the outer tip of the island towards San Josef Bay since it’s only 2 PM. (What was it again? 'Those who don’t dare,...' 😅). The road is partly stony again, but we drive carefully. We pass by the 'Shoe Tree,' where several hundred shoes have been left and tied by hikers 😅

The arduous way is worth it. After nearly 2 hours of driving and a short hiking trail, we reach San Josef Bay.

The vegetation here is quite reminiscent of a rainforest. We are already amazed at the massive tree trunks, even though we know even larger trees await us in the middle of Vancouver Island. In between, we spot blue birds 🐦 (Steller's Jay) and a fat toad😅🐸

The beach is truly impressive and worth the trip. Due to the flat bay, the water is unexpectedly warm and some visitors are even swimming in the Pacific 🏖😀 For us, it’s a bit tight on time today, but we enjoy our dinner here while looking at the low-hanging clouds just above the water.

On the way back to the car, we suddenly catch a strong whiff of bananas 😅 in the middle of the forest - curious.

In Holberg, we stop briefly for a tire check and take advantage of the weak internet signal (at the small restaurant hut with a wonderful view of a lake) to inform our next Airbnb host about our later arrival.

We are relieved when Eddi is back on an asphalt road 😅 Just before our next accommodation, the sun sets and the glacier-covered mountains on the mainland appear to our left. What a view 🥰🏔🌄

John and Francelia welcome us warmly - and we also meet their shepherd dog and their huge Maine Coon cat 🥰 Well, huge compared to Kira and Lucy 😅 While we brush our teeth, we definitely have a watchdog right at our room door 🤣

Tomorrow we will sleep in!!! Good night 🙂😴