Click on a photo to enlarge it.
On Monday, we did the trail at the campground which turned out to be a disappointing 2 minute walk up a hill and back
down again!! So we walked along the gravel road further north for an hour and saw some garden snakes.
On Tuesday after relaxing at the campground for most of the day, we drove back to Gold River and reserved the last
two seats on a one day boat trip for the next day, out to Friendly Cove where James Cook landed in 1778.
On Wednesday it was very cloudy when we got up and when we drove down to the harbour we could see all the mist over
the river where the boat was due to go. So we decided to cancel and put our names down for the Saturday trip. Then we
spent an hour at Upana Caves which are an hours drive along another gravel road. They're not spectacular but we had
an enjoyable time wandering around and climbing down through some narrow spaces into various caves. Then we went back
to our free campground.
On Thursday, Kirsten went swimming and later we got our solar shower out for an outdoor shower. Then we played
dominoes and Helen lost horrendously!! On Friday, Kirsten got a migraine and had to lie down for most of the day. At
7pm we drove down to the boat docks at Gold River for our boat trip the next day.
We definitely made the right decision to delay the boat trip until today. The weather was a lot better - warm and
sunny. We set off at 10am and Luna the resident Orca whale came out to play!! He was jumping beside the boat, to a
lot of "Oohs and Aahs" and then swam in the "Jacuzzi" caused by the boats engine at the back.
Luna (Orca) riding the waves.
We said goodbye to Luna and then said hello to some Minky whales who were spectacularly breaching out of the water -
super! Further out towards Friendly Cove, the mist and fog started rolling in so that when we arrived at 1pm we were
shrouded in dreary weather! We went on land and walked up to the lighthouse where we sat down and ate home made
blueberry muffins from the boat.
Unfortunately, on the way back we didn't see Luna again and the Minky whales were a long way off in the distance. But
we got out of the mist and fog again and back into the sun.
On Sunday, we did some shopping in Gold River, dumped and then went back into Strathcona Provincial Park where we did
a 4 hour, fairly challenging walk through the forest along the Elk River. It was very hot and humid so we were glad
that we hadn't set out on the walk until 4pm. Then we used our solar shower outdoors again.
