Afterlife, Part III/A: A Perfect Storm

The movie industry never fails to squeeze the last cent out of your pocket have pleasantly surprising new ideas to help us spend more time with the characters, creatures and places we’re so enamored with. The reasoning is simple: you’ve been hooked in Part I, and after sitting through the rather horrendous Part II, you are now far too deeply invested to NOT watch the finale. So, why not spread the finale out over two parts? You’ll watch them, anyway. Why sell you one movie, when they can sell you two? 

In this case, though, it makes perfect sense. I might have planned ahead a bit, then I would have known that there are too many pictures for three blog posts. But I didn’t, and it’s probably not like you mind seeing more stuff, anyway. I hope. Otherwise, what’s the point? So, whales! We were heading out to sea, remember? (Attention: lamentably few pictures of Albert in this post!)

I think it’s great how you can’t see the sea lions in this picture. They were there, though, waiting for the leftovers of the fishers’ daily catch to be dumped in the water. Why hunt, when you can just open your mouth and have fish swim right in there? The other thing you can’t see are the actual fishermen. Our skipper asked for whale sightings and they reported of hundreds of humpback whales along the coast at some spot I can’t remember. Hundreds of them! We were in for a blast! But first, there were other sights to see.

You would be forgiven for thinking that there’s a tiny rock in the middle of the sea, crawling with sea lions. Because there is. Actually, there’s more than just one. We saw a few of them. It turns out, sea lions are a fair bit larger than seals and, unlike their relatives, are able to walk on all fours. Seals can’t. Drag them out of the water and they’re totally helpless.

No, don’t drag them out of the water. Show some respect. Imagine being dragged INTO the water by one of them. They’d just laugh their asses off at your lame attempts at holding your breath for half an hour.

Sea lions are SO loud – we were on a zodiac, which is loud, going at a reasonable speed, through a stiff breeze, waves crashing against rocks and so on… but when they roar, you hear them from hundreds of meters away, regardless.

They are also quite large, at an average length of 2.4 meters and weight of 300kg. Which gives you an idea of the waves there. Which is important, because this was not in open waters, but in a relatively ‘calm’ area. Which, in turn, was the reason why our skipper didn’t want to go further out. ‘Further out’ being the place with the hundreds of humpbacks. Might we not be in for a blast, after all?

Turns out, we were not. After almost three hours of cruising around, looking for the odd whale to show their face, we had to turn around and get back to the port. How’s that for an interesting twist. Here’s the good thing: we had a good time nonetheless, learned a bit about Vancouver Island’s wildlife, were out at sea for a few hours AND can go on another tour, free of charge, when we return. Whenever that may be. 25 years from now, maybe. Han wasn’t thrilled, of course, he and I broke our promise to Thilo – sorry! No picture of Han and a whale!

Okay, jumping around in the timeline once more. On the last day, after the botanical garden in Tofino, we made a last attempt at finding a beach. It’s so easy once you know where to look! We didn’t stay long, but long enough to find out what we’d missed all the days before. Turns out, Long Beach really is quite long. Ah well, there needs to be some incentive to go back there at some point, right?

When we weren’t hunting for beaches, strolling on trails or doing other VERY adventurous things outside, we relaxed back at the condo. Something we wouldn’t consider any good here in Vancouver, but that was really good at this cozy, quiet apartment.

Then, on the very last night, we got strong winds and big waves rolling in. My dad and I decided to go out and shoot a few pictures, and we stayed on the beach until the sun went down and our fingers went stiff from wet and wind.

It was impressive and humbling. It probably was laughable by Vancouver Island standards, and it certainly doesn’t come across in pictures. But for us, whose only experience are 12-cm waves on Lake Constance or 35-cm waves at the North Sea, this was very much a perfect storm. And a perfect conclusion for our stay on the Island. The next morning, we would make our way back to Vancouver, and spend my parents’ final week in Canada with a bit more sight-seeing, good food, and just overall quality time.