Day 7 - A Lazy Man's Drive North To Port Alberni

F is such an easy car to drive. He's only got two pedals, a brake and an accelerator (H had a third pedal, a foot-operated parking brake, which caused us plenty of fun as it was in the same place as a clutch on a car with stick shift). You put your foot on the brake, make sure the gear stick is in "Park", start the engine, move the gear stick to "Drive", and that's it, you're away. No need to worry about hill starts, no need to worry about stalling, no need to worry about gear changes. I really can't understand why automatics prevail over in North America, and yet in England we still struggle on with stick shifts. Just stubborn I guess. Is it a fuel economy thing? "Gas" over here is about 80p a litre at the moment, about 40p cheaper than in England.

With more than a pang of regret we left Victoria in the sunshine and headed north up Vancouver Island along Highway 1. The journey to Port Alberni and our third hotel took about two and a half hours. The road, surrounded on either side by great forests of pine trees, was busier than I thought it would be. We passed through a few small towns, and the larger ferry port of Nanaimo, which made me realise there is so much on this island that we're going to miss. I feel a return journey coming on.

By mid-afternoon we had checked in to our next hotel, met the co-owner (he was born in Derby of all places), and were hiking our corns, bunions and blisters down to the harbour area, the sun beating down and a fresh wind blowing. The scenery is magnificent, huge, expansive; there always seems to be one more mountain just beyond the furthest one you can see. The mountains themselves are covered with trees - pine, spruce, fir - right up to the snow line. Everywhere is so green.

We stopped at a Safeway to pick up snacks, and then carried on to the harbour, where we sat, eating and looking out over the beautiful Alberni Inlet, the cool wind blowing in our faces. It was just fantastic. Turning and looking over my shoulder I could see down to the other end of the inlet and the mountains of Strathcona Provincial Park. To the east I could see snowy peak of Mount Arrowsmith, the tallest mountain on southern Vancouver Island at almost 6,000 feet.

There isn't really that much to Port Alberni. It's mainly a logging town (most of the towns on Vancouver Island seem to be logging towns), and we saw trucks and tankers loaded up with logs. It seems to be a place that tourists are starting to visit, and it doesn't know what to do with them. There is a ferry tour you can take (we didn't), and a ride on a steam train that you can do (we didn't do that either), but other than that it's very quiet. Later, at our hotel (which is one of a number along this road), I asked what kind of people stay here. They get a lot of hikers, some people come for the train and the boat, and some, like ourselves, are just passing through on their way somewhere else.

Tomorrow we continue north again. I would love to have had a few more days to go further west, to Long Beach and Tofino, but we just don't have the time. We have an appointment in two days with some whales, and another appointment the day after that with the Inside Passage, also known as Canada's Grand Canyon.

So many things to see, so little time...