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One of my main reasons for visiting Tofino was to indulge in an activity called ‘Storm Watching’, which is when you go to a beach during a storm and watch the rough seas with huge waves. Some do it from the safety of a hotel near the beach and some from the beach itself. I was interested in the latter as it’s more adventurous as well as more affordable.
The Hawaii of Canada, as the small seaside town of Tofino is sometimes called, lies on the western coast of Vancouver Island. Famous for its world class surfing, nature and whale watching, it’s an ideal weekend getaway from Vancouver. Three years ago, I had booked three nights at the Hostelling International Canada (HI) hostel in Tofino for the express purpose of storm watching but to my great amusement the storm itself came to my door in the lower mainland and I had to postpone my trip. The staff were understanding of my predicament and had agreed to honor my booking at a later date. That time finally arrived this February, but this time I didn’t want to go alone and I asked Divu, my friend, to join in and also shortened our stay to just one night.
One fine cold Saturday morning, Divu and I started off around 8 am and drove over to Horseshoe Bay Terminal from where we boarded a BC Ferry to Nanaimo. A tranquil ride of an hour brought us to Nanaimo from where we immediately started our drive to Tofino. We only made two stops along the way, one, at a small lakeside campground to stretch our legs and the other in Port Alberni, to have a quick lunch. This was at a restaurant called Boomerangs, an Australian themed restaurant, which was a first one for me. It was pretty good.
We reached the HI Hostel in Tofino around 5 pm in time for check in. The Hostel lies near the water, on a piece of land jutting out into the sea, offering excellent views. Hostels were not new for me having stayed in hostels in Toronto, Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria before. We had booked a 6 person dorm and there were a few other occupants in the room who had gone out. Our bunk bed was placed near the window and from my top bunk I could see the water as the day slowly turned into night.
After a quick nap to refresh, we made our way out to check out Chesterfield Beach for a night time walk. It was pretty dark and desolate. Guided by only a very dim light of the dying day, we walked on the beach chatting. Far away, here and there, we could see specks of other people walking. Keeping a fair distance from the roaring waves of the sea, the conversation inevitably turned towards the dangers of water. We exchanged stories of deaths and narrow misses in the water. After an hour or so we decided to head back and have dinner. Most of the restaurants had closed but there was one Indian restaurant, Spice Hut, that was open and this is where we headed. The food was okay. Not great, not bad. After this we headed back to the Hostel. The town already wore a deserted look with not a soul on the roads.
After we reached the Hostel, Divu insisted we play some snooker so off we went to the game room. Snooker was invented by a British Army Officer who was stationed in a town called Jabalpur in India and I couldn’t help but think, here I was, an Indian-turned-Canadian, playing a game invented by the British in India, now in another one of Britain’s former colonies. After a few rounds where Divu beat me pretty badly we called it a night and headed back to our room to sleep. A couple of our roommates had already turned in for the night and after changing we tucked in as well. It was comfortable and quiet and I soon drifted off to sleep.
I woke up the next day before the sun was up. Careful not to disturb any of my sleeping roommates including Divu, I slipped out of my bed and made my way through the still and silent corridors of the Hostel to my car. My plan was to drive over to the beaches and see if I could catch any rough sea conditions. My first stop was again Chesterman Beach. It was still dark as I parked my car and walked over to the beach. As I strolled around on the desolate beach, the black sky was slowing turning into a deep blue color as streaks of sunlight were beginning to show up. I spotted one or two other walkers far away. The waves were making a huge noise but it wasn’t as rough as I would have liked it to be. Facing the ocean, to my right I could see the famous Wickaninnish Inn perched at the edge of the land jutting out into the sea, some of its rooms glowing orange, a sharp contrast with the greys of the day. I read somewhere that this Inn is one of the best spots to watch storms.
Soon, I got a call from Divu who had woken up and was ready to start for the day. I drove back to the hostel and we soon checked out. After a quick breakfast at a local cafe, we drove over to Long Beach. I was pretty surprised to see that it was packed with people and there were a lot of people surfing. I couldn’t imagine getting into that cold water and people were surfing in that. We walked along the stretch of this beach taking in the views. It was pretty relaxing.
From here, we drove to Ucluelet which we found to be a prettier town than Tofino. We stopped at two points here, the first of which was the Amphitrite Point Lighthouse. Built in 1915 this lighthouse is designed to withstand strong westerly storms coming from the pacific ocean and is subjected to gale-force winds and tidal waves frequently. Today, though, was quite calm and serene. We strolled aimlessly for a while before we decided to go on a short walk which was beautiful and relaxing. Next we drove over to the Marina where we strolled around, admiring the number of boats and yachts parked here. Some of them were absolutely stunning and we could only imagine the kind of money that could buy something like that. There wasn’t much to do here so we headed to a nearby gift shop called The Crow’s Nest and bought some cute souvenirs.
From here we decided it was time to head back and so we started on our drive back to Nanaimo. This time we didn’t stop anywhere and headed directly to Nanaimo where the first stop we made was at a restaurant for our “linner”. After this we headed to Divu’s friends’ place for a quick chat.
Around 8pm we bid his friends adieu and drove to the ferry terminal from where we boarded the 8:15 pm ferry to Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal. By the time I dropped off Divu at his home and reached my home it was 12 am. Though I couldn’t see any proper storms, it helped me to calm down the mental storms I was going through at that time.
