I would drive 500 miles...

Well, i just got back from a driving holiday to Vancouver Island and it was great! After a long december it was nice to get away for a couple days and see some more of BC. And like the proclaimers we too drove (not walked thatd be silly) 500 miles (but not 500 more).

Myself, Gavin and Paul were the designated drivers, with Andrew and Becca the tag alongs :) We started the journey by renting a 1998 3.5L V-6 145HP Ford Taurus. The car was pretty fun to drive and a bit of an all round beast! This thing was about as wide as 2 nissan micras which made inner city driving fun! We set off from downtown Vancouver and boarded the ferry..

(our car)

The ferry ride went pretty smoothly and we even took time to explore the luxurious "sun deck"

(me trying to look nautical and holding on so I wasn't blown overboard)

We arrived at the port city of Nanaimo, this place is pretty much your standard port, and as the locals told us there was nothing good there we drove straight through on our way to the tiny town of Tofino in the North West of the Island. The roads were really fun mountainous trails with "Slow down!" signs around every turn. Amusingly, we thought we had a duff map that only featured the major roads until we realized there are no other roads of Vancouver Island. Once we reached Portville there were only two possible destinations, which meant not even we could get lost (on the way there at least).

(The middle of nowheresville, still time for a quick leak [Andrew] and a fag [Gavin] though)

We arrived at the hostel in Tofino before the light faded and were supprised by the standard of the place. It was spotless, there was a sauna, free pool and table football, and even a lovely fake log fire overlooking the pacific. Not bad for $21 a night. The main reason to go to Tofino is to see Long Beach (they also have short beach, small beach and big beach imaginatively). But after an hour and a half of driving country lanes in the dark we could only find "The Wickaninnish Inn at the Point". Ah well, at least they had a little beach for us to run around on

(Not one of Canada's best known landmarks)

We then retired for a quick game of pool and an early night

(some of us went for earlier nights than others)

We got up at 6am (actually I dragged them up) and set sail (drove) to Amphitrite Point Lighthouse and walked a little of the Wild Pacific Trail

(it seemed funny at the time :) )

(anyone fancy a swim?)

We did manage to get some great pictures of the lighthouse and the pacific. The storms at sea are pretty violent and hugely impressive to watch.

We then set out in search of long beach and when we found it we werent disappointed. The beach is too vast to even see the other side and we even went for a wade in the water. The pacific ocean is pretty cold in January :)

After this we set off for the long drive to Victoria, capital of British Columbia. To be honest, we were all pretty exhausted by the trip so only stayed in Victoria for a couple of hours. We found it pretty boring but I'd like to go back in the summer perhaps and give it a second chance. It seemed like it was trying to be England, we even had afternoon tea and scones (i had 6 cups, excellent).

(English style tea shop complete with those funny horse shoe things you find in pubs and pictures of the royal family)

(Random pictures of Victoria)

We then took the car home on the ferry and said our goodbyes to the Island

(The car, not as cramped as it looks here)

It just goes to show how different it is in Canada. We drove 500miles/800km which is the majority of the length of England, but in Canadian terms this is a small trip, we only covered about 20% of the length of our province, BC! It was lots of fun tho and hopefully theyll be plenty more adventures to come, next up, California with Ellie, I can't wait!

Simon