Canada - Day Eight - Friday 11th October

Our last breakfast at 6.30am, before our last estuary tour and our long journey home.  There was a kind of sadness in everyone’s faces this morning – this has been such a lovely trip, and one that you don’t get to go on very often.  Seeing wildlife in its own habitat gives such a different dimension to an experience.  We got jacketed up – the Manager, Brian, commented that it seemed warmer this morning.  We go on the boat with Kris, and set off in search of that last bear.  The tide was fairly high this morning, with the water level covering a lot of the poles that usually stand proud.  It was not to be!  We saw plenty of eagles soaring high in the sky, as well as sitting looking at us.  They are quite photogenic.  We searched the banks high and low, but the bears were being elusive this morning.  Kris did comment that she had been on the estuary tour straight after the tracking tour that we did yesterday, and there were a couple of bears on one of the tracks that we had been using.  I wonder if they were watching us all along!  It was freezing.  Not sure where Brian had woken up this morning, but it certainly was not warm in any shape or form.  After an hour and a half on the water most of our extremities had turned into a block of ice.  Just before we got back to the lodge, we did see a mink for a couple minutes running along a log at the bottom of the shoreline.  Funny little animal that looks a bit like a weasel.  Not sure who saw that first and decided it would make a good coat – certainly wouldn’t have entered my mind!

We got back to the lodge, and had to check out by 9.30am.  Our time here had come to an end.  The float plane was back, and after a quick coffee we boarded for the thirty minute flight back to Campbell River.  The flight again was really– the views above the rivers and forests absolutely phenomenal.  A quick change from plane to bus, and we are on our way.  After about an hour or we stopped for lunch at a town called Coombes.  This is famous for its goats on the roof.  The rooves have grass growing on them, and the tourists come here to see these in their hundreds – but just not all at this time of the year.  The season is really coming to an end this far north – Edison had said that it was 14 degrees when he left Victoria that morning, and by the time he had arrived into Campbell River it was one degree.  We had a lovely lunch in a restaurant called Cuckoo with Helen from Vancouver Island Tourism, and then it was time to go again.  We drove through a town called Chemainus, which is the worlds largest outdoor art gallery.  Many, many of the sides of houses and walls had been painted with murals over the years.

After another hour or so we arrived at Victoria National Airport, and the flight to go from here to Vancouver, and then Vancouver home.  All too soon for a wonderful, wonderful experience!