Day 13: Port Hardy - INSIDE PASSAGE Prince Rupert

July 25, 2024

We’ve been looking forward to this day the most - and we wished for nice weather more than any other day!

Today, the INSIDE PASSAGE is on the schedule.

'The Inside Passage is rightly one of the most famous ferry routes in the world. The approximately 16-hour journey between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert takes you past rugged, uninhabited fjords of the Canadian west coast, impressive mountain landscapes, and ancient forests.'

That’s the promotional text. And for the past 1.5 years, we have been pondering what it would be like if it rained the entire 16 hours... or even stormed..!?

It should be mentioned here that the Inside Passage is a cruise-like tour, but it is conducted with a car ferry. The ferry, however, has cabins, restaurants, a children’s play area, various lounges with seating, and an 'Aurora Lodge', a panorama section at the front of the ship with reservable seats (chairs with recliners and adjustable footrests). The seats in the Aurora Lodge are the only ones that allow a forward view. In all other 'free' seats, you look to the side.

The tour is also nicknamed 'the most expensive ferry route in the world' - well, it wasn’t cheap.

The cheapest option is to book directly through the British Columbia Ferry Services (www.bcferries.com/), where direct changes or adjustments to bookings can also be made - in case you want to change something (thankfully, I made no mistakes with the booking!)

The most expensive part is taking the RV. Here you pay a flat rate for up to 20 ft in length, then extra per additional foot.

For our date today, that meant almost 400 € for the camper and almost the same (~390 €) for 3 adults (= 130 € per person).

(Kids aged 12 and over pay the full price).

So one way 790 € including RV. If you also want to enjoy the luxury of the Aurora Lodge (since COVID, there is now only the advantage of preferred seating, tables & sofas, and generous private restrooms, no food/drink anymore), it costs an additional 40 CAD per person (~27 €).

So, for these reasons - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - nice weather today!!!!

The night was short, the alarm goes off at 4 am. Yawn...

Breakfast is out, we will drive directly to the ferry terminal in Port Hardy and have breakfast on the ferry.

Of course, we won't make it on time from the campground, but I had planned some buffer time.

We need to be at the ferry for check-in between 5:30 and 6:00 am.

We leave the campground in drizzling rain in total darkness and head towards Port Hardy. As it gets brighter, the rain stops, but it is still heavily overcast. Just before Port Hardy, we actually have our FIRST wildlife sighting right by the roadside: a small black bear crosses the road in front of us and then sits down in the ditch to nibble on some berries.

Our first bear!!! So far, the sightings have been almost non-existent. We haven't seen as few animals on all our Canada & USA tours as we have so far.

At 5:45, we check in at the ferry terminal. We are not the first; the waiting lines are already quite filled and the ferry, the Northern Expedition, is already at the terminal with its 'nose up'.

By now, it has gotten brighter, the cloud cover is easing, and the first rays of sunshine are visible! YAY!!!! It seems we have indeed won the lottery and are getting nice weather 🤩🤩🤩

We actually wanted to pack everything calmly - we still have plenty of time before departure - but the lady in the yellow safety vest informs us that loading will begin shortly. Oops.

So we quickly pack everything for the next 16 hours, and at 6:30 the loading starts. We are allowed to drive onto the ferry behind the truck campers. The ramp seems quite tight. We are directed to park behind a truck camper on the left. Quite tight...

Exiting the vehicle can only be done from the driver's and passenger's side.

Armed with our backpacks, we take the elevator up to the information area. Since I wasn't really aware during the booking that seats outside of the Aurora Lodge were free, I treated us to the unexpected luxury of 3 seats in the Aurora Lodge (and the nearly 30 € per person are WORTH EVERY CENT!!!)

I have no idea how the seating is assigned, but we have managed to get 3 seats in the FRONT row (17-19) 🤩

Awesome!!!

We quickly check the coffee & breakfast offer in the restaurant (only the self-service restaurant is open), indulge in coffee & hot chocolate, and enjoy our brought muffins for breakfast in the Aurora Lodge - with a stunning view.

The ferry departs on time, and from now on, we alternate between the Aurora Lodge and the deck.

Right after leaving Port Hardy, we see porpoises and humpback whales.

The next 16 hours will be a mix of light cloud cover with predominating sunshine and a glassy sea!

The view is amazing; we often sit on deck in the sun and enjoy the wonderful weather during the crossing.

The ferry ride turns out to be the best whale-watching spot ever. We see minke whales, jumping and swimming humpbacks, orcas, porpoises, and even dolphins 🤩

We are totally blown away! In many situations, I unfortunately don’t have my camera with me, or I am too slow; often, I also just sit with my phone around my neck on deck - then it's hard to take pictures of what's happening in the distance...

At one point, two whales actually swim right next to the ferry when I happen to be standing on deck with my camera in hand.

The captain is also doing his best. He regularly announces 'Another whale is jumping on the left side' - which results in everyone rushing out to the deck, and we have to realize that a ferry moves by much faster than a whale-watching boat. As soon as we are on deck, the whales are mostly only visible in the distance.

Besides whales, we also have the incredible luck of seeing bears on the islands during the evening twilight. So crazy!!!

I've lost count of the bald eagles; they seem to be everywhere along our route 😂

In Bella Bella, we make a stop - some leave the ferry and others join. However, we accumulate a half-hour delay here because a gentleman apparently overslept his stop and now can’t drive his car off the ferry. The crew walks across the entire ferry and asks every 'gentleman' if he is the sought gentleman (he is continuously called over the loudspeaker). After more than 30 minutes, it seems the sought gentleman has been found, and we can finally continue.

At 9:30 pm, I manage to get my son into the restaurant where we treat ourselves to fries & poutine (poutine was my main food in Eastern Canada 😂)

We unfortunately cannot make up the 30-minute delay anymore, so we reach Prince Rupert (where it actually starts to rain) at 12:20 in complete darkness.

At 12:45, we leave the ferry feeling pretty exhausted and tired. So that we don't have to search for a campground or overnight accommodation at this late hour, I have reserved an 'unserviced' site at the Prince Rupert RV Campground, 5 minutes from here; on the way there, a deer jumps in front of our camper...

We are not the only ones; a column of 7 vehicles is heading to the campground in front of us, where we are already expected.

I knew beforehand that the campground is not nice. It's just an overnight stop. However, I did not know that we would be sold a site without a table, bench, or anything else on a gravel parking lot for 31 €.

Clearly: NO recommendation! Rip-off! The sanitary facilities are old and dirty - the Walmart parking lot (if possible) would probably have been the nicer alternative...

But we don’t care now -- it is 1:30 when we crash into bed and still can’t believe that we had such an 'awesome' Inside Passage crossing 😜🙏🏻☀️

For the statistics:

Campground: Prince Rupert RV Park

31 €; Site A10

Ferry: Inside Passage - 16.5h - approx 515 km

Driven: 53 km

Walked: back and forth on the ferry

Photos: 401

Weather: mostly sunny, +22 degrees