Ucluelet - 48° 56' 15" N 125° 33' 38" W

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 Nomads.


Homeless is a misleading term as we still own our half of the duplex in Canmore.  There is another family living there now.  Five days ago, we packed the last few of our possessions (that we hadn't sold, gifted, donated or trashed) into the van and left the driveway.  Now what?


An opportunity to see a high-calibre indoor rock climbing competition (courtesy Megan P.'s efforts at qualifying for Western Canada Regionals) was handily located in Surrey, so that meant we could attend the competition and then visit Sean's mom on Vancouver Island.

The Hive, set up for competition

Megan is Number 265 - waiting for her chance to flash this!

Doing their thing, being impressive

Watching an indoor climbing competition is always entertaining.  The strength-to-weight ratio of these kids is astounding, never mind their flexibility, endurance, practical application of physics, etc.  Despite an overly hard final round of puzzles (yes, that's what they call the individual climbing challenges) in which VERY few of the competitors topped, Megan came in eighth of twenty in her age group.  Very cool.

After a few days on the mainland watching the competition, we ferried across to Parksville to visit the rellies and reconnect with some friends in Qualicum Beach.

We then drove to Ucluelet and Tofino.  The Pacific side of Vancouver Island has some great hiking and scenery, so out we went.


Everything out here has a healthy growth of moss.

Trail Marker

A single height canopy indicates this isn't old-growth forest

Of course there is fog!  Yay!

The harbour in Tofino

Pacific-side shoreline

Skunk cabbage, or swamp lantern


Biodiversity

Simple but tasty lunch with a marina view!


Can't keep her out of the water

This is how we know it's ours

The first few days we were in Ucluelet, it was typical West Coast-in-April weather - rainy, overcast and windy.  Then a strange thing happened.  The sun came out.  We were treated to three days of 20 celsius or warmer.  It made car camping that much more pleasant.  We strolled around both towns, had some time on the beaches and hiked a few more trails.


Beautiful shoreline in sunshine!


Harbourview Coffeeshop in Tofino.  Blue skies!


We are enjoying our time out here and embracing the fact that we really don't have any commitments.  We need to be back in Canmore for May 3rd for a doctor's appointment but that seems like a long time from now.

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