25 vi 06: Horseshoe Bay to Tofino, Episode Two
From my journal:
10:43 Ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo is at full steam. Estimated arrival at Departure Bay 12:25
11:23 BC Ferries Marine Life presentation
The arms of the Pacific Giant Octopus will get to be 32 feet long; the weight of these molluscs is the equivalent of a full-grown Grizzly Bear. The Pacific Giant is the most intelligent of octopi. Will eat fish -- or seagulls [apparently one was observed waiting in the the shallows near a beach and catching seagulls with its tentacles! Another story regarding the Pacific Giant involves an individual in an aquarium. The staff of the aquarium could not figure out why their fish were disappearing. Suspecting a human thief, surveillance cameras were set up, which eventually told the following story: every evening after the aquarium closed, the octopus, who knew that fish were to be had in the adjacent tanks, would squeeze into the water circulation pipes, move to the nearby tanks, eat fish, squeeze back into the circulation system, move on to the next tank, eat fish, and so on, returning to its own tank before the aquarium opened in the morning. (Of course, we know this is all just a matter of pure animal instinct, don't we? MEA)].
Keystone species: a species upon which an entire eco-system rests. A keystone species for the marine ecology of the Strait of Georgia is the Sea Otter. Sea Otters eat up to 30 sea urchins a day. If they did not do so, the sea urchins would devastate the Kelp, and cause a collapse of the entire system.
Regarding Orcas: Transient populations of orcas eat sea mammals, but the local orcas eat only fish. The locals are divided into clans: there are three clans in the southern part of the Strait and three in the north. The clans have distinct dialects of the orca language [the young woman giving the presentation played tape recordings of several different orca songs to illustrate] and distinct food preferences. The whales have a complex family structure. Females live to be 80 years, males live to 50. There is an interesting reason for this. PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls, defined by Answers.com as "Any of a family of industrial compounds produced by chlorination of biphenyl, noted primarily as an environmental pollutant that accumulates in animal tissue with resultant pathogenic and teratogenic effects") build up in fatty tissue, but females flush them in their milk; males, of course, do not produce milk, and so more PCBs build up in their bodies, hastening their demise. (Of course, we know that this is the fault of the whales for living in water donated to humankind at the beginning of time, don't we? MEA) Orcas are technically porpoises rather than whales. There are three types of porpoises found in the Strait. Orcas are by far the largest at 30 feet in length.
Regarding Bald Eagles: Bald Eagles mate for life; the younger birds are all dark.
Regarding Bears: The Spirit or Kanogi Bear is a white phase Black Bear, not an albino. The numbers of this colour phase of the Black Bear are growing, as they are more successful at fishing, perhaps because of their colour.
12:32 leaving ferry in Nanaimo.
Sign outside Nanaimo: "Why do we have so many wise crackers and so few smart cookies?"
[We travel through the town of Coombs, famous for its tourist trap shops featuring grass-covered roofs on which goats cavort.]
Coombs founded by Thos. Coombs one of the majors in Salv[ation] Army to assist poor [Welsh immigrants] here.
1:58 p.m. in Qualicum Falls Provincial Park for lunch. [At this point in my travels, I was well supplied with apples and oranges by my nutritionist (and fruit enthusiast) cousin-in-law Ellie; I had also purchased some mildly spicy chiura (chidwa: a mixture of lentils, split peas, peanuts, noodles or rice, dry-roasted with spices and eaten as a snack) at the Ruddy Potato. I can't recall ever seeing chiura for sale outside of a specifically Indian grocery store before. I was still eating from that same bag of chiura in Alberta almost three weeks later!]
2:26 leaving Qualicum [welcome to the whirlwind world of the Moose Tour]
2:34 passing Cameron Lake, the deepest in Canada.
Cowichan: stop at Petro-Canada station for cold drinks many F[irst] N[ations] folks.
[My journal at this point does not do justice to the wonder I felt at walking into the petrol station. First of all, I was immediately impressed by the very large assortment of sweets: about four rows of shelves of nothing but (rather nasty) candies of the Sweet Tarts type, and many chocolate offerings like Butterfingers and Baby Ruth. They had Mentos and TicTacs, but no Altoids. I was on a quest for the latter, as I had the impression that my lunch of orange and chiura was not producing happy effects upon my breath. But I was rather willing to have halitosis than eat Mentos or TicTacs. The other shelves seemed to be stocked with survival gear, like jumper cables and punk sticks and fire-starting kits; somewhere between these two were the fatty snacks like Cheetos and puffed pork rinds.
