Around 8am we say goodbye to the beautiful Campbell River and drive, without stopping to Tofino on the other side of the island. This stop was not included at first by the travel agency but we added this ourselves. Crossing the island is beautiful. Lots of twisting roads, from left to right and up and down of course. At a certain moment we climb up to 18%. This means that on a distance of 100m it goes 18m up! Why don’t we stop?  Well, we want to reach Tofino in time and more specifically the Whale Centre to spot whales in the Clayoquot Sound. They have 3 times a day excursions and we want to get there for the one starting at 2pm. We pass the Pacific Rim National Park and around 11.45am we arrive in Tofino where we first check in at our hotel. Outside, on the parking lot, we see a sign warning people for a bear that has been spotted there the same morning… Checking in goes smoothly but the rooms are not ready yet, they still need to be cleaned. No problem… we drive to the Whale Centre and check how it goes. We need to be there around 1pm where everything is finalized. We decide to have lunch first somewhere in the neighborhood. Again we see a warning sign, this time it is for a cougar that has been spotted. We arrive at “Sobio Good Food To Go”. This does not go very smoothly as it takes very long and this only for three salads and a burrito… We still arrive on time for our boat trip, pay the costs of 74 CAD per person and PaNa get a survival suit. This is a red overall, waterproof and with a life jacket. Before putting on this suit we go quickly to the restrooms, which was quite an adventure! It is very small, and the toilet is on a kind of throne. We put on our survival suits and walk with about 8 other guests to the boat. In the meantime LuSo stays in Tofino and has about 2 hours to walk around and discover it. Afterwards it will seem that Tofino is very small. At 2pm we leave with the boat to the sea and enjoy the beautiful and sunny trip with whales, especially Gray Whales, sea lions, sea otters but unfortunately still no killer whales. On the boat, very often people in the front get water all over them so we are very happy we took our plastic sleeves to protect our camera’s so they do not get wet while shooting pictures (you can buy them at a specialized store). Around 4.30pm we are back in Tofino where LuSo is awaiting us. They had a drink and saw a warning sign for a cougar… We drive back to the hotel, the Best Western Tin Wis Resort, our rooms are ready now. This is a beautiful hotel, an amazing lodge and at the back from our rooms we have a view on the beach and the sea and just very few people walking around. This is a piece of paradise! After the shower we go to the hotel’s restaurant, the Calm Waters Dining Room, where we enjoy a good meal with view on the beach. After dinner we go for a walk on the beach, the MacKenzie Beach and take lots of pictures of us with the beautiful sunset. Around 9.45pm we get back to our rooms and go to sleep.

Daytrip approx. 275 km