I packed up camp to move to an oceanfront campsite that was hopefully along the “whale highway”. I was camping here for a night before the girls were joining me there for the weekend.
Day 4
After driving what felt like forever down a gravel road I arrived at site and scored the best campsite! It was quite windy but the views were worth it. I set up camp and looked for whales all afternoon but didn’t see any! I was really worried that the location was a bust whale-wise and that Katrina and Ali would be disappointed. My campsite neighbour said they saw a lot of activity yesterday so I crossed my fingers for better luck tomorrow. I had some chicken noodle soup for dinner which was so cosy given how cold it was with the wind!!
Day 5
I woke up to calm waters and a bit of fog. I was about to make my second coffee of the morning when a pod of 6 orcas and a dolphin went by! They were incredibly close to shore and just magical to watch. Ali and Katrina were due to arrive any minute – I couldn’t believe they were missing it!! Sure enough they arrived just as the last big male was passing by. Talk about a welcome!! We quickly got our wetsuits on and got on the water. We didn’t see any orcas while paddling but ended up a few feet away from 3 dall’s porpoises which was really cool – they were really interesting to see up close!
After lunch we kept an eye out for more marine life. Katrina and Ali did end up buying a pair of binoculars en route from Facebook marketplace which worked out awesome.
We heard from another camper on the beach that a whale watching boat had radio’d about orcas headed our way so we woke up Ali from her nap and jumped onto our boards. We had two massive male orcas come through!! They were underwater for a while, making us nervous about where they would pop up – one came up not that far from Ali! It was wild – its fin was massive and the perspective of seeing them from being on the water was so cool. A pod of dolphins also came through and another dall’s porpoise, it was difficult to know where to look! It was all happening at once with the orcas.
We were on cloud 9, we could not believe our luck. We had an epic dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, mushroom and onions, and salad (gotta love car camping). It was such an incredible day!!!
Day 6
In the middle of the night I woke to the sound of whale blows. It was so cool, what an experience. At like 6am I was starting to wake up and heard a really loud blow – I stumbled out of the tent while sleepily telling the girls I think I heard a whale. I emerged out of the tent just in time to see a humpback whale incredibly close to shore!!! I could not believe it was even deep enough for it to be that close to shore. I saw so much of its body! I climbed onto a big log to see if it would pop up again. At this point, Katrina had come out of the tent to see me half clothed, perched on a log like a monkey, straining my eyes looking at the water – basically looking absolutely crazy but also so standard for me and my obsession with whales. We got to see its huge tail before it went under and away. After making coffee we explored the beach at low tide and saw many different colourful anemones.
We were lucky again with the whales later in the morning – 4 orcas came by, 2 of them looked like small calves! They were also accompanied by some dolphins. The dolphins will only hang out with resident orcas as the resident orcas only eat salmon while the transient orcas will eat seals and other mammals. The other marine life can tell which type of whale they are based on their dialects. We had a great view of them as they went by close to shore.
As if the day couldn’t get any better, we saw at least 8 more orcas in the afternoon! We got on our boards after they has passed and paddled up the Johnstone Straight but didn’t have any more sightings. We had a great lunch on the beach and kept our wetsuits on in case they came by again. The wind started to pick up and we added more and more layers on.
We had a delicious dinner of smoked salmon, shrimp, rice and salad. We explored more of the campsite after dinner and found a wooden teeter totter. We had another epic sunset and called it a night. Once again being woken up to whale blows.
Day 7
The next morning was freezing!! It was so windy we couldn’t spot much on the water and it was definitely too wavy to paddle, especially for the paddleboards. I was so chilled with the wind I had to eat my breakfast in the car. Despite the layers I just could not get warm and our site was super exposed to the wind. Since we couldn’t see much on the water with the waves, we decided to check out a nearby waterfall. It was a totally different climate there! There was no wind and with the sun shining strong we decided to go for a waterfall swim! The water was cold but refreshing. We made a hot coffee by the waterfall and relaxed. After our swim we had a picnic lunch in the sun, away from our site and thankfully without the wind. We all took a nap and by the time we woke up the wind had started to die down at our site. We had a great dinner – gnocchi with bacon, pesto, zucchini and tomatoes. Definitely will be making that again. We had a night full of giggles around the campfire (well, propane fire since there was a fire ban). Despite no whales, it was still a great day.
Day 8
Today we had to pack up and head back to catch the ferry to Vancouver. All morning we were on whale watch but sadly didn’t see any activity. I kept telling myself not to be disappointed as we were so incredibly lucky to have the viewings that we had, and that maybe, just maybe, every minute we didn’t see them from shore increased the likelihood we’d get to paddle with them one last time before we left. We got on the water but shortly after we had to turn around as Ali had lost a fin which was making it super hard to control her paddleboard. The wind and waves started to pick up as well. Just as we got closer to camp I spotted some splashing in the distance – we first thought it was dolphins but it ended up being a big pod of 10 orcas!!!!! They came straight for us! I had an orca come within 50 ft of my kayak! And then a baby whale started breaching! We were screaming with excitement. It was such a rare event to see and he was so little!! He was breaching non stop until he went out of sight. We were in absolute awe. Talk about a send off!! It was an unbelievable way to wrap the trip. This will definitely become an annual girls trip!
