Kat & Marty

Ferrying into Vancouver Island was a great introduction to the coastline we would soon be walking on foot. From a cold, windy, yet sunny deck, we could see glimpses of golden beaches, artist's houses, forests of cedar and redwood, and lighthouses. We received a call to reboard our bus we had taken from Vancouver and were driven into the heart of Victoria - the biggest city on Vancouver Island. The ride terminated right next to the Empress Hotel where we planned to stay a night to celebrate our first anniversary. It looked like a big old castle with ivy covered stone walls and a turreted roofline.

We shouldered our backpacks and walked a few blocks down to Ocean Island Backpackers where we had a room reserved. Ocean Island was a colourful, party hostel with friendly staff and murals painted all over. We were on the 4th floor, so hiked our packs up and then began our preparations for the West Coast Trail hike we were due to start the next day. Soon our little garret room was overflowing with camping paraphenalia and food. To take a break we went down and got fish and chips for dinner by the waterside at a quaint pub, then bought Marty some fishing line for just in case.

The following morning, August 2, we were woken by a loud motorcycle revving it's engine beneath our room for at least 5 minutes at about 4am.  At 5 we were up and getting ready to be back at the bus terminal by 6am to catch the shuttle bus to Port Renfrew where we would begin our walk. The bus was an ex-navy one and was a bit rough around the edges. The road up the island was incredibly windy (lots of bends in the road not air movement) and when we pulled into Port Renfrew two hours later I was feeling pretty rough around the edges myself. Our driver seemed a bit mad hatterish and I wonder if perhaps the journey should have taken a little longer... We got off at the trail head and went straight into the track induction. This was a talk telling us what to look out for on the trail and how to react to any bears, wolves or cougars we may encounter. I think this talk was sadly remiss in not warning us of the immense black and green banana slugs we were about to come face to face with.

Before we knew it we were taken over the Gordon River by ferry and were on our way. We chose the roughest end of the track to begin on. We balanced out the harder walking with shorter days. We walked through tall redwood forests formed of gigantic trees with a surprisingly sparse ferny floor covering. The track went up and down a lot and frequently fallen trees created large steps. We were given a small taste of the long wooden ladders the West Coast Trail is so famous for. We stopped for lunch next to a donkey engine, a massive machine relic from logging days left to rust away on the forest floor. It is hard to imagine how they managed to get such a massive piece of machinery up the hill there through such dense woods. The guidebook we used suggested early hikers ran up and down the trail with the engine on their back to stay fit. Likely story!

Actually the West Coast Trail was originally a track where a communication cable was run through from Port Renfrew to Bamfield. In the early 19th century a ship of passengers went aground and 133 people died due to not being able to escape the shores they were washed up on. Help was only a couple of hours away. This tragedy meant a decision was made to turn the cable track into a road. They began from Bamfield but it wasn't long before the idea ran out of steam and in the 70's the cable track was turned into one of the world's great walks instead.

After 4 hours we got to the turn off for our first campsite - Thrasher's Cove. To reach it was a hike 1km down steep hillside and ladders. The ladders that pepper the West Coast Trail are one of the things it is really famous or perhaps infamous for and this was our first taste of them. They weren't actually so bad - not when you looked through to the terrain they were helping you bypass. Thrasher's was idyllic. The beach was a little crowded but we found a place to put up our tent. From inside you could see the waves gently lapping the shore as the sun went down. Marty found some firewood and started a campfire and too lighten our loads a little, we feasted well.

1st Course: Bean & Vegetable Soup

2nd Course: Spaghetti with Tomato and Parmesan, garnished with fresh carrots and courgettes

3rd Course: Campfire baked potatoes with butter and garlic salt

4th Course: Marshmallows and chocolate accompanied by coffee with just a dash of kahlua.

Needless to say, we went to bed happy and replete. Over the still water boat lights reflected and stars shone full and heavy. It had been a great first day.

We slept for 12 hours straight on our comfortable sand beds. When we woke and looked out of our tent almost all of the 16 tents of the night before were gone. We hastily breakfasted on Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar porridge and packed up our tent then hit the track. Our next destination was Camper's Cove, a four hour walk. First up we had to take on the infamous ladders to get back out of Thrasher's. Thankfully due to the feasting the night before, our packs were lighter so we didn't have too many problems. Back on the track we faced a fun yet challenging trail. Old fallen tree trunks were often the only bridge to cross small gorges or rivers. I came to grief on one, managing to throw myself back where the falling wasn't so far down, I scraped my arm and bruised myself but was otherwise ok. Marty made sure I was alright, then while I sat down to recover, he photographed one of the many gigantic slugs. Then he turned the camera on me to capture my unimpressed expression.

For lunch we went down onto a rocky shelf right next to the ocean. To our surprise there was a thick fog hanging over the water. We ate pepporoni, cucmber and cheese pita breads then set off along the beach toward another trail access further down. Seaweed popped under our feet and Marty pointed out an enormous green sea anenome. Once we entered the trees again I almost followed another hiking party the wrong way down the track. Marty picked it though and we made safely through to Campers. We had to camp on the windy side of the trees due to sheltered spots already being taken. Marty invited me for a romantic walk down on the beach so we rock hopped a small river and went and explored rock pools and a deep surge channel for a while until hunger led us back to camp.

Our menu pretty much followed the first night. After our feast the wind died down so we put out our fire then retired to our tent for a round of yahtzee. Once again I came out the victor.

The next destination was Waldron Creek, reportedly one of the best camping sites on the trail. We woke late despite our best intentions to be up early and once again the mass of tents from the night before had disappeared before we even looked out of the tent. Marty cooked up some pancake mix for breakfast. It tasted pretty different from what we expected - very baking sodarish. It was more like crepe mix that required some sort of topping. I still enjoyed mine though and set off up the first set of ladders for the day merrily enough.

Once again the path was a mess of roots, branches and trunks. The dirt layer is quite thin so the tree roots spread out rather than down. Campfires aren't allowed in the forest as they actually burn down into the live roots killing the trees. This day was our longest and hardest. Now we truly had to come to grip with the ladders as they took us down and up many steep river gorges.

Waldron was beautiful and we put up our tent by a deep swimming hole that we had a very quick dip in. It was freezing! One game Australian also from Perth swam to the other side, but no one else followed his example. For the first time we didn't have a campfire but used instead Marty's little MSR stove to cook fried rice.

From here the walk became more beach oriented. We walked along a mixture of slippery rocky shelves and hard sand, making quick time. Today was particularly great as we came to Chez Monique's hamburger stand. Chez Monique is a local resident of the Indian reservation we were walking through and was a major player in local native land issues. She has a hamburger and beer stand for all the hikers on the trail. Almost everybody stops there for very expensive barbequed hamburgers with kettle fries. Though plain, they were absolutely superb and worth every single overpriced cent. After feasting, we flew up the next ladder walking past a lighthouse with surprisingly well kept grounds and joined a Calgary electrician to walk to our next campsite.

This was KM31 and due to having no water no one else was staying there. The coastal fog now lifted for us and I lay out in the sun beneath a startlingly blue sky while Marty looked for fish. He didn't see any which surprised us both due to what seemed like perfect conditions. We had a campfire and ate well again. After all the crowded camp areas we stayed in it was nice to have space to ourselves. Back in NZ it was my sister, Helen's, birthday. I wondered what she was doing to celebrate.

We got going the next morning in time to be on the first ferry crossing of the ocean strait that cuts the trail in half. The ferry runner dives for enormous crabs that he cooks up and sells to any takers before taking them across. We hummed and hahed but finally said no as neither of us were too keen on the look of the massive crustaceans. Once on the other side we decided to try and walk out a day early. We dropped back down on to beach walking again but now it was hard going with stones that sank beneath our feet, sucking out all of our energy. At one point we stopped for a quick break and I surprised two snakes in some long grass. Fortunately none of the snakes on Vancouver Island are poisonous. Fog hung over the ocean but drew back enough to reveal a colony of sea lions.

 We stopped for a break by a waterfall where most of our fellow hikers would camp the night. Instead of relenting we kept going for 2 more hours and camped alone once again. This suited us well as it was our wedding anniversary. Marty had carried a small bottle of champagne, salmon, fancy crackers, olives and candles that whole way for a special romantic dinner. He made a driftwood table and chairs and lit a fire to keep warm next too and we ate like king and queen while watching the tide come in over the rocky beach shelf. We had crepes with a melted chocolate sauce for desert. We were so exhausted from the beach walking we went to bed straight after eating. Marty fell asleep quickly but I lay awake listening to the tide creeping closer and closer. Even though we were high up under some trees I felt like the tide would keep coming up and sweep us out to sea. Finally I couldn't stay awake any longer and the next thing I knew it was morning.

This was now our last day on the trail and we had 20km to walk out. We finally hit the smooth 'road like' paths the ranger had promised us and we made good time. We were making such good time that we decided not to take breaks but try and catch the 1:30 bus back to Victoria a day early. Just at the end of the trail, in the last km, a new set of ladders had been inserted. They were over 100 steps high and were a surprise as the ladders were meant to all be behind us. We missed the bus by 5 minutes.

It took us a while to sort things out but we eventually organised a ride into the township of Bamsfield where we booked into a B$B. This place was fantastic - a room crammed with books and videos, perfect for relaxing after our long walk. We were both so pleased to have showers and feel clean again. It was a miracle that we completed the walk without being rained on. It must be one of the first times in history that has happened. Of course when we woke the following morning there was a steady rain falling. We lay in bed smugly thinking of all the people we knew were still on the trail while we had been clever and walked out before the bad weather came in. Sure enough, when we caught the bus, there were many very sodden and miserable looking people who had their last day in the mud instead of in the sun.

Back in Victoria we did laundry, caught up on news and got ready to go over to Salt Spring Island.

Salt Spring Island is the second largest off Vancouver and houses a large artistic community. It has a strong ethic against chain businesses so all the shops sell local produce and art. Most of the food is organic and the salmon is caught wild instead of farmed. One of the best things for Marty and I were the blackberries growing wild by the road sides that we could feast on as we walked from our campground into the township of Ganges. We had a whole day over here and spent it wandering around the many art galleries, walking through a frisbee golf park and finally hiring a canoe that we rowed around the marina and into the next bay. Here we saw a seal and it's baby look at us from nearby in the water.

After returning our canoe we bought a slab of wild salmon and took it back to our campground to cook up. We borrowed cooking implements from the RV parked next to us and Marty ended up talking to the couple there for ages. It was very pleasant to relax in the warm summer air.

Early the next morning we caught the Ganges Faerie - a mini van - back to the ferry to Victoria. Once there we walked around the front of the Empress that we had decided not to stay in after all as we had already had a lovely anniversary celebration, and admired the beautiful arcitecture before buying tickets for the Clipper to Seattle and the USA.