Once upon a time there lived a girl who decided to sell everything she owned (except for her precious pretty fabrics), drop everything and move to the other side of the globe. It was here, in a small, sweet little town called Fernie (precious, precious Fernie), at an introductory game of Curling, that she so happened across an Irish girl, Claire Bear, and an Isle of Manx boy, Phil O The-Leader. Claire Bear suggested they all make an escape from civilisation for a week during the summer and take on the famous West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. Being the flighty type the girl immediately agreed and roped her poor partner-in-crime along with them.
After a long night waiting until midnight to be the first to book park passes, and much strenuous and intensive training and preparation *cough-LIE-cough* the whole group met in Vancouver. There was to be a fifth and secret addition to the group which the girl found very exciting. The new addition was the beautiful and utterly courageous, Janette :) And so the group was complete. They went about the neighbourhood grocery stores and added the finishing touches to their already overloaded backpacks, borrowed tents, had an AMAZING Malaysian dinner, drank beer, got a little tipsy and went to bed around 1am. The time had come! The clock was set for 4:10am and the plan was to leave at 5am.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Woops, still on Fernie time. 3:10am. "Don't worry guys. I did that on purpose. Just a reminder that we still have 1 hour of sleep left before we leave!"
So the next 12 hours consist of driving, ferry ride, driving, Timmy's stop, driving, U-turn, driving, bus ride, toilet stop, bus ride, more bus ride, more bus ride. I'm not even going to try to make that fun. Needless to say however, the group all slept most of the way (not surprisingly).
Upon arrival at Gordon River the group were escorted to their camp site by a sweet little Jack Russell Terrier looking mutt that they began to refer to as "Spot".
After climbing about on the massive debris on the beach, the group feasted on their last fresh meal, drank some brewskies and welcomed sleep in preparation for the big hike induction talk at 9:30am the next morning.
After a bit of a sleep in and a mad dash to the parks centre, the group made a chaotic and rather noisy entry into the already in progress hike induction. Here they were briefed on a multitude of scary animals that might eat them along the trail and were then calmed and reassured of their safety by being shown pictures of these predators as babies (so cute). The intrepid travellers then braved the scales to see how much their packs actually weighed. Hmmm 20kgs each. The adrenalin was pumping and the path was beckoning so they continued onwards. 20kgs of dead weight on their backs wouldn't stop them!
The group rushed to the ferry where they had their first encounter with the delightful "Scouts" crew. Two adults and three kids. The Scouts were straight off the ferry and on to the trail. As the group stood dumb founded, brushing the Scout's dust from their shiny new hiking gear, they continued battling with their packs, skylarking and generally basking in excitment.
Fifteen minutes later......
They were off!
Straight up hill.
75 kilometres to go.
Through every kind of mud imaginable.
Over ancient and well-trodden tree roots.
Up ladders.
Down ladders.
It had begun!
Gordon River to Thrasher Cove
Let the fun times begin!
km 75 - It's all down hill from here right?
Pitstop (one of VERY many)
How cool is this place? The tree roots make stairs :)
Oh look. A ladder.
And another ladder.
What? Another ladder?
First nights camp site - A bit grey but it's only day one :)
Stay tuned my people. There's plenty more to come.......
