Vancouver Island is in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 460 kilometres (290 mi) in length, 100 kilometres (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,134 km2 (12,407 sq mi) in area. It is the largest island on the West Coast of the Americas.
Time flew by with all the enjoyments of a new city in the summertime and all of a sudden Brandon had to leave to go back to Malta. The first few weeks without him felt strange but after a while we adapted to our new routines, sadly his positive influence on skating in our daily routine was gone. Dustin spend more time on his creative works and photography and I had to work a lot more in my normal job. We stopped skating doing tricks for the most part, except for a bit of mountain blading, commuting and drone play. The vibes changed too, after a relaxed month with Brandon it was time to get back to work.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I first started looking for a car. The idea was to buy one to explore Vancouver island and maybe see a bit more of Canada later. I did my research on Facebook’s marketplace and found a lot of trashy vehicles, mostly tiny sedans and a few trucks, lots of them with troubles but the research showed that it was possible to buy an acceptable car for about 1000 CAD. It was possible for European citizens to register a car in Canada without effort and too many hurdles, but not knowing that I had to hope to be able to convince Dustin to register the car I might buy and then put the title and insurance in his name. The nice guy he is, he agreed and it wasn’t a problem at all. Around the time I was buying the car the mood in the house was very explosive, we walked on eggshells most of the time, especially asking for stuff or changing the pace or wanting to do something. It didn’t feel great to make everyone get through the process, but I had to push through and get a car, with it I could just leave whenever the mood would get to crazy.
The car, a white Ford Explorer “Eddie Bauer” edition with golden accents and all the extras they had in the mid 90’s, was great and very reasonably priced, there was just a problem with a noise, something shrugging around in the area of the back tire. The Lady claimed she didn’t know what it was and her mechanic couldn’t figure it out either. Looking back I am not sure if she told the truth, thinking about it she probably claimed to not know about the problem and so get rid of the car with less questions, or avoiding bringing it to the junkyard.
The car was in terrific shape but sadly a write-off due to the investments it would take to make it a “government-approved road worthy vehicle”, the rear axle needed to be straightened and the break system looked at. I didn’t care too much for long term investments, actually not at all, I planned to drive the car for no more than 5000km and that mostly in the outback, so all I did was a quick drive around the block which seemed fine, said “ok, I ll get it” paid the 650 Canadian dollars and went with the papers to the car insurance. Once a car has been approved “roadworthy” in Canada it will be for the rest of its life, at the least in BC. We had to go back and forth a couple of times until the very unpleasant lady at the insurance place was satisfied with the papers. Unluckily Dustin had an unpaid ticket and unless had been paid he wasn’t able to register the car for me, additionally he was still registered in his home-province, not British Columbia. In the end his wife had to jump in and we put the car under her name. I am very thankful for that, thanks Barbara. These were very stressful times, all I remember is walking on eggshells for quite a few days until I was finally able to meet my great new friend Edward.
Beautiful port town, Vancouver Island, Canada
During my time on the island it was peak summer, so the days were extremely long and the nights extremely short. If I wanted to shoot sunrise and sunset on two consecutive days I would have to go to sleep at 10:30 and wake up at 4:30, sleeping for only 6 hours if everything worked perfectly. Because of that it was a bit hard to be at the right time at the right place, still, that day I made it.
Rocky beach, Port-Renfrew – Vancouver Island, Canada
This was the first beach I saw on the west coast of the island, needless to say I got overexcited with the fog from the sea and all the early morning sun rays peaking through the trees. So excited even, that I didn’t even see the bear blocking my exit for a while. He left after a while, probably without noticing me in the distance, still a scary experience.
Schoen lake provincial park, Vancouver Island, Canada
This is me in my set up camp on the public campsite at Schoen lake. Spending a few days in the woods can be quite boring at times, especially alone and without any driving that needs to be done. Time for selfies and reflection.
Bears, Central West coast, Vancouver Island, Canada
One morning I went to the beach and found it all foggy with sun rays peaking through the trees and the mist. I got very excited and started to climb around the rocks and little inlets. After a while I looked back to the path that lead up to the parking lot and noticed a bear right in front of it, blocking my way back to the car. My first alone, not in the safe car bear experience. I played it cool, tried to get out of wind and sight and just waited till the bear left. No problem in the end but it sure felt a little bit funny. Another time a bear would walk down the beach the same direction as me, but behind me, again cutting me off from my way back to the car. This was a bit more tricky, I left the beach and climbed through the woods, eventually getting out behind the bear. A lot of people I met in parking lots and around the touristy spots later confirmed that especially the area around port Renfrew had a very large bear population. And that means something in Canada.
So there I was, in Canada, kind of owning my own vehicle, how crazy is that?
For starters I put a mattress onto a couple of pallets, found spots for all the important things and did some basic maintenance, an oil change and a brake pad change. Thanks to YouTube university, I handled all the jobs DIY, but probably spend more money on tools and accessories than for the car itself in the end. Once the car was ready for the road and after a few smaller test drives out of the city it was time to get onto the ferry and over to the island.
