Donnerstag, 16. Juli 2015

Friday, July 10th – Tuesday, July 14th 2015: Vancouver Island : more than expected ….

The ride on the ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy was long but the scenery was again just breathtaking – we even got the chance to watch some humpback whales ; I just was not speedy enough to make any pictures  - have to work on that if I intend to increase my wild animal count ;-)
Had again the chance of talking to a nice lady sitting next to me ; she was from Powell River coming originally from Hungary and used to have a restaurant before getting retired – so there was a lot of interesting topics to talk about.

 

 


After an speedy check-in at the hostel shortly before midnight I got a really nice 2persons-room. The other girl was not in, just her luggagge and the backpack (on the nice and big bed) showed that I was not alone that night. But she did not show up all night, missed the expensive ferry and referring to the smell of her lugagge she spent the night at a party smoking some nice stuff ;-)
So I had a nice and cheap single room and decided in the morning to stay another night. I took the chance of driving a windy road to Port Alice. Not much to see there but the ride was worth it anyway.
After that I again tried to sort out my lugagge to a reasonable way of packing. Though I packed just a few things I already realised having taken too many things with me. First thing to do in Port Angeles was therefor to send some stuff back home. Sunday morning I took off to Campbell River. As it was not that far away I decided to take the longer gravel road – even though it was slightly raining. Didn’t had any problems to find the junction but then it got somehow difficult. No road signs and my GPS did not know that nice gravel road. I just drove on and quite soon realised that it was not funny with the highg pressure (meant for paved road conditions) I had in my tyres. So I just lowered the pressure and from then on it was REALLY nice driving. Different to what I’m used as driving normally  offroad-tyres but I am getting used tot he „Heidenau K60 Scout“ and it seems tob e as good as I was told before. Somehow I got back tot he highway – not exactly where I wanted tob e: came out in the north instead of south; so I was travelling back towards Port Hardy instead of driving towards Campbell River. But I didn’t care: it was a nice drive and I could train my offroad skills again – though looking like a pig meanwhile J before getting back tot he highway I tried the little compressor I had with me: and hey, it just works fine. Good to know! Means that from now on, I will always lower the pressure from my tyres driving on heavy gravel roads.

 
After just a short night in Campbell River – next to my tent site three somehow symphatic motorbikers on a brewery-tour !!! and therefore with a sleeping habit that was quite noisy….. I think they did not see that sign before ;-)







In the morning I decide to shorten my stay on Vancouver Islands – feel like I need a different scenery now ; got enough from mountains and woods, was longing to see the coast, the beaches oft he West Coast. So I drove down to Victoria and bookd a ferry to Port Angeles (WA) fort he next morning. Victoria by the way is a nice really English looking like city where you can spend hours of of just strolling around.

 

 A last night at a cosy campground next to the river…. The perfect ending of the first part of my journey.Vancouver Islands : almost 4000km driven so far and it just feels good tob e on the road. No real problems so far, people are absolutely friendly and curious about my journey; most oft hem admiring  what i’m doing – not just because they think it is a brave thing to do at all or not just beacuse I was travelling alone (as a woman) and not just beacuse they had been afraid of all the „dangerous“ countries on my way south but I also felt because they just never got the chance to do something like that; never crossed the border of their own country. I know that it is a privilege and I really appreciate having the chance to do it. I take every day of my travel as a gift and enjoy whatever is coming up.


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