The second, and more important, thing that impressed me, was that here we were, mostly very white Whites walking into a community composed, so far as I culd see, wholly of First Nations people, who were dressed in contemporary Western fashion: the young women, for example, had hip-hugger pants with wide studded belts, bellies exposed by midriff-cut shirts to show it all off; they were talking on cell-phones -- but they were not talking in English. Now, I'm used to people talking on cell-phones not in English. In Lancaster, we have a large Latino community, and I hear a lot of Spanish. But these folks were speaking a language I had never heard before, I'm guessing Hul'qumi'num'. I was quite impressed to find that young people were speaking the traditional language, and not just a small group of geriatric patients.]
3:17 Sproat Lake
[We stopped to take a look at petroglyphs carved in a rock face partly submerged in the Lake, which is also notable as the base for converted WWII bombers which are used now as fire-fighting planes. By the petroglyphs is a dock, and a number of young white folks were playing at the dock and jumping from the top of the cliff on which the petroglyphs are carved. As I was, of course, eagerly taking many photographs of the petroglyphs, the folks in the water suggested that I was there to photograph them as they leapt in. So I did, and showed them the result in the viewfinder, which they found most amusing.]
4 p.m. back from the petroglyphs. Many folks out at this lake -- and quite a few speaking non-English language.
4:07 off towards Tofino.
5:11 Ucluelet.
5:20 we reach Wickanninish, which means "no-one in front of him in the canoe." [We quickly went out to view the Pacific at the Pacific Rim interpretive center. I took some nice pictures and at the last minute dashed into the gift shop, where I was able to buy some very nice cards by a local, FN, artist, and beautiful but standard photo post cards.
[About 6 we arrive at the hostel, HI Whalers on the Point. I am in a room with two bunk beds, one occupied by two somewhat messy people, to judge by their gear: apparently francophone, and, I'm guessing by their guidebooks with French colophons, not Quebecoises but French. I learn later that they are French women from Lyon and Strasbourg.]
10 oclock pm 25 vi 06 It is about ten minutes past sundown and still quite light
11 oclock turn in
From my journal for 26 vi 06:
On dock last night with most of "the gang" from the Moose Tour after going to a "fish and chips" place which sold ridiculously large portions. Nearly everyone was either throwing food out or taking doggie bags.
Took prodigious numbers of photographs of the absolutely gorgeous sunset.
Retired early, but still must determine my account balance and other financial matters.
[Most of the crew from the Moose Tour went to eat at a local greasy spoon, where absolutely enormous portions of batter-fried fish and home fries were served up by a most amusing staff. The woman taking orders had a prize-winning smile which she maintained so consistently I began to wonder whether it might not be a sign of simplicity. Several of the Swedes asked for water, rather than soft drinks, to accompany their dinner, and were asked whether they wanted bottled water or tap water. They asked, quite sensibly, whether the tap water was safe to drink. "Yes," came the reply, "we have some of the best tap water on Vancouver Island. It's delicious!" I'm still not sure whether this was irony. At any rate, we all had the "delicious" tap water, and suffered no ill effects, although I must admit I didn't notice anything specially good about the water, although I did notice that it was not chlorinated.
[Very few of the people eating at the diner could finish their meals, and many were simply throwing away what amounted to entire sensible servings. The trash can was overflowing. One of the Swedes commented on this to the order-taker, who came around from the booth, and stood in the barrel to compress the contents! Then I assisted her in pulling the sack out of the barrel (her calisthenics rendered this rather difficult). She tied up the bag, put a new one in the barrel, and then went right back to serving up meals, without, so far as I could tell, washing her hands. Somehow this violated my sense of food purity.
[I had a veggie burger with mushrooms and cheese -- in an enormous bun; enough food for two meals by itself, plus a mountain of french fries. In the end, I asked for a box, and had what remained of the fries -- probably at least a pound -- for breakfast the next day.]