The ferry landed me in Victoria right at the southern coast of the island, and as it turned out this was not really my idea of what I wanted to see, the area was quite populated and it seemed as if lots of old folks were retiring down here. Good vibes though. I hit the road towards port Renfrew, the wildest place on the island judging by my internet research and the brochures I had gathered. From there on further to the central west coast but still in the lower part of the more or less divided island for my first destination. It turned out to be absolutely epic, everything was supersized, the trees, the beaches, the rocks, the logs… all that came with perfect weather and very long days. This was my first real encounter with Canada’s nature, apart from the rather short van trip. Unlike Tofino and the other north-western coastal towns this area wasn’t visited as much by tourists and even though the two cities weren’t far apart from each other on the map it took me a trip around half of the island in the car to move to the north west of the island.
I hiked the West coast trail, visited the local beaches, bluffs and cliffs, camped out in the car, hung around parking lots, barbecued vegetables and meat every night and went to work at McDonald’s a couple of times. I avoided public camp-sites and just stopped by the road for the nights. When I returned from port Renfrew to the southern coast the “check engine light” came on, which had me panicking. I stopped, opened the hood and checked the engine, it seemed fine. Then I got some web advice, leading me to an auto repair shop, the guy quickly plugged his computer into the car and gave me an error code which I then again looked up back at McDonald’s WiFi. According to the car-forums It turned out to be nothing major, at least nothing to worry about in the near future, something regarding O2 levels provided by a sensor in the exhaust system. I bought some black isolation tape to cover the shiny light on the dashboard, as I found it distracting and it definitely wasn’t good for the holiday mood or the happy vibes.
After a couple of days I left towards Tofino, a journey around half of the island that took a couple of days, visiting all the different sights on the way included.
The island is very diverse, there are endless sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, snowy mountain ranges even in the summer, natural and man made lakes, little islands and so many other things to see and do. I enjoyed exploring the central part of the island just as much as I liked the coast.
I always feel uncomfortable driving on gravel roads. Nobody likes a flat tire, especially without tools. A 20km gravel road ride to Schoen lake provincial park didn’t seem too attractive at first but was well worth it in the end, I even rationed my food a bit so that I was able to stay a day longer in this empty and super beautiful natural paradise. It was one of the only times I made a proper camp with a fireplace, payed for the spot (maybe not) hiked around the lake as far as I could, barbecued more vegetables and just took it very easy for a bit deep down in the woods. Few other campers passed through, but overall there were more bear appearances than peoples’. I was very happy to feel tarmac under Edwards wheels again after another 20km of gravel road back out.
I didn’t stay in Tofino as much but preferred the town of Ucluelet, a similar village but it felt not as polished and touristy. The little towns on the way were always great for morning coffee and more importantly fresh WiFi, I spent a good 3-4 days between the two towns. They are not that far apart, Tofino being the hipper town with fancier coffee shops and “cooler” people. I bought a Wolfmother cd at a second hand store, there was no radio in most parts of the island, the trip became very “rocky” all of a sudden. Sadly it was my only cd for quite a while, until I found a whole bunch of way better Cd’s in one of Vancouvers “take what you need stashes” Once I had enough of Canadian surfer dudes (funny that they even exist) and coffee shops I went on to the last stretch of my journey, a drive up the east coast all the way to Port Hardy on the northern tip of the island. I assumed that the wildest parts would be the ones furthest away from civilization, but that wasn’t the case. The north actually disappointed me a little bit, it was quite flat and in contrast to the more beautiful and happy towns in the south and the west, this part turned out to suffer more from poverty and homelessness. The area around Tofino and Port Renfrew with the middle part of the island seemed the wildest, while the southern and east coast are a lot more populated and so a bit boring as I wanted to see wild nature. Things got wilder again in the north, but the landscape turned flat and thus I found nature more interesting in the west of the island. I didn’t stay for too long in the town of Port Hardy, maybe only for a coffee and supplies. I had already driven 2000km, I felt like it was time to go back closer to home, since I was planning to only drive the car for 5000km in total and it had its issues.
Little Island, Ucluelet – Vancouver Island, Canada
These little “islands” off the coast got me very excited as well, I enjoyed hiking up and along the rocky coast in gerneral, the west coast trail must be pretty epic, especially if hiked from start to finish.
Strathcona provincial park, Vancouver Island, Canada
Even though the lake is man-made it still offered some beautiful scenery, especially with the mountains in the background. I found a sweet hidden camp spot just beside it, avoiding the costly campsites on either side of the lake.
A few island hits:
- Ferry ride over to the island
- The area around the coast from port Renfrew up to Tofino
- Schoen lake provincial park
- Strathcona provincial park (even though the lake is man made)
- Cowichan lake free bathroom hot showers (the only free ones I found on the island)
- Bears
- Rain forests and giant trees
- Little port towns
- On the side of the road BBQ and sleeps
- The scenery whilst passing through the island from the one side over towards Tofino
- Hiking along the coastal trail (even if only in bits)
- Artists trail in Uclulet
