After almost two weeks of beach life (not counting the time in Kelowna), it was time for a change.
Everyone was raving about Vancouver Island, so Katrin had to go there too.
So she quickly booked the Greyhound bus and off she went. Well, almost…
Since the bus wasn’t scheduled to leave until 1:45 p.m., I was naturally at the train station/Greyhound station way too early. Which, in this case, wasn’t such a good thing. While I was still leisurely munching on my lunch (consisting of a granola bar and a banana), a young woman came running through the entrance of the station, coughing. A young man was behind her, as if he had to protect her. Hmmm, strange, thought Ms. Z. (aka Me), and almost moved closer to the door— natural curiousity just can’t be stopped — but then she started coughing as well. Gradually, everyone in the exit area of the Greyhound terminal started coughing. I held my jacket over my mouth and nose and hoped that whatever it was would go away soon. Well, that wasn’t the case. After about two minutes, everyone who was acutely affected moved inside the station, away from the door, which was still open. However, it soon became clear that it wasn’t any better inside the station, and a short time later, the entire station was evacuated through the front entrance.
Everyone gathered on the station courtyard and no one knew exactly what was going on.
First, the police arrived, followed shortly afterwards by a large fire truck with two occupants. All of them disappeared inside the station, and to this day I still don’t know what they were doing there.
After about 20 minutes, the station reopened and everything returned to normal.
No panic, no annoyed passengers, no curious questions. Apparently there had been a gas accident, but no one knew any details. The whole thing ended so uneventfully that I probably didn’t tell anyone about it because I had already forgotten about it by the time I arrived in Ucluelet that evening.
Ucluelet, a small fishing village, almost untouched by tourism, where you can surf all year round (albeit in thick wetsuits, but who cares? 😉 ). That was actually the main reason why I ended up in Ucluelet in the first place: after having had my first (mixed) experiences with windsurfing, I wanted to check out the sail-free competition (and Tofino was, as always, already fully booked for the summer season 😉 ).
The other type of surfing
The first surfing lesson was already booked for the following morning and, as chance would have it, my Dutch roommate, Marloes, was also joining in. However, the weather wasn’t really cooperating the following morning (and almost every morning after that), and neither Marloes nor I were really motivated to get out of bed, let alone into the cold ocean.
But a booked is a booked, so we arrived at the surf shop at 9:30 sharp.
After a quick coffee and chat, we set off for the beach, which is 14 km outside of Ucluelet. Because of my shorter legs, I was allowed to sit in the back on the emergency seat in our surf instructor’s Jeep.
The worst part after that was slipping into the wetsuits, which were still damp, cold, and, except for mine, very tight. For some reason, I had been given a size 10 (instead of my usual 6 or 8), and that was a GOOD thing 🙂 I was the only one who could still breathe after putting it on, which is totally great 🙂 However, my sleeves and leg parts were significantly too long – you can’t have everything 🙂
Then we finally headed to the beach, surfboard on our heads or cool under our arms (depending on arm length). Unfortunately, it didn’t look much more inviting there than it had in the village: gray, a little foggy… BUT there were waves, it was a real beach, with real driftwood and real waves (I’m not good at estimating, but I’d guess they were 80 cm to 1 m high). My enthusiasm slowly began to build.
On the beach, we were given a brief introduction to the correct paddling technique, paddling timing, and how to balance on your board once you’ve caught a wave, and then we were off into the water—which wasn’t that cold, but very salty.
We spent the first half hour or so carrying our boards into waist-high water and waiting for the “perfect” wave (not too high, not too low, and a single wave). I had only ‘caught’ 3 or 4 waves before we were ordered back to the beach and taught how to “stand up.”
The summary of it all is:
When the wave of your choice approaches, start paddling; when the momentum comes, paddle as fast and hard as you can, then put your arms on the board, prop yourself up, and stand up, legs about hip-width apart on the back of the board, and surf coolly on the wave with your knees bent until you return to the water with a (preferably elegant) fall. Everything else is a matter of practice 🙂
All in all, it’s a super fun, very tiring, and sometimes patience-testing activity when you have to wait for hours for THE wave.
After 3 hours, we were all wonderfully exhausted and drove back to Ucluelet happy and content, with salt water in our eyes, hair, and stomachs.
Open Mic at the Eagle’s Nest
In the evening, the village highlight of the week took place: open mic night at Eagle’s Nest. This is basically a night where anyone who thinks they are talented enough can take a shot at the microphone. Presumably, it’s more or less the same candidates every week, but at different levels 😉 Ultimately, it’s also about all the villagers (and tourists) meeting once a week, exchanging the latest gossip, and simply having a nice evening — and not be bothered by a super-sexy captain who constantly felt the need to pull up his sweater and do a half-strip because he thinks he’s Mr. Sexy himself (which may have actually been the case 30-40 years ago).
For the rest of the week, Marloes dragged me along all the surrounding walking trails, which were really beautiful, leading through the rainforest. Somehow, my motivation was obviously somewhat impaired by the constant fog and gray skies. I also owe the super-awesome whale watching tour, on which we saw over a dozen whales (or at least parts of them), eagles, seals, sea lions, and a starfish colony, mainly to Marlous’s constant urge to be active.
Photos of our rain forest walks are below
Whale watching photos
Tofino
On the second to last day, I actually ventured out on my own for a (half) day trip to the famous Tofino – world (that is, Canada’s ;-)) surfing capital and tourist trap.
It was Sunday, 9:30 in the morning, gray and deserted when I arrived in Tofino. And I didn’t like it: souvenir shops next to restaurants, providers of sea “adventures” — and that was it. Tofino reminded me of Banff in its own way, and in gray and foggy.
I visited one of the local beaches (not suitable for surfing; the surfing beaches are all further out) and then marched on to the Botanical Garden. Unfortunately, they wanted $11.50 admission, which I didn’t really think was justified and therefore went without
After a short snack break (my standard meal of a granola bar and banana), I walked all the way back to the gas station, where I saw the beach bus.
Since I wasn’t sure if I would make it back to the bus depot in time, I asked the bus driver if he could give me a ride – and since we are in the land of friendly people, he gave me a ride, free of charge, of course!
Funnily enough, that would have been quite a bit of the way to Ucluclet, which later cost me a whole 15 dollars, which is quite a hefty price for 40 km. But that’s Canada!!
Schreibe einen Kommentar