Ucluelet & Tofino

Ucluelet and Tofino are beautiful places on the west coast of Vancouver Island. We got to Ucluelet and decided to stay at the Wya First Nation campsite for the night. After driving through the woods we arrived next to a big pile of bear poo (reassuring) and set up our tent on one of the lower pitches in the tree line at the bottom of the bluff. There were only two pitches up above us that were occupied. It was amazing to walk a few feet through the trees out onto the beach. We sat on a massive rock and watched the most amazing sunset. We pulled a bench up to our tent and blocked our tent in then lit a fire and had some food. There were signs about wolves as well as the bear scat in the car park, but we were reassured that no bears were in the area, only cougars..! Eventually we went to sleep only to be woken just before 4am by someone above us clapping and shouting, at what we assumed to be a bear. We were bloody petrified and all we could hear from 4am until gone 5am was the sound of something crashing though the undergrowth and wood/branches breaking. At 6.30am we packed up and got back in the car. An Airbnb was to be booked for the remainder of our stay after Andy's comment at 5am; 'if we survive until dawn, we're staying in an Airbnb for the rest of the week!'. The weather in general was very wet during our 5 days on the west coast. We visited Long Beach on one day which was cool and later, while watching the latest Planets of the Apes film, we saw one scene was filmed there. The forests between Tofino and Ucluelet are very old and there are some cool walks in the ancient groves. The airbnb we stayed in was in Ucluelet and the house was very big, such value for money. We mainly trekked around in the rain and also visited a bar with an old style bowling alley and 'snucker' table. One day we decided we would hire surf stuff, but then it rained hard for almost 36hrs so this didn't happen. Ucluelet and Tofino are beautiful places, but unfortunately we weren't blessed with the best weather. Was still enjoyable though.Read more