Tofino-time

We’ve all hit Tofino-time here.  It’s defined locally as “half the speed, twice the pleasure” and it’s completely right.  Lots of sleep and the only reason the actual time matters is so you know when low and high tide are, as that defines the different adventures you can have.

At low tide we can explore the rock pools and climb up into the island opposite to explore.  We were told last night by a local that it is the only island around here that has never been logged so it feels very natural.  The tree roots have created tunnels, staircases and caves and you can feel like a real explorer knowing that no human hand has moved anything since time began.  It’s what the whole place would have looked like to the first people who came here.

The rock pools are always full of treasures to find, like a anemone eating a jelly fish:

Anemone eating a jelly fish

We had a wander around Tofino yesterday at high tide.  We were trying to find a canoe trip that we could take the girls on (most won’t take small children) but along the way we spent half an hour chatting to the girl who runs the float planes about growing up round here.  She gave the girls sand dollars which are beautiful are quite difficult to find now.  They are sea creatures that are coverer in tiny black feelers but when they wash up on the sand they have beautiful patterns on them:

Sand dollar

After this we sat on the dock for a while watching the people who live on the island opposite come and go with their supermarket shopping to take back on their boats.  My Lovely Husband spent a while talking to a man who belongs to one of the local tribes, but married an English girl, learning about how the tribes were amalgamated (they didn’t like it but it was that or prison) and how the First Nations (the name for the Native Indians) are now beginning to feel that they are finally getting the rights they deserve.

Sitting at the dock

At dinner at the Schooner (great fish restaurant) last night, the owner spent 10 minutes explaining the best beaches for children and drawing the locations on a map for us.  We now have good plans for today and we might even get to see some whales feeding near the coast.