Nanaimo

On the 16th of may Jen, Ruby and I met at the airport early in the morning to pick up our car as well as Madita arriving from Hawaii. We named our car Churchill cause it was white like a polar bear and those are living around Churchill (Manitoba) in Canada.
After doing some grocery shopping we took the ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay for about 1,5h. Unfortunately we didn't see any whales on our way. After arriving on the island we visited Butchart Gardens which is beautifully landscaped and really worth to visit. For the first night we had found a couchsurfer close to Sidney. He lived with his three roommates in a house with a big garden and they had their own chicken. We cooked dinner for them and had a nice chat.
The second day we explored BC's capital Victoria and drove up a bit along the west coast where we camped at Jordan River. On our way to Nanaimo we went for a walk in Botanical Beach Provincial Park and visited Lake Cowichan. We made our dinner in the park at the harbour front before heading to our next couchsurfers place where we stayed for two nights. The day after we explored Newcastle Island and went for a long walk around it. For the evening we had bought tickets for a backyard fest where local bands played and enjoyed the sunny weather, too.
It was a lot of driving in front of us the next day to get all the way up close to Port McNeill (our northest point of the trip) along the eastern coastline. In Campbell River we took a break and had a look on the farmers market in town before heading to our beautiful free campground at Anutz Lake. After setting up our tents we collected some fire wood. We were lucky cause one neighbour lighted up our fire, another helped us to get it started properly and a third one brought us more fire wood - canadians are so kind and helpful! :)Les mer