Monday, July 21

We have to choose between two activities: Snorkling with seals or going to the Wild Elements playground to do some Monkido obstacle course, in Austria known as Hochseilgarten. The boys of course to all four difficulty levels, Selma manages to go all the way to level 3, before the height let´s her give up on the black route.

The location also offer bungee jumping and a “primeval swing”, which Erik decides to try out. Quite impressive, but I have to let him explain what it felt like.

After that, we head to downtown Nanaimo and eat at Gabriel´s Café, a wonderful tip from our guide book. Delicious rice bowls and wraps. And Klaus has a coffee and a cookie at the coffee shop on the other side of the street. Markus meanwhile enjoys choosing between one of the 47 WLANs this town has to offer in the parking lot. Then we head off towards the Pacific Coast. On our way there we stop at McMillan Provincial park and check out the Crystal Grove, then at Taylor Creak rest area, where we spend an hour flipping stones in the beautifully green river. And the last stop is at a small parking lot directly at a beautiful lake. The scenery is stunning, with high mountains, covered by snow, and a new huge lake around each corner. At the end, we have to rush a bit, because the office of the Wya Point campground closes at 9:00 pm. We arrive at  8:58.

The campground is really nice, a very private little spot, and almost directly on the beach. There are also Yurts here, small tent houses for rent. The registration deck had told us to get firewood with the guy at the campground, which was not true, because firewood sales close at 9:00. And since it got dark already and there is not much to gather, we cannot make a vonfire in the end. However, we go down to the beach and spend a good hour climbing around on the rocks and enjoying the waves crashing against the rocks. How gorgeous the Pacific Ocean is!