10:43 Ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo is at full steam. Estimated arrival at Departure Bay 12:25
11:23 BC Ferries Marine Life presentation
The arms of the Pacific Giant Octopus will get to be 32 feet long; the weight of these molluscs is the equivalent of a full-grown Grizzly Bear. The Pacific Giant is the most intelligent of octopi. Will eat fish -- or seagulls [apparently one was observed waiting in the the shallows near a beach and catching seagulls with its tentacles! Another story regarding the Pacific Giant involves an individual in an aquarium. The staff of the aquarium could not figure out why their fish were disappearing. Suspecting a human thief, surveillance cameras were set up, which eventually told the following story: every evening after the aquarium closed, the octopus, who knew that fish were to be had in the adjacent tanks, would squeeze into the water circulation pipes, move to the nearby tanks, eat fish, squeeze back into the circulation system, move on to the next tank, eat fish, and so on, returning to its own tank before the aquarium opened in the morning. (Of course, we know this is all just a matter of pure animal instinct, don't we? MEA)].
Keystone species: a species upon which an entire eco-system rests. A keystone species for the marine ecology of the Strait of Georgia is the Sea Otter. Sea Otters eat up to 30 sea urchins a day. If they did not do so, the sea urchins would devastate the Kelp, and cause a collapse of the entire system.
Regarding Orcas: Transient populations of orcas eat sea mammals, but the local orcas eat only fish. The locals are divided into clans: there are three clans in the southern part of the Strait and three in the north. The clans have distinct dialects of the orca language [the young woman giving the presentation played tape recordings of several different orca songs to illustrate] and distinct food preferences. The whales have a complex family structure. Females live to be 80 years, males live to 50. There is an interesting reason for this. PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls, defined by Answers.com as "Any of a family of industrial compounds produced by chlorination of biphenyl, noted primarily as an environmental pollutant that accumulates in animal tissue with resultant pathogenic and teratogenic effects") build up in fatty tissue, but females flush them in their milk; males, of course, do not produce milk, and so more PCBs build up in their bodies, hastening their demise. (Of course, we know that this is the fault of the whales for living in water donated to humankind at the beginning of time, don't we? MEA) Orcas are technically porpoises rather than whales. There are three types of porpoises found in the Strait. Orcas are by far the largest at 30 feet in length.
Regarding Bald Eagles: Bald Eagles mate for life; the younger birds are all dark.
Regarding Bears: The Spirit or Kanogi Bear is a white phase Black Bear, not an albino. The numbers of this colour phase of the Black Bear are growing, as they are more successful at fishing, perhaps because of their colour.
12:32 leaving ferry in Nanaimo.
Sign outside Nanaimo: "Why do we have so many wise crackers and so few smart cookies?"
[We travel through the town of Coombs, famous for its tourist trap shops featuring grass-covered roofs on which goats cavort.]
Coombs founded by Thos. Coombs one of the majors in Salv[ation] Army to assist poor [Welsh immigrants] here.
1:58 p.m. in Qualicum Falls Provincial Park for lunch. [At this point in my travels, I was well supplied with apples and oranges by my nutritionist (and fruit enthusiast) cousin-in-law Ellie; I had also purchased some mildly spicy chiura (chidwa: a mixture of lentils, split peas, peanuts, noodles or rice, dry-roasted with spices and eaten as a snack) at the Ruddy Potato. I can't recall ever seeing chiura for sale outside of a specifically Indian grocery store before. I was still eating from that same bag of chiura in Alberta almost three weeks later!]
2:26 leaving Qualicum [welcome to the whirlwind world of the Moose Tour]
2:34 passing Cameron Lake, the deepest in Canada.
Cowichan: stop at Petro-Canada station for cold drinks many F[irst] N[ations] folks.
[My journal at this point does not do justice to the wonder I felt at walking into the petrol station. First of all, I was immediately impressed by the very large assortment of sweets: about four rows of shelves of nothing but (rather nasty) candies of the Sweet Tarts type, and many chocolate offerings like Butterfingers and Baby Ruth. They had Mentos and TicTacs, but no Altoids. I was on a quest for the latter, as I had the impression that my lunch of orange and chiura was not producing happy effects upon my breath. But I was rather willing to have halitosis than eat Mentos or TicTacs. The other shelves seemed to be stocked with survival gear, like jumper cables and punk sticks and fire-starting kits; somewhere between these two were the fatty snacks like Cheetos and puffed pork rinds.
