Pacific rim

A cheap rental car and a long road trip through the interior of Vancouver Island. The largest island off continental North America. Did you know that? More immense than I imagined and we are soon passing through folded low mountains of fir trees marching up the slopes, sapphire lakes, tiny towns, and eventually the waves of the Pacific breaking hard up to coastal old growth rainforest and huge logs of driftwood littering the beach. Gulls and ravens adding voice to the scene framed in sea spray.

It was a long day but its seems no matter what we get into is fun together. Stopping at little farmers markets along the way and later making a picnic on the harbor of Nanaimo, passing through a First Nations community to buy a whole salmon out of someones front yard for dinner, picking up a Scottish hitchhiker full of stories, and finally arriving on the coast. The California of Canada as one surfer we met called it. No joke, everywhere booked up and we're forced into staying at an expensive posh motel for the night in the town of Ucluelet. They are not too keen on me cleaning a fish in the room, though they do have a pool, if only we had got our act together to use it...

Instead Meagan and I went in search of supplies for dinner stopping off at a local inlet to wander the beach and watch the sunset. That night was a feast done up right. Wild caught Pacific salmon, a big salad, rice and curry, washed down with a couple beers. Snoozing after a long day together on the rim of the ocean, where the forests meets the surf and ravens mingle with dolphins...