Vancouver Island

Arrival at Vancouver Island. This was a 1.5-hour ferry who took us there. I was amazed at the seize of the island. It took us 3 hours to get to our hotel, "The Long Beach Lodge". The countryside was gorges with again lots of large lakes and of course woods mainly of pines but more green leaf trees as well. Our room looks over the Pacific Ocean and there are people on boards but it is very cold although the sun shines and I burned!! This afternoon we go whale watching on an open boat on the Pacific. We had to go to Tofino a small town which we reach by free bus.
We have been and it was fantastic. Dressed up in a very heavy suit which is to keep us floating if we fall into the water. 12 people in a motorboat racing over the sea to the place where wales are to be seen.
The driver, or sailor, who took us had done this for 22 years and knew all about the habit of the wales which are coming back regularly to th same place. We first stopped to watch a sea otter lying on his back, on a pile of seaweed looking around, very cute. We sailed on and stopped to watch 2 sea lions lying in the sun being very lazy. We sailed on and with a high speed to another location and there we saw our first wale spouting water in the air and coming up. This happened and the sailor told us this one came back every year and he told what he, she, would do next. I thought how is this possible but he was right and she came back and even better. A large spout of water and he came out of the water and showed us quite a lot of himself. More wales showed themselves and one with a young baby on its back, and this in the beautiful surroundings of the mountains and the beeches it was a thrill to be in the position to experience it all. I did not quite realise that wales came relatively close to shore to blow water and then dive again to feed.
When we got back we took the bus back to our hotel and because we did we saw more of the area then when we would have gone by car.