The second, and more important, thing that impressed me, was that here we were, mostly very white Whites walking into a community composed, so far as I culd see, wholly of First Nations people, who were dressed in contemporary Western fashion: the young women, for example, had hip-hugger pants with wide studded belts, bellies exposed by midriff-cut shirts to show it all off; they were talking on cell-phones -- but they were not talking in English. Now, I'm used to people talking on cell-phones not in English. In Lancaster, we have a large Latino community, and I hear a lot of Spanish. But these folks were speaking a language I had never heard before, I'm guessing Hul'qumi'num'. I was quite impressed to find that young people were speaking the traditional language, and not just a small group of geriatric patients.]
3:17 Sproat Lake
[We stopped to take a look at petroglyphs carved in a rock face partly submerged in the Lake, which is also notable as the base for converted WWII bombers which are used now as fire-fighting planes. By the petroglyphs is a dock, and a number of young white folks were playing at the dock and jumping from the top of the cliff on which the petroglyphs are carved. As I was, of course, eagerly taking many photographs of the petroglyphs, the folks in the water suggested that I was there to photograph them as they leapt in. So I did, and showed them the result in the viewfinder, which they found most amusing.]
4 p.m. back from the petroglyphs. Many folks out at this lake -- and quite a few speaking non-English language.
4:07 off towards Tofino.
5:11 Ucluelet.
5:20 we reach Wickanninish, which means "no-one in front of him in the canoe." [We quickly went out to view the Pacific at the Pacific Rim interpretive center. I took some nice pictures and at the last minute dashed into the gift shop, where I was able to buy some very nice cards by a local, FN, artist, and beautiful but standard photo post cards.
[About 6 we arrive at the hostel, HI Whalers on the Point. I am in a room with two bunk beds, one occupied by two somewhat messy people, to judge by their gear: apparently francophone, and, I'm guessing by their guidebooks with French colophons, not Quebecoises but French. I learn later that they are French women from Lyon and Strasbourg.]
10 oclock pm 25 vi 06 It is about ten minutes past sundown and still quite light
11 oclock turn in
From my journal for 26 vi 06:
On dock last night with most of "the gang" from the Moose Tour after going to a "fish and chips" place which sold ridiculously large portions. Nearly everyone was either throwing food out or taking doggie bags.
Took prodigious numbers of photographs of the absolutely gorgeous sunset.
Retired early, but still must determine my account balance and other financial matters.
[Most of the crew from the Moose Tour went to eat at a local greasy spoon, where absolutely enormous portions of batter-fried fish and home fries were served up by a most amusing staff. The woman taking orders had a prize-winning smile which she maintained so consistently I began to wonder whether it might not be a sign of simplicity. Several of the Swedes asked for water, rather than soft drinks, to accompany their dinner, and were asked whether they wanted bottled water or tap water. They asked, quite sensibly, whether the tap water was safe to drink. "Yes," came the reply, "we have some of the best tap water on Vancouver Island. It's delicious!" I'm still not sure whether this was irony. At any rate, we all had the "delicious" tap water, and suffered no ill effects, although I must admit I didn't notice anything specially good about the water, although I did notice that it was not chlorinated.
[Very few of the people eating at the diner could finish their meals, and many were simply throwing away what amounted to entire sensible servings. The trash can was overflowing. One of the Swedes commented on this to the order-taker, who came around from the booth, and stood in the barrel to compress the contents! Then I assisted her in pulling the sack out of the barrel (her calisthenics rendered this rather difficult). She tied up the bag, put a new one in the barrel, and then went right back to serving up meals, without, so far as I could tell, washing her hands. Somehow this violated my sense of food purity.
[I had a veggie burger with mushrooms and cheese -- in an enormous bun; enough food for two meals by itself, plus a mountain of french fries. In the end, I asked for a box, and had what remained of the fries -- probably at least a pound -- for breakfast the next day.]
posted by M E Achtermann at 1:50 am
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