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  • Day 136

    North Island, Vancouver Island

    October 11, 2017 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    We were excited to get out camping again and explore this remote part of Van Island. It's starting to get into autumn proper now so we're expecting a bit of bad weather, however on reaching Sayward in the peeing rain we were a little disappointed it had come so soon. Fortunately, we managed to look so down-trodden and sorry for ourselves that a benevolent stranger in the bar offered to pay for a hotel room in the place we were camping! Great start to our trip in the North Island!
    The towns in the north are quite industrial, but the scenery more than makes up for it. It's also home to a lot of First Nation communities - we found Vancouver Island to be one of the best places that allowed First Nation people to live their culture in lands that are rightfully their own. Alert Bay in particular was a great example of a First Nation community who are thriving, able to live their traditional way of life in harmony with modern Canadian culture. The 'Namgis First Nation were really welcoming and have done a great job of showing tourists their history and culture - the U'mista cultural centre had an amazing display of masks used in the Potlatch, but it was incredibly sad to learn about how the Canadian/British governments had suppressed and decimated their culture. So much has been lost.
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