Bamfield or Bust

Heading out from Horseshoe Bay

The roads and waters to Bamfield are long and winding. You can see Joop and Kyr heading off filled with hope aboard the ferry from Horseshoe bay to Nanaimo. The crossing was sunny and uneventful.

The nervous mother

Kyr, Joop, Chris, Kalyn and Kevan

We overnighted in Port Albernie  and visited with Joop’s son and grandchildren. The next morning I rose for a 5am walk around town and was amazed by the dryness of the region. Everywhere I walked the lawn grasses were dry and brittle brown. The yards I passed were mostly devoid of industry – the grass would be mowed but the edges generally were left – no weed whacking – giving everything sort of a derelict feeling. Sometimes people were inspired to plant annuals but mostly these were tentative affairs where only one planter box was planted in the midst of many more gone to weeds. Whenever I found a yard with evidence of lovingly tended plants I rejoiced – such an anomaly. The houses also give the feeling of having been briefly attended to 20 years before in a mad rush to put on vinyl siding and then left – roofs shingled over 30 years before and paint peeling on window sills. I passed at least 5 older men clutching those long handled grabbers that I call my turtle holders for radiographing turtles, and clear plastic bags filled with recycling. All the men were all unnervingly skinny and I wondered if this activity is to supplement their pensions

Kyr standing proudly in front of nice building at Bamfield Marine Sciences

The next day at noon we headed out in our rented Subaru Forester to navigate  the long forestry trunk road to Bamfield. You can’t drive over 60km/hr because of the roughly graded gravel and the windyness that can preclude seeing oncoming forestry trucks laden with logs. The entire 2 hour journey was quite bumpy with significant washboarding of the road surface. The trees  on the shoulders were shrouded in a layer of thick dust giving them a ghostly air. A rolly polly black bear cub galloped in front of us careening wildly – so darling – made it back to the shelter of the undergrowth before I could snap a photo. The only other wildlife was a plethora of robins on the sides of the roads that flew dramatically in front of the car just at the height of the grill. It was very disconcerting to disturb them and have them rush headlong into suicide. I’ve never seen so many. I guess finding that choice piece of gravel for the gizzard can be life risking.

Main buiding

Looking across the bay to West Bamfield

We finally arrived on the east side of Bamfield  (pop 250)– the only peninsula that is assessable by car and drove straight to the Marine station. It is perched on the tip of the peninsula with many architecturally beautiful buildings all belonging to the station. Kyr’s residence was nice. There are only 8 students in his first course – science journalism. Apparently there is a disproportionate number of female students – it does appear that way when you walk through the residence. Kyr seemed pleased as punch. We left him reluctantly – at least reluctantly on my part because I worried that he didn’t bring enough warm clothes and despite assuring me that they provide blankets – they don’t. Despite our trial cell phone calling  a few feet from each other– cell phone communication was not to be.

View from our cottage at Woodsend Landing

After the owners of the cabin we are renting – Woodsend- came and retrieved us from the government dock by boat in order to take us to the west penisula  where our cabin is,  practically all communication ended. The cell tower servicing the area is from Uclulet – several miles to the north west. – pretty much non existent coverage. Don’t get me started on the internet. There are 2 second bursts that will allow facebook to partially load and then nothing for hours. Very disconcerting. I would rather it be nothing because the frustration of partial communication is just an exercise in futility. We are somewhat trapped on this west side – there is a general store up the road but kayak rentals, restaurants , internet… are all a boat ride away and we don’t have a boat. We walked to the store last night only to find it closed. Two locals were hanging about drinking beer and chatting. A fairly large fishing vessel pulled up to the dock and the two visible deck crew were female. This amazed the two locals – when the captain (mid 30’s) raced up the dock in a rush to buy some stained glass of all things- they quizzed him on his crew. He said that he has two girls and one guy. According to the captain there is way less drama in his crew by having women – they just get right down to work. Sounded good to me. Right now his is spot prawn fishing and waiting to get the go ahead for Albacore Tuna. The ones he will get around here will be 17 – 18 pounds.  Last year he was down around California and got some near 50 pounds. The fishing is not too bad.

View of the open Pacific from Brady's beach!

We walk quite  a bit on gravel skree roads – interesting that there are roads on this side and even vehicles – some with license plates from 1967 – but nowhere to go and actually I don’t think a very consistent way off for vehicles.I have yet to see a marine vehicle that looks able to transport cars across the bay. We went to the most beautiful beach on the west side of the peninsula – Brady beach. You could view the open Pacific. The smells reminded me of Hawaii. We were the only ones on the beach. I gathered unbelievable amounts of sea glass and even pottery. I haven’t found sea pottery since Greece! We were the only ones there. It was hard to leave.

Joop sitting on bench at Brady's beach

Map of Bamfield