Heading for Comox and being pampered

During our last night in Nairn Falls campsite it rained. Rather a lot really. You could listen to it hammering down on the roof of the Airstream and that was quite comforting in a strange way. We kind of wanted it to stop before we headed off in the morning though and it did oblige, sort of.

We hitched up the truck to the trailer in almost dry conditions and headed off for the run down to the ferry terminal. This is how Mr Google sees it:

only we stopped off to the south of Whistler to empty the grey and black water tanks at the handy refuse station. All very quiet there - no queue, no fuss. We were becoming old hands at this, just as the skill would no longer be needed. Story of the captain's life really.

The trip down to sea level had. obviously, to be mainly downhill. Sure enough it was and in some stretches of the road it felt more like driving down a river. Loads of water was coming downhill with us and from time to time on steeper downhill stretches of road, we took advantage of the ability to brake the trailer a little bit more to keep it stable. A strange concept for Europeans who are used to over-run brakes on trailers that do exactly what they want to when they want to. The North American system which is electrically controlled, not just through a big spring in the trailer hitch, gives you controllable options. That was good to help the stability of the rig - of course there are benefits and drawbacks to both systems as regulated by local laws. 

We were in plenty of time for our ferry and decided to stop at a nice spot for a while to admire the view (the rain had stopped) and relax. The last bit of the journey was truly whacky. This is how, coming south, you approach the ferry port:

Yup, a long run past it, then a strange loop off the main road and back up north. At first we thought Mr Google had blow a few chips and was going crazy or been hacked by the Russians / China but no, it has the strangest approach to a ferry terminal we've ever seen. Having followed the route and getting almost a priority check-in thanks to our overall length, we joined the ubiquitous queue. You will see that the Horseshoe Bay ferry port is no grander than any other:

The crossing was fine though, here is a borrowed image of the large ferry:

and the view from the window as we headed into Vancouver sound and across to Vancouver Island:

The coffee on board was, as you would expect, average. The pastry offerings fell into the same category. The space and seating were fine though for what was classed as a full ferry. We'd booked a specific sailing thanks to advice from Martin and Inge ages beforehand and are glad we had. They were quoting wait times of over 4 hours for possible space on another ship.

Here is the route across to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and Mr Google shows the timing spot on:

Owing to a mix of rain and dodgy decision making about a turn off, we missed going into the Nanaimo car wash area that had a bay big enough for us to pressure wash off the truck and Airstream. As it turned out, that was not a bad thing as more rain showers meant we would have messed it up again as we headed up the island to Comox. A quick fuel stop there to brim the truck ready for hand back and we duly arrived chez Martin and Inge. Only Inge was off working - flying her helicopter around the north of the country in the kind of territory you see on wildlife programs, so poor Martin had to entertain and feed us. He did both royally.

If you fancy a rather nice pad on Vancouver island then their place is up for sale, it  looks like this:

and comes highly recommended by us. As does Martin's cooking and hosting..

We had safely returned the truck and trailer to their home base after the most amazing time, seeing and exploring places in a way that we never ever thought would be possible. Somehow it didn't feel like the end of an adventure though as we had a week ahead of us to catch up with our hosts and see some of Vancouver Island.