We arrive in Tofino after the worse hitch-hike experience: our driver was 18 years old. She tried to pass all the other cars, on a single lane road through the woods. Because the road was up and down, it was like a roller-coaster, so my stomach was very disturbed.
It was raining.
I asked two persons something, I got the first not polite answers in 4 months … unbearable. So everything looked like a tourist trap. We went for a coffee to make the plan, to decide if we stay or go. While putting sugar in the coffee, at the counter, I meet Jack who is travelling with his son in a van. They came from Ontario and they go now to the south. This sounds like the sign to get out of the there. They have to go, so we have 5 minutes to decide.
We came here because it’s the surfer paradise near Vancouver. We could imagine surfing in SE Asia, but in north of Vancouver Island ?!
We decided to stay.
While shopping we we meet Charlie, a b&b owner, and we talk for about an hour … back to usual in Vancouver. Then we make a tour on the beach nearby. It’s raining like in Belgium. All 3 days long.
But we love it !
We installed the hammock in a little forest. Afterwards we found out it was part of the school yard.
The second day, we took a class of surfing. After 3 hours, I succeeded to ride 4 times a wave. There we met Marco from Switzerland. He had a mountain gear shop, but he had to sell it to a chain, because people came to get advices, and then to buy on internet. He has an incredible energy and good humour. Especially because he was passing a very tough period.
Marco shared with us and some new friends a little of the taste of his country: a chalet with sea view and jacuzzi. With these arguments, he convinced us easily to leave our sleeping place in the park, for a sofa in his saloon.
Denis, pronounced ‘the knee’, is a Flemish designer… He spent one year in Hawai surfing and now he teaches. We met him at the coffee. He bought a Westfalia van, for 2000$, and now he is wandering in US.
Ron is from San Francisco, he is about 50. He has been business developer consultant, for about 20 years. He travels very light, one small bag. Very low budget. Now he travels with Danny, and sleeps on the floor of the van. He is the extreme bourgeois-bohemian.
lots of beer and concerts …