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In 2002, Lenka and I headed out for a 3-day weekend to Tofino. It was a challenge to see how much would could squeeze into three days. We traveled hundreds of miles, some by ferry, and left replete with memories. |
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We left work at 5:00 Friday, packed and drove deep into the night, arriving at Port Angeles, Washington around 1:00 AM. We stayed in a motel-dive joint and got up the next morning for the first ferry to Victoria. |
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On the ferry trip, we saw an aircraft carrier in the distance, and marveled at its size. |
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We arrived in Victoria, and instantly immersed ourselves into a foreign nation. We imagined ourselves in Europe, trouncing through a new city. Actually, it didn't require a leap of imagination — the town did have a distinctive foreign feel to it. We had to move on rather quickly, though, for it was still quite a long distance to Tofino yet. We drove up and over Vancouver Island on route 4, and found a number of wonderful road-side stops. One stop had a river that was so utterly clear and ripple free, that we nearly jumped into it unknowingly. We could look down into the river's bed through 15-20 feet of water without any distortion or cloudiness! Down the road, we explored the glacier-fed turquoise river at a rocky outcropping, shown to the right. |
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The rocks at this one point were solid gray granite. They had soft, smooth worn surfaces that begged to be explored, and nooks and crannies that drew us into their mysterious folds. |
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Alas, we made it to Tofino. Our original purpose was to jump on a boat to explore the famed nearby hot springs. But, we enjoyed the town so much that we decided to save the springs for the next trip! |
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One of the attractions of Tofino is the deep rain forests and bogs in the area. We managed to take a few short walks into them, loosing ourselves in the mounds of pure biomass. |
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In addition to the rainforest walk, we took a walk to a large peat bog. The contrasts were astonishing, and yet they were less than a mile apart. |
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Lastly, we spent a fair amount of time exploring the local beach and sea life. The richness of shoreline starfish and anemones amazed us. |
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(c) Geoffrey Peters and Lenka J., vnimam.com, 2003. For more information
regarding this web page, please contact
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