Kayaking Isle of Man - Tahsis.

Tahsis really is at the end of the road. And it's no ordinary road. A spectacular drive through to Gold River takes you half way, the rest is along a gravel logging road with steep gradients and no crash barriers. This isn't the usual tourist trail. To make this sort of effort there has to be something worth while at the other end. Few do and we felt conspicuous as we arrived in this tiny hamlet at the end of a long west coast Fjord on Vancouver Island. Tahsis exists because of logging. But there's very little logging on this Island these days and both sorting and saw mills have closed, leaving huge scars on this otherwise beautiful little bay. Really all that's left is a bit of sport fishing as even the commercial trawlers have gone! You get the feeling that this is a dying place, and that people are selling up and leaving. That's certainly the impression I got from speaking to one local in the Beach Cafe.
I may be giving a bleak impression of Tahsis but I don't mean to. This place is wonderful and if you want to sample real Canada, with real Canadians then make that effort and drive the logging road. The drive is worth while in itself and if you crave peace and tranquility, breath taking beauty and genuinely the most friendly people that I've come across in a long time then go to Tahsis. Oh and the kayaking is good too. I took my sea kayak up a river and practiced a bit of slalom! The log sorting depot pictured above is at Gold River.
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Kayaking Isle of Man - Quadra Island, B.C.!

We've been on Quadra Island, B.C., Canada for the last three days. It's part of the Discovery Islands group and lies off the east coast of Vancouver Island. It's different here to the west coast, surf orientated, Long Beach Peninsula where we spent the past 10 days. Both are wilderness but you get the feeling that nature is in charge at Tofino and the Clayoquote Sound. Here, at least to some extent, she shares control with people. There is a wilderness here but it's not the primitive, untamed rain forest of the Pacific coast! Instead it's low lying, rocky beached, conifer forested archipelago of islands off the east coast of Vancouver Island. Even the weather seems more gentle as most of the rain has been rung out of the clouds by the high intervening mountains of Vancouver Island before it reaches Quadra.
So this is an area of exquisite, tranquil natural beauty with an abundance of wildlife and some beautiful scenic gentle paddles? Well yes it is but there's a dark side to this place for the unwary kayaker. Some of the fastest tidal races in the northern hemisphere are to be found around the Discovery Islands surging up to 13 knots. They've been known to pull over and submerge local tugs and commercial fishing boats and are not recommended for anyone other than the most expert sea kayaker with local knowledge. Not being either, and lacking time, I could not indulge in such tidal race pleasures. I did however sample some of these currents for myself as I ventured out alone into Discovery Passage. This is like a series of conveyor belts and there's usually one going your way, as the main current spawns eddys and counter eddys. Sooner or later though you run out of options and you only have your own strength and endurance to get you through. This happened to me, I only just made it and I've never had to paddle so hard in my life!
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kayaking Isle of Man - Tofino!

It's nearly time to leave Tofino and head north to the wilder half of Vancouver Island. We've spent 10 days here and of course it's our second visit to Tofino. This must mean that we like it and we do. Tofino is great. It enables any of us to reach out and taste that little bit of wilderness and yet remain in touch with our Western luxuries. Within a few minutes you can paddle through the Clayoquote Sound into silence, a silence disturbed only by the plop of a leaping fish, the cry of a bald eagle or the grunt of a black bear. And yet you can still be home in time for an a la carte meal with the best wines in your 5 star lodge hotel. Then there's the raw power and ferocity of the Pacific Ocean to the west. You can paddle straight out through the painful and smothering dumping waves into the vast ocean, only interrupted by rocks and lighthouse clad islands. But always keep an eye over your shoulder here as the open Pacific can quickly catch out the unwary. Even this can be eased into by paddling from Tofino in the shadow of the larger off shore islands such as Vargas and Wickininish!
Tofino is easy instant access wilderness with the discomfort removed. It can be as safe as you want it to be with easy novice trips and a host of professional guides at hand. Everyone is laid back, friendly and accommodating as has been our hotel, the Long Beach Lodge, who said nothing about me keeping an often wet sea kayak in my room for the last 10 days. They have been excellent and we thoroughly recommend them.
We're off to Campbell River next.
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Kayaking Isle of Man - Grice Bay to Tofino.

Clayoquot Sound is a vast area of land and sea comprising 8% of Vancouver Island. Measuring 350,000 hectares in total, just the land mass is 1,000 square miles of mainly rare rain forest. There are 5 communities in Clayoquot Sound: the town of Tofino and 4 First Nations reserves inhabited by Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations tribes. The total population of these 5 communities is about 3,000 (in 2005).
Anyway I fancied a paddle and the "Sound" seemed to fit the bill and so I set off from Grice Bay down to Tofino. The distance is about 6 nautical Miles as the Bald Eagle flies, and armed with a map, compass and no less than two GPS devices I began to paddle. Clayoquot Sound is vast, the hundreds of small and large forest carpeted islands offer little in the way of visual way points - it can be easy to become lost. I didn't lose my way, but what I did do was get the tide wrong and I ended up paddling against it the whole way. This didn't matter in the wide stretches, but at the narrows I had to eddy hop to make progress. The highlight was a little tidal race I found between two small islands. Because it arose due to flow and not wind it was smooth, glassy and perfect. I buried the bow of my Rockpool as I surfed the front wave. It was only there for 5 minutes, but it was 5 minutes of tidal race perfection!
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Kayaking Isle of Man - "Wildlife"?

......... just a few examples of "wildlife" I've snapped over the last two days around Tofino, Vancouver Island .....
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Sea Kayaking Isle of Man - "The Sound"

Kayaking unfortunately was curtailed yesterday by a rather nasty bout of food poisoning; not something you want whilst confined to the small cockpit of a sea kayak. Today, in a some what weakened state, I opted for the calm, still, pond like waters of the Clayoquot Sound. This inland sea lake filled with an archipelago of small, forested islands, is sheltered from the brutal force of the Pacific Ocean. I just wasn't up for another beating like the one I received on Long Beach 2 days ago. Even this blog is running at half strength it would seem!
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Kayaking Isle of Man - Tofino Surf.

Despite a few hitches my Rockpool Alaw Bach made it all the way from the Isle of Man to Vancouver Island unscathed. The hotel we have near Tofino is on one of the best surfing beaches in the area. Huge waves role in uninterrupted from thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean. Suddenly their long wave lengths shorten as they hit the shallow beach and we end up with some pretty spectacular surf. This is great for me and the copious surf boarders; other kayakers seem to opt for the calmer waters of the nearby Clayoquot Sound. I can understand this as trying to paddle out through these 2 metre dumpers is like being slapped in the face by a couple of wet mackerel! Once out there though the surf is amazing, far cleaner, more consistent and reliable than what I've come across at home on the Isle of Man. Still, tomorrow I'm off to the "Sound" to do a little exploring myself.
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