Ski and Surf

We were lucky enough to get to borrow a car from our host for our days off last weekend so we could head even further west to Tofino, a surfers paradise. The 3 hour drive flew by along the scenic mountain roads. During a break at Cathedral Grove, we saw a tree that is 76 metres tall. We arrived at a quiet hostel right at the northern tip of Tofino, with great views over the water. But within minutes chaos descended as the University of Victoria’s surf club were holding their annual trip in our hostel. Imagine Rosie trying to cook and wash dishes with 20 dopey surfer dudes standing in the kitchen!

Over the weekend we did a lot of hikes in Pacific Rim National Park, through large temperate coastal rain-forests and along plenty of varied beaches (imagine Cornwall and Norfolk combined, but with big trees and the threat of cougar attack). We also visited the towns of Tofino and Ucluelet, which means ‘Safe Harbour’ in the local first nation dialect. Just outside this ‘safe harbour’ we spied spouts from migrating gray whales. Unfortunately they were too far out to see any of the actual whale, but it still kept us mesmerised for a good 15 minutes.

We were very lucky with the weather, but didn’t actually do any surfing. The rental was quite expensive and there was so much exploring to do on land that we will save surfing for a future trip!

Please click on the photos below to see some of the views from our time there.

We arrived back at our Workaway, not quite refreshed, but ready for another week of work. However our host had other plans for the Monday – cross country skiing at Mount Washington (about an hour and a half away). Ollie was ecstatic at the prospect; Rosie was not. But she dutifully agreed to try it out and we had a great time on the snow. We even have some video evidence.

Again, for the wrinklies reading this post, click on the pictures below to enlarge them!

Additional Farm News

On Wednesday we awoke to the news that a baby lamb had been born over night. Unfortunately he was not in the best condition and neither him or his Mum knew how to sheep. He still hasn’t been able to feed by himself from his mum, so some intervention was required. The ewe is being milked and the lamb bottle fed. Rosie has milked the ewe once, but our host is much better at it! We took him out for a run today. Let’s hope he can gain some strength and the mum can work out what she needs to do.

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We’ve obviously had to do quite a bit of work on the farm too, but we will save that for next weeks blog. Enjoy your weekends!