As we both needed a bit of a break, we decided to cancel the kayaking experience booked for this morning to give us more time to pack and check out. Good idea as it turned out – we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Nice and quiet. No rioting kids. Result. And we had a later breakfast (although we still had to get up far too early…. 🙄)

Another cloudy start as we sadly prepared to leave. This has been a terrific, if full-on, experience. We have been so well looked after.

A really special place with really special people. I’m not ashamed to admit that there were a few tears pricking my eyes as we left.

It was the orange seaplane on the way back to Campbell River:

It was, at times, a very bumpy and stomach-churning flight, but again some fantastic scenery.

Arrived in one piece, both shaken and stirred, and, with minimal ceremony, collected all our baggage, loaded it into our hire car, and drove off. About 26 degrees now.

Our destination was the Pacific Sands beach resort in Tofino on the western side of this huge island, a 3-hour drive away. A very relaxed and pleasant drive southward down Highway Number 19 (no, not that one from Nutbush, the Ike and Tina Turner song from the 1970s – look it up if you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about – it’s in Tennessee) !

Turned west onto Highway 4, and this required rather more concentration, as it was twisty for a large part of it.

At around midday, we started looking for a coffee and a snack – after all, we’d been up for HOURS!!

We were driving through the outskirts of a town called Port Alberni, which was large enough to look promising for a café. Could we find one? Nope. For once, Google Maps was no help either as the GPS and mobile signals just failed. Truly frustrating.

After several fruitless attempts at finding a suitable venue and getting more and more stressed, we drove further along Highway 4. And eventually found a suitable looking place – Ella’s Café. Praise be.

Except….

They told us that it was closed because they had no water supply. I was truly fed up by now, but Jean persevered. At that precise moment, the water miraculously came on, and we were able finally to sublimate our wishes, not without difficulty as they didn’t seem to understand that I wanted a coffee. Two nations divided by a common language…..

Back on Highway 4. All going swimmingly until we came upon a barrier with a red light stopping us from progressing. No problem, but no explanation either. So we waited. And waited. And waited. We were the first in the queue, luckily, and it was building up massively behind us.

Finally, the barrier lifted and we were able to continue on our way. Massive long distance road works. The queue on the other side was pretty long already when we passed.

No further disruption to our journey, until we arrived at the resort at around 3.30 p.m., only to be told that our room wasn’t ready. So we had a brief look around. Not particularly impressed, I’m afraid. We’d been expecting something reasonably upmarket, but this was tatty, tired and full of kids. No onsite restaurant – just a takeaway burger bar.

Finally got into our room after having to park illegally to get our suitcases anywhere near the door. Largish suite with kitchenette facilities. And a sort of sea view.

We decided to eat in after so many nights of eating out. Got some basic provisions from the onsite shop, but needed something more substantial for our evening meal. So, what else could we do apart from driving to the local Co-op and getting pizza and salad? And the liquor store to get other essential supplies….

So that’s what we did. Brought it all back to our room and turned the oven on to cook the pizza.

All of a sudden, the fire alarm in our room went off. Incredibly loud. As there was no smoke, it was obviously hypersensitive to the heat from the oven. We could only stop it now and again, so this was definitely a job for the resort to sort out.

To their credit, they did. The existing fire alarm was promptly replaced by the onsite engineer, and we were able to enjoy our pizza and salad (and wine) without further disruption.

Tomorrow promises (?) to be fairly quiet. Important stuff like the laundry has got to be sorted out. Important, you know… I’ll keep you updated.

Time for bed after a long and eventful day. Good night.