The ferry was quite nice with a little shop and two cafes. It was a lovely day to sail with the weather being so beautiful, the views of Vancouver Bay and the little islands around the shoreline made the trip enjoyable.

Once off the ferry we had a 120 mile road trip across the Island to get to Tofino. The roads were windy and hilly but very picturesque and easy to negotiate. The total travelling time was 7 hours all in all, so I did a bit of driving so Sam could have an hours nap.

Once we had arrived at our hotel we went straight to our room to rest and we were impressed with the views and magnificent location -right next to the beach.

I noticed this sign in our room which unnerved me slightly. But we never had any problems!

As soon as I got the chance, I put my big wheels and FreeWheel on and took to the beach. I had never pushed myself across a beach before, let alone one as stunning as this one!

So here I am wheeling down the beach to the waters edge, I can’t tell you how free I felt in that moment!

That evening we stayed at the hotel for dinner as we were both pretty tired. We sampled some of the local wine including one called Raven Conspiracy and ended up sharing a bottle between ourselves, which I later bought at the local liquor store to bring home with me (wish I’d bought two really!)

This was the view from our room ^^

So far Vancouver Island has been great, there’s something very charming about the place. Unfortunately we only have two nights here but hey it’s better than nothing.

The boat that’s got some orange/red on it was the boat we were going to be getting on. There was a slight mix up with our booking and the skipper didn’t know there was a disabled person coming onboard so she had warmed up the boat behind that one. Yeah you can barely see it in this picture as it’s so much smaller! Thankfully she was very accommodating (and annoyed with the office staff for not notifying her) and got the bigger boat ready for us, as well as waking up the deck boy to tell him he suddenly had to work!

And away we sailed ... what a gorgeous morning it was too! It was blue sky with patchy low cloud which made all of the little islands we passed look all mystical. \240The water was very calm which made the ride relaxing and allowed me to purely focus on the magnificent views/sights.

As I was facing backwards on the boat in order to stabilise my wheelchair, I was able to see things that others couldn’t. There were many sea birds flying around and a lot of herons, but suddenly I saw something very large and black flying my way. I took the binoculars that my dad had leant me in order to get a better view, and low and behold it was a Bald Eagle! It went and rested in a tree on the waters edge, in a position that would have allowed it to easily spot its next prey in the water. It was just amazing and I felt so privileged to have seen this majestic creature in its natural habitat! I watched it until I could no longer see it.

The boat slowed down and the engines cut, suddenly I was being told that a bear had been spotted! We had to wait a bit for the boat to turn to an angle that allowed everyone to see the bear, and then emerged this bear foraging for its breakfast under the shoreline rocks. We watched it until it walked back into the dense forest and was out of sight, then the engines started up again and the search continued.

None of the bear pictures came out very well, so in the end I stopped taking them. We saw a second bear on another island and through the binoculars I got a great view of it. It’s a shame that I couldn’t take a picture through the lense of the binoculars! Then later we saw our final animal(s) -some seals all sitting on a rocky island.

It was an amazing trip!

We then went back to our hotel to rest before we hit the town to do some shopping! The town is really cute and on the water, it’s like a ‘shabby chic’ seaside town. Mostly accessible as it is very touristy but there are some old buildings that are nice to look at but impossible for wheelchair users.

There were a few quirky shops where you could find some locally made products, so I bought a few for souvenirs.

Although Tofino is completely geared towards the tourist, it still has a rustic charm that gives it a good feel. They celebrate their heritage and there’s evidence of the First Nations everywhere. I bought some jewellery that had one of their symbols on it, and we also looked around an art studio that had many pictures relating to their past. When I think about all of the places I’ve visited on this trip, the places I’ve liked the most are ones that are proud of their heritage and you can feel a homely Canadian culture exists; something that I feel is sadly fading in England.

We were really cutting it close for time as we had left about 7:15 and I knew it was a 3 hour drive at least but there was nothing more we could do. We then suddenly came to a stand still when a woman in a hard hat walked over to us to explain they’ll be a 15 minute delay because they’re blasting the side of the cliff (I think to control for landslides). That was really the last thing we needed, however, we used the delay to our advantage and quickly spun the car round to go back to a beautiful spot we saw only 2 minutes before hand. We took the opportunity to take a few pictures and then quickly got back on the road. As you’ll see, the pictures are pretty impressive...

We continued our long drive home when suddenly the car came to a halt again, this time because a bear was walking along the river, in clear sight from our car! It was the jewel in the crown, the cherry on top, the pierce de resistance! Again the pictures did not come out well as the bear looks miles away, but it didn’t look like that in real life.

We made it to the ferry but were five minutes over the last time they admit people in, however we were lucky enough to still get on, and again jumped the que 😜

After getting off the ferry in Vancouver we then drove to the airport (Via Richmond as I needed to pick up a bag that I had left at our Airbnb 🙈), & handed our car back. We were nice and early for our flight (4 hours to spare!) and I was pleasantly surprised by Vancouver Airport’s facility for checking in Disabled flyers. We started to que (we are British after all) and we were promptly escorted out of the maze style queuing zone to a separate room where our bags were checked in straight away without even being weighed -I was a little worried about the weight of my suitcase as I had bought quite a lot out there 🤣 So much so, that Sam had to roll up each item of clothing so that everything would fit in!

And then off we went, back home to normality! I slept for the majority of the flight which was helpful for the old jet lag. The seatbelt sign was on for a lot of the journey so there was a bit of turbulence but it wasn’t anything too concerning. In arrivals we were met by our mums and my PA Gill, and not long after Sam and I went our separate ways. Felt strange that we had experienced so much together and then suddenly it was all over, but at some point all good things come to an end! We’ll definitely be keeping in touch though.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog. It’s great to be able to share my experiences with you all pretty soon after they’ve happened. Now it’s just a matter of deciding where I’m going to travel to next... x