Originally I had thought we would stay at the hostel, but then we found out that we were going during the Pacific Rim Whale Festival, so every type of accommodation in town had hiked their prices for the week, probably hoping to make a few extra bucks off the tourists. Well, not only am I cheap, but I also have an unemployed husband. So we decided we would camp instead to save ourselves the cash. Bad idea. We wanted to stay at Crystal Cove, where I know they have nice bathrooms and good campsites, but when we got there they told us they no longer allow tenting. Seriously? We had stayed there before, but now we weren't allowed? Despite the fact that most of their sites were empty, they were turning down our business. That's right, they only take RVs now. They're camping snobs. So we left quite irritated and went down the road to Bella Pacifica. Where the showers and bathrooms aren't heated, and are basically outdoors.
After we set up the tent and tarp to keep the rain off our heads (this is the west coast, after all), we went into town and rented wetsuits and boards. It was cold, but once you get the wetsuit on, it's not so bad. We got to the parking lot at the beach, which was completely empty. That's right, we had the beach to ourselves. I somehow managed to get into my wetsuit whilst still in the car, which is no small feat. And I was on the driver's side, so the steering wheel was in the way. It wasn't easy, but I still managed to do it. It was windy, but the waves were excellent, and fairly large. Somehow, though, I had manged to get a short pair of gloves, and every time I moved my arm they would exposed a lovely chunk of skin on my wrist and the water would trickle into my glove. So it only took about 5 minutes before my hands were numb. And the booties didn't fit right, either. So my feet were cold. I didn't realize just how cold until we got out of the water. It took a good 3 hours before I could feel my big toe again. A few more minutes, and I think I may have had some serious frostbite. Like, amputation frostbite. Yikes.
We only lasted about an hour before we got out of the water, mostly owing to my cold feet and hands. And there was no way we were going to put those frozen wetsuits back on the next day, so we returned them. Back at the campsite we decided we at least needed to rinse the saltwater off, so we braved the outdoor shower. I'll qualify what I mean by this. There were walls, but they didn't go all the way to the roof or the floor of the building. So the wind and cold were free-flowing through the shower stall. It was about 2 degrees celsius by this point in the day. And one loonie bought you 2 minutes worth of hot water. I'm pretty sure it was the quickest shower I've ever taken. We lit a fire back at camp and finally managed to get the feeling back in our extremeties. Just in time for it to start snowing. Well, it wasn't really snow, it was what my Dad calls gropple, which is actually more similar ot hail. We ate and then immediately went to bed. Sweet, down-filled, warm bed.
I rained and snowed all night, and when we finally rolled our lazy butts out of our nice warm sleeping bags, it was still going. So rather than spending a couple more days freezing and being miserable and wet, we packed up and headed for home. Which you would've thought would be a simple operation, only it was snowing all over the island at that point. And there's two passes on the way back to Campbell River. We spent most of the way back going about 60 km/h, and at a couple points we couldn't really go much faster than 15 km/h for fear of taking a corner too fast and careening right off the edge of a cliff on one of the windy roads. It wasn't particularly fun.
So Glen has now revoked my trip-making abilities, and refuses to take any more suggestions for weekend trips. I don't blame him, I don't have a particularly positive record at the moment.
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