We head into Tofino town/village/city – not quite sure what it's classification is as, the locals call it a village, the tourist information call it a town, the website for Highway 4 that connects Tofino to the world calls it a city. I can confirm it is a bit of a mess, it's bits and pieces thrown together due to a rapid growth in recent year and everything is built for practicality to cope with the aggressive winters, though the newer buildings are using this technique called “design” to make them more appealing.
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| Only photo of Tofino I took |
Tofino has been a tourist town since the late 1800s due to it popularity of being the most beautiful spot on Vancouver Island essentially like the rest of British Columbia it has a lot of old trees, big mountains and other random things like wildlife, prior to that it was a fur trading post. Up until the 1960s it was still only a remote marine settlement, but that would change when a road connected it to civilisation and people flocked to the beached, making improvised camp grounds, it was about the same time surfing was taking off as a sport and ever since has been the hub of Tofino's culture... as well as all that hikes, natural beauty and shit.
Leaving Tofino after a look around an art gallery and consuming a delicious breakfast wrap (all the food we ate in Tofino was amazing!) we drive through Pacific Rim National Park and head to Schooner Beach, where like a complete twat I left my camera in the car. Foolishly, because to get to the beach you have to walk along a raised wooden platform through first generation forests, passing these big tall chunks of bark with leaves and big twigs coming off them, over rivers, in and around nature, then the path just stops and you're faced with the beach.
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| Walking amongst this like a safe explorer (via zorystravels.wordpress.com) |
A sun-soaked sandy clear-watered empty beach, with a small forested island poking out in the middle of the bay, we climb over some rockpools with crabs and tiny fish going about their business like they're completely unaware they're trapped there for 12 hours and find an area to set up base beneath some big trees.
I was restless and excited as it was warm and I was on a proper beach, I ran into the ocean and, promptly ran out screaming, how that water is still fluid and has not iced over, but I could feel icicles forming in undesirable locations. Too good to resist though, I go back in using my warming self-motivation mantra “You're a fucking idiot, why are you doing this, again?!” reaffiriming my stupidity with every step seemed to have helped as I stayed in the water for an hour absorbing all the natural beauty and shit.
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| It was sunny without a cloud in the sky when I was here (via zorystravels.wordpress.com) |
Hours whirl around and it was agreed that a change of scene was required so we drove off to Cox Bay, we get to the beach with its more trees, sand, rocks, etc. and we head North to small piece of land that pokes out into the ocean and proceed to climb up the bluff. It would turn out that Tofino had something up its sleeve for me, a grand finale as a final goodbye after a great brief time I had, visiting this place.
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| And then some. |
We arrived just as the sun was setting and it was incredible, the last remnants of the day was disappearing in an explosion that lit up the sky an amazing orange with a silhouette of Frank Island in front adding contrast. The colour of the clouds were either bright yellow or dark blue from the chasing night behind and the darkness wanted to approach as fast as it could but, was being held back from a full moon rising over the forest behind and shimming off the waves below and yada, yada, yada, natural beauty and shit.
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| Moooooooon |
Goodbye Tofinoooo